I'm sorry I don't agree with you. This isn't about 1 to 1 or what shows say. This is about a video game where you implement three factions and need to properly support those factions. If a company is in such a position where they decide it's best to favor one faction and not meet the needs of the other two factions they put in then really there shouldn't be any factions in this game because quite honestly they're doing a disservice to their customers who play those factions.
This is a video game based on an existing series, and should stick to the series as much as possible when it comes to content.
If a race showed up 1/10 as much as the Feds in the TV shows, they should get 1/10 the content as the Feds in-game to balance it out and be fair.
And from a game-mechanics POV, invalidating DrainX gear-groups, as a whole, is simply insane. Now, before anyone says you can still drain a bit, that's not the point. The point is, that things like the Terran Space set no longer bring you any surplus power from what you bought them for: their DrainX spec. Aka, they're vendor trash now.
Not being a super meta, 200K+ DPS, level item does not make it vendor trash.
Please learn what that word means, and stop using false equivalence fallacies.
What you are arguing for is basically if Blizzard Entertainment let the Horde have paladins and the Alliance have Shamans during the Burning Crusade expansion but not let them have access to tier gear till near the end of said expansion. Its poor design and I don't think WoW would be where it's been over the years if Blizzard made the same choices for WoW as Cryptic/PWE has for STO. While it's important to respect the TV shows you do need to use suspension of disbelief in order to provide for the players of your game across all the factions you implement. Otherwise you'll end up with a product that is running on a string budget where bugs don't get fixed and change is introduced for the sake of generating more revenue and not just providing a good game experience which would get the revenue in the first place.
Transferred a new copy of my main over to Tribble. Didn't change a thing in the build. Tribble version did about 75% less dps. Accuracy with FAW3 was 99.69% (I have been trained in Advanced Targeting Expertise and took the extra 2% accuracy option). Swapped out the Leech and 2 plasma consoles, added the accuracy trait; 86% dps compared to live and 100% hit rate with FAW3. The only other difference I had noticed was that the NPCs were causing me to have to heal more. I still have training in DrainX without Leech, it does also provide resists. But players will adapt.
"I'm not big on telepaths myself. I'm not big on guns either. But if everyone else has them, I want to make sure I can get my hands on the biggest one I can."
What you are arguing for is something along the lines of letting the Horde have paladins but not letting them have access to Paladin tier gear to near the end of the expansion when they were introduced for the Horde. Same goes for shamans in the Alliance. If Blizzard Entertainment did that do you think WoW would be where it is today? The shows should be respected but you also need to provide for your players and that calls for a suspension of disbelief sometimes in order to provide things to players across the board when it comes to factions.
Uhh no, in fact, I literally argued for the exact opposite of that.
Also, your argument is a false equivalence fallacy as WoW was never based on a TV show, it was based on an RTS.... and RTS Blizzard themselves made.
Haha! Show me how I can do 200k+ with my nerfed Terran Space set, and all will be forgiven.
Go read what I wrote again. You seem to have not the first time.
It doesn't matter that WoW wasn't based on a TV show. You build a good game and wrap the show around it sticking as true as possible to the game while making allowances for good game play. You don't build the game around a show that was never designed to provide good game play but only tell a story.
The intent of DrainX is mainly for drain builds. If you're going to go heavy on drains, it's to use it as part of an overall strategy of draining your target to make it weak. You stacked a bunch of drain for the pure purpose of DPS and nothing more.
That being said, yes, I think @crypticspartan#0627 handled the change to plasmonic leech in the worst way possible. He could have easily drastically reduced the buff scaling with DrainX, but instead, he threw the whole buff equation to the garbage.
He also could have attempted the "impossible" and made the drain equal to the power actually drained from the target, but a long time ago a dev mentioned that the buff and the drain are completely separate so it's not possible. A quick calc off the drain resistance of the target to figure out the buff portion would have been a nice fix. Hell, combine both my solutions, but no.
He took the easy way out "fixing" it with a very heavy handed nerf, hence why personally, I don't agree with it. Taking out the scaling aspect just turns it into garbage for most people.
The original intention of the console when it came out and after it stacked only 8 times was to suck power and at the same time buff self power equally. Now the console basically makes a lot of that power you suck disappear to who knows where.
