I like how they soften the blow by leading in with ground combat before getting into the meat of space combat.
Because the big red tactical elephant in the room is Attack Pattern Alpha buffing all damage, making tactical officers better at Science vessels than even Science Officers (and lets be honest, better at literally every type of ship there is). Along with Beam Fire at Will being pretty much mandatory.
I don't think that it's a problem that APA buffs science powers. The problems are either:
1) The total buff that APA grants is simply too large, across the board. THat means slashing the bonus (or providing more bonuses everywhere else.)
2) Due to the difference in what other modififers apply to weapon damage that don't apply to exotics, APA is too strong on science powers. I suppose it could be fixed by making APA its own category buff for example, and lower the value so that the final damage you get with APA running with weapons is the same as before, but APA with science gets comparatively weaker.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
IMO, Stealth Module is something that ought to be buffed. Right now it and other ground stealth stuff are one big heap of wasted potential.
Stealth Module could use a buff, but that's not what this sounds like. They are taking away our personal cloaking devices for a temporary stealth buff. That's what it was when the game was released and it was stupid and awful. Limited time for stealth killed the Rogue class in Dragon Age II and III for me, I was so happy when the Stealth Module was finally worth using in STO and now they plan to ruin it again.
FKA K-Tar, grumpy Klingon/El-Aurian hybrid. Now assimilated by PWE.
Sometimes, if you want to bury the hatchet with a Klingon, it has to be in his skull. - Captain K'Tar of the USS Danu about J'mpok.
IMO, Stealth Module is something that ought to be buffed. Right now it and other ground stealth stuff are one big heap of wasted potential.
Stealth Module could use a buff, but that's not what this sounds like. They are taking away our personal cloaking devices for a temporary stealth buff. That's what it was when the game was released and it was stupid and awful. Limited time for stealth killed the Rogue class in Dragon Age II and III for me, I was so happy when the Stealth Module was finally worth using in STO and now they plan to ruin it again.
I'm with you on this one. Sure, it's nice that it's getting a little more utility for direct combat, but the price is too great.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
Just put everything to 0 with us players ja multiply the number of enemies. That should do it.
And then just start improving the players skills, maybe add something like when you use different kinds of weapons you get a buff. If you have a beam array, dual beam bank, heavy and dual cannons, cannon, torpedoes, mines, turrets and 360 beam, you get a buff. Maybe combine faw and spread, etc.
Or just nerf everything until you bring the next super console/weapon/set needed to win.
Galavant!
"Use Temporal Skills to NERF EVERYTHING before it happened!" -Unknown source.
My ground specialist is an engineer who gets her fun from fabrications. These lies say very clearly this fun is wrong. Fine. I will retire that character and not play ground anymore. I can take that hit. If, however, exotic damage in space gets nerfed by 1 dps my playtime will go from daily to weekly or monthly. If bfaw and or tac unique abilities get buffed along with a sci nerf, the lies will just be too insulting to continue. After 6 years I simply will not be able to play anymore.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I don't think to many people would complain about a bit of re-balancing, however there are all ways two approaches. Improve something (or)the resistance to something against a narrow band of opponents or decrease the effectiveness of something against everything (the nerf). Personally I hate the idea of any nerf, I have already paid for an item, skill, ability, or argumentation in one way or another. So at least please consider making these changes more situational specific. That would truly give more choices not limit them.
Lastly i would request something be done to the doffs we have already invested in to spawn more security escorts, and please for the love of all that is holy don't force grenades down our throats.
Bring back team work that requires healing and tanking as well and not just full blown DPS. The game went so wrong with not requiring it that has to be fixed. No more "ALL DPS ONLY" balances.
This is Cryptic's chance to fix that and rebalance the game properly so you can actually choose to play a role you like and want to do rather then forced into a DPS only role which is what the game forces you into .
My ground specialist is an engineer who gets her fun from fabrications. These lies say very clearly this fun is wrong. Fine. I will retire that character and not play ground anymore. I can take that hit. If, however, exotic damage in space gets nerfed by 1 dps my playtime will go from daily to weekly or monthly. If bfaw and or tac unique abilities get buffed along with a sci nerf, the lies will just be too insulting to continue. After 6 years I simply will not be able to play anymore.
Well considering my main engineer can kill entire ground mobs with one or two key presses without firing a shot (and my tacs and scis aren't far behind), it's pretty clear that some balancing is needed.
