I thought I'd give a quick review of the unique aspects of the Section 31 Command Battlecruiser after having tried it out on Tribble. The fact that I did it on tribble is a testament to my reluctance to actually commit to the ship - I was disappointed to find out it was not a carrier as they'd made the Discovery-Era Constitution, but I wanted to see what its swarm mode was like since there weren't many details.
Rather than blather on about the subjective utility of the number of slots or seating (you can read their specs afterall) I'm going to just focus on the unique abilities of the ship.
Dark Mode - This is basically just a non-battle cloak with a different look. The animation is inconsistent with the other section 31 ship, folding the nacelles (to seemingly INcrease the physical signature of the ship) when engaging dark mode. Section 31 science destroyer does not fold nacelles for dark mode - it folds nacelles for Tactical Mode. Both ships look pretty stupid when they do it - I wish they hadn't latched onto that from the one short scene in Discovery where it happens. At least it looks a bit less stupid than the science destroyer when it folds.
Swarm Mode - this is what people actually want to know about. Certainly it's what I wanted to know about. Swarm mode creates a cloud of little drones around the ship which, according to the announcement, fire at nearby things and break away to attack larger ships. Very vague.
Point Defense Aspect:
- Fires small volley of phaser damage bolts at targets within maybe 3.5-4km range every few seconds.
- Does benefit from +Phaser damage though the damage is trivial regardless (maybe ~100).
- Does NOT auto-kill projectiles.
- Attacks and cooldown on attack appear to be per-target, so it can fire on a lot of targets at once.
- Attacks all enemy targets... that are close enough.
Drone Attack Aspect:
- Range seems to be 6km
- Only attacks ships and such, not fighters or projectiles.
- Makes a goofy photon torpedo noise each time they "break off from the swarm" to attack..
- ..which is appropriate, because they're just torpedoes, in essence.
- Happens randomly but often when you're in range of enemies.
- Can happen more than once per second (per target), or not at all for several seconds.
- Deals Kinetic damage with no inherent shield bypass.
- Does NOT benefit from torpedo-related boosts and traits.
- No real ICD.. will fire at any and all targets in range.
- Deals damage similar to other unboosted torpedoes.
As they admitted on the Ten Forward video, in order to pull off the swarm mode activation animation they had to make the surface of the "saucer" unskinnable. Regardless of what vanity shield you use the panels on the saucer remain the same dull grey colour, which can look ok with some shield, but really cheap and ugly with others. The animation of lauching the swarm is cool the first few times you do it, but I suspect the vanity shield application would have had more lasting utility. On the other hand, those panels aren't there when swarm mode is on, and I suspect it'll be on pretty much 100% of the time for anyone who uses the ship.
I really wish the drone attacks had a longer range than 6km - if it had the full 10km range of standard weapons I'd have immediately switched back to the live server and snagged the ship. Unfortunately, it doesn't really suit a ship that was more or less a carrier in the show to have to get in close and stay close to enemies for its swarm of ships to actually do things. Hangar pets will fight enemies when they're out of weapons range... section 31 drones have less than half that range.
Secret Mission Starship Trait - Not a clue. I took the ship all the way to MR5 and the trait claimed it had unlocked but it never appeared in my list of starship traits, so.. no more info on that than was seen in the 10F video. Hopefully that is just a glitch on Tribble, not an issue seen on Live.
So yeah, a bit of a disappointment in its current form. I want to love swarm mode, but it isn't good enough to replace being an actual carrier with hangars like its constitution counterpart (which was also a 5/3 layout, and whose hangar pets could also act as point defense, or deal much higher damage to enemies, from farther away). As I say, if the drones had a longer range it'd be a different story.. and be more fun to watch.
Hopefully they'll fix the trait on tribble and I can check that one out too. For the time being I won't be using a promo box on live for it.
Looks great, but reads as it only plays decent. I'm guessing Cryptic was planning on banking on the "coolness" of the ship rather than give it any good performing features & abilities. Usually when Cryptic chooses vague language in descriptions it means not great quality. Cryptic should've allowed boosts to the unique qualities of the ship like: phaser, direct energy, kinetic, projectile, & all damage to nudge it's performance up a bit.
only pain I have seen with it is (other players using drone attack) you try and right click on a target and cannot because the other players swarm is in the way. Keeps popping up with game player options. Its a real pain when they are scattered over several targets.
Looks great, but reads as it only plays decent. I'm guessing Cryptic was planning on banking on the "coolness" of the ship rather than give it any good performing features & abilities. Usually when Cryptic chooses vague language in descriptions it means not great quality. Cryptic should've allowed boosts to the unique qualities of the ship like: phaser, direct energy, kinetic, projectile, & all damage to nudge it's performance up a bit.
