@crypticrock please start making.some good boss ships! I hate that every enemy on elite feels like.im.taking pot shots at a D7 battle cruiser with no Warp Core.
While I applaud Cryptic on finding a new way to make NPCs more challenging, they could have made it even more annoying by making the duplicates invisible to FAW.
I'm cruel. I'm not THAT cruel.
Since they've got the Romulan tricks, can you throw some singularity projectors in there to really mess with people?
no, no, no, Quantum Absorption plus Hazard Emitters...
I figure I'll just give them a 360-degree Thalaron Pulse and call it a day. Sound good?
nah, just give em the crystalline entity's Energy Release... it may be a good thing I never learned game design I couldn't resist making some rather mean enemies :P
.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
While I applaud Cryptic on finding a new way to make NPCs more challenging, they could have made it even more annoying by making the duplicates invisible to FAW.
I'm cruel. I'm not THAT cruel.
Since they've got the Romulan tricks, can you throw some singularity projectors in there to really mess with people?
no, no, no, Quantum Absorption plus Hazard Emitters...
I figure I'll just give them a 360-degree Thalaron Pulse and call it a day. Sound good?
Sounds a bit easy to be honest.
In all honesty i fail to see the problem with this opponent. The invincible duplicate was showcased in the previous FE, the charging cannon was showcased by the elachi and the radiation cloud is easily countered by hazard emitters and evasive maneuvers (among others).
I actually fly in to the charging beams, hit shield recharge (with a nice extra resistance) and activate Feed Back Pulse.
Once that is done, all i have to do is zoom out and watch the opponents obliterate themselves.
I will admit that the opponents are different than what we're used to and that the abilities are powerful, but these are the current antagonist and one from the future so they need to be tough to stay a credible foe.
They are far from invincible though.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
While I applaud Cryptic on finding a new way to make NPCs more challenging, they could have made it even more annoying by making the duplicates invisible to FAW.
I'm cruel. I'm not THAT cruel.
Since they've got the Romulan tricks, can you throw some singularity projectors in there to really mess with people?
no, no, no, Quantum Absorption plus Hazard Emitters...
I figure I'll just give them a 360-degree Thalaron Pulse and call it a day. Sound good?
I am really happy Time and Tide let us do some one-on-ones to get a grasp of the duplicate thing before we had to eat a fleet.
Fate - protects fools, small children, and ships named Enterprise Will Riker
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
there was an MMO that came out in 2005
that game was the original guild wars
that game had some challenge, even in normal difficulty
the basis behind this was that even enemy mobs had some sort of skill bar, the same skills the player's used
there was some builds that obliterated anything, but if you didn't run those and just wanted fun, you could find a challenge in this.
it might be very very tough, but give enemies some sort of AI and abilities, i see some ships use a small handful, though a full compliment of skills would make things tougher, though I don't think it'll ever stop the DPS wizards i see now.
Not really. While I could easily do a web search for the phrase you used, doing so does not offer any insights as to what you were thinking when you used the phrase.
Again, look at what AI software and software like Massive is capable of handling and how it works from the various media out there on it.
This isn't new. Software like Massive has been around for a while. Actually IIRC Massive was developed for CGI crowd generation for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Come, I don't need a AI to know how to make challenging fights. I had "Natural Intelligence" fighting me in PvP. And I know what happened there - stacking buffs as best as you can, mixed with trying to remove the enemies buffs so that you are buffed when he's not and can take him out without being taking out yourself. Regroup if things do not go your way. Coordinate your attacks.
And the effects are things like uber HP, uber spike damage and nigh invulnerability.
Well, actually uber HP is false. It was "uber healing" back in the day. I know why Crytic doesn't generally give this to NPCs, though - uber healing means a player that doesn't bring enough DPS or doesn't last long enough can't kill the enemy at all, because it's hit points are constantly restored to full.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Not really. While I could easily do a web search for the phrase you used, doing so does not offer any insights as to what you were thinking when you used the phrase.
Again, look at what AI software and software like Massive is capable of handling and how it works from the various media out there on it.