Besides, might want to wait until they complete work on all three classes and spend some time tweaking them before you get too hysterical about it
My ground specialist is an engineer who gets her fun from fabrications. These lies say very clearly this fun is wrong. Fine. I will retire that character and not play ground anymore. I can take that hit. If, however, exotic damage in space gets nerfed by 1 dps my playtime will go from daily to weekly or monthly. If bfaw and or tac unique abilities get buffed along with a sci nerf, the lies will just be too insulting to continue. After 6 years I simply will not be able to play anymore.
Well considering my main engineer can kill entire ground mobs with one or two key presses without firing a shot (and my tacs and scis aren't far behind), it's pretty clear that some balancing is needed.
Besides, might want to wait until they complete work on all three classes and spend some time tweaking them before you get too hysterical about it
yeah I don't really shoot too much either. some. but I spend let's say 75% of my time putting out fabrications. if they are instantly destroyed what is the point of putting them out? or joining a queue? as i say I play ground only sporadically so i can accept it. though i don't understand the need for it. why not buff sci instead if, as was stated, the intent is to give value to all choices of 'fun.' But after the latest sci space nerf i simply can not take another alongside a faw buff. if they go the route of nerfing the super tac abilities it will simply kill the game instead. the rational choice would be to buff space engineers with something like aoe electrical damage. but instead i expect a targeted and limited tac nerf and a massive sci nerf.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I'd really like to see them make beam arrays useful again. I can have 6 ultra-rare beam arrays on a ship with ultra-rare tac console for them, and still the dps sucks, even for pve - to say nothing about pvp - I might as well be flying a giant target saying blow me up, I can't penetrate your shields even if I fire for 10 minutes non stop. And if I can't get through the shields, then my torps are useless, no matter how strong they are
I'd really like to see them make beam arrays useful again. I can have 6 ultra-rare beam arrays on a ship with ultra-rare tac console for them, and still the dps sucks, even for pve - to say nothing about pvp - I might as well be flying a giant target saying blow me up, I can't penetrate your shields even if I fire for 10 minutes non stop. And if I can't get through the shields, then my torps are useless, no matter how strong they are
~pats shoulder and gives you a hot tea~ I feel your pain, friend.
Hell, in a pvp, no matter how strong beams or torpedoes I got....I feel like I am fighting a tank with spid wads. And no matter how strong shields I got...even offering like 14,000 shield, it's like putting gauze in front of a rhino and shouting "come on through!"
Before the whole t6 and upgrading RD stuff, I was able to at LEAST be able to make up for lack of pew pew power with strong defense and heals....now my life expectancy in PVP is, on average, roughly 30-40 seconds....and that's on a good day.
This picture pretty much states how it's like for me, even with gold epic or ultra rare purple equipment, and trying various strategy
Seems to be, DPS emphasis is nothing but a big circle jerk. X_x
Cryptic, April Fools isn't for another month and a half! Can you stop wasting time and just get on with what you're actually doing, that being just adding more useless ships, more promo packs, and other stuff mean't solely for the big spenders of this game?
Calling it now: the Tactical Initiative change is so they can release some DOff/trait/doodad in a Lockbox or some such that will make it work for the entire team again.
Yeah this is the first thing my mind went to. Given how they lockbox like crazy these days, how will this game get reworked so to make things work effectively you have to play the lockbox game to get the "right" items? Seems like this is the kind of rework to do that even more then it already is now.
I like how they soften the blow by leading in with ground combat before getting into the meat of space combat.
Because the big red tactical elephant in the room is Attack Pattern Alpha buffing all damage, making tactical officers better at Science vessels than even Science Officers (and lets be honest, better at literally every type of ship there is). Along with Beam Fire at Will being pretty much mandatory.
I don't think that it's a problem that APA buffs science powers. The problems are either:
1) The total buff that APA grants is simply too large, across the board. THat means slashing the bonus (or providing more bonuses everywhere else.)
2) Due to the difference in what other modififers apply to weapon damage that don't apply to exotics, APA is too strong on science powers. I suppose it could be fixed by making APA its own category buff for example, and lower the value so that the final damage you get with APA running with weapons is the same as before, but APA with science gets comparatively weaker.
Even if you slashed the APA damage buff for Science, or made APA its own category of buff that made damage from Exotic Damage weaker, you would still have to face the fact that Tactical would still outperform Engineers and Science captains.
Nerfing the damage buff APA grants to a fraction of what it was still gives APA a straight damage improvement that can't be matched by Engineers or Science Captains. So, we're back to where we were, with STO being Tactical Officers Online.