Calling someone a sociopath because they disagree with you is beyond ridiculous.
I didn't call someone a sociopath. I *did* notice the general presence of 'sheer sociopathy' in these threads, though. And looking at the glee, and the pure Schadenfreude I witness in people about seeing these nerfs, I say that assessment was not far off.
Me? I have never laughed at someone's build getting nerfed; or felt joy about it even. Like those Exploders. Don't much use 'em myself, but don't experience any of the 'frenzy of joy' I see others having over someone else's stuff getting invalidated. I simply believe in 'Live, and let live.' I don't call for others being nerfed, and I don't like to be nerfed myself.
The intent of DrainX is mainly for drain builds. If you're going to go heavy on drains, it's to use it as part of an overall strategy of draining your target to make it weak. You stacked a bunch of drain for the pure purpose of DPS and nothing more.
Actually you would be very wrong there. I stacked a bunch of drain for the pure purpose of overcoming the severe power penalty that Romulan Warbirds suffer from, and actually give me enough shield, engine and auxillary power to be viable in Elite Content.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q
Then it seems you don't understand the terminology you use.
You have to admit that certain comments concerning these nerfs are a little on the insulting side. If you are happy about all these nerfs that's great, but you don't need to act like a complete a$$hat about it. I don't mean you in particular, but I have read some pretty dickish comments lately where people voice how happy they are at other peoples angst. It's one thing to discuss and argue the benefits of these nerfs, it's entirely another thing to be a unpleasant about it and directly attack people. That is of course the nature of the internet. You can be as mean-spirited as you want without consequence.
'You say yes, I say no, You say stop, and I say go, go, go, Oh no. You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello, I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello, hello, hello, I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello. I say high, you say low, You say why, and I say I don't know...'
Well, you get the ghist.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Let's try this again with being "constructive" rather than just whine about the balancing act of these days.
The positives:
1-IMO to entertain perhaps a new playerbase to start playing STO and to focus on those "casual" players who do not have the time to embark themselves in costly builds or search for the "I win" button.
2-At least it shows Devs are willing to try something else besides the status quo.
3-Devs might be looking for a parallel balancing system that could be adapted easily to both platform XBOX/PS2 and PC play.
4- Newer ways to sell consoles or tag new skills to go with similar planning as it was from ships going from T5 to T6? Say calling this balancing V2?
Negatives:
Where to start...
1- Increase "Fun". This is a very subjective terms and should not be used. For those who were here on Delta Rising we heard "Best Expansion ever and players love it".
These statements should not used or could be misconstrued by the hardcore playerbase who might not find this balancing as a "Fun"
2- Balancing will affect MANY systems currently in place. For instance take the plasmoic leech...Some might think it is not "just" the plasmoic leech being nerfed though, or even the plasma consoles, its everything else associated with them.
Many powers and abilities are being nerfed into the ground. See tribble for more details.
This will necessarily cause literally to become "obsolete builds" and creating less diversity.
3- Builds and past investments to collect them will be broken. This might cause a flood of players exiting STO since this will not go well to those hardcore players who slaved to have the latest and best builds ever.
I could go on with more criticism but will leave to others to add either positive or negative.
Will this be the "only" time skills get re-balanced this way or will there be more versions in the future. I know PWE is a private company and can do whatever they want but would be nice if they can acknowledge the fact that many players have spent countless of hours/time and resources into builds. To make those obsolete for the mere sake of balancing is to some degree sending a bad signal.
Why have skills anyways or encourage players to dwell in getting the latest shinies or consoles if they know they might get nerf anytime?
But let's keep it constructive and do hope Cryptic does communicate "better" with the playerbase in the future. Communication and constructive feedback from both ends is what could ease this new balancing from being detrimental to players.
Disclaimer....I dont speak for you and only represent myself. However, please disagree respectfully if you must.
Bottom line is this Cryptic is owned by Perfect World now, if Perfect World says figure out how to get more money from the players, Cryptic has to obey their bosses. lol
"Nuke the entire site from orbit--it's the only way to be sure"
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
I'm sure the Design Team will be excited to know they answer to the bold vision statement of a person's whose job was literally to pat children on the head and tell them everything will be alright.