This isn't new. Software like Massive has been around for a while. Actually IIRC Massive was developed for CGI crowd generation for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Come, I don't need a AI to know how to make challenging fights. I had "Natural Intelligence" fighting me in PvP. And I know what happened there - stacking buffs as best as you can, mixed with trying to remove the enemies buffs so that you are buffed when he's not and can take him out without being taking out yourself. Regroup if things do not go your way. Coordinate your attacks.
And the effects are things like uber HP, uber spike damage and nigh invulnerability.
Well, actually uber HP is false. It was "uber healing" back in the day. I know why Crytic doesn't generally give this to NPCs, though - uber healing means a player that doesn't bring enough DPS or doesn't last long enough can't kill the enemy at all, because it's hit points are constantly restored to full.
Heh, reminds me of a Boss fight I was in on Champions during one of their Halloween events. It was kind of a lower end "Group" Boss that I thought I could take. Turned out I couldn't out-damage her heals, but she couldn't out-damage mine. I think I spent 15 minutes trying before I gave up.
"Let me guess, my theories appall you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters and you don't like my tie" - The Doctor
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" -Agatha Heterodyne
Right, I get it. You just want boss fights with uber HP meat bags to soak up DPS.
You certainly don't get me.
You believe that the key to a different gameplay likes in a different/better AI. But that is only true to some extent. You still have to give the NPCs something that makes them a threat and the ability to last long enough to provide that threat. And that means damage and hit points in some manner. (Even if it's just on a relative scale, for example by debuffing your hull resistance or debuffing/subnuking your resistance and heal abilities so the damage they deal hurts more). Better AI could certainly improve on the NPCs making this more adaptive. But often the overall gameplay results look like the special tricks Cryptic gives its NPCs now - nigh invulnerability, uber DPS, uber hit points.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Not really. While I could easily do a web search for the phrase you used, doing so does not offer any insights as to what you were thinking when you used the phrase.
Again, look at what AI software and software like Massive is capable of handling and how it works from the various media out there on it.
This isn't new. Software like Massive has been around for a while. Actually IIRC Massive was developed for CGI crowd generation for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Come, I don't need a AI to know how to make challenging fights. I had "Natural Intelligence" fighting me in PvP. And I know what happened there - stacking buffs as best as you can, mixed with trying to remove the enemies buffs so that you are buffed when he's not and can take him out without being taking out yourself. Regroup if things do not go your way. Coordinate your attacks.
And the effects are things like uber HP, uber spike damage and nigh invulnerability.
Well, actually uber HP is false. It was "uber healing" back in the day. I know why Crytic doesn't generally give this to NPCs, though - uber healing means a player that doesn't bring enough DPS or doesn't last long enough can't kill the enemy at all, because it's hit points are constantly restored to full.
Heh, reminds me of a Boss fight I was in on Champions during one of their Halloween events. It was kind of a lower end "Group" Boss that I thought I could take. Turned out I couldn't out-damage her heals, but she couldn't out-damage mine. I think I spent 15 minutes trying before I gave up.
Eclipse?
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
I wonder why this alert difficulty isn't scaled like deep space encounters? I don't mind uber-abilities, but in the end it comes to the raw numeric values, and either you met this values with your group, or not.
Because this is a red alert...not a deep space encounter...which are easier then red alerts by a LONG shot. This is honestly not that different in difficulty then the borg or tholian ones once you figure out the tricks. And you need certain raw numeric values in the other red alerts too. Take a badly built ship into a borg red alert and try and tackle that unimatrix alone...you will run out of time and fail. Or try and bash your way through a tholian RA alone with a 5k boat and tell me how much fun those tholian dreads were...you know, the ones still alive. The same applies to this one...only they made it so you CAN'T end up alone...which I would rather they did honestly. If you can't deal, then go play in the deep space encounters.
