Someone mentioned in the Strategist Spec thread that there are nowadays a lot of shield penetration skills available, and not really anything to negate that. I am not entirely sure how they stack, but if naively stacked, it would not be that difficult to reach 10 to 25 points of extra penetration. And of course, most science exotic damage abilities ignore shields anway (and the ones that don't tend not to be used much.)
This is probably more a PvP than a PvE thing - NPCs generally don't have extra shield ignoring abilities.
Maybe that is something to look into.
If in the skill tree itself, maybe then in the Shield Mastery skill? Maybe "Shield Mastery" could also temporarily generate immunity to bleedthrough (for 1-2 seconds or so).
If not in the skill tree itself, then at least in terms of traits, bridge officer skills or sets.
I could agree to bleedthrough immunity only if it reduces shield resistances for both energy and kinetic weapons while active. For Kinetic builds at least, taking advantage of shield bleedthrough bonuses is very important to dealing damage against shielded targets.
If you try to balance things out the way you want to be all you will end up doing is perpetual tweaking variable x, parametar y etc etc. In any closed system everything is connected and codepended. Math is secondery here. Devs make game they wanna sell to people. Great majority of them just wanna play the game. In order to do so they have to LIKE IT. IF they dont LIKE IT Devs can close the shop. Game making and selling is ENTERTAINMENT bussiness not quantum physics. And success of any entertaining depends on do people like it or not. And on how they feel about that entertainment depends how much money they will spend.
This is not a numbers problem. It is a problem how people will react when this BS hits the holodeck.
We are unfortunately or furtunately depends how you look on the world, creatures of emotions not mathemathical accuracy.
Each and any of us developed certain habits in their gameplay and when you start messing with those, people aint gonna like it, if because no other reason then that enforced change in habitual behaviour.
New system mess with fundamentals of a character makeup. Couple of guys or few hundred guys testing it on tribble cant account for nearly enough situations in game that are gonna be affected as its going to be when thousands of players start using new system. And then Devs are gonna spend months of tweaking it out as complaints starts to line up very fast.
Like i said its not numbers crunching problem..problem with new system is on conceptual level. It a bad concept, no amount of numbers crunching wont fix bad concept. Good concept makes number crunch a tool for smoothing a few bumps on apliccative level.
What i wanted is to fix the concept which will reduce the amounts of complaints later 10 fold as well as numbers of tweaks tunes and bumps smoothing. But reading this reactions on my writing it hit me a question. " Why should I do developers job for them?" I aint gonna be paid for it..they gonna be. I certanly dont HAVE to play this game and certanly dont HAVE to spend money on it.
Cryptic as company never had problems with number crunchers meaning programers coders etc even the 3D artists..They never had proper conceptualist. And tht is apperent in every aspect of the game.
I dont need to crunch numbers to tell them that spending lotta money on hired professoinal actors like Tim Russ or Jery Ryan aint gonna attract scores on new players in game to spend their money. It have zero to none actual impact on gameplay and for most guys there its just a passing curiosity. Those actors aint cheap. So either they took money form a credit line or from PWI and now they are pressed for return of investment and that is apperently lacking so they make moves to monetize every game aspect that is possible. And that approach yeild even less. Is anyone fierd yet?
Someone mentioned in the Strategist Spec thread that there are nowadays a lot of shield penetration skills available, and not really anything to negate that. I am not entirely sure how they stack, but if naively stacked, it would not be that difficult to reach 10 to 25 points of extra penetration. And of course, most science exotic damage abilities ignore shields anway (and the ones that don't tend not to be used much.)
This is probably more a PvP than a PvE thing - NPCs generally don't have extra shield ignoring abilities.
Maybe that is something to look into.
If in the skill tree itself, maybe then in the Shield Mastery skill? Maybe "Shield Mastery" could also temporarily generate immunity to bleedthrough (for 1-2 seconds or so).
If not in the skill tree itself, then at least in terms of traits, bridge officer skills or sets.
