The Case For The TRULY Universal BOFF Slot

tiekosora

We have ships released all the time with specialist seating for the specialization of the day. Sometimes this is in the form of a specific profession/specialization combo, and rarely in a universal profession/specific specialization combo. I have been wanting to see a TRULY universal station, where profession and specialization can be any combination the player wants.

First off, new ships can probably stay flavor of the month, with the current system. However, any upgrades to existing ships, either to fleet variant or full T6 upgrade, would benefit from at least one truly universal slot, over any added flashies and gimmick consoles. Additionally, some of the shuttles, specifically the Runabouts and Delta Flyers, could benefit from changing to a truly universal slot, especially the Runabouts, as they were designed to be modular and tailored to specific mission parameters. In regards to these specific shuttles (and appropriate shuttles for the KDF and RomRep) this would fit bringing these shuttles up to a T6 equivalent and part of that process.

The only Cons I can see from this on a gameplay level, is the PvP segment of the community saying they object because they don't know what the capabilities of that ship are now. My response is, as it should be.

I think this would especially benefit the KDF community, as raptors and BoP's at endgame could use a bit more flexibility.

Please discuss, please keep it civil, but by all means, if you disagree, please state why with a logical and reasonable response.

davefenestrator

I dislike boff Command abilities, so I haz a sad trying to fly my cruisers that include them instead of something I'd find useful.

I'd pay for a "T6U" or "T5UU" token for some ships to change some seat(s) to true specialist-universal or even just command (primary) + specialist universal (for example command engineering + specialist universal)

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gavinruneblade

The issue is not pvp, the issues are balance and sales.

For balance, it is inherently better than everything else. It has no drawbacks. This is the worst kind of powercreep.

also, one ship with universal-universal would sell. One. Nobody would buy other ships because why bother? That one does everything.

I can see a hybrid seat with dual options, like a tactical/command/pilot or a sci/intel/temporal. But a full universal is not something I would like to see.

duncanidaho11

coolbatman wrote: »

i think the current universal slot is mis-leading b/c it won't allow ANY career/specialist combo......ah fardles my train of thought just de-railed...........

Universal between all professions, not specializations.

Cryptic can add specs to seats irrespective of their profession, as another layer of ship design. It's a separate system of boff powers, outside the traditional RPG roles Tac/Eng/Sci gravitates towards, and there's really not much more that needs to be said.

Universal doesn't mean what you can most simply interpret it as meaning (ie. no restrictions, though this is still somewhat dubious with terms like "universal adapter" supporting STO's usage), just as science doesn't actual involves a rigorous process of investigation in STO. It's just a gameplay concept attached to some other word in the language. It doesn't sync up exactly to the mechanics but there's little helping that. It's natural to just about any new thing we want to describe.

And in any case, the way specializations have been designed definitely serves a useful function (namely, adding another factor by which ships of the same class can be differentiated, so more can be added to the game with less fear of creating a colossal, redundant heap.) And to lose that for the sake of "clarity" (with a small system or a larger overhaul, though with shuttles it's probably something you could get away with) doesn't seem like a good trade-off.

So, it's just something to get used to. Yes, there may be some initial confusion, but once you learn the distinction its easy to let go of (we do it all the time in all areas of life. Take for example: your mouse.)

necreliosis

I was just thinking about this the other day. These "universal" slots are nothing short of a lie if they are not really universal. Do you know how bad TRIBBLE my 31st century multi-mission science vessel would be if I could slot an intel officer in the universal slot? Well... do you?

duncanidaho11

necreliosis#4763 wrote: »

I was just thinking about this the other day. These "universal" slots are nothing short of a lie if they are not really universal. Do you know how bad **** my 31st century multi-mission science vessel would be if I could slot an intel officer in the universal slot? Well... do you?

In terms of language usage, I'd take greater exception with your use of the word "lie" than STO's use of the word "universal." The system is direct and never misrepresents in actual practice what you can and can't use. The icon is grey in color, suggesting that any of the three color-coded professions can be used, but there's no specialization icon around that or any suggestion that one may be there as a fillable blank. There's simply nothing there. Visually, it's straight forward.