From my experience tholian and borg alerts were much easier, because ppl tend to die less in those, and i was able to tag along as fresh admiral on a rustbucket. So there IS a difference in difficulty. I seen ppl soloed borg RA, and wiped out tholians like soap bubbles, but not na'kuhl one. They also have a huge array of time wasting traits, like their temporal clones or plasma cones you have to avoid, unlike tholians who only have their web mines. Also they are much more numerous. This may be no problem for those who have good gear and have a build fir maximum effect, but there is a mid-range players who obviously have difficulties with it. It is harder, not impossible, but still require more time and effort, though there is more attractive reward. Guess why? It is harder, that's why.
Because this is a red alert...not a deep space encounter...which are easier then red alerts by a LONG shot. This is honestly not that different in difficulty then the borg or tholian ones once you figure out the tricks. And you need certain raw numeric values in the other red alerts too. Take a badly built ship into a borg red alert and try and tackle that unimatrix alone...you will run out of time and fail. Or try and bash your way through a tholian RA alone with a 5k boat and tell me how much fun those tholian dreads were...you know, the ones still alive. The same applies to this one...only they made it so you CAN'T end up alone...which I would rather they did honestly. If you can't deal, then go play in the deep space encounters.
From my experience tholian and borg alerts were much easier, because ppl tend to die less in those, and i was able to tag along as fresh admiral on a rustbucket. So there IS a difference in difficulty. I seen ppl soloed borg RA, and wiped out tholians like soap bubbles, but not na'kuhl one. They also have a huge array of time wasting traits, like their temporal clones or plasma cones you have to avoid, unlike tholians who only have their web mines. Also they are much more numerous. This may be no problem for those who have good gear and have a build fir maximum effect, but there is a mid-range players who obviously have difficulties with it. It is harder, not impossible, but still require more time and effort, though there is more attractive reward. Guess why? It is harder, that's why.
People die in the new RA because they're sheep which haven't gotten used to the new meadow yet.
New opponent with new tricks = dying players.
Edit: The Borg and Tholian RA aren't necessarily easier or more difficult, but people are simply more familiar with them.
The new opponent and their tricks all have hard counters and are IMO almost too weak to warrant their status from 500 year in the future. Those who like to go slow and smash BFAW space bar while wielding paper thin defenses may find this new opponent challenging, but that is a result of people fine tuning their builds for speed runs in ISA.
Post edited by questerius on
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
People die in the new RA because they're sheep which haven't gotten used to the new meadow yet.
New opponent with new tricks = dying players.
Edit: The Borg and Tholian RA aren't necessarily easier or more difficult, but people are simply more familiar with them.
The new opponent and their tricks all have hard counters and are IMO almost too weak to warrant their status from 500 year in the future. Those who like to go slow and smash BFAW space bar while wielding paper thin defenses may find this new opponent challenging, but that is a result of people fine tuning their builds for speed runs in ISA.
Ok, how many superweapons borg ships have? How many tholians do? Both borg and tholians combined in a small groups that can you defeat by one at time, unless someone don't care about that and gather a crowd of them by flying around.
When borg boss summoned every other borg ship, except it's adds retreat, and it's only superweapon is a slow plasma torpedo. It's not spamming clones, cones of death, barely noticeable AoE torpedoes and tractor beam supermines.
And EVERY ship in na'kuhl arsenal have a superweapon, everyone can clone itself, except frigates.
And you say it's not more difficult? And then say that ppl may find a challenge here? If it require special approach it is already more difficult. Why you arguing about that if it's obvious?
I am concerned that this difficulty is very obscure if you just rush into it, and it is inviting. Yes, ppl will learn over time, they already do, but why a hard way? It's a game after all. It is supposed to be fun and stuff.
So they sell us more power and the best they can come up with to combat that aspect of the game in STF's is to have NPC's with super invincible shielding. And let me tell you the Na'kuhl got that technology right because I swear they can hold it for a full 20 seconds.
There has to be a less lazy design than just more hit points and invincible timegate shielding. Cryptic get in the think tank and figure something better out.
I did the new Nakuhl red alert for the first time the other day with my KDF Evil Cat Character with NO BRIDGE OFFICERS at all assigned to any boff seat.