I could agree to bleedthrough immunity only if it reduces shield resistances for both energy and kinetic weapons while active. For Kinetic builds at least, taking advantage of shield bleedthrough bonuses is very important to dealing damage against shielded targets.
To elaborate:
In my opinion, any sort of passive Shield Penetration/Bleedthrough protection would be... silly. The next logical step then wolud be to create Bleedthrough Protection Penetration counters, and then you get an eternal cycle of counters and counter-counters.
But a proc that happens occasionally, or a special ability with cooldowns, durations and activation times and what not could work. At least no worse than all the total damage immunity things we already have. As long as you have to make hard choices (do I take damage immunity for 3 seconds every 3 minutes, or bleedthrough penetration protection for 5 seconds every minute?) and isn't just piled up everything that already exists..
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
So actual feedback: It seems that a number of control abilities, like Gravity Well, either don't benefit/trigger the 'Control Amplification' subskill, or don't list it on their tooltips. Might want to get that checked out @borticuscryptic
Exactly. I see same thing with Overwhelming Force (Drain infection don't work on Charged Particle Burst and Control Amplification don't work on Photonic Shockwave) and Viral Torpedo (Control Amplification don't work, and on top of that, this trait don't take any duration bonus from Control Expertise).
I'm not sure if Overwhelming Force was meant to proc those. A few months back, Overwhelming Force did not seem to proc the relevant prcs from my Deflector. Maybe this acts the same (procs only from BOffs and console clickies)?
1. Because Overwhelming Force is supposed to generate Photonic Shockwave and Charged Particles Burst, there is no reason to make these abilities mechanics any different to original ones.
2. It will be good both for Overwhelming Force and Drain Infection & Control Amplification, first one is underpowered (for thing taking Ship Trait slot), and other two are going to be underused outside sci-heavy builds.
Would like to see the Specialization trees put back under their own tab again. Jamming it all under one tab is just bothersome.
I'll say that specs are very cramped under the current skill tab. I like a separate tab better as well.
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
I wanna add 1 proposal that gonna make system a lotta more flexible .. currently its rigid like a stiff on a autopsy table.
While for a Specialisation system is quite ok to unlock higher tiers with number of allocated points..cause you are gonna always get more points, in this new base system instead of higher tier unlock by point allocation switch to unlocking by character level. That kindda change gonna add lotta new flexibility but aint gonna make any mess .there is not enough points for it and what i propose is for vertical leyer of a system horizontal still have to remain per point unlock and that will prevent a players to spend points on highest tier skill only because they wont get a horizontal leyer unlock so they gonna have to spend skill points on lower tier skills regardles. This add significant flexibility to the system without making any mess.
and 1 more thing..for a Sci class on horizontal Tac line with choices between 2 offered skills there is i think last choice before ultimate unlock that offer between Pet Dmg and Pet HP or somthing like it. What about folks who play Sci but dont fly carriers and dont have pets. That choice is wasted because its unavoidable if a Sci wanna make Tac ultimate unlock but dont wanna fly carriers with hangar pets. So you might wanna reconsider and switch it to somthing that Sci gonna benefit, Pets or no Pets.
Don't have the tooltip talk about 'outgoing' heals. It's very confusing. Yes, I know, everything, after a fashion, is 'outgoing', whether the target is another person or Self (like APD, for instance). But an entire skill branch devoted to 'outgoing' shield heals, for example, suggests this is just about abilities like Extend Shield, when in reality this is just as much about your *own* shield heals. Same for 'outgoing' hull heals. Just drop the 'outgoing' text from the tooltips altogether.
Haha I was thinking about the same thing. It doesn't make much sense to heal a ship's hull (unless it's an Undine ship I guess) or heal a ship's shield. Repair sounds more appropriate.
Don't have the tooltip talk about 'outgoing' heals. It's very confusing. Yes, I know, everything, after a fashion, is 'outgoing', whether the target is another person or Self (like APD, for instance). But an entire skill branch devoted to 'outgoing' shield heals, for example, suggests this is just about abilities like Extend Shield, when in reality this is just as much about your *own* shield heals. Same for 'outgoing' hull heals. Just drop the 'outgoing' text from the tooltips altogether.