It doesn't play badly, it's just not good enough to warrant a promo box - the ship is dramatically less impressive than the Discovery Constitution, and these were the two big ships that faced off with one another in the final battle of Season 2 of Discovery which was all about throwing massive armies of unmanned drones at one another.
The Discovery Constitution managed to be both very effective and give off the feel of the ship from the show/scene. Hangar pets that each look like a small swarm, and which have six phasers, allowing you to fill space with little ships and phaser bolts. The hangar pets are effective at long ranges and fill a variety of roles as well as accounting for an appreciable amount of your DPS (even moreso if you happen to own the Superior Area Denial starship trait... then space looks like the 4th of july).
The Section 31 flagships fielded even more drones than the Enterprise to the point that the goal of the Enterprise and subsequently arriving allied forces was simply to cover Discovery's escape, not to actually defeat the Section 31 forces in direct combat. The battle was only won because Discovery's escape neutralized Control who, inefficiently, controlled absolutely everything personally. I mean, I get that it goes with the name "control", but even AI needs to learn to delegate.
In STO however, a discovery-era constitution would tear through a Section 31 command vessel like tissue paper. The cute animated swarm around the Section 31 ship does not really match the genuine swarm of hangar pets the other can field, and the gimmick swarm mode won't get to fire at the Constitution before its hangar pets have torn it to pieces (hangar pets will close in to attack at about 15km and have a weapons range of 10km... the "swarm" from the Section 31 won't fire on the constitution until its within 6km, and won't even shoot at the hangar pets with its low-damage point defense phasers until around 4km).
What I would have liked to seen was better ranges so the gimmick mode was more practical and useful. Full weapons range on the drone kamikaze attack wouldn't unbalance things if the drone damage couldn't be boosted by projectile buffing consoles. The drones should do half (rather than 10%) damage to shields since one of the main points of the kamikaze attacks in the show was to wear down the target's shields (it's even spoken aloud by one of the characters). Even with longer range and full shield damage the base-damage torpedoes wouldn't make the ship OP against serious content - a beam boat with FAW would still hit things more often and harder.
Similarly, the point defense phasers should only target projectiles and pets, and do significantly more damage, as well as have a range closer to 5-6km. This would make the ship a match for carriers by helping to neutralize the hangar pets when they close in.
As for looking good... it does, but it's really just the Section 31 science destroyer with its nacelles mirrored below, and a bit of extra saucer. The art guy even said he did a lot of object and texture re-use on the command battlecruiser.
only pain I have seen with it is (other players using drone attack) you try and right click on a target and cannot because the other players swarm is in the way. Keeps popping up with game player options. Its a real pain when they are scattered over several targets.
You'd have to be very close to another player's ship for the swarm around their ship to get in the way - it stays pretty close to the hull. The kamikaze swarms are just torpedoes, in essence... and they aren't that big, nor can they be clicked on accidentally (they're non-destructible torpedoes). While it'd be awesome if they filled the sky... they're not so frequent that their fast movement doesn't clear them out of the way quickly enough for normal combat stuff.
Looks great, but reads as it only plays decent. I'm guessing Cryptic was planning on banking on the "coolness" of the ship rather than give it any good performing features & abilities. Usually when Cryptic chooses vague language in descriptions it means not great quality. Cryptic should've allowed boosts to the unique qualities of the ship like: phaser, direct energy, kinetic, projectile, & all damage to nudge it's performance up a bit.
It doesn't play badly, it's just not good enough to warrant a promo box - the ship is dramatically less impressive than the Discovery Constitution, and these were the two big ships that faced off with one another in the final battle of Season 2 of Discovery which was all about throwing massive armies of unmanned drones at one another.
The Discovery Constitution managed to be both very effective and give off the feel of the ship from the show/scene. Hangar pets that each look like a small swarm, and which have six phasers, allowing you to fill space with little ships and phaser bolts. The hangar pets are effective at long ranges and fill a variety of roles as well as accounting for an appreciable amount of your DPS (even moreso if you happen to own the Superior Area Denial starship trait... then space looks like the 4th of july).
The Section 31 flagships fielded even more drones than the Enterprise to the point that the goal of the Enterprise and subsequently arriving allied forces was simply to cover Discovery's escape, not to actually defeat the Section 31 forces in direct combat. The battle was only won because Discovery's escape neutralized Control who, inefficiently, controlled absolutely everything personally. I mean, I get that it goes with the name "control", but even AI needs to learn to delegate.