AND I STILL WON. Please remember that when you ask for something, it is the one sure method of exposing yourself to others as to the height of the ladder you have in your life to stand on. Some people don't have tall ladders. They have step stools. And this lets everyone else know how low your level of competence is.
I'm not trying to put you in a bad light, RJ, I'm just speaking out loud for anyone to use as they see fit.
People die in the new RA because they're sheep which haven't gotten used to the new meadow yet.
New opponent with new tricks = dying players.
Edit: The Borg and Tholian RA aren't necessarily easier or more difficult, but people are simply more familiar with them.
The new opponent and their tricks all have hard counters and are IMO almost too weak to warrant their status from 500 year in the future. Those who like to go slow and smash BFAW space bar while wielding paper thin defenses may find this new opponent challenging, but that is a result of people fine tuning their builds for speed runs in ISA.
Ok, how many superweapons borg ships have? How many tholians do? Both borg and tholians combined in a small groups that can you defeat by one at time, unless someone don't care about that and gather a crowd of them by flying around.
When borg boss summoned every other borg ship, except it's adds retreat, and it's only superweapon is a slow plasma torpedo. It's not spamming clones, cones of death, barely noticeable AoE torpedoes and tractor beam supermines.
And EVERY ship in na'kuhl arsenal have a superweapon, everyone can clone itself, except frigates.
And you say it's not more difficult? And then say that ppl may find a challenge here? If it require special approach it is already more difficult. Why you arguing about that if it's obvious?
I am concerned that this difficulty is very obscure if you just rush into it, and it is inviting. Yes, ppl will learn over time, they already do, but why a hard way? It's a game after all. It is supposed to be fun and stuff.
It is not more difficult because it are mere variations of what "we" have already faced before. With little tricks which should be known to all ( evasive maneuvers, rock and roll, polarize hull, tyken rift, hazard emitters and feed back pulse) each and every trick from the Nak'hul can be countered. Often even resulting in OHKO against them.
The borg have their shield drain, tractor beams and torpedoes (and plasma burn off course), Tholians have shield drain, loads of torpedoes and the webbing and the Nah'kul have some other tricks. Not difficult to deal with once you figure them out.
Remember that Tholian RA used to fail quite often, same as the Borg RA. The difference is that this new RA does not fail so how can it be called difficult. I pretty much guarantee that within a week, two at most, the number of fatalities will drop significantly.
Once people learn the tricks and weaknesses of the new opponent they're ready for the grinder same as the other once mighty opponents.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
The borg have their shield drain, tractor beams and torpedoes (and plasma burn off course), Tholians have shield drain, loads of torpedoes and the webbing and the Nah'kul have some other tricks. Not difficult to deal with once you figure them out.
Remember that Tholian RA used to fail quite often, same as the Borg RA. The difference is that this new RA does not fail so how can it be called difficult. I pretty much guarantee that within a week, two at most, the number of fatalities will drop significantly.
Once people learn the tricks and weaknesses of the new opponent they're ready for the grinder same as the other once mighty opponents.
I got a feeling that i got response from a computer, or a tech support. "Everything is just fine, check your X" I guess it's futile to make ppl admit an obvious thing. Well, at least devs fixed that annoying popup windows...
The borg have their shield drain, tractor beams and torpedoes (and plasma burn off course), Tholians have shield drain, loads of torpedoes and the webbing and the Nah'kul have some other tricks. Not difficult to deal with once you figure them out.
Remember that Tholian RA used to fail quite often, same as the Borg RA. The difference is that this new RA does not fail so how can it be called difficult. I pretty much guarantee that within a week, two at most, the number of fatalities will drop significantly.
Once people learn the tricks and weaknesses of the new opponent they're ready for the grinder same as the other once mighty opponents.
I got a feeling that i got response from a computer, or a tech support. "Everything is just fine, check your X" I guess it's futile to make ppl admit an obvious thing. Well, at least devs fixed that annoying popup windows...
