When is Cover Shield (Engineer) getting fixed?

gradii

Right now the agreed upon meta seems to be "ignore you have this ability it does more harm than good" due to how enemies get stuck and become untargetable when making contact with the shield half the time.

it would be very easy to make the shield have no collision except for stopping weapons fire.. when is -something- being done about this issue?

Right now engineers are just stuck with a worthless captain power they're better off not using.

ichaerus1

Run up to some enemy against a wall or something, drop the shield, the follow with the mines or a mortar.

jade1280

I find it has its uses.
Covering key targets that are working on a console.
An excellent oh TRIBBLE i need a break from combat.
And a buttload of situational situations!

angrytarg

I too think it works as intended. The only thing that should need addressing is that you can seriously limit your own and the movement of your bridge officers with it. Because of that I'd suggest to equip it with a "kill switch" so you can collapse it when it's a burden rather than a boon. Or they could remove friendly collision like the force field dome, but I think I'd prefer the first solution. You can only drop one shield anyway, why not have first activation drop a shield and the next lets it collapse, like a flash bomb which on activation turns into the detonation ability. For added use, the collapsing shield could deal electrical damage shock wave or something​​

protoneous

I like to have a full away team of engineers that can deploy cover shields.

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gradii

I have literally seen this ability fail Queues. It is definitely not working properly. Enemies literally get stuck in the shield and become untargetable.

avoozuul

I only don't like it when people grief with this.

gradii

avoozuul wrote: »

I only don't like it when people grief with this.

And they do! something should be done just becuase of this! but it's possible to grief without even trying using it becuase of how broken it is.

mirrorterran

Played an engineer for 6 years. No, they aren't going to fix it.

Considering that last time I re-rolled a character I was literally 4 episodes in before encountering a game/character breaking bug, which was reported years ago and still exists, I don't think they are really into fixing anything.

tyler002

avoozuul wrote: »

I only don't like it when people grief with this.

It has another use?

questerius

tyler002 wrote: »

avoozuul wrote: »

I only don't like it when people grief with this.

It has another use?

Yes, but it requires a level of intelligence to use.

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mneme0

gradii wrote: »

due to how enemies get stuck and become untargetable when making contact with the shield half the time.

it would be very easy to make the shield have no collision except for stopping weapons fire

I rarely use mine, but this is a specific, verifiable functionality issue that would easily be fixed by the proposed solution and not at all a generic whine about the item.

gradii

mneme0 wrote: »

gradii wrote: »

due to how enemies get stuck and become untargetable when making contact with the shield half the time.

it would be very easy to make the shield have no collision except for stopping weapons fire

I rarely use mine, but this is a specific, verifiable functionality issue that would easily be fixed by the proposed solution and not at all a generic whine about the item.

Which is why I proposed a solution? don't know why you're complaining about "whining".

The only thing I'm really dissapointed with is cryptic's utter failure to fix huge long standing bugs. this applies to all their games.

kronin

Cover shield. Is that the permanent, invincible barrier that the stupid BOFF puts in the way of the only door you can use to advance the plot? In the hands of a BOFF, this thing does way more harm than good, because they place the thing in horrible locations. That wouldn't be so bad if there was a way to deactivate the stupid thing. As it is now, it has no hit points, no timer and no off switch. At least it can provide some comic relief. You know, when you're trying to unlock the console, solve the puzzle, or whatever, and all the bad guys are dead...and "Ensign Shield" is putting up this defense in totally random locations to protect us from...absolutely nothing. (Good work, Ensign. We needed a shield over there, for some arcane reason.)

mneme0

gradii wrote: »

Which is why I proposed a solution? don't know why you're complaining about "whining".

If you'd read, I was defending you because you WEREN'T whining.

nixie50

kronin#4685 wrote: »

Cover shield. Is that the permanent, invincible barrier that the stupid BOFF puts in the way of the only door you can use to advance the plot? In the hands of a BOFF, this thing does way more harm than good, because they place the thing in horrible locations. That wouldn't be so bad if there was a way to deactivate the stupid thing. As it is now, it has no hit points, no timer and no off switch. At least it can provide some comic relief. You know, when you're trying to unlock the console, solve the puzzle, or whatever, and all the bad guys are dead...and "Ensign Shield" is putting up this defense in totally random locations to protect us from...absolutely nothing. (Good work, Ensign. We needed a shield over there, for some arcane reason.)

that's the one. or some jack hole drops one intentionally in the doorway.

fleetcaptain5

Boff powers can be disabled by right clicking the little icons of the ability near Boff's health and shield bars though.

fleetcaptain5

Cover shield is certainly a very useful ability. A few weeks ago I was very happy with it in Sompek for example.