In STO however, a discovery-era constitution would tear through a Section 31 command vessel like tissue paper. The cute animated swarm around the Section 31 ship does not really match the genuine swarm of hangar pets the other can field, and the gimmick swarm mode won't get to fire at the Constitution before its hangar pets have torn it to pieces (hangar pets will close in to attack at about 15km and have a weapons range of 10km... the "swarm" from the Section 31 won't fire on the constitution until its within 6km, and won't even shoot at the hangar pets with its low-damage point defense phasers until around 4km).
What I would have liked to seen was better ranges so the gimmick mode was more practical and useful. Full weapons range on the drone kamikaze attack wouldn't unbalance things if the drone damage couldn't be boosted by projectile buffing consoles. The drones should do half (rather than 10%) damage to shields since one of the main points of the kamikaze attacks in the show was to wear down the target's shields (it's even spoken aloud by one of the characters). Even with longer range and full shield damage the base-damage torpedoes wouldn't make the ship OP against serious content - a beam boat with FAW would still hit things more often and harder.
Similarly, the point defense phasers should only target projectiles and pets, and do significantly more damage, as well as have a range closer to 5-6km. This would make the ship a match for carriers by helping to neutralize the hangar pets when they close in.
As for looking good... it does, but it's really just the Section 31 science destroyer with its nacelles mirrored below, and a bit of extra saucer. The art guy even said he did a lot of object and texture re-use on the command battlecruiser.
only pain I have seen with it is (other players using drone attack) you try and right click on a target and cannot because the other players swarm is in the way. Keeps popping up with game player options. Its a real pain when they are scattered over several targets.
You'd have to be very close to another player's ship for the swarm around their ship to get in the way - it stays pretty close to the hull. The kamikaze swarms are just torpedoes, in essence... and they aren't that big, nor can they be clicked on accidentally (they're non-destructible torpedoes). While it'd be awesome if they filled the sky... they're not so frequent that their fast movement doesn't clear them out of the way quickly enough for normal combat stuff.
^ this.
I tested it on Tribble and while the swarm mode looks great with the fake hull peeling off and forming back at will, the attacks feel sooooooooooooooooo underwhelming and slow.
Connie tactical flyers, even on just one slot: *moredakkamoredakkamoredakkamoredakkamoredakkadeathdeathMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKA*
Swarm mode: "pew.............................................pew...............................................pew..................................................pew"
It doesn't give the feeling you have hundreds of little drones fighting with you. At all. You know those bosses where they have just a few but deadly attacks and a impenetrable "shield" made of dozens if not hundreds of flying creatures and you have to find a way to break it or make it leave the boss for a few seconds of vulnerability, like RAAM in Gears of War?
That's what this ship looks like in Swarm mode... EXCEPT the drones don't act as a shield at all and their few attacks are weak as hell.
they really need to look at exchange and have some sort of control over prices in there
Yeah, lets have the company that makes $300-400 ship packs take control of exchange prices.. lol. whatever.
The exchange is fine the way it is.
As for this ship.. it would make a great lockbox ship.. but it's just not great as a promo.
It's not a bad ship at all, in fact.. it's actually pretty cool.. but when it comes in the same box as a Miracle Worker Flight Deck Carrier or a Juggernaut it just can't compare.
only pain I have seen with it is (other players using drone attack) you try and right click on a target and cannot because the other players swarm is in the way. Keeps popping up with game player options. Its a real pain when they are scattered over several targets.
Use the TAB key for target selection, that works for every carrier... thou i was specting that the cloud would behave like an hangar pet...
This is persistent on PC too, drives me up the damn Jefferies tube. In fact, this is an issue in game in general for multiple objects, I feel like targeting boxes need to be trimmed down somewhat, like to the max height of the ship/object, and max length, instead of wider than the object. Some formula for when right next to said object so when it's not in actual center of screen when you are trying to manually target something, it does not target the hulking object you are right next to. I honestly can't remember if there is a setting in the UI done to fix this for it either...(so instead of a progressive sizing targeting box, a static fixed size for objects?, idk)
Comments
Looks great, but reads as it only plays decent. I'm guessing Cryptic was planning on banking on the "coolness" of the ship rather than give it any good performing features & abilities. Usually when Cryptic chooses vague language in descriptions it means not great quality. Cryptic should've allowed boosts to the unique qualities of the ship like: phaser, direct energy, kinetic, projectile, & all damage to nudge it's performance up a bit.
It doesn't play badly, it's just not good enough to warrant a promo box - the ship is dramatically less impressive than the Discovery Constitution, and these were the two big ships that faced off with one another in the final battle of Season 2 of Discovery which was all about throwing massive armies of unmanned drones at one another.