They are using the term "Outgoing" in the sense that abilities are originating from you to differentiate from "Incoming" abilities which originate from someone else.
I am not sure there is a more concise way of expressing that...there really isn't much space in those tool tips.
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
So actual feedback: It seems that a number of control abilities, like Gravity Well, either don't benefit/trigger the 'Control Amplification' subskill, or don't list it on their tooltips. Might want to get that checked out @borticuscryptic
Exactly. I see same thing with Overwhelming Force (Drain infection don't work on Charged Particle Burst and Control Amplification don't work on Photonic Shockwave) and Viral Torpedo (Control Amplification don't work, and on top of that, this trait don't take any duration bonus from Control Expertise).
I'm not sure if Overwhelming Force was meant to proc those. A few months back, Overwhelming Force did not seem to proc the relevant prcs from my Deflector. Maybe this acts the same (procs only from BOffs and console clickies)?
1. Because Overwhelming Force is supposed to generate Photonic Shockwave and Charged Particles Burst, there is no reason to make these abilities mechanics any different to original ones.
2. It will be good both for Overwhelming Force and Drain Infection & Control Amplification, first one is underpowered (for thing taking Ship Trait slot), and other two are going to be underused outside sci-heavy builds.
Yeah... I'd like to add a "+1" to this. It rather surprised me when Overwhelming Force was further monetized (placed as a cross-faction unlock) that it never got fixed. I've found it to be underwhelming at best, and I think I still use it on one of 12 characters simply because I haven't unlocked anything better at the moment. Still... no, it does not really do what it says it does, which is why it does not work with the new Skills. At a guess, the Skills are probably written to behave like Secondary Deflector ability modifiers that are always "equipped", with all the limitations that imposes.
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.
Don't have the tooltip talk about 'outgoing' heals. It's very confusing. Yes, I know, everything, after a fashion, is 'outgoing', whether the target is another person or Self (like APD, for instance). But an entire skill branch devoted to 'outgoing' shield heals, for example, suggests this is just about abilities like Extend Shield, when in reality this is just as much about your *own* shield heals. Same for 'outgoing' hull heals. Just drop the 'outgoing' text from the tooltips altogether.
They are using the term "Outgoing" in the sense that abilities are originating from you to differentiate from "Incoming" abilities which originate from someone else.
I am not sure there is a more concise way of expressing that...there really isn't much space in those tool tips.
I would your heals and incoming. Outgoing can be kinda confusing..
Don't have the tooltip talk about 'outgoing' heals. It's very confusing. Yes, I know, everything, after a fashion, is 'outgoing', whether the target is another person or Self (like APD, for instance). But an entire skill branch devoted to 'outgoing' shield heals, for example, suggests this is just about abilities like Extend Shield, when in reality this is just as much about your *own* shield heals. Same for 'outgoing' hull heals. Just drop the 'outgoing' text from the tooltips altogether.
They are using the term "Outgoing" in the sense that abilities are originating from you to differentiate from "Incoming" abilities which originate from someone else.
I am not sure there is a more concise way of expressing that...there really isn't much space in those tool tips.
I would your heals and incoming. Outgoing can be kinda confusing..
They should just drop 'outgoing' altogether. Simply change like "This affects your outgoing shield heals," to "This affects your shield heals." Period. No need to add confusing adjectives.
They should just drop 'outgoing' altogether. Simply change like "This affects your outgoing shield heals," to "This affects your shield heals." Period. No need to add confusing adjectives.
Yes! I see what you mean now.
(I wonder where the use of the term "incoming" for buffs from others come from? Is this used in video games a lot?)
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
It is. It's basically naked programing logic-language that Devs forget to cover up with player-friendly English.
Wow....OK.
Maybe I can indulge you for another term I am having difficulty figuring out (and I see it all over this new skill tree), and that term is: damage resist or resistance.
It seems there is damage resist on Hull (Hull Plating)....AND on Shield (Shield Hardness), now? It, also, comes up on Hull Penetration and Shield Penetration.
