TRIBBLE MAINTENANCE AND RELEASE NOTES - 08/28/19

moonroach

Tribble has been updated to ST.97.20190812a.3

Starbase 234 Combat Test Map:

• Test your ships against foes old and new!
  • Fight against different enemies, challenge yourself, and try new things with your ships!
  • To navigate to this map, go to the Test Vendor on Drozana Station
  • Fore more information, visit the “Test Your Ship Builds on Tribble!” blog at:
  • https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11237543-test-your-ship-builds-on-tribble!

General:

• Many beam array energy weapons have had their basic attack, Fire at Will and Beam Overload weapon FX reduced in width by about half.
• Some dual-beam bank weapon basic attack, Fire at Will and Beam Overload weapon FX have also been reduced in width.
  • These changes were done to:
    • Improve the game’s sense of scale in space by making ships feel larger relative to beam attacks.
    • Ease visual clutter in FX heavy missions and TFOs.
    • Enhance visual fidelity by making beam weapons feel more precise.

Systems:

• Resolved an issue that caused the B'rel Bird-of-Prey Retrofit's Admiralty Ship to only give +8 Tac or SciShip, instead of the listed 10.
• The base armor stats for "Burnham's CQC Environmental Suit" have been adjusted to correctly reflect its status as an Environmental Suit, instead of sharing these stats with its Armor counterpart.
  • This only affects its damage resistance values.
• Resolved an issue where the 45 second lockout on the Temporal Insight Starship trait wasn't working correctly.
• Resolved an issue that caused Advanced Fleet Plasma beam weapons from K13 to use the incorrect visuals under Beams: Overload.
• Resolved an issue that was causing Boronite Laced Weaponry to no longer activate on weapon hits against a primary target.

disqord

I totally understand the reasoning behind the FX changes, but I'm one of the few people who enjoys watching a +120% haste FAW 8 beam death machine obliterate a swarm with billions of lasers.

It was fun while it lasted, U.S.S. Firework Factory

lopequil

The SB234 test map is a great boon for tribble users, though I'm not sure what the point of the test dummies is.

It's also appreciated that it's one of the combat maps that allow you to switch to any other ship (as opposed to the shuttle only). Is there any chance of allowing players to change ship traits as well?

realkiren

So first off, I'm REALLY glad to see visuals getting tidied a bit. I've been running them on a few different ships and I think it's a major improvement on mid-large ships like the Ambassador, and Odyssey but they still look a bit too big on small ships such as the New Orleans.

sthe91

lopequil wrote: »

The SB234 test map is a great boon for tribble users, though I'm not sure what the point of the test dummies is.

It's also appreciated that it's one of the combat maps that allow you to switch to any other ship (as opposed to the shuttle only). Is there any chance of allowing players to change ship traits as well?

The point of the test dummies is to test your ship against certain enemies and at certain difficulties. Why was that not obvious?

crypticspartan

lopequil wrote: »

The SB234 test map is a great boon for tribble users, though I'm not sure what the point of the test dummies is.

It's also appreciated that it's one of the combat maps that allow you to switch to any other ship (as opposed to the shuttle only). Is there any chance of allowing players to change ship traits as well?

Thank you, I'm glad it's useful to you so far!

The test dummies are there if you want an incredibly controlled enemy to test something against. That may not be something needed for the average player. It would be easy to move the option for test dummies to the bottom of that list if it seems most players don't want it, to improve accessibility of the other options.

At this point, it is not possible to allow you to switch traits or specializations on a combat map, although it is something we're aware would help. There is also bank access by the Starbase itself, if you were looking for that.

- Spartan

entnx01

I may be using the parser wrong.

1) I only notice its usable on test dummies. Is this intended, or did I overlook something?

2) and 3) When I start a parse, I have a hard time getting it to stop. I'll hit "Stop Parsing", and the option to Stop keeps popping up. I have to go into a menu (I forget which, I'm not on there atm) to select Stop Parse. Then it takes a while to pop up the "results" and I always see 0 damage, 0 time spent, thus 0 DPS.