The Discovery Constitution managed to be both very effective and give off the feel of the ship from the show/scene. Hangar pets that each look like a small swarm, and which have six phasers, allowing you to fill space with little ships and phaser bolts. The hangar pets are effective at long ranges and fill a variety of roles as well as accounting for an appreciable amount of your DPS (even moreso if you happen to own the Superior Area Denial starship trait... then space looks like the 4th of july).
The Section 31 flagships fielded even more drones than the Enterprise to the point that the goal of the Enterprise and subsequently arriving allied forces was simply to cover Discovery's escape, not to actually defeat the Section 31 forces in direct combat. The battle was only won because Discovery's escape neutralized Control who, inefficiently, controlled absolutely everything personally. I mean, I get that it goes with the name "control", but even AI needs to learn to delegate.
In STO however, a discovery-era constitution would tear through a Section 31 command vessel like tissue paper. The cute animated swarm around the Section 31 ship does not really match the genuine swarm of hangar pets the other can field, and the gimmick swarm mode won't get to fire at the Constitution before its hangar pets have torn it to pieces (hangar pets will close in to attack at about 15km and have a weapons range of 10km... the "swarm" from the Section 31 won't fire on the constitution until its within 6km, and won't even shoot at the hangar pets with its low-damage point defense phasers until around 4km).
What I would have liked to seen was better ranges so the gimmick mode was more practical and useful. Full weapons range on the drone kamikaze attack wouldn't unbalance things if the drone damage couldn't be boosted by projectile buffing consoles. The drones should do half (rather than 10%) damage to shields since one of the main points of the kamikaze attacks in the show was to wear down the target's shields (it's even spoken aloud by one of the characters). Even with longer range and full shield damage the base-damage torpedoes wouldn't make the ship OP against serious content - a beam boat with FAW would still hit things more often and harder.
Similarly, the point defense phasers should only target projectiles and pets, and do significantly more damage, as well as have a range closer to 5-6km. This would make the ship a match for carriers by helping to neutralize the hangar pets when they close in.
As for looking good... it does, but it's really just the Section 31 science destroyer with its nacelles mirrored below, and a bit of extra saucer. The art guy even said he did a lot of object and texture re-use on the command battlecruiser.
You'd have to be very close to another player's ship for the swarm around their ship to get in the way - it stays pretty close to the hull. The kamikaze swarms are just torpedoes, in essence... and they aren't that big, nor can they be clicked on accidentally (they're non-destructible torpedoes). While it'd be awesome if they filled the sky... they're not so frequent that their fast movement doesn't clear them out of the way quickly enough for normal combat stuff.
I tested it on Tribble and while the swarm mode looks great with the fake hull peeling off and forming back at will, the attacks feel sooooooooooooooooo underwhelming and slow.
Connie tactical flyers, even on just one slot: *moredakkamoredakkamoredakkamoredakkamoredakkadeathdeathMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKAMOREDAKKA*
Swarm mode: "pew.............................................pew...............................................pew..................................................pew"
It doesn't give the feeling you have hundreds of little drones fighting with you. At all. You know those bosses where they have just a few but deadly attacks and a impenetrable "shield" made of dozens if not hundreds of flying creatures and you have to find a way to break it or make it leave the boss for a few seconds of vulnerability, like RAAM in Gears of War?
That's what this ship looks like in Swarm mode... EXCEPT the drones don't act as a shield at all and their few attacks are weak as hell.
Yeah, lets have the company that makes $300-400 ship packs take control of exchange prices.. lol. whatever.
The exchange is fine the way it is.
As for this ship.. it would make a great lockbox ship.. but it's just not great as a promo.
It's not a bad ship at all, in fact.. it's actually pretty cool.. but when it comes in the same box as a Miracle Worker Flight Deck Carrier or a Juggernaut it just can't compare.
Use the TAB key for target selection, that works for every carrier... thou i was specting that the cloud would behave like an hangar pet...
https://gamerdvr.com/gamer/t0m-rocks/video/93458627
https://gamerdvr.com/gamer/t0m-rocks/video/93458677
This is persistent on PC too, drives me up the damn Jefferies tube. In fact, this is an issue in game in general for multiple objects, I feel like targeting boxes need to be trimmed down somewhat, like to the max height of the ship/object, and max length, instead of wider than the object. Some formula for when right next to said object so when it's not in actual center of screen when you are trying to manually target something, it does not target the hulking object you are right next to. I honestly can't remember if there is a setting in the UI done to fix this for it either...(so instead of a progressive sizing targeting box, a static fixed size for objects?, idk)