You all don't get it, they need to shift thing around so folks will invest in their future upcoming and new shiny. Do DPSers hurt their bottom dollar? By doing what they deem a necessary evil, will improve more time & money investments? Hmmm, interesting. Won't surprise me if they introduce some new console, ship, trait box or something soon after the changes.
It doesn't matter that WoW wasn't based on a TV show. You build a good game and wrap the show around it sticking as true as possible to the game while making allowances for good game play. You don't build the game around a show that was never designed to provide good game play but only tell a story.
As Doctor McCoy could say, are you out of your Vulcan mind?! Really, can you possibly even be remotely serious about this insane nonsense?
NEWS FLASH: Star Trek began as a television show in the mid-1960s, which is over 50 freaking years ago! At that time, the concepts of personal computers and video games were at best science fiction concepts with no idea when, if, or how such things would ever be implemented in reality. That television series gained a cult following which became a massive fanbase after syndication in the 70s revitalized and massively expanded its reach. Over the decades, the series-turned-franchise has spawned films, novels, merchandising, pretty much single-handedly made fanfiction a thing, also pretty much single-handedly made the fandom convention thing happen, launched several spin-off series and oh yeah, many video games once those got around to being invented.
So, Einstein, would you mind telling me exactly HOW in the name of Spock anyone is supposed to "wrap the show around the game" when the former predated the latter by over four decades? Even if it were somehow possible, it would be a mistake. Star Trek is far, far older and bigger than this MMO, and the game exists BECAUSE of the franchise. The game must, therefore, serve the franchise and not the other way around. To expect otherwise would not only be, as Spock would say, "highly illogical" but also go against what Scotty always said which is that "ye canna' change the laws o' physics!". Your suggestion violates the law of causality, which is that cause must always precede effect. The Star Trek franchise caused this game to happen. Thus it came first and gets to set the rules.
If you cannot accept this, then this game is not for you. Adapt to it or find something else to do with your time and energy, because you're not going to win a battle to change 50 years of Star Trek canon and lore because it doesn't agree with your idea of ideal game design.
Easy.. by putting good game play first. You put in factions, you put in equipment you provide viable ways for all factions in the game to obtain what is needed to support their classes. It's pretty simple really. No Vulcan mind needed. If you don't, you get a game like we have today with STO where the resources have dwindled so far that most things are a pipe dream and the game itself wouldn't exist if someone didn't hang the Star Trek name on it.
In other words...
Pig = Bad Game Design Choices
Lipstick = Star Trek IP
Only now are they trying to address some of that especially with the vesta 12 pack release. It's a step in the right direction but there's a lot that needs done to clean up the mess.
Been here since open beta. I have no concerns about what geko n co r trying to do. I can remember a time when where were no set bonus or special consoles. The game will be fine. Its in a desprate need of tweeking after 3 expansions and 12 seasons
PWE knows it is harder to alienate the hardcore playerbase because they are the most loyal. The hardcore playerbase are the ones that go for the all epic gear, waste tons of resources to get it first, and will keep coming back for more through the changes to elevate themselves back up into the top 1%. PWE knows exactly who can take the hardest hit with the nerf bat! Keeping that 99% is their goal because 99% suits their metrics and profit margins more.
You all don't get it, they need to shift thing around so folks will invest in their future upcoming and new shiny. Do DPSers hurt their bottom dollar? By doing what they deem a necessary evil, will improve more time & money investments? Hmmm, interesting. Won't surprise me if they introduce some new console, ship, trait box or something soon after the changes.
Tier 7 Ships coming soon in 2017. :P
I personally don't buy the paranoid ranting that says this was done to sell things. When I read all the notes on how extensive the changes are it looked to me like they were doing exactly what they claimed to be doing. That is looking at what is too good, or not good enough and changing them to be less of outliers.
Then it seems you don't understand the terminology you use.
You have to admit that certain comments concerning these nerfs are a little on the insulting side. If you are happy about all these nerfs that's great, but you don't need to act like a complete a$$hat about it. I don't mean you in particular, but I have read some pretty dickish comments lately where people voice how happy they are at other peoples angst. It's one thing to discuss and argue the benefits of these nerfs, it's entirely another thing to be a unpleasant about it and directly attack people. That is of course the nature of the internet. You can be as mean-spirited as you want without consequence.