And so, any damage does not effect "health" or "hit points" directly (??). It does what to what??? It is doing "something" to what? I guess, that what is: damage resist?
Then that just sends me back to: what the heck is "damage resist"?
(I wonder if I even need any of this new stuff)
I assume it is another video game term...and, so, I looked it up on Google, but damage resist/resistance articles seems to be specific to each video game. It doesn't seem very clear for STO.
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Damage resistance and its many sub-types like 'kinetic resistance' or 'energy resistance' are a mechanic that causes a certain potion of all damage (or damage of that sub-type) to "go away" and not happen. It's usually calculated as a percentage of the total damage (though some games also/instead have effects that flat damage resistance so for example you might see "Reduce each source of damage by -44" or something similar). The broader term used in gaming is "mitigation" and again describes an amount of damage from each attack that just doesn't happen. If you have 30% mitigation and get hit for 1,000 points of damage you 'feel' 700 points and the other 300 just disappear.
In STO your total damage resistance (including all the relevant sub-resistances that apply to that source of damage) is run through a diminishing returns equation to generate the percentage that is actually mitigated from that attack. What the diminishing returns equation does is make each additional point of resistance you get add minutely less to the final percentage. While the math is a bit brain-ache inducing, the punch line is no matter how much Damage Resistance you have, you can never mitigate more than 70% of an attack. It also means that the first 100 points of resistance you get are a LOT more important than the next 100 points of resistance, and the third clump of 100 points does damn near nothing in most people's eyes (and so on as you pile up your resistance higher and higher).
While that diminishing returns equation is very valuable in allowing the game to have lots of sources of resistance (skills, abilities, gear, traits, consumables...) that all work together in any combination, it does mean that each individual source has to be described as "N points of Resistance" instead of a final percentage of mitigation.
Hopefully this helps. I'll be happy to clarify further if you have more questions (perhaps @borticuscryptic will correct me if I get way off into the underbrush, because as you mentioned mitigation and resistance systems vary quite a bit from game to game).
Damage resistance and its many sub-types like 'kinetic resistance' or 'energy resistance' are a mechanic that causes a certain potion of all damage (or damage of that sub-type) to "go away" and not happen. It's usually calculated as a percentage of the total damage (though some games also/instead have effects that flat damage resistance so for example you might see "Reduce each source of damage by -44" or something similar). The broader term used in gaming is "mitigation" and again describes an amount of damage from each attack that just doesn't happen. If you have 30% mitigation and get hit for 1,000 points of damage you 'feel' 700 points and the other 300 just disappear.
In STO your total damage resistance (including all the relevant sub-resistances that apply to that source of damage) is run through a diminishing returns equation to generate the percentage that is actually mitigated from that attack. What the diminishing returns equation does is make each additional point of resistance you get add minutely less to the final percentage. While the math is a bit brain-ache inducing, the punch line is no matter how much Damage Resistance you have, you can never mitigate more than 70% of an attack. It also means that the first 100 points of resistance you get are a LOT more important than the next 100 points of resistance, and the third clump of 100 points does damn near nothing in most people's eyes (and so on as you pile up your resistance higher and higher).
While that diminishing returns equation is very valuable in allowing the game to have lots of sources of resistance (skills, abilities, gear, traits, consumables...) that all work together in any combination, it does mean that each individual source has to be described as "N points of Resistance" instead of a final percentage of mitigation.
Hopefully this helps. I'll be happy to clarify further if you have more questions (perhaps @borticuscryptic will correct me if I get way off into the underbrush, because as you mentioned mitigation and resistance systems vary quite a bit from game to game).
while yes they have true diminishing returns they also Make your Hull orshields effectively have more HP. SO every percentage does alot, stack that with high regen. You can make a very tough ship. The only problem Is even in pve this leaves you with a very slow slug fest with npcs if you specialize in such defenses. It would be nice if there was a trait or something that gave damage bonus based on your current health. But not percentage Of your health. Just straight up tactical console type damage buff. Nothing too amazing just something to help make up for the fact you put so much into hull tanking.