All jokes aside, I'm hardly the best player around. Not a DPS-er, Got mostly budget gear on my ships, no fancy upgrades and so forth. Then why aren't i struggling?
It is not difficult to asses on which powers the new Nah'kul goodies are based and what their most likely counters are.
Claiming the Nah'kul are OP, especially at this stage, is almost silly.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
All jokes aside, I'm hardly the best player around. Not a DPS-er, Got mostly budget gear on my ships, no fancy upgrades and so forth. Then why aren't i struggling?
It is not difficult to asses on which powers the new Nah'kul goodies are based and what their most likely counters are.
Claiming the Nah'kul are OP, especially at this stage, is almost silly.
Actually i am more concerned about difficulty of solo missions, where NPC deal twice as much damage and have twice as much health as you. It wasn't like that before patch. Well, their hp was high, but now their damage is high too.
As for alerts... If you got an average team you'll be ok, but if you happen to have a couple of those who didn't paid much attention to builds and gear, you'll have to carry them on your back. Why forcing ppl to learn a hard way? Just why?
On the ground the tricky bits are the time skip (i think that is how it is called after looking at next week's reward) and the damage type (toxic) which is not resisted by the more popular armors and shields.
There are some notable exception though,
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
On the ground the tricky bits are the time skip (i think that is how it is called after looking at next week's reward) and the damage type (toxic) which is not resisted by the more popular armors and shields.
There are some notable exception though,
I noticed that after update one of my characters can endure a borg assimilation drones without being assimilated. Stil annoying though, because you can't interact with anything for 5 minutes. Or there is a way to purge them?
I had no problems whatsoever with the new RAqueue, even the first time when I didnt allocate any skill points. After the devblog (reading is an imba skill), it was clear which to shoot first. Most times, the Nakuhl can't even fire their burst thingy...
Comments
nah, just give em the crystalline entity's Energy Release... it may be a good thing I never learned game design I couldn't resist making some rather mean enemies :P
.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Sounds a bit easy to be honest.
In all honesty i fail to see the problem with this opponent. The invincible duplicate was showcased in the previous FE, the charging cannon was showcased by the elachi and the radiation cloud is easily countered by hazard emitters and evasive maneuvers (among others).
I actually fly in to the charging beams, hit shield recharge (with a nice extra resistance) and activate Feed Back Pulse.
Once that is done, all i have to do is zoom out and watch the opponents obliterate themselves.
I will admit that the opponents are different than what we're used to and that the abilities are powerful, but these are the current antagonist and one from the future so they need to be tough to stay a credible foe.
They are far from invincible though.
I am really happy Time and Tide let us do some one-on-ones to get a grasp of the duplicate thing before we had to eat a fleet.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
that game was the original guild wars
that game had some challenge, even in normal difficulty
the basis behind this was that even enemy mobs had some sort of skill bar, the same skills the player's used
there was some builds that obliterated anything, but if you didn't run those and just wanted fun, you could find a challenge in this.
it might be very very tough, but give enemies some sort of AI and abilities, i see some ships use a small handful, though a full compliment of skills would make things tougher, though I don't think it'll ever stop the DPS wizards i see now.
And the effects are things like uber HP, uber spike damage and nigh invulnerability.
Well, actually uber HP is false. It was "uber healing" back in the day. I know why Crytic doesn't generally give this to NPCs, though - uber healing means a player that doesn't bring enough DPS or doesn't last long enough can't kill the enemy at all, because it's hit points are constantly restored to full.
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" - Agatha Heterodyne
You believe that the key to a different gameplay likes in a different/better AI. But that is only true to some extent. You still have to give the NPCs something that makes them a threat and the ability to last long enough to provide that threat. And that means damage and hit points in some manner. (Even if it's just on a relative scale, for example by debuffing your hull resistance or debuffing/subnuking your resistance and heal abilities so the damage they deal hurts more). Better AI could certainly improve on the NPCs making this more adaptive. But often the overall gameplay results look like the special tricks Cryptic gives its NPCs now - nigh invulnerability, uber DPS, uber hit points.