Is there a better way to get the Parser to record my damage and time correctly? And is there a better way to get it to stop and start reliably without going through a menu? (Those questions are aimed at both the developers and players).

Thanks!

ltminns

In other words, after there was a lengthy Thread on Burnhams Armor vs. EV Suit and everyone was saying that they were meant to be the same, now you come out three and a half months after release and say 'it ain't so'.

lopequil

> @sthe91 said:
> (Quote)
>
> The point of the test dummies is to test your ship against certain enemies and at certain difficulties. Why was that not obvious?

If you’d actually tried it before making snide remarks you’d know that the test dummies are distinct from the enemies with customisable faction etc.

For one thing, the test dummies appear to be effectively indestructible.

legendarylycan

test dummies are for STO what they are for most other MMOs - rotation practice and DPS testing​​

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crypticarmsman

- Ease visual clutter in FX heavy missions and TFOs.
- Enhance visual fidelity by making beam weapons feel more precise.

Personally, I think this will turn out to be a BAD change (I like to see my Beams). The real "VFX Clutter" that needs to be cut down on are Cryptic's 'nonsese' added effects life large bright circles and the like that fire off when we activate some of the Captain powers as I've never seen a Star trek series that displays THOSE things on screen.

---

TLDR: You're changing the wrongs effects (IMO).

lopequil

It's also good to see that the map can be played as a team, and I have a few comments:

• The "Choose Combat Settings" and "View Map Information" are broadly the same; I suggest you remove the latter as it seems to merely duplicate the former with a slightly different description.
• If any one team member dies, the scenario ends. Is this intentional perhaps?
• Any player can choose the scenario. Not a big issue, but perhaps it ought to be the team leader only.
• Enemies seemed significantly tougher when playing as a team, though this may just be my imagination. In either case, it's good to see Borg cubes that aren't complete pushovers.
• DPS shown at the end of scenario is correct when there are multiple players. This is a good thing.

And some minor niggles:

• Elachi are using Discovery-era warp in effects, as well as when they use their equivalent of subspace jump (the thing that teleports them behind the player).
• There's quite a disparity between some of the enemy factions. Hirogens, for example, are much easier to defeat than Gorn or Fekhiri. Understandable given that you only have a limited number of ship types to work with.
• There's no option to change the antagonist after finishing a scenario; you have to go back to the start to do this.

And, if you're still reading, I have a couple of selfish requests :P

• Remove the fore weapon restriction on the Ferengi missile launcher to bring it in line with the Kentari one
• Make unique default ship equipment upgradeable. By this I mean items that come with certain ships and can't be obtained any other way, such as Discovery-era torpedo launchers from the Ent-A/D7, Voth Transphasic-Chroniton torpedo launchers and time shuttle deflector dishes.

timberwolf

So one big problem on Tribble is the Skill tree is broken, even on my fresh new toons on the server. Skills are listed as invalid and can not respec. However, the testing grounds are great and loving this challenge!

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imadude3

ltminns wrote: »

In other words, after there was a lengthy Thread on Burnhams Armor vs. EV Suit and everyone was saying that they were meant to be the same, now you come out three and a half months after release and say 'it ain't so'.

OH COME ON! i just spent an Ultimate Tech Upgrade on it less than a week ago too

srbin666

please check tos beams they seem still bugged in live and make the wrong colour when bo is running

legendarylycan

WHICH TOS beams? there's like 3-4 different versions now and the ones i was just using in a borg red alert using looked fine under BO​​

crypticspartan

entnx01 wrote: »

I may be using the parser wrong.

1) I only notice its usable on test dummies. Is this intended, or did I overlook something?

2) and 3) When I start a parse, I have a hard time getting it to stop. I'll hit "Stop Parsing", and the option to Stop keeps popping up. I have to go into a menu (I forget which, I'm not on there atm) to select Stop Parse. Then it takes a while to pop up the "results" and I always see 0 damage, 0 time spent, thus 0 DPS.

