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doctorstegi
Member Posts: 1,221 Arc User
T6 Ship Upgrade Expansion
https://www.playstartrekonline.com/en/news/article/11552853
Upgrade to T6-X to T6-X2
Unlock an additional Starship Trait Slot, Universal Console Slot, and Device Slot
You nerf damage left and right saying stuff does make to much boom boom boom yet here we go again another update to get more damage? Where is the common sense in all this?
https://www.playstartrekonline.com/en/news/article/11552853
Upgrade to T6-X to T6-X2
Unlock an additional Starship Trait Slot, Universal Console Slot, and Device Slot
You nerf damage left and right saying stuff does make to much boom boom boom yet here we go again another update to get more damage? Where is the common sense in all this?
C-Store Inc. is still looking for active members on the fed side. If you don't have a fleet feel free to contact me in game @stegi.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Well, we basically have T7. They're just not called that.
The article doesn't say how we get this unlock, but I fear the worst.
https://www.playstartrekonline.com/en/news/article/11552853
T6-X WAS T7
T6-X2 = T8 I guess.
Gotta have something new that drives the sales of the Ship Upgrade Tokens I guess.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Well... the problem with T7 is that it would require a new mechanic or something ON TOP of what T6 has, and guess what else? Making brand new variants of all our ships so that we can still fly our preferred hull designs. So you know all those variants of the Sovereign we have? Well now you gotta design a BRAND NEW ONE with all the bells and whistles. And we still don't have everything with a T6 variant yet.
By going the T6X Upgrade route, we can keep upgrading our ships without them becoming obsolete by a "tier upgrade".
Overall this is a minor thing really. One console and One trait slot. Won't completely obsolete anything, and opens up more flexibility in builds.
I'm drooling over the idea of 3 Unis on the USS Hornet. (MW DSC Connie)
As for HOW it works... I predict its just expanding the current T6X token to be usable on any ship twice rather than once. Makes sense to me honestly.
Speaking of which, I wonder if this means it requires using an additional ship upgrade token to unlock it or they're going to nickel and dime players and require a second kind of token be obtained to do the upgrade. I can't see the latter being well received as its pushing into overly greedy territory
and yeah, this is getting to the point of its T7 without actually calling it T7. Power creep being a major current issue i'm surprised they would allow another universal console like this. Seems a bit of an odd thing to do
As Nr.2 told Dr. Evil "This too already has happened." The promo carriers, with 8 weapons and 2 pets, are de facto already T7. With the upgrade to T6-X they effectively became T8; and now T9 is around the corner with T6-X2.
I assume they are just going to allow you to apply the exact same token twice. Who knows. I doubt they add yet another token. It will just cost twice as much to stay current.
-X2 and later triple X (must not make device slot joke) will probably be like the bridge officer tokens where they give away maybe 1 a year and the rest are a zen purchase. Will the price be reasonable? We'll see. It will definitely be better than being "forced" to replace a lock box, lobi, or promo pack ship in your fleet with the Vin Diesel version (old movie joke).
Ie. this raises the expected performance of the population for ANY ship (not just the loot box zeitgeists) as folks cry out on a somewhat regular basis about trying to overcome the wall of level 65 damage scaling when just starting out. No matter what the top end is doing, it's STILL important to consider accessibility in end-game content and builds. A couple of events and you get two notches of major upgrades here. This allows things like Elite Random TFOs to be more justifiable as the population has easier paths to power boosts than ponying up for more ships, more expensive formats of ships, and fleet investment. What you have here is a baseline upgrade that doesn't in turn boost NPC performance because it's not levels that are being pushed up.
"BUT NERFS!!!!"
This ain't boss nuking power and it's a dim appreciation of process that holds absolute rules to where power can go, up or down (Q help the devs if they ever dare do one then the other in completely different contexts). Jeremy also floated the idea way back when Tier-X was first introduced of FURTHER upgrades once things had settled. Today the systems team simply made good on that. Ergo, things have settled in player data and another nudge is needed. We weren't expecting it but we also don't have that data.
Welcome to being a player.
You can also just play Elite or handicap yourself to get back to the "old school" flavor of a more challenging game. Investment over time and experience kills challenge. It's not on STO to solve a fundamental law of video gaming. They certainly aren't going to be able to tackle this exact same dynamic playing out in my new game+ run of Elden Ring and my ever growing, powerful, and VFX spectacular arsenal. Both build power and player proficiency scales positively with time played in RPGs. RPG mechanics are thus a difficulty scaling tool that you can dial up and down to your needs.