I'm not one to take pleasure in the suffering of others, but conversely, I can't take pity or have sympathy for those whose misfortunes are basically being a spoiled child having been denied their candy. Separating personal desire and/or a misplaced sense of self-entitlement from the actual definition of fair is a lesson that should have been learned at a far younger age than anyone old enough to play this game.
Secondly, what fun is a game if there is no challenge to it? In it's current state, PVE is zero challenge whatsoever, PVP is a broken mess where a certain profession can faceroll their keyboard like a drooling idiot and still win 50% of the time.
So sorry, the only sorts of people who are crying about these changes are exactly the sort of people who deserve no pity.
"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am."
Then it seems you don't understand the terminology you use.
You have to admit that certain comments concerning these nerfs are a little on the insulting side. If you are happy about all these nerfs that's great, but you don't need to act like a complete a$$hat about it. I don't mean you in particular, but I have read some pretty dickish comments lately where people voice how happy they are at other peoples angst. It's one thing to discuss and argue the benefits of these nerfs, it's entirely another thing to be a unpleasant about it and directly attack people. That is of course the nature of the internet. You can be as mean-spirited as you want without consequence.
I'm not one to take pleasure in the suffering of others, but conversely, I can't take pity or have sympathy for those whose misfortunes are basically being a spoiled child having been denied their candy. Separating personal desire and/or a misplaced sense of self-entitlement from the actual definition of fair is a lesson that should have been learned at a far younger age than anyone old enough to play this game.
Secondly, what fun is a game if there is no challenge to it? In it's current state, PVE is zero challenge whatsoever, PVP is a broken mess where a certain profession can faceroll their keyboard like a drooling idiot and still win 50% of the time.
So sorry, the only sorts of people who are crying about these changes are exactly the sort of people who deserve no pity.
Spoiled child and self-entitlement eh? Well if that really is the I'd blame Cryptic rather than the players. They are the one who have created such an atmosphere by so deeply integrating the game with a "real money" economy. So unlike most western MMORPG's where its just a matter of game time and grinding out fake currencies and tokens, the massive nerfs in this game can represent a lost of hundreds of dollars in investment, depending on the player. So yeah, of course people are going to feel entitled for what they feel they paid good money for.
I also dispute the notion that PvE is not a challenge. Maybe if you stick to Normal and Advanced content, but Elite queues and missions can still be quite challenging, especially if your going for the optional objectives. The problem here is that Cryptic has not been on the ball on properly pushing out Elite versions of all the queues and that many of them aren't rewarding enough to justify the time and coordination it takes to get through them.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q
Spoiled child and self-entitlement eh? Well if that really is the I'd blame Cryptic rather than the players. They are the one who have created such an atmosphere by so deeply integrating the game with a "real money" economy.
No, that is still on you. C-Store, lockboxes, reputations and all that is full of stuff that's mechanically weak and people don't use much. You see a clear pattern of them selling power, but only because you completely ignore all the duds they've created that people consider weak and underpowered. You latch onto the few outliers that were overly powerful and believe that this is what Cryptic always had planned for.
For every Plasmonic Leech there have been 4 Impulse Capacitance Cells.
Oh, and by the way: Even if the parents did spoil the child, it doesn't entitle the child to stay spoiled.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I'm finding it amusing that the thread has fixated on *one* aspect of the entire exercise - drain effects - and therefore screaming the whole rebalance is a failure. There is a lot of good stuff, even what looks like an actual effort to breathe some life into PVP.
Otherwise, it's a fact of life that any living game will go through big shifts where older stuff... changes in utility. It's by no means a phenomenon limited to STO or even MMOs. I suspect that most of those complaining are simply too young to have seen the cycle in operation before.
I also dispute the notion that PvE is not a challenge. Maybe if you stick to Normal and Advanced content, but Elite queues and missions can still be quite challenging, especially if your going for the optional objectives. The problem here is that Cryptic has not been on the ball on properly pushing out Elite versions of all the queues and that many of them aren't rewarding enough to justify the time and coordination it takes to get through them.
PvE is not and has not been a challenge in a long time. There was a brief period after the release of Delta Rising when even the common queues were at least a little bit interesting, but all that was quickly nerfed out when players whined it was too hard and now basically everything is more or less impossible to lose.
