New Ultimate Idea

birzark

birzark wrote: »

An idea for ultimates, why not have it so for your profession you can get it earlier than 25 points. It would give everyone a chance to get an ultimate because right now it seems like a waste of points to get any of them, you have to give up so much to get it. At least this way everyone can get access to the ultimate of their profession at a discount, they would still have the option to get any of them but if your a science officer went after the science ultimate you can get it for 20 points or something. To have it so you can't have more than 1 ultimate if you choose any of them it will lock you out of picking any other.

I posted this in the engi ultamate forums but wanted to make a separate post about it.

samt1996

I doubt it, they want us to have equal versatility for all careers and builds which is something I'm in agreement with.

pwstolemyname

Right now I see the 'ultimate abilities' as compensation for those players coming from other MMOs that think they should be specializing.

They are not worth the sacrifices to get them, but some people are going to specialize no matter what and these are a bone for those people.

The danger is that the 'ultimate abilities' are going to act as a lure to new players to overspecialise that otherwise would not. Personally I think we would be better off without them entirely but I don't think they are going to change.

birzark

Right now they are trying to make the ultimates good abilites but no mater how good they are i dont see them worth the investment. At least this way you can get a benefit from choosing your profession instead of everything being the same even the ground skills are all the same now.

quammen

I would like to see more incentive for build diversity than this fixation on the non-existent trinity. Maybe grant a smaller form of ultimate for heavily investing points (18-20) in two professions. Just some ideas:
Eng-Sci: all eng heals buff sci heals and vice versa or all engineering powers are granted a buff depending your aux power while sci-abilities grant power level buffs
Sci-Tac: critical severity buff for sci-abilities while tac weapon buffs get a radiation proc
Tac-Eng: weapon power costs are distributed to all power levels

samt1996

They already have that, each career path has unlocks for investing in it.

The ultimates are just a nice bonus for those of us who like to specialize, the dev's have stated quite emphatically that they never have or will enforce trinity Gameplay in STO.

birzark

My idea isnt about forcing it, more about making whatever career path you chose more meaningful.

nikeix

The practical issue is STO is very, very easy. When you enter most encounters it's a near-absolute certainty your going to complete it. Which means the question becomes not "if?" but "when?" and the majority of player energy and ingenuity is turned towards how fast you can clear a given challenge.

Durability doesn't improve completion times once you're not dying at all. Healing's irrelevant once you have enough no one on your team is dying at all.

There is a crucial and inextricable connection between the class balance designers of a game and the content team. Its a GOOD THING when you see the class guys actually recognize the types of challenges the players face and mold the toolset being offered accordingly. Right now ALL the ultimates need to be damage dealers -- and substantial damage dealers -- because that's what the content prizes most highly. If we get content that forces choices along other axes, then we can press for an Ultimate that is the right kind of key to unlock that kind of scenario.