PS. what you have here is burnout, take a break. If you're invoking VFX clutter, "magic", and a false dichotomy between "players" and "collectors" in response to Tier-X upgrades, you're reaching for whatever plausible sounding rhetoric is at hand to act as scape goat to your ennui. Whenever I've felt this impulse, the best thing to do always is focus on your mental health and dial back engagement to what you need, what you can tolerate, and what you're actually interested in, as you now and not the you that started playing STO. If you force it, you will only get increasingly miserable trying to extract fun despite yourself having been there and done that countless times over and still expecting SOMEHOW it to resonate as it once did. Way back when (pre-live service), we expected that games would lose appeal over time. It's a natural facet to experiencing something. Now we assume cult-like devotion as the norm and if something isn't feeling right it's the devs fault, repent all ye sinners the end of this MMO is upon us.
Sometimes, it's on you to manage things. Not other people. Take the initiative for your own happiness.
There's no reason why there would be a separate token. See. increasing demand to fit the supply of experimental upgrade tokens without placing an additional burden on Cryptic to support a new token type through events (requiring more juggling for the same status quo). That's especially the case with the same branding being retained. Flagship upgrades, absolutely would be a new token. X2: use an experimental upgrade token twice.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
*hugs*
Yes, I think there's every reason to assume pricing and availability will follow that of the current T6-X tokens.
The co-op game play of this game has evaporated, it has become a contest of who can wipe the map the fastest. It has become a que up aaaand tfo over (win for a lack of better words).
On a off topic side not, I think my IQ went down 20 points last summer event keeping up with the chat, looking for an opportunity to chime in and engage in a good or funny conversation started in local or zone. Just constant zone chat spam of some really lame stuff. Try to say hi to someone in local, crickets, give someone a compliment on their toon, ignored. Some awesome social skills from the player base. Yet its assumed im the one to have burn out or need a check up from the neck up. I will admit these two posts i made have let me vent some, so thanks for listening/reading.
Who knows perhaps there is a chance that Cryptic adds even more purpose built hard mode stuff.
Really I wish they would give ALL NPCs in the game a once over. Perhaps its time to go through and start giving old NPCs that haven't been touched in years abilities they haven't had before... maybe even the odd heal or resist skill.
The Borg Cubes should get copies of Polarized Hull, Gravity Well or some selection of other standard skills.
The Borg Queens ship... already has FBP but perhaps she could also get a few other skills maybe a hazards or a miracle worker she pops at 25% hull or something.
Give the Borg Probes Eject warp plasma and EPTE.
Give the Borg Spheres Tractor repulse and Hazards.
Want to really give players a taste of their own medicine... give NPCs updated/more relevant click consoles. Some NPCs do have their ships click abilities... thinking of the voth but their are others. Give the dreadnaught class ships anyway even more toys. At this point in the game I say even just mix and match consoles a bit... would it be that bad if X or Y NPC popped a Plasma storm or Genesis seed. Give em some of the good damage clicks. Make players adapt. Crazy idea... code it in a way that it can easily be swapped out. You want to advertise some new ship with some new click console.... let the borg fire it for a month before launch. lol
A good change for the borg IMO would be for them to actually adapt. When Carriers/Shim/Queens and protectors/Tac Cubes spawn at the end of a map..... have the server parse the top 10 dmg sources up to that point and give the final boss 3x the resist to the top 10 sources of dmg, also impart the ability for them to cast any dmg caused by click consoles in that list. I think it would be hillarious for the Queen to be spamming phaser lances and plasma storms.
This MMO is very casual. As a result, all non-Elite end game content is scaled to MkXII gear and probably even 'rainbow builds' (IE players that just equip whatever consoles/weapons drop.) You don't want to make any aspect of a F2P game frustrating to the point a new player will quit because you want the occasional Zen purchase.
They already know the true 'Whales' are hooked, and the DPS chasers rip through Elite content already and buy however possible whatever new 'flavor of the month that ups DPS' ship/console/trait the Devs throw into the mix.
They keep claiming that this game continues to be very profitable for Cryptic/Gearbox so yeah, they're going to stick with the current development Paradigm until that changes or drops below a certain ROI percentage.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
They had EPTE at some point, and it was crazy. Not fun at all.
Players shouldn't have to be chasing enemies when those enemies are supposed to come to them. They're reinforcements, trying to prevent the Alliance from doing what they're doing.
