No way! They're going to do something about PvP...

nandospc

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10451743-season-13:-escalation-coming-april-25th

Do you believe that? A matchmaking system apparently. I wonder which aspects of the gameplay this new algorithm will analyze to determine the player skill level. Let's see if we can summon @crypticspartan#0627 here to explain something more about.

cerritourug

Is just PVE vs PVE, is not PVP.. I bet is going to be a DPS race beatuine 2 teams.

dylantrinidy

pvp matchmaking is something actually it's huge, considering it's seven years overdue

rck01

I'll be very curious to see how they "match make" for PvP arenas. Some have mentioned a "skills based" model. How would this be calculated? By kill count? Team victories? Other metrics (like most outgoing dmg, most healing, etc.)?

One thing's for sure: Those "Evil Grandpa" pre-made teams will be awfully lonely as wait forever for a "matching" opponent!

RCK - a.k.a. "Evul Jacob"

risingwolfshadow

What's left of the PvP community needs to be very careful when the new season comes out to not alienate players by ganking, trolling and generally bullying them like they used to. We need the community to come back if we want improvements for PvP to continue.
This could mean a bit of hand holding but it'll be for the benefit of PvP.
We are ultimately responsible for the environment we create in the PvP community.

nandospc

risingwolfshadow wrote: »

What's left of the PvP community needs to be very careful when the new season comes out to not alienate players by ganking, trolling and generally bullying them like they used to. We need the community to come back if we want improvements for PvP to continue.
This could mean a bit of hand holding but it'll be for the benefit of PvP.
We are ultimately responsible for the environment we create in the PvP community.

Amen.

nandospc

You missed the point, @patrickngo
As the news states, this new "Player Potential System" will also match players in PvP, as you can see in this sentence:
http://i.imgur.com/u9gTgZd.jpg (there is a clear indication there, we just have to understand which aspects of the gameplay this system will catch to actually create this matchmaking method).
I'm just referring to that.

magniacapra

Looks like I'm going to get interested/vested in this game again.

Outsanding.

risingwolfshadow

What will the matchmaking mean for players that use broken/unbalanced equipment (I can think of a few people)? If it calculates based on what an ability or console is "supposed" to do instead of what it actually does it will put a lot of people off.

nandospc

risingwolfshadow wrote: »

What will the matchmaking mean for players that use broken/unbalanced equipment (I can think of a few people)? If it calculates based on what an ability or console is "supposed" to do instead of what it actually does it will put a lot of people off.

Hope in a sort of updated version of the hilbert leaderboard method. We don't know.

@crypticspartan#0627 come here

magniacapra

nandospc wrote: »

risingwolfshadow wrote: »

What will the matchmaking mean for players that use broken/unbalanced equipment (I can think of a few people)? If it calculates based on what an ability or console is "supposed" to do instead of what it actually does it will put a lot of people off.

Hope in a sort of updated version of the hilbert leaderboard method. We don't know.

@crypticspartan#0627 come here

Can you just summon dev's like that?

I've sunken thousands of $$$ into this game but even I would love a vanilla - BS free pvp environment, maybe with a selection of PvP set's that only work in PvP. Not sure if that's something they actually want to do though

mustrumridcully0

If they feel like it, yes. But the incantation has only a 1 % chance to work. On good days.

robyvision

What happend, why are they doing pvp? Did the earth stop to spin? Did the klingon god of war torture someone with pain
sticks?

rck01

It's interesting to see how some players are already testing new PvP builds in anticipation of the revamp. Lately, I've seen a lot of classic cannon escort configs and T5-U science ships (Wells/Korath/R'Mor) flying around Ker'rat and the queues. Some veteran Tac players are even trying to fly *without* the Invincible trait (a.k.a. "Zahl") since it'll interfere with GDF. Same for Continuity.

Let that last point sink in for a second: High-DPS spikers without their "zahl under armor" on.

I don't care how much they nerf temporal skills or FBP, this is going to be a slaughter...

RCK - a.k.a. "Evul Jacob"

risingwolfshadow

By the sounds of it my low fat no cheese t5u Defiant and Phantom will have a whale of a time.

rck01

risingwolfshadow wrote: »

By the sounds of it my low fat no cheese t5u Defiant and Phantom will have a whale of a time.

I'm guessing a lot of ships that were shut-out of PvP because of the lack of T6 abilities will become effective again. Looking forward to flying my own R'Mor again - but *with* both Zahl and Continuity (advantages of being a Sci - no GDF to worry about).