Damage resistance and its many sub-types like 'kinetic resistance' or 'energy resistance' are a mechanic that causes a certain potion of all damage (or damage of that sub-type) to "go away" and not happen. It's usually calculated as a percentage of the total damage (though some games also/instead have effects that flat damage resistance so for example you might see "Reduce each source of damage by -44" or something similar). The broader term used in gaming is "mitigation" and again describes an amount of damage from each attack that just doesn't happen. If you have 30% mitigation and get hit for 1,000 points of damage you 'feel' 700 points and the other 300 just disappear.
In STO your total damage resistance (including all the relevant sub-resistances that apply to that source of damage) is run through a diminishing returns equation to generate the percentage that is actually mitigated from that attack. What the diminishing returns equation does is make each additional point of resistance you get add minutely less to the final percentage. While the math is a bit brain-ache inducing, the punch line is no matter how much Damage Resistance you have, you can never mitigate more than 70% of an attack. It also means that the first 100 points of resistance you get are a LOT more important than the next 100 points of resistance, and the third clump of 100 points does damn near nothing in most people's eyes (and so on as you pile up your resistance higher and higher).
While that diminishing returns equation is very valuable in allowing the game to have lots of sources of resistance (skills, abilities, gear, traits, consumables...) that all work together in any combination, it does mean that each individual source has to be described as "N points of Resistance" instead of a final percentage of mitigation.
Hopefully this helps. I'll be happy to clarify further if you have more questions (perhaps @borticuscryptic will correct me if I get way off into the underbrush, because as you mentioned mitigation and resistance systems vary quite a bit from game to game).
I think the max limit for hull resistance is at 75 % damage reduction.
What sometimes seems important to note about damage reduction is that the diminishing return formulae used for them is quite critical to balance it. Over my time on the forums, I've seen quite a few people complain that damage buffs have no diminishing returns but hull resistances do, and that's unfair. But in truth, that's absolutely critical for damage resistances to be fair!
If you get +100 % damage, you kill a target twice as fast. If you have 100 % damage reduction, nothing can kill you. If someone has 100 % damage bonus and kills you, having 50 % damage reduction means he kills you as fast as if he had no damage bonus and you had no damage reduction. That's why the math has to get a bit more complicated and you get diminishing returns. (Which pretty much exist in every game with such mechanics)
I kinda think it would be clearer to people if hull resistances were just hit point buffs - then you wouldn't need diminishing retuns, and the math is straightforward. At least on the buff side.
Once we enter the realm of hull resistance debuffs, the math gets probably more complicated again. +200 %hit points work, but -100 % don't. How do you add or multiply these values? And you also need to handle dynamic changes to hull resistance, can you accidentally die from an expiring hull resistance buff? And healing would also need to benefit from hull resistance, otherwise a well resisting target would be barely healed. I suppose every approach has his drawbacks...
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Comments
I could agree to bleedthrough immunity only if it reduces shield resistances for both energy and kinetic weapons while active. For Kinetic builds at least, taking advantage of shield bleedthrough bonuses is very important to dealing damage against shielded targets.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
Old:
+30 hull heal
+30 passive regeneration
New
+20 hull heal
+20 passive regeneration
Why EPS Manifold Efficiency ENG trait is not affected by improving batteries duration anymore?
This is not a numbers problem. It is a problem how people will react when this BS hits the holodeck.
We are unfortunately or furtunately depends how you look on the world, creatures of emotions not mathemathical accuracy.
Each and any of us developed certain habits in their gameplay and when you start messing with those, people aint gonna like it, if because no other reason then that enforced change in habitual behaviour.
New system mess with fundamentals of a character makeup. Couple of guys or few hundred guys testing it on tribble cant account for nearly enough situations in game that are gonna be affected as its going to be when thousands of players start using new system. And then Devs are gonna spend months of tweaking it out as complaints starts to line up very fast.