And yes, a few of the Elites are theoretically harder than others, but that doesn't mean anything when none of them are rewarding enough to justify even the time needed to wait for the queue to pop (assuming they ever pop at all) much less actually playing them.
Of course, none of this "balance pass" nerf is going to actually make things any more challenging either. Autowin missions are an autowin missions. The average completion time of CCA and ISA goes up a few seconds, big whooping deal.
You all don't get it, they need to shift thing around so folks will invest in their future upcoming and new shiny. Do DPSers hurt their bottom dollar? By doing what they deem a necessary evil, will improve more time & money investments? Hmmm, interesting. Won't surprise me if they introduce some new console, ship, trait box or something soon after the changes.
Tier 7 Ships coming soon in 2017. :P
I personally don't buy the paranoid ranting that says this was done to sell things. When I read all the notes on how extensive the changes are it looked to me like they were doing exactly what they claimed to be doing. That is looking at what is too good, or not good enough and changing them to be less of outliers.
And yet what was deemed 'too good' is what they created themselves, also very deliberately. You may believe they just create these good items haphazardly, and that's fine. Me, however, I think they do so for one reason only: power creep sells! Simple as that. No paranoia required, but simply bottom line tactics. Don't believe? Wait for next month's lock box, and watch them try and sell you the power creep all over again. It's really almost amusing ppl don't get this.
See, the rather naive thing I'm noticing here -- not from you per se, mind you -- is that ppl really buy into this whole "Gee, we have no idea what caused this mess; but look at us being responsible cleaning it up!" routine. Why, they weren't so alert when they were selling me those items, now were they!? That's what makes all of this so unpalatable for me. I spent the last few month upgrading my Tact Rom, at pretty high cost; and then Bort comes along, effectively saying "Hahaha, we're gonna cap the Leech at +6. So, good luck getting your power levels back up! And, oh yeah, your weps will now use extra power too. In your face!"
And then they go about it in a totally shoddy way. I mean, what self-respecting Dev just outright kills all DrainX equipment entirely?! Nerf a bit here and there, fine; but this is total BS. DrainX not your thang? What if next week we kill all partgens builds? Would ppl like that?! I bet they wouldn't.
25-odd years of gaming, seen the same thing over and over again, and the grognards used to grumble about how things had been churning since the 1980s; designers work on the "new thing" then it becomes the "old thing". Or they have a change of heart, or personnel, and take things in a new direction. No doubt it's at least partially deliberate, but if there's a company that's managed to last without doing so I'd be interested to know.
What's good about this rebalance is that there is a decent line in bringing older builds and weapons back into value - it's interesting to note the attempts to make accuracy make BO more useful. I do like what seems to be the guiding principle - if something was so good it was a "must have" it's been reined in. For those crying nerf, I have to ask what it is you've lost; bragging rights? Content taking a few minutes more to complete? It's supposed to be a game you enjoy playing...
I'm finding it amusing that the thread has fixated on *one* aspect of the entire exercise - drain effects - and therefore screaming the whole rebalance is a failure.
When I was still playing EvE Online (non-consensual PvP, who needs that!?), we had a saying, "Cap is life!" And it is. Unless you're running a full torp boat, 'cap' -- or simply 'power', as we call it here -- is at the very core of every build. Tact needs it for energy weps, the Science Captain needs it for aux, the Engi for shields (and everyone a bit of all). My Engi main will overcome more easily; but my Rom Tact will suffer, guaranteed.
And it's not even about the money per se (although that part is obviously annoying); but it's simply about having worked/spent to get a build that can get me adequate power levels (not as good as my Engineer, but certainly good enough). And now that it's all done, they're just yanking my entire setup from under me.
And then ppl post about spoiled children, not being able to get to their candy. Wut?! Bort didn't *give* me any candy: I had to BUY it from them. And I don't respond well to backsies.
Except this hasn't happened, even with this patch.
Stop using a false equivalence fallacy that not doing 200K damage means its dead, or entirely useless.
No one is going to take you seriously if your entire argument is based on easily refutable lies, fallacies, and misinformation.