RCK - a.k.a. "Evul Jacob"

risingwolfshadow

I think I'm matches, if a player gets killed while using Zhal it should count as 2 kills. At the end of the day, it's a trait that takes risk out of the equation, cancels out a killing blow for the player with no effort or activation of any buffs and restores their health to over 50% on a regular basis.
It has no consequence, it desperately needs one.

kyle223cat

patrickngo wrote: »

risingwolfshadow wrote: »

I think I'm matches, if a player gets killed while using Zhal it should count as 2 kills. At the end of the day, it's a trait that takes risk out of the equation, cancels out a killing blow for the player with no effort or activation of any buffs and restores their health to over 50% on a regular basis.
It has no consequence, it desperately needs one.

gotta remember-without it, a lot of people wouldn't bother. It's a replacement for tactics, teamwork, and thinking and most people using it have forgotten how to play without it. (kinda like DPS-feds and Plasmonic Leech in that sense.)

Well, we can complain about zahl and say that it needs to have a trade-off. But we also have to look at the fact that there is so much damage, especially spike damage, which makes it super easy to one shot people, even healers. Without zahl, everyone would last half as long and less survival is the last thing PvP needs. Making people not use it will just lead to even easier kills, as if they weren't already easy enough.

risingwolfshadow

I have to agree with @patrickngo angreeing with me. People have been speed-tanking and doing all sorts of tricks to tank in escorts well before DR during the console cheese days. The fact that shields and hulls are made of paper now is something that needs to be addressed because there's been next to no consoles to improve shield strength and hull strength to keep up with the huge amount of dmg increase we've seen since DR.
We need super neutronium eng consoles and the shield equivalent to balance out the damage. No one should be a 1 man fleet.

kyle223cat

I'm not talking about escorts zooming around and using immunities/super speed abilities to get away before they die. I'm talking about healers (the tankiest people in the game) getting killed in seconds. That's a problem, whether you like it or not. There's a big difference between being unkillable and having the tankiest people getting killed in seconds. That's why the queues are almost dead and the only people who queue are people who don't know any better or the people who make a premade to pugstomp the other team. @patrickngo you say you PvP, have you done queued PvP or Kerrat? I've never seen you in an arena match, at least not recently. I think you, and those people you claim can tank everything without zahl would have a problem surviving if healers do.

What I am saying is that zahl is a problem because it's a must have, and that's what you're saying too. However, you can't think getting rid of things that keep people alive will actually make PvP better. I've been a healer in this game for years and it's never been harder to tank than it is now. You have to rebalance all of PvP before you can get rid of zahl and as you point out constantly based on your "calculations", cryptic can't afford to do that.

I remember when you didn't need starship traits and a ton of Heal personal traits to be tanky in PvP. Now you get all the best heals and you still die quickly. Hopefully this balance pass will help with that.

kyle223cat

One thing I do notice about zahl is it makes me lazy with ability activation. A lot of times I don't even use miracle worker when I die. I sit there waiting to respawn and I realize I didn't get to use half my heals. Some of that is due to disables though.

risingwolfshadow

Nerfing Zhal and immunity granting abilities would force a lot of players who rely on them to think twice about devoting a build solely for attack.
They'll have to equip abilities and equipment for defence or they'll have what used to happen before DR. When someone like Bauklotz, the king of broken abilities, equipment and traits, would try to vape someone like me who used a balanced jack-of-all-trades build in a fleet Defiant could send him running because I could not only tank his alpha-vape but could also tear his ship apart and render his cloak useless with APD and FoMM because I invested in something other than all out offence.

You can't do that now, my counter-alphastrike/support Defiant doesn't work anymore, tanks don't work anymore and partgen sci builds are unkillable.
And it's all because broken equipment, abilities and traits, allow players to stick to 1 meta. Immunities and DPS.

There's no need for resistance, speed, hull or shield tanking, because when a player can deliver 60k+ Hits in successionwith 50% or more shield penetration or with exotic damage, while disabling your tray, draining subsystems and using control effects, what's a shield going to do? What's 80k hull going to do?
Nothing.

shadowfirefly00

magniacapra wrote: »

I've sunken thousands of $$$ into this game but even I would love a vanilla - BS free pvp environment, maybe with a selection of PvP set's that only work in PvP. Not sure if that's something they actually want to do though

I for one approve of the idea of a PvP environment wherein everyone is on the same footing, and it's literally impossible to buy any sort of advantage. And they actually have some if not all the building blocks for such a thing (consider missions like 'Temporal Ambassador' and 'A Step Between Stars') - 'stock' ships with fixed weapon/console/boff loadouts. This in turn could be the core of a 'PvP rep', as expounded upon here.

torach

Ahoy!

Well shave me belly with a rusty razor! I hear some romours about that thar will be more people come to fight soon?

can this here be true?

this here be not a jest?


will there be rum? 'ow about loot? wenches?


RC01 ye skallywag!

Ye still be sailin yer rustbucket and pointing yer fiddlestick at folks in kerrat? How be ye!?