Like i said its not numbers crunching problem..problem with new system is on conceptual level. It a bad concept, no amount of numbers crunching wont fix bad concept. Good concept makes number crunch a tool for smoothing a few bumps on apliccative level.
What i wanted is to fix the concept which will reduce the amounts of complaints later 10 fold as well as numbers of tweaks tunes and bumps smoothing. But reading this reactions on my writing it hit me a question. " Why should I do developers job for them?" I aint gonna be paid for it..they gonna be. I certanly dont HAVE to play this game and certanly dont HAVE to spend money on it.
Cryptic as company never had problems with number crunchers meaning programers coders etc even the 3D artists..They never had proper conceptualist. And tht is apperent in every aspect of the game.
I dont need to crunch numbers to tell them that spending lotta money on hired professoinal actors like Tim Russ or Jery Ryan aint gonna attract scores on new players in game to spend their money. It have zero to none actual impact on gameplay and for most guys there its just a passing curiosity. Those actors aint cheap. So either they took money form a credit line or from PWI and now they are pressed for return of investment and that is apperently lacking so they make moves to monetize every game aspect that is possible. And that approach yeild even less. Is anyone fierd yet?
Eps manifolds duration got extended to 15 sec because of that.
I know. In old system I had 19,9 sec... in new I will have only 15 sec
In my opinion, any sort of passive Shield Penetration/Bleedthrough protection would be... silly. The next logical step then wolud be to create Bleedthrough Protection Penetration counters, and then you get an eternal cycle of counters and counter-counters.
But a proc that happens occasionally, or a special ability with cooldowns, durations and activation times and what not could work. At least no worse than all the total damage immunity things we already have. As long as you have to make hard choices (do I take damage immunity for 3 seconds every 3 minutes, or bleedthrough penetration protection for 5 seconds every minute?) and isn't just piled up everything that already exists..
1. Because Overwhelming Force is supposed to generate Photonic Shockwave and Charged Particles Burst, there is no reason to make these abilities mechanics any different to original ones.
2. It will be good both for Overwhelming Force and Drain Infection & Control Amplification, first one is underpowered (for thing taking Ship Trait slot), and other two are going to be underused outside sci-heavy builds.
+1
I'll say that specs are very cramped under the current skill tab. I like a separate tab better as well.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
I agree.
I agree too...
I wanna add 1 proposal that gonna make system a lotta more flexible .. currently its rigid like a stiff on a autopsy table.
While for a Specialisation system is quite ok to unlock higher tiers with number of allocated points..cause you are gonna always get more points, in this new base system instead of higher tier unlock by point allocation switch to unlocking by character level. That kindda change gonna add lotta new flexibility but aint gonna make any mess .there is not enough points for it and what i propose is for vertical leyer of a system horizontal still have to remain per point unlock and that will prevent a players to spend points on highest tier skill only because they wont get a horizontal leyer unlock so they gonna have to spend skill points on lower tier skills regardles. This add significant flexibility to the system without making any mess.
and 1 more thing..for a Sci class on horizontal Tac line with choices between 2 offered skills there is i think last choice before ultimate unlock that offer between Pet Dmg and Pet HP or somthing like it. What about folks who play Sci but dont fly carriers and dont have pets. That choice is wasted because its unavoidable if a Sci wanna make Tac ultimate unlock but dont wanna fly carriers with hangar pets. So you might wanna reconsider and switch it to somthing that Sci gonna benefit, Pets or no Pets.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
They are using the term "Outgoing" in the sense that abilities are originating from you to differentiate from "Incoming" abilities which originate from someone else.
I am not sure there is a more concise way of expressing that...there really isn't much space in those tool tips.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Yeah... I'd like to add a "+1" to this. It rather surprised me when Overwhelming Force was further monetized (placed as a cross-faction unlock) that it never got fixed. I've found it to be underwhelming at best, and I think I still use it on one of 12 characters simply because I haven't unlocked anything better at the moment. Still... no, it does not really do what it says it does, which is why it does not work with the new Skills. At a guess, the Skills are probably written to behave like Secondary Deflector ability modifiers that are always "equipped", with all the limitations that imposes.