And it's a great thing to use in combination with quantum mortars and mines (build a little fort, lure the enemies while taking cover behind it, while you keep dropping mines).

It's also useful to place one if you are under heavy attack (duh! ) while you need to stop fighting because you want to revive a team mate for example.

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fleetcaptain5

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

The problem is not using cs by yourself, but giving em to boffs. The problem is, since our boffs dont have actual ai of any kind, it hurts more than it helps. Sadly this applies to everything related to equiping boffs. They use abilities when they dont need to , they eat things or use devices when they dont need to , etc.

Yes that's annoying but it can easily be solved;

I always check to make sure they don't have any devices (if you can take more than 1 boff with you, they shouldn't need them anyway) and if I have some spare devices that I don't want to keep in my inventory out of fear it gets eaten by a Tribble, I just give it to a Boff that I never use on the ground.

Boff abilities can, as said before, be disabled.

I don't really see the problem, the player has enough control over everything. Of course I've gotten stuck in a shield sometimes as well, but it's easily solved.


The only serious problem I can see here is intentional trolling between players but it's been ages since I've experienced that in-game.

dracounguis

On the Miners ground map, I clicked the shield, and right then an NPC's grenade went off. I got knocked back against the cliffside and then my shield activated. I was trapped behind my own shield for most of the final battle.

Power works fine, I guess... but I would like an off button for it!

fleetcaptain5

dracounguis wrote: »

On the Miners ground map, I clicked the shield, and right then an NPC's grenade went off. I got knocked back against the cliffside and then my shield activated. I was trapped behind my own shield for most of the final battle.

Power works fine, I guess... but I would like an off button for it!

You should be rewarded an accolade for pulling that off xD

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fleetcaptain5

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

fleetcaptain5#1134 wrote: »

Boff abilities can, as said before, be disabled.

I don't really see the problem, the player has enough control over everything. Of course I've gotten stuck in a shield sometimes as well, but it's easily solved.


The only serious problem I can see here is intentional trolling between players but it's been ages since I've experienced that in-game.

Well, but i dont know. Why would i need to disable any ability? what i want is my boff to actually use that ability when he needs to. Thats the reason its there... i mean, if i need to disable every single ability i dont want a boff to use.. i just re-roll the boff with different skills and call it a day.

But the point is, having a skill that cant be used by a boff because its a mess, is not acceptable. This should have been fixed ages ago, and if cryptic cant fix it, just remove it from the game or do something about it. But no, we all know how cryptic works.. unfortunately.

Giving your Boffs different abilities works too, indeed.

That's what I'm trying to say here: there are plenty of ways to get around Cover Shield sometimes being an annoying ability. So there's little need to change the entire ability or even remove it when there are still people who don't experience problems with it and who do find it useful.

postagepaid

An undine once got trapped in a corridor on ESD and the only solution was to destroy the station.

protoneous wrote: »

I like to have a full away team of engineers that can deploy cover shields.

I hope you supplied them all with a full suite of party poppers for added effect.

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gradii

dracounguis wrote: »

On the Miners ground map, I clicked the shield, and right then an NPC's grenade went off. I got knocked back against the cliffside and then my shield activated. I was trapped behind my own shield for most of the final battle.

Power works fine, I guess... but I would like an off button for it!

Yeah your experience with it demonstrates why it is -NOT- fine. however it gets even worse. NPCs you have to defeat to advance the mission can literally get stuck IN the shield just by touching it the wrong way and become completely un killable sometimes.

Using the shield at all in most content becomes a liability.

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burstorion

I use it on mie to tank the dozen or so grenades thrown at me when the gates are opened (mainly as the roms take great offence at being sabotaged, lol) - Cover shield is useful WHEN you know how to use it and WHERE to use it without blocking routes and paths

Cover shield requires strong TPO (Time, Place, Occasion) awareness.