Eclipse?
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
From my experience tholian and borg alerts were much easier, because ppl tend to die less in those, and i was able to tag along as fresh admiral on a rustbucket. So there IS a difference in difficulty. I seen ppl soloed borg RA, and wiped out tholians like soap bubbles, but not na'kuhl one. They also have a huge array of time wasting traits, like their temporal clones or plasma cones you have to avoid, unlike tholians who only have their web mines. Also they are much more numerous. This may be no problem for those who have good gear and have a build fir maximum effect, but there is a mid-range players who obviously have difficulties with it. It is harder, not impossible, but still require more time and effort, though there is more attractive reward. Guess why? It is harder, that's why.
People die in the new RA because they're sheep which haven't gotten used to the new meadow yet.
New opponent with new tricks = dying players.
Edit: The Borg and Tholian RA aren't necessarily easier or more difficult, but people are simply more familiar with them.
The new opponent and their tricks all have hard counters and are IMO almost too weak to warrant their status from 500 year in the future. Those who like to go slow and smash BFAW space bar while wielding paper thin defenses may find this new opponent challenging, but that is a result of people fine tuning their builds for speed runs in ISA.
Ok, how many superweapons borg ships have? How many tholians do? Both borg and tholians combined in a small groups that can you defeat by one at time, unless someone don't care about that and gather a crowd of them by flying around.
When borg boss summoned every other borg ship, except it's adds retreat, and it's only superweapon is a slow plasma torpedo. It's not spamming clones, cones of death, barely noticeable AoE torpedoes and tractor beam supermines.
And EVERY ship in na'kuhl arsenal have a superweapon, everyone can clone itself, except frigates.
And you say it's not more difficult? And then say that ppl may find a challenge here? If it require special approach it is already more difficult. Why you arguing about that if it's obvious?
I am concerned that this difficulty is very obscure if you just rush into it, and it is inviting. Yes, ppl will learn over time, they already do, but why a hard way? It's a game after all. It is supposed to be fun and stuff.
I did the new Nakuhl red alert for the first time the other day with my KDF Evil Cat Character with NO BRIDGE OFFICERS at all assigned to any boff seat.
AND I STILL WON. Please remember that when you ask for something, it is the one sure method of exposing yourself to others as to the height of the ladder you have in your life to stand on. Some people don't have tall ladders. They have step stools. And this lets everyone else know how low your level of competence is.
I'm not trying to put you in a bad light, RJ, I'm just speaking out loud for anyone to use as they see fit.
It is not more difficult because it are mere variations of what "we" have already faced before. With little tricks which should be known to all ( evasive maneuvers, rock and roll, polarize hull, tyken rift, hazard emitters and feed back pulse) each and every trick from the Nak'hul can be countered. Often even resulting in OHKO against them.
The borg have their shield drain, tractor beams and torpedoes (and plasma burn off course), Tholians have shield drain, loads of torpedoes and the webbing and the Nah'kul have some other tricks. Not difficult to deal with once you figure them out.
Remember that Tholian RA used to fail quite often, same as the Borg RA. The difference is that this new RA does not fail so how can it be called difficult. I pretty much guarantee that within a week, two at most, the number of fatalities will drop significantly.
Once people learn the tricks and weaknesses of the new opponent they're ready for the grinder same as the other once mighty opponents.
BEEEP!!
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/2/2a/Satans-robot.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080426204532&path-prefix=en
All jokes aside, I'm hardly the best player around. Not a DPS-er, Got mostly budget gear on my ships, no fancy upgrades and so forth. Then why aren't i struggling?
It is not difficult to asses on which powers the new Nah'kul goodies are based and what their most likely counters are.
Claiming the Nah'kul are OP, especially at this stage, is almost silly.
As for alerts... If you got an average team you'll be ok, but if you happen to have a couple of those who didn't paid much attention to builds and gear, you'll have to carry them on your back. Why forcing ppl to learn a hard way? Just why?
There are some notable exception though,