APA needs a massive overhaul where it only affects outgoing weapon damage, or Science and Engineers need a similar APA Captain Ability that makes them more competitive to Tactical Officers.
Sensor Scan and Rotate Shield Frequency simply can not compare to the universal benefit APA grants on every possible ship in the game.
hmm, that is food for thought. How about a similar captain buff for sci to exotic and for engineers I propose an aoe electrical damage attribute added to weapons that would be similarly buffed by their captain ability. The sci and eng powers could be slightly less potent than tac.
alternatively they could start from scratch and force the trinity to be required in sto. this would require making tacs unable to survive long enough to kill without support from a tank and a healer. a complete rebuild of the game.
i think either approach would be fair.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
alternatively they could start from scratch and force the trinity to be required in sto. this would require making tacs unable to survive long enough to kill without support from a tank and a healer. a complete rebuild of the game.
The entire game would need a rewrite for that to occur. Old engine+mish mash code doesnt make it possible without a complete overhaul. Be cheaper just to go and create STO2.
Quote about STO on consoles: "Not quite as bad as No man's sky, but a close second."
Even if you slashed the APA damage buff for Science, or made APA its own category of buff that made damage from Exotic Damage weaker, you would still have to face the fact that Tactical would still outperform Engineers and Science captains.
Nerfing the damage buff APA grants to a fraction of what it was still gives APA a straight damage improvement that can't be matched by Engineers or Science Captains. So, we're back to where we were, with STO being Tactical Officers Online.
APA needs a massive overhaul where it only affects outgoing weapon damage, or Science and Engineers need a similar APA Captain Ability that makes them more competitive to Tactical Officers.
Sensor Scan and Rotate Shield Frequency simply can not compare to the universal benefit APA grants on every possible ship in the game.
The easy way to reign in APA is to make it buff base damage instead of end damage and then rework conventional weapons to compensate for this loss in performance. This way Aux power, Particle gens and exotic base damage can be rebalanced so that overall the damage while APA is in play is very little different to what's being seen now this also deals a huge buff to sci and eng.
Lol, just to throw a curveball to this whole mess of a thread, how about they balance pass proton weapons since they are pretty pointless in their current state anyway? Heck, buff the tetryon weapon's shield drain proc as it's junk compared to every other alternative available after so many years of neglect.
I did not read the whole thread, but i'm somewhat worried it will turn to operation "fix what is NOT broken", and then "find and fix where that bug come from"...
I really would hope the devs at least fix some existing bugs.
...
Like that one with "Plasma Feedback" module from "Uneasy Allies" episode - it does not trigger when taking fire from Tholian, Tzenkethi or Dyson security drones (propably because it does not register as "weapon" fire). Too bad - i really liked it... until it become unreliable.
Lol, just to throw a curveball to this whole mess of a thread, how about they balance pass proton weapons since they are pretty pointless in their current state anyway? Heck, buff the tetryon weapon's shield drain proc as it's junk compared to every other alternative available after so many years of neglect.
You'd have to create consoles and weapons all over the place to populate the game with proton weapons. The up side would be to make the T5 dyson ships more useful.
I like how they soften the blow by leading in with ground combat before getting into the meat of space combat.
Because the big red tactical elephant in the room is Attack Pattern Alpha buffing all damage, making tactical officers better at Science vessels than even Science Officers (and lets be honest, better at literally every type of ship there is). Along with Beam Fire at Will being pretty much mandatory.
I don't think that it's a problem that APA buffs science powers. The problems are either:
1) The total buff that APA grants is simply too large, across the board. THat means slashing the bonus (or providing more bonuses everywhere else.)
2) Due to the difference in what other modififers apply to weapon damage that don't apply to exotics, APA is too strong on science powers. I suppose it could be fixed by making APA its own category buff for example, and lower the value so that the final damage you get with APA running with weapons is the same as before, but APA with science gets comparatively weaker.
...or Science and Engineers need a similar APA Captain Ability that makes them more competitive to Tactical Officers...
What about some ability like that, but that confers +exotic/drain/control stats for sci and +hull heal/shield heal/armor for eng?
Something along the lines of allowing each class to "spike" the kinds of skills and stats that their abilities and (theoretical) playstyle are built for.
I had doubts when the Skills Revamp was announced. Big ones. But I decided to withold judgement until I actually played it on Holodeck. Didn't go to Tribble because doing so spoils the surprise. Then the Revamp arrived and I was not entirely displeased with the results. There were some small irritants, yes. But they were minor and I can and have lived with them.