Is there a better way to get the Parser to record my damage and time correctly? And is there a better way to get it to stop and start reliably without going through a menu? (Those questions are aimed at both the developers and players).

Thanks!

Thanks for trying it out and leaving feedback!

1) The parser is automatically enabled when fighting normal enemies - it starts when you start fighting, and ends when you are killed or beat the encounter. I will look into communicating this information clearer to players.

2) & 3) With text dummies active, the "Stop Parsing" button should bring up a window to confirm the stop. The parse will stop within a second, and then take a second or two more formatting text to bring it up. I'm looking into how to improve both, so that the Stop Parsing button on the side stops it immediately, and the parse is presented on less of a delay, but I can't currently commit to progress on either front.

lopequil wrote: »

It's also good to see that the map can be played as a team, and I have a few comments:

• The "Choose Combat Settings" and "View Map Information" are broadly the same; I suggest you remove the latter as it seems to merely duplicate the former with a slightly different description.
• If any one team member dies, the scenario ends. Is this intentional perhaps?
• Any player can choose the scenario. Not a big issue, but perhaps it ought to be the team leader only.
• Enemies seemed significantly tougher when playing as a team, though this may just be my imagination. In either case, it's good to see Borg cubes that aren't complete pushovers.
• DPS shown at the end of scenario is correct when there are multiple players. This is a good thing.

And some minor niggles:

• Elachi are using Discovery-era warp in effects, as well as when they use their equivalent of subspace jump (the thing that teleports them behind the player).
• There's quite a disparity between some of the enemy factions. Hirogens, for example, are much easier to defeat than Gorn or Fekhiri. Understandable given that you only have a limited number of ship types to work with.
• There's no option to change the antagonist after finishing a scenario; you have to go back to the start to do this.

And, if you're still reading, I have a couple of selfish requests :P

• Remove the fore weapon restriction on the Ferengi missile launcher to bring it in line with the Kentari one
• Make unique default ship equipment upgradeable. By this I mean items that come with certain ships and can't be obtained any other way, such as Discovery-era torpedo launchers from the Ent-A/D7, Voth Transphasic-Chroniton torpedo launchers and time shuttle deflector dishes.

Thank you for the feedback on this map! I'll keep this all in mind for my next update to the map, and there's a few things I wanted to comment on before then.

The map wasn't intended to be a team map, and the logic is going to have issues as you note with multiple players on the map.

All of the enemies used on this map are using the generic versions, and spawning with the same logic - Basic Encounter 1 spawns two Cruiser-rank enemies and three Frigate-rank enemies. For the Borg, that's two Spheres and three Probes, and for Hirogen that's two Hunter Escorts and three Seeker Frigates. If they're doing anything unexpected, such as the Elachi using the Discovery-era warp effects, that's what they will be doing elsewhere. Your note on the Hirogen being easier than the Gorn or the Fek'Ihri is a note that's most likely true in general, as such.

There are some partial exceptions to that. Some of the spawns are set to Tough or Weak, powering them up or down relatively, and Difficult Encounter 2 powers up the dreadnought significantly; but this is still true no matter what enemy faction you chose.

captaintorrence wrote: »

So one big problem on Tribble is the Skill tree is broken, even on my fresh new toons on the server. Skills are listed as invalid and can not respec. However, the testing grounds are great and loving this challenge!

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! We'll take a look into the skill tree issue.

timberwolf

Thank you Spartan!!

lopequil

crypticspartan#0627 wrote:

The map wasn't intended to be a team map, and the logic is going to have issues as you note with multiple players on the map.

In the UK this is what we call serendipity*. SB234 could be an excellent map for testing things that affect teammates and/or allies, because it's often difficult to get enough tribble testers together to try a TFO.


* When you find something good while looking for something else. It's hard to translate, but imagine that you're groping underneath the sofa for the remote and you find a $100 bill instead.

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darkwhite0

please, could you add the Omega Harvester style to those who have already completed tier 6 or 5 of the Omega Reputation?

i really want this for my Jem'Hadar (and i thing the entire communit want this costume back to the game)