LOL. Stop saying 'false equivalence fallacy' in every post to me and others. No one is going to take you seriously if you're too keen on showing you learned a few clever-looking terms. Oh, and the 200k thing is getting old too. Like I told you before, 200k, where do I sign up for that?! :P
I must be insane, but I will explain, one last time, why, yes, DrainX is now 'entirely useless.' See, the thing is, the DrainX properties of, say, the Terran space set, are indeed completely useless now, as they can't give me any surplus power any more, since Leech was capped: aka, their DrainX properties might as well be absent, as I could get +6 easily without ithe set.
Some there be that say they love draining NPCs. Respect for them, making that a useful activity. For me, though, I might as well toss aside all my DrainX gear.
And yet what was deemed 'too good' is what they created themselves,
The devs created the entire game.... so yeah they also created that ability you've forgotten exists because you never use it too.
See, the rather naive thing I'm noticing here -- not from you per se, mind you -- is that ppl really buy into this whole "Gee, we have no idea what caused this mess; but look at us being responsible cleaning it up!" routine.
Leech was far less of a problem back when it wasn't easy to get a drain boost of 200... but now dedicated drain can hit 700. So no, they did NOT in fact make Leech to work the way it is now.
Correct. Your fun IS wrong and it's being purged. Ball's in your court what you're gonna do next.
Yeah about that:
Increase the fun – Games are about having fun, and players should not be made to feel that their fun is “wrong.”
Oops!
There are exceptions, such as when allowing your fun takes away from the fun of many other players.
That truly is just pure nonsense.
Would someone kindly tell me how DPS builds ruin other peoples fun.. Please ?
10 master keys to the person who explains this to me.
The only problem I can see with current DPS builds is no appropriate venue to use them.
So sure, maybe a high DPS'er will ruin the challenge of a norm or advanced pug for some of the lowbies, or even AFK them...
...But people seriously think that won't happen after the changes ... Seriously ?
I just wish the devs would stop ruining consoles, specs and abilities and get to work on giving the players at the high end of the spectrum a place they can use their talents (elites for all queues) rather then ruining a bunch cool stuff for everyone !
The plasma explosion console is the perfect example. It WAS a really fun/cool console.
Sure, it was over performing when stacked but why the heck didn't they just limit them to 1 per ship, rather then making the whole darn console a hunk of TRIBBLE ?
This is kind of stuff infuriates me !
Comments
What you are arguing for is basically if Blizzard Entertainment let the Horde have paladins and the Alliance have Shamans during the Burning Crusade expansion but not let them have access to tier gear till near the end of said expansion. Its poor design and I don't think WoW would be where it's been over the years if Blizzard made the same choices for WoW as Cryptic/PWE has for STO. While it's important to respect the TV shows you do need to use suspension of disbelief in order to provide for the players of your game across all the factions you implement. Otherwise you'll end up with a product that is running on a string budget where bugs don't get fixed and change is introduced for the sake of generating more revenue and not just providing a good game experience which would get the revenue in the first place.
It doesn't matter that WoW wasn't based on a TV show. You build a good game and wrap the show around it sticking as true as possible to the game while making allowances for good game play. You don't build the game around a show that was never designed to provide good game play but only tell a story.
The intent of DrainX is mainly for drain builds. If you're going to go heavy on drains, it's to use it as part of an overall strategy of draining your target to make it weak. You stacked a bunch of drain for the pure purpose of DPS and nothing more.
That being said, yes, I think @crypticspartan#0627 handled the change to plasmonic leech in the worst way possible. He could have easily drastically reduced the buff scaling with DrainX, but instead, he threw the whole buff equation to the garbage.
He also could have attempted the "impossible" and made the drain equal to the power actually drained from the target, but a long time ago a dev mentioned that the buff and the drain are completely separate so it's not possible. A quick calc off the drain resistance of the target to figure out the buff portion would have been a nice fix. Hell, combine both my solutions, but no.
He took the easy way out "fixing" it with a very heavy handed nerf, hence why personally, I don't agree with it. Taking out the scaling aspect just turns it into garbage for most people.
The original intention of the console when it came out and after it stacked only 8 times was to suck power and at the same time buff self power equally. Now the console basically makes a lot of that power you suck disappear to who knows where.
I didn't call someone a sociopath. I *did* notice the general presence of 'sheer sociopathy' in these threads, though. And looking at the glee, and the pure Schadenfreude I witness in people about seeing these nerfs, I say that assessment was not far off.