I think since it worked out okay the last time, I'll do the same thing again.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
...Because the big red tactical elephant in the room is Attack Pattern Alpha (and an essentially always-on GDF at near max power if it's worked right) buffing all damage, making tactical officers better at Science vessels than even Science Officers (and lets be honest, better at literally every type of ship (and role) there is)...
Along the lines of my suggestion to differentiate classes more...sci should have the edge in exotic, engineers get nice perks in the form of Grace Under Pressure and EPS Manifold Efficiency. More things like those eng traits and Conservation of Energy (or maybe Psychological Warfare) for Sci's.
I'd take it one step further and suggest Engineers should get a separate-but-equal form of damage dealing similar to how Science was given a hard shift from "Support" to "Exotic Damage Space Wizardry".
Make Engineers masters of weapon firing haste or shield/armor penetration (or both) so they can compete with Tactical for raw DPS and Science for exotic damage.
Hmm, no. The whole point is not that they should compete directly on damage grounds, but that have other ways to be useful. Disables, maybe...or slows, or weapons malfunction. Things analogous to their kit powers on ground or the engineering ultimate...eps related, armor, speed bursts, anything that fits with their role of the 'miracle worker' who can get the most out of the ship and come up with clever solutions. I main an engineer because of the engineering characters in the shows, not because I necessarily want to compete with the tacticians and weapons officers in damage output. One of your ideas that comes the closest is the idea of weapon haste, since that kinda falls in line with manipulation of ship systems...maybe also add a mild form of OSS to EPS transfer, which could be offensive (higher weapon/aux power cap) and defensive (higher shield/engine power cap). Perhaps, provided it's not something about the game engine not allowing it, have this OSS-related power be able to stack it's maximum with other sources, making engineers unique by giving them the highest subsystem power maximums of any class.
...Because the big red tactical elephant in the room is Attack Pattern Alpha (and an essentially always-on GDF at near max power if it's worked right) buffing all damage, making tactical officers better at Science vessels than even Science Officers (and lets be honest, better at literally every type of ship (and role) there is)...
Along the lines of my suggestion to differentiate classes more...sci should have the edge in exotic, engineers get nice perks in the form of Grace Under Pressure and EPS Manifold Efficiency. More things like those eng traits and Conservation of Energy (or maybe Psychological Warfare) for Sci's.
I'd take it one step further and suggest Engineers should get a separate-but-equal form of damage dealing similar to how Science was given a hard shift from "Support" to "Exotic Damage Space Wizardry".
Make Engineers masters of weapon firing haste or shield/armor penetration (or both) so they can compete with Tactical for raw DPS and Science for exotic damage.
Hmm, no. The whole point is not that they should compete directly on damage grounds, but that have other ways to be useful. Disables, maybe...or slows, or weapons malfunction. Things analogous to their kit powers on ground or the engineering ultimate...eps related, armor, speed bursts, anything that fits with their role of the 'miracle worker' who can get the most out of the ship and come up with clever solutions. I main an engineer because of the engineering characters in the shows, not because I necessarily want to compete with the tacticians and weapons officers in damage output. One of your ideas that comes the closest is the idea of weapon haste, since that kinda falls in line with manipulation of ship systems...maybe also add a mild form of OSS to EPS transfer, which could be offensive (higher weapon/aux power cap) and defensive (higher shield/engine power cap). Perhaps, provided it's not something about the game engine not allowing it, have this OSS-related power be able to stack it's maximum with other sources, making engineers unique by giving them the highest subsystem power maximums of any class.
If gameplay in STO was defined by anything else other than how fast you can kill things, I'd probably agree with you. However, there are no awards for whoever can have the highest EPS or who can control enemies the best. Rewards are dependant on who can deal the most damage. AFK penalties are tied directly into damage dealt. Fleet Action rewards are tied directly into damage dealt.
Now, it has been brought up on multiple occasions to make gameplay more focused around best-in-class rather than best-in-damage, with rewards distributed for who can support the rest of the team the best (like making it dependant on buffs or team healing, or who can debuff/control the most enemies), but this is not something that has ever come to fruition, and I've seen no indication Cryptic has any interest in shifting the game away from who can kill the most stuff in the shortest amount of time.
The major issue to balance in the game has always been how success has been measured, but since there is no interest in redefining the ruleset, then we are pigeonholed into the measurement of damage dealt.