I would your heals and incoming. Outgoing can be kinda confusing..
They should just drop 'outgoing' altogether. Simply change like "This affects your outgoing shield heals," to "This affects your shield heals." Period. No need to add confusing adjectives.
Hull repairs you receive.
Shield restoration you perform.
Shield restoration you receive.
You know, in my perfect universe
Yes! I see what you mean now.
(I wonder where the use of the term "incoming" for buffs from others come from? Is this used in video games a lot?)
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
It is. It's basically naked programing logic-language that Devs forget to cover up with player-friendly English
I do, but it's mostly about games I've written/been credited in/worked on directly.
Wow....OK.
Maybe I can indulge you for another term I am having difficulty figuring out (and I see it all over this new skill tree), and that term is: damage resist or resistance.
It seems there is damage resist on Hull (Hull Plating)....AND on Shield (Shield Hardness), now? It, also, comes up on Hull Penetration and Shield Penetration.
And so, any damage does not effect "health" or "hit points" directly (??). It does what to what??? It is doing "something" to what? I guess, that what is: damage resist?
Then that just sends me back to: what the heck is "damage resist"?
(I wonder if I even need any of this new stuff)
I assume it is another video game term...and, so, I looked it up on Google, but damage resist/resistance articles seems to be specific to each video game. It doesn't seem very clear for STO.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
In STO your total damage resistance (including all the relevant sub-resistances that apply to that source of damage) is run through a diminishing returns equation to generate the percentage that is actually mitigated from that attack. What the diminishing returns equation does is make each additional point of resistance you get add minutely less to the final percentage. While the math is a bit brain-ache inducing, the punch line is no matter how much Damage Resistance you have, you can never mitigate more than 70% of an attack. It also means that the first 100 points of resistance you get are a LOT more important than the next 100 points of resistance, and the third clump of 100 points does damn near nothing in most people's eyes (and so on as you pile up your resistance higher and higher).
While that diminishing returns equation is very valuable in allowing the game to have lots of sources of resistance (skills, abilities, gear, traits, consumables...) that all work together in any combination, it does mean that each individual source has to be described as "N points of Resistance" instead of a final percentage of mitigation.
Hopefully this helps. I'll be happy to clarify further if you have more questions (perhaps @borticuscryptic will correct me if I get way off into the underbrush, because as you mentioned mitigation and resistance systems vary quite a bit from game to game).
while yes they have true diminishing returns they also Make your Hull orshields effectively have more HP. SO every percentage does alot, stack that with high regen. You can make a very tough ship. The only problem Is even in pve this leaves you with a very slow slug fest with npcs if you specialize in such defenses. It would be nice if there was a trait or something that gave damage bonus based on your current health. But not percentage Of your health. Just straight up tactical console type damage buff. Nothing too amazing just something to help make up for the fact you put so much into hull tanking.
What sometimes seems important to note about damage reduction is that the diminishing return formulae used for them is quite critical to balance it. Over my time on the forums, I've seen quite a few people complain that damage buffs have no diminishing returns but hull resistances do, and that's unfair. But in truth, that's absolutely critical for damage resistances to be fair!
If you get +100 % damage, you kill a target twice as fast. If you have 100 % damage reduction, nothing can kill you. If someone has 100 % damage bonus and kills you, having 50 % damage reduction means he kills you as fast as if he had no damage bonus and you had no damage reduction. That's why the math has to get a bit more complicated and you get diminishing returns. (Which pretty much exist in every game with such mechanics)
I kinda think it would be clearer to people if hull resistances were just hit point buffs - then you wouldn't need diminishing retuns, and the math is straightforward. At least on the buff side.
Once we enter the realm of hull resistance debuffs, the math gets probably more complicated again. +200 %hit points work, but -100 % don't. How do you add or multiply these values? And you also need to handle dynamic changes to hull resistance, can you accidentally die from an expiring hull resistance buff? And healing would also need to benefit from hull resistance, otherwise a well resisting target would be barely healed. I suppose every approach has his drawbacks...