Me? I have never laughed at someone's build getting nerfed; or felt joy about it even. Like those Exploders. Don't much use 'em myself, but don't experience any of the 'frenzy of joy' I see others having over someone else's stuff getting invalidated. I simply believe in 'Live, and let live.' I don't call for others being nerfed, and I don't like to be nerfed myself.
Actually you would be very wrong there. I stacked a bunch of drain for the pure purpose of overcoming the severe power penalty that Romulan Warbirds suffer from, and actually give me enough shield, engine and auxillary power to be viable in Elite Content.
After reading this whole thread, I come to find out, I am not a hardcore player. Awesome, I am normal!.
You have to admit that certain comments concerning these nerfs are a little on the insulting side. If you are happy about all these nerfs that's great, but you don't need to act like a complete a$$hat about it. I don't mean you in particular, but I have read some pretty dickish comments lately where people voice how happy they are at other peoples angst. It's one thing to discuss and argue the benefits of these nerfs, it's entirely another thing to be a unpleasant about it and directly attack people. That is of course the nature of the internet. You can be as mean-spirited as you want without consequence.
Reminds me of the lyrics from a Beatles song:
'You say yes, I say no,
You say stop, and I say go, go, go,
Oh no.
You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello,
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello, hello, hello,
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello.
I say high, you say low,
You say why, and I say I don't know...'
Well, you get the ghist.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Bottom line is this Cryptic is owned by Perfect World now, if Perfect World says figure out how to get more money from the players, Cryptic has to obey their bosses. lol
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
No, wait. They don't.
Tier 7 Ships coming soon in 2017. :P
Easy.. by putting good game play first. You put in factions, you put in equipment you provide viable ways for all factions in the game to obtain what is needed to support their classes. It's pretty simple really. No Vulcan mind needed. If you don't, you get a game like we have today with STO where the resources have dwindled so far that most things are a pipe dream and the game itself wouldn't exist if someone didn't hang the Star Trek name on it.
In other words...
Pig = Bad Game Design Choices
Lipstick = Star Trek IP
Only now are they trying to address some of that especially with the vesta 12 pack release. It's a step in the right direction but there's a lot that needs done to clean up the mess.
My character Tsin'xing
I'm not one to take pleasure in the suffering of others, but conversely, I can't take pity or have sympathy for those whose misfortunes are basically being a spoiled child having been denied their candy. Separating personal desire and/or a misplaced sense of self-entitlement from the actual definition of fair is a lesson that should have been learned at a far younger age than anyone old enough to play this game.
Secondly, what fun is a game if there is no challenge to it? In it's current state, PVE is zero challenge whatsoever, PVP is a broken mess where a certain profession can faceroll their keyboard like a drooling idiot and still win 50% of the time.
So sorry, the only sorts of people who are crying about these changes are exactly the sort of people who deserve no pity.
Spoiled child and self-entitlement eh? Well if that really is the I'd blame Cryptic rather than the players. They are the one who have created such an atmosphere by so deeply integrating the game with a "real money" economy. So unlike most western MMORPG's where its just a matter of game time and grinding out fake currencies and tokens, the massive nerfs in this game can represent a lost of hundreds of dollars in investment, depending on the player. So yeah, of course people are going to feel entitled for what they feel they paid good money for.
I also dispute the notion that PvE is not a challenge. Maybe if you stick to Normal and Advanced content, but Elite queues and missions can still be quite challenging, especially if your going for the optional objectives. The problem here is that Cryptic has not been on the ball on properly pushing out Elite versions of all the queues and that many of them aren't rewarding enough to justify the time and coordination it takes to get through them.
For every Plasmonic Leech there have been 4 Impulse Capacitance Cells.
Oh, and by the way: Even if the parents did spoil the child, it doesn't entitle the child to stay spoiled.
Otherwise, it's a fact of life that any living game will go through big shifts where older stuff... changes in utility. It's by no means a phenomenon limited to STO or even MMOs. I suspect that most of those complaining are simply too young to have seen the cycle in operation before.
And yes, a few of the Elites are theoretically harder than others, but that doesn't mean anything when none of them are rewarding enough to justify even the time needed to wait for the queue to pop (assuming they ever pop at all) much less actually playing them.