The problem is people adapting to the use of the word to describe STO's particular mechanics, though a trip through a hardware, automotive, or electronics store should have prepared you. Universal in popular usage isn't referring to the whole god damn cosmos. It's almost always a selection, even among whatever subject it's referring to. Ex. universal donor only referring to a selection of human blood groups, not any and all circulatory fluids, or the aforementioned universal power adapter not being able to run any device produced through human history (only a few standardized types of its time).

leemwatson

The reasoning behind why ships have specialization seats in the first place is because the ships are 'built' for that specific purpose. It's actually common sense and prevalent in the real world, and I shouldn't have to give examples! You can't have a big bulky cruiser as a pilot ships as it's just too big and 'physics' wouldn't support your reasoning, so hence they are better suited as command and so on and so forth.

And as other have said, and as the Scimitar serves as a great example, if you gave a ship a truly Universal slot, everyone would flock to it and forums will blaze because of that fact.

Universal seats are for the Careers not the Specialists.

nikeix

We'll see 2-3 waves of 'dual specialization' seats (e.g. universal/Command/Temporal on a single seat) before universal spec slots are a thing... if ever.

One thing about power creep as a core business model - you want to creep slowly.

mustrumridcully0

There is no case for them, except to sell power creep, as nikeix points out. But with the added drawback that while you might be able to sell power creep, you then can't sell different versions of the same bridge officer layout with different specialization seats. So I suspect that the so called "truly universal" seats are quite possibly never going to come.

gavinruneblade

[quote="duncanidaho11;13030642"] Ex. [i]universal donor[/i] only referring to a selection of human blood groups, not any and all circulatory fluids, or the aforementioned [i]universal power adapter[/i] not being able to run any device produced through human history (only a few standardized types of its time).[/quote]

I'll just leave this here:
https://xkcd.com/1406/

warpangel

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

There is no case for them, except to sell power creep, as nikeix points out. But with the added drawback that while you might be able to sell power creep, you then can't sell different versions of the same bridge officer layout with different specialization seats. So I suspect that the so called "truly universal" seats are quite possibly never going to come.

They are going to come...as the very last thing before Tier 7 comes with the next gimmick to sell.

salazarraze

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

There is no case for them, except to sell power creep, as nikeix points out. But with the added drawback that while you might be able to sell power creep, you then can't sell different versions of the same bridge officer layout with different specialization seats. So I suspect that the so called "truly universal" seats are quite possibly never going to come.

Yeah this 110%. As things stand, T6 could be around for the rest of the game's history. Spec trees have eliminated any need for a level cap increase. They could just release new specs with new ships for them until the end of time. Perhaps in the future, we'll see Pilot Scimitars and Intel Odysseys. We could see every single T6 ship re-released with a different spec and since they can always make more specs, they can always release new ships. Why release a Spec Universal ship that will nullify sales from all other ships?

ssbn655

Only beef I have with the current system is it forces you to have specific class BOFF for the trait (intel,temporal,etc,) like only an eng can be your temporal as an example on that particular ship and you would rather have a Sci BOFF be your temporal officer. To use temporal goodies you must have the eng temp boff kind of restricting ones options on how you want to utilize your ship that you bought with Zen. Freebie ships no problem but we pay for zen ships and well we should have a tad more fexibilty in how we set them up.

hugin1205

the new specialisations are a good way for cryptic to sell new ships. Want to try the new abilities? Cash please...
So it won't happen.

meimeitoo

necreliosis#4763 wrote: »

I was just thinking about this the other day. These "universal" slots are nothing short of a lie if they are not really universal. Do you know how bad **** my 31st century multi-mission science vessel would be if I could slot an intel officer in the universal slot? Well... do you?

They're not a lie. They're simply named in an era when they truly *were* universal.

As for the proposal, let's not do that. Power creep, for one, of course; but it's also thematically wrong: Intel/Pilot, etc., these are all different classes of ships. A universal slot should never be able to change your ship class. That's just silly.

warpangel

necreliosis#4763 wrote: »

I was just thinking about this the other day. These "universal" slots are nothing short of a lie if they are not really universal. Do you know how bad **** my 31st century multi-mission science vessel would be if I could slot an intel officer in the universal slot? Well... do you?

You can slot an intel officer in it. It just won't be able to use intel powers.