Attack Pattern Alpha is the major symptom (not the cause) of gameplay imbalance, as the buff it provides is for the only measurement of success the game keeps track of. Anything else, like debuffing, controls, drainboats, or healing your own team to keep them in the fight is all incidental to the goal of killing enemies as quickly as possible.
So, you are either trying to deal as much damage as possible, or you're helping another player deal as much damage as possible. There is no middle ground or compromise. In that instance, Tactical will always dominate over Engineers and Science Officers until their abilities are reworked, or the other two careers are buffed proportionally to be competitive against the high DPS meta that Cryptic has cultivated.
The only way to buff the other two careers is to give them comparable damage-buffing captain abilities, because even a 1% damage buff provided by Attack Pattern Alpha will make Tactical Officers deal 1% more damage with Science Vessels or Cruisers than either Engineers or Science Officers.
Comments
1) The total buff that APA grants is simply too large, across the board. THat means slashing the bonus (or providing more bonuses everywhere else.)
2) Due to the difference in what other modififers apply to weapon damage that don't apply to exotics, APA is too strong on science powers. I suppose it could be fixed by making APA its own category buff for example, and lower the value so that the final damage you get with APA running with weapons is the same as before, but APA with science gets comparatively weaker.
indeed. it is the best news since a while.
Sometimes, if you want to bury the hatchet with a Klingon, it has to be in his skull. - Captain K'Tar of the USS Danu about J'mpok.
I'm with you on this one. Sure, it's nice that it's getting a little more utility for direct combat, but the price is too great.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
lol thanks...laughed so hard I spilled my coffee!
original join date 2010
Member: Team Trekyards. Visit Trekyards today!
And then just start improving the players skills, maybe add something like when you use different kinds of weapons you get a buff. If you have a beam array, dual beam bank, heavy and dual cannons, cannon, torpedoes, mines, turrets and 360 beam, you get a buff. Maybe combine faw and spread, etc.
Or just nerf everything until you bring the next super console/weapon/set needed to win.
"Use Temporal Skills to NERF EVERYTHING before it happened!" -Unknown source.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Lastly i would request something be done to the doffs we have already invested in to spawn more security escorts, and please for the love of all that is holy don't force grenades down our throats.
Thx
Well considering my main engineer can kill entire ground mobs with one or two key presses without firing a shot (and my tacs and scis aren't far behind), it's pretty clear that some balancing is needed.
Besides, might want to wait until they complete work on all three classes and spend some time tweaking them before you get too hysterical about it
yeah I don't really shoot too much either. some. but I spend let's say 75% of my time putting out fabrications. if they are instantly destroyed what is the point of putting them out? or joining a queue? as i say I play ground only sporadically so i can accept it. though i don't understand the need for it. why not buff sci instead if, as was stated, the intent is to give value to all choices of 'fun.' But after the latest sci space nerf i simply can not take another alongside a faw buff. if they go the route of nerfing the super tac abilities it will simply kill the game instead. the rational choice would be to buff space engineers with something like aoe electrical damage. but instead i expect a targeted and limited tac nerf and a massive sci nerf.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Founder, Midnight Squadron
http://www.midnightsquadron.com
~pats shoulder and gives you a hot tea~ I feel your pain, friend.
Hell, in a pvp, no matter how strong beams or torpedoes I got....I feel like I am fighting a tank with spid wads. And no matter how strong shields I got...even offering like 14,000 shield, it's like putting gauze in front of a rhino and shouting "come on through!"
Before the whole t6 and upgrading RD stuff, I was able to at LEAST be able to make up for lack of pew pew power with strong defense and heals....now my life expectancy in PVP is, on average, roughly 30-40 seconds....and that's on a good day.
This picture pretty much states how it's like for me, even with gold epic or ultra rare purple equipment, and trying various strategy
Seems to be, DPS emphasis is nothing but a big circle jerk. X_x
Cryptic, April Fools isn't for another month and a half! Can you stop wasting time and just get on with what you're actually doing, that being just adding more useless ships, more promo packs, and other stuff mean't solely for the big spenders of this game?
Yeah this is the first thing my mind went to. Given how they lockbox like crazy these days, how will this game get reworked so to make things work effectively you have to play the lockbox game to get the "right" items? Seems like this is the kind of rework to do that even more then it already is now.
Booo!
Even if you slashed the APA damage buff for Science, or made APA its own category of buff that made damage from Exotic Damage weaker, you would still have to face the fact that Tactical would still outperform Engineers and Science captains.