Of course, none of this "balance pass" nerf is going to actually make things any more challenging either. Autowin missions are an autowin missions. The average completion time of CCA and ISA goes up a few seconds, big whooping deal.
And yet what was deemed 'too good' is what they created themselves, also very deliberately. You may believe they just create these good items haphazardly, and that's fine. Me, however, I think they do so for one reason only: power creep sells! Simple as that. No paranoia required, but simply bottom line tactics. Don't believe? Wait for next month's lock box, and watch them try and sell you the power creep all over again. It's really almost amusing ppl don't get this.
See, the rather naive thing I'm noticing here -- not from you per se, mind you -- is that ppl really buy into this whole "Gee, we have no idea what caused this mess; but look at us being responsible cleaning it up!" routine. Why, they weren't so alert when they were selling me those items, now were they!? That's what makes all of this so unpalatable for me. I spent the last few month upgrading my Tact Rom, at pretty high cost; and then Bort comes along, effectively saying "Hahaha, we're gonna cap the Leech at +6. So, good luck getting your power levels back up! And, oh yeah, your weps will now use extra power too. In your face!"
And then they go about it in a totally shoddy way. I mean, what self-respecting Dev just outright kills all DrainX equipment entirely?! Nerf a bit here and there, fine; but this is total BS. DrainX not your thang? What if next week we kill all partgens builds? Would ppl like that?! I bet they wouldn't.
Yep, entirely not happy about any of this.
What's good about this rebalance is that there is a decent line in bringing older builds and weapons back into value - it's interesting to note the attempts to make accuracy make BO more useful. I do like what seems to be the guiding principle - if something was so good it was a "must have" it's been reined in. For those crying nerf, I have to ask what it is you've lost; bragging rights? Content taking a few minutes more to complete? It's supposed to be a game you enjoy playing...
When I was still playing EvE Online (non-consensual PvP, who needs that!?), we had a saying, "Cap is life!" And it is. Unless you're running a full torp boat, 'cap' -- or simply 'power', as we call it here -- is at the very core of every build. Tact needs it for energy weps, the Science Captain needs it for aux, the Engi for shields (and everyone a bit of all). My Engi main will overcome more easily; but my Rom Tact will suffer, guaranteed.
And it's not even about the money per se (although that part is obviously annoying); but it's simply about having worked/spent to get a build that can get me adequate power levels (not as good as my Engineer, but certainly good enough). And now that it's all done, they're just yanking my entire setup from under me.
And then ppl post about spoiled children, not being able to get to their candy. Wut?! Bort didn't *give* me any candy: I had to BUY it from them. And I don't respond well to backsies.
LOL. Stop saying 'false equivalence fallacy' in every post to me and others. No one is going to take you seriously if you're too keen on showing you learned a few clever-looking terms. Oh, and the 200k thing is getting old too. Like I told you before, 200k, where do I sign up for that?! :P
I must be insane, but I will explain, one last time, why, yes, DrainX is now 'entirely useless.' See, the thing is, the DrainX properties of, say, the Terran space set, are indeed completely useless now, as they can't give me any surplus power any more, since Leech was capped: aka, their DrainX properties might as well be absent, as I could get +6 easily without ithe set.
Some there be that say they love draining NPCs. Respect for them, making that a useful activity. For me, though, I might as well toss aside all my DrainX gear.
My character Tsin'xing
Would someone kindly tell me how DPS builds ruin other peoples fun.. Please ?
10 master keys to the person who explains this to me.
The only problem I can see with current DPS builds is no appropriate venue to use them.
So sure, maybe a high DPS'er will ruin the challenge of a norm or advanced pug for some of the lowbies, or even AFK them...
...But people seriously think that won't happen after the changes ... Seriously ?
I just wish the devs would stop ruining consoles, specs and abilities and get to work on giving the players at the high end of the spectrum a place they can use their talents (elites for all queues) rather then ruining a bunch cool stuff for everyone !
The plasma explosion console is the perfect example. It WAS a really fun/cool console.
Sure, it was over performing when stacked but why the heck didn't they just limit them to 1 per ship, rather then making the whole darn console a hunk of TRIBBLE ?
This is kind of stuff infuriates me !