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Turn critical hits into injuries?

sophlogimosophlogimo Member Posts: 6,507 Arc User
While levelling my new Age of Discovery captain, a thought occurred to me that I'd like to share: Changing the critical hit mechanic from "adds more damage" to "gives the target ship injuries. The higher the "damage" that the critical does, the higher the severity of the injury, and potentially the more injuries you receive. So say you score a critical hit worth 100,000 damage points, that does NOT any longer vaporize the enemy, but give that opponent lots and lots (and lots...) of injuries at once, which will diminish that enemy's abilities slightly.

Currently, there are those who can run queues alone, and this is essentially because of critical hits going wild and increasing the damage numbers to a point where one ship does the damage that the TFO's makers assume five ships do. You can do this by aquiring lots of gear and traits.

But with the above change, people would still wreck havoc on the enemy and see quite spectacular results, but in a more creative and varied way, while at the same time balancing damage numbers of players among each other nicely.

What do you think?

Remember, STO is nothing but a cosmetics game, where only the rule of cool matters. The game mechanics are intentionally out of balance, don't try to "optimize" anything, as it would just frustrate you.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments

  • peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    LOL here we go again... :D
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  • tunebreakertunebreaker Member Posts: 1,222 Arc User
    Soooooo... you essentially want to change change CrtD from +cat2 dmg buff to -DRR on enemies? Because that's what "injury" used to be, dmg math calculation wise, before "Strengthened Strengths / Resistible Resists" made them all singular DRR debuff.
  • tunebreakertunebreaker Member Posts: 1,222 Arc User
    sophlogimo wrote: »
    Soooooo... you essentially want to change change CrtD from +cat2 dmg buff to -DRR on enemies? Because that's what "injury" used to be, dmg math calculation wise, before "Strengthened Strengths / Resistible Resists" made them all singular DRR debuff.

    Injuries have several variations, some do reduce your damage resistance rating, but others reduce your projectile weapon damage, your energy weapon damage, some power settings, etc. There is actually quite some variation in there.

    And while the individual injury is hardly crippling, accumulating many of them can be quite a hindrance. So the players who have spent many resources and much effort to get high Critical ratings won't have wasted it - instead, it just produces more interesting results.

    Yeah... not surprisingly at all, you didn't get my point.
  • peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    sophlogimo wrote: »
    That's because you don't have one. Your assessment was based on false information about what injuries are.

    Oh man dude, yea that must be it. :D

    I forsee this thread to be your best opportunity to make a fool out of yourself so far, lol, and that with your history. Not bad.
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    Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
    felisean wrote: »
    teamwork to reach a goal is awesome and highly appreciated
  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    sophlogimo wrote: »
    warpangel wrote: »
    Injuries are pointless and would be best removed completely.

    13 medium injuries for -5% all damage aren't all that pointless.
    It doesn't matter if it's -500% all damage, when it can be removed instantly before even respawning. Injuries are just a waste of time and inventory space.

    The only interesting bit about injuries I've heard was someone on these forums mentioning that when they run over into the overflow bag it's possible to transfer them between toon and ship and collect them to fill up the injury cap with stuff that affects nothing. That sounds like a fun thing to do. I'd try it myself, but I never get enough injuries to do that unless I start dying on purpose.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    Personal attacks removed.

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    Knock it off. — StarSword-C
    Post edited by starswordc on
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • alzleealzlee Member Posts: 36 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    I object to this idea. -Says The Grumpy Senile Old Man
  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,331 Arc User
    Live ship damage and repair is something that should be in the game. The current injury token is pointless. Live damage in the SFC series was fantastic and it alters strategy.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • platewearingbirdplatewearingbird Member Posts: 455 Arc User
    I’m not sure if I misheard you but I think you just told us we should all go to Hell.
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    Injuries are mostly a superfluous mechanic. Turning it into an omnipresent mechanic is not going to make them better, it will just bring the flaws in the system to the forefront.

    Every injury requires a repair component to fix. How many components would you need to carry to cover the typical crits taken during a Task Force?

    Players have no trouble beating enemies now, turning the extra damage from crits into injuries makes the whole server calculations for each NPC ship more complicated, as with the significant crit rate players have, a ton of them will happen. The enemies will die a bit slower, but also be crippled much more quickly.
    PvP would become even less playable, but I suppose no one would notice.


    If the final system that we'd end up has a notable impact, it means you're proposing a significant change in game mechanics and the gameplay experience of all players. Who is to say that people that liked the game before will still like it afterwards? If suddenly instead of worrying just about their hull, they also have to manage to repair components during combat, and not just between respawns. If that is in any way different than spamming the already existing healing abilities, you add a layer of complexity to the gameplay that wasn't there before and I haven't heard people asking for.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • nolgroth1972nolgroth1972 Member Posts: 23 Arc User
    I'ma gonna vote for getting rid of Injuries altogether.

    In the spirit of healthy discussion however, I am going to suggest that if a Critical Hit = Injury/Damage system should be implemented, it should not be an automatic thing. A Crit merely allows for a proc chance to do Injury or Damage. Any injuries/damage sustained should be treated as temporary debuffs to whatever random system (slowed movement, fire cycle haste, shield regen) or maybe even a system offline (one beam array, torpedo or even console offline, shield hardness reduced or one facing offline).

    Repairs should be handled with a buffable stat like Subsystem repair. Traits like Repair Crews or Desperate Repairs might offer resistance, or at least accelerated recovery from the damaged system.

    Ground injuries could be cleansed by Science officer heals like Vascular Regeneration. I imagine some trait can be used to resist them. The STO ground game is kind of bland compared to the space game. It's really a shame too because a total package game would have been nice.

    Anyway, to sum up:
    • Crits only provide a proc chance at Injuries/Damage.
    • Injuries should be temporary and debuff subsystems.
    • Injuries should be healed by stats instead of the component/regenerator system currently in place.

    I doubt that Cryptic will overhaul the damage/injury system but that's how I suggest it be handled if they don't go with option 1.
  • anazondaanazonda Member Posts: 8,399 Arc User
    Makes sense... I think...
    Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
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  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    sophlogimo wrote: »
    [...]
    If the final system that we'd end up has a notable impact, it means you're proposing a significant change in game mechanics and the gameplay experience of all players. Who is to say that people that liked the game before will still like it afterwards? [...]

    1. They have made many such changes - in fact, they potentially change it every time they introduce new traits, new boff abilities, new doffs, even new NPC's. If it is foreseeable that it makes the game better, why not do it?
    The things you listed however were always things that directly benefited players - their characters got more powerful, more options to develop.

    What you suggest however is something that makes things more difficult, because suddenly you have to deal with injuries in regular space combat even if you never die. It doesn't create any new exciting build options, it doesn't make the character more powerful. It just means that people have to reevaluate all their build choices (do I still need crit buffs if NPCs are getting injuries instead of more damage?), that they need to hoard more repair components, and that they need to manage additional aspects of their characters midcombat so they don't get screwed.

    Can you why some people might not like this?
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • alexraptorralexraptorr Member Posts: 1,192 Arc User
    Maybe it's just the oldschool gamer in me talking, but I'd rather see injuries done away with and instead see the concept of "wipes" introduced as a penalty for failure, and add the ability for starships to be revived/repaired in a fight. And if everyone dies on higher difficulties? well its either game over or back to square one.
    "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
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