Nerfing the damage buff APA grants to a fraction of what it was still gives APA a straight damage improvement that can't be matched by Engineers or Science Captains. So, we're back to where we were, with STO being Tactical Officers Online.
APA needs a massive overhaul where it only affects outgoing weapon damage, or Science and Engineers need a similar APA Captain Ability that makes them more competitive to Tactical Officers.
Sensor Scan and Rotate Shield Frequency simply can not compare to the universal benefit APA grants on every possible ship in the game.
alternatively they could start from scratch and force the trinity to be required in sto. this would require making tacs unable to survive long enough to kill without support from a tank and a healer. a complete rebuild of the game.
i think either approach would be fair.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
The entire game would need a rewrite for that to occur. Old engine+mish mash code doesnt make it possible without a complete overhaul. Be cheaper just to go and create STO2.
The easy way to reign in APA is to make it buff base damage instead of end damage and then rework conventional weapons to compensate for this loss in performance. This way Aux power, Particle gens and exotic base damage can be rebalanced so that overall the damage while APA is in play is very little different to what's being seen now this also deals a huge buff to sci and eng.
I really would hope the devs at least fix some existing bugs.
...
Like that one with "Plasma Feedback" module from "Uneasy Allies" episode - it does not trigger when taking fire from Tholian, Tzenkethi or Dyson security drones (propably because it does not register as "weapon" fire). Too bad - i really liked it... until it become unreliable.
You'd have to create consoles and weapons all over the place to populate the game with proton weapons. The up side would be to make the T5 dyson ships more useful.
What about some ability like that, but that confers +exotic/drain/control stats for sci and +hull heal/shield heal/armor for eng?
Something along the lines of allowing each class to "spike" the kinds of skills and stats that their abilities and (theoretical) playstyle are built for.
I think since it worked out okay the last time, I'll do the same thing again.
Hmm, no. The whole point is not that they should compete directly on damage grounds, but that have other ways to be useful. Disables, maybe...or slows, or weapons malfunction. Things analogous to their kit powers on ground or the engineering ultimate...eps related, armor, speed bursts, anything that fits with their role of the 'miracle worker' who can get the most out of the ship and come up with clever solutions. I main an engineer because of the engineering characters in the shows, not because I necessarily want to compete with the tacticians and weapons officers in damage output. One of your ideas that comes the closest is the idea of weapon haste, since that kinda falls in line with manipulation of ship systems...maybe also add a mild form of OSS to EPS transfer, which could be offensive (higher weapon/aux power cap) and defensive (higher shield/engine power cap). Perhaps, provided it's not something about the game engine not allowing it, have this OSS-related power be able to stack it's maximum with other sources, making engineers unique by giving them the highest subsystem power maximums of any class.
If gameplay in STO was defined by anything else other than how fast you can kill things, I'd probably agree with you. However, there are no awards for whoever can have the highest EPS or who can control enemies the best. Rewards are dependant on who can deal the most damage. AFK penalties are tied directly into damage dealt. Fleet Action rewards are tied directly into damage dealt.
Now, it has been brought up on multiple occasions to make gameplay more focused around best-in-class rather than best-in-damage, with rewards distributed for who can support the rest of the team the best (like making it dependant on buffs or team healing, or who can debuff/control the most enemies), but this is not something that has ever come to fruition, and I've seen no indication Cryptic has any interest in shifting the game away from who can kill the most stuff in the shortest amount of time.
The major issue to balance in the game has always been how success has been measured, but since there is no interest in redefining the ruleset, then we are pigeonholed into the measurement of damage dealt.
Attack Pattern Alpha is the major symptom (not the cause) of gameplay imbalance, as the buff it provides is for the only measurement of success the game keeps track of. Anything else, like debuffing, controls, drainboats, or healing your own team to keep them in the fight is all incidental to the goal of killing enemies as quickly as possible.
So, you are either trying to deal as much damage as possible, or you're helping another player deal as much damage as possible. There is no middle ground or compromise. In that instance, Tactical will always dominate over Engineers and Science Officers until their abilities are reworked, or the other two careers are buffed proportionally to be competitive against the high DPS meta that Cryptic has cultivated.
The only way to buff the other two careers is to give them comparable damage-buffing captain abilities, because even a 1% damage buff provided by Attack Pattern Alpha will make Tactical Officers deal 1% more damage with Science Vessels or Cruisers than either Engineers or Science Officers.
*shivers*
Just remembering SWG's increasingly bad 'rebalancing upgrades'.