More abilities are a good idea in general - but usually their implementation isn't that great.
Some examples, besides the thing described above:
Undine: they become intargetable. The effect? Nothing, except that the fight takes unnecessarily long.
Tzenkethi: mostly immune/high resistances everywhere except the front. Easily countered with EPG or drain builds.
Tholians: shield drains, cages, a powerful web cannon. Just keep your distance, use FAW or stay behind the target.
Voth: they have some good stuff, but most of it can't be countered at all so it's just a matter of waiting or flying around (if you can get a clear image of where their shield is actually active).
Most special abilities aren't all that special. They tend to make fights more annoying, not more interesting. The last time they gave the Borg specifically a new ability (their nanite hold effect that they launch at you), they didn't think of making some abilities be able to counter it. So it does nothing except annoy the player. There's no tactics, no strategies you can follow to deal with it, no (new) knowledge required. It doesn't promote thinking, anticipating, reacting or whatever to your enemy, you just get to watch something annoying happening to your character, that you can do nothing about.
Until they can come up with abilities that actually make a fight more interesting and that encourage learning, anticipation and so on, I prefer they didn't add more.
Adaptation could be a good way to do it, but before its implementation, it should be thoroughly tested whether it meets these standards.
Some content should just have (or keep) simple NPCs. It's not a bad thing if players can also complete some content without having to deal with a lot of special abilities, effects and so on.
Think for example about the Nausicaans and Gorn. Whenever I'm playing Sompek, it's nice that there's a few easy enemies between rounds of immobility, powerful sniper spamming immune Na'kuhl and invisible insta-kill mines from Tholians that hit you while you're caged or while running away from lightning.
My suggestion is they mainly focus on giving them more standard skills... things that do have counters. Gravity wells, Tykens, Eject warp plasma. Hell for that matter just giving them attack patterns might be a good way to go. Let those borg spheres spam Beta, let the Cubes have Delta.
I get your point on the idea of giving them consoles. Most console abilities don't really have counters (well some can be nuked). I just think it would be funny I guess if the Borg bosses started spamming some of the click consoles players use back at them. It would be canon right.
A semi aside. Imo its too bad they did give the NPCs more standard skills form the start. One of the issues with PvP was always that PvE and PvP where so wildly different that players trying PvP for the first time would get frustrated. Perhaps if they learned what cleared Beta/Delta debuffs... or how to counter direct to hull dmg from Tractor Repulse, or ignore a GW pull. They might have had a little bit better experience coming into PvP. (I mean it would still be painful but at least they would have understood the game has counters to things)
In Skyrim when I feel unchallenged by smashing dragons with one hit I start a new character. Ditto getting a curb stomping team of level 100 pokemon that render no meaningful challenge in game content. Intentionally handicapping yourself with, for example, new playthroughs or new builds is basic behavior in managing your gametime. Take responsibility for your own fun with the tools already available. Making the game more challenging for those steamrolling elite, when new players struggle just to get over the level 65 scaling increase with gear not obviously advertised as obsolete and alternatives (ex. fleet gear and upgrades) also not clearly advertised as near-essential parts of player progression, is not a reasonable call by any stretch of the imagination.
To put it simply: not everything is about you. For as much some players cry out against power creep there are others who need more viable paths to DPS to make the game more accessible given the haphazard nature of STO development history and build progression consequently being a janky, stuttering process of cobbled-together system updates unable to get folks up to Elite reliably. Tier-X2 isn't just more deeps, cue the reductive and reflexive wailing about power creep. It's more deeps within easy and intuitive reach of most players, giving them a helping hand in the face of structural problems with the game that would take an STO2 to fully resolve (if that). Need more ship power? Upgrade ship. Need more? Upgrade again. Player behavior across diverse and freeform systems creating spots of insane power is a player behavior issue, not a universal state of the game. Adjust player behavior to fix player behavior problems, per core drivers, rather than smashing your own face into a wall of inadequate challenge and crying out "look what you made me do!" (and because of which: other players can't have nice things)
And if you think what's here is just space bar to win, move onto a different game. It's high time to introduce new build and gameplay challenges effectively. A single game isn't going to be able to satisfy ad infinitum, no matter how much it emphasizes being a live service. You will eventually solve every challenge and squeeze every ounce of fun there is to be had. Adding more stuff and balance passes to the pile isn't going to fill the void no matter how much the devs capitulate to any given dooooooom post.
I can recommend Armored Core 6.
It gets me the thrills without having to demand STO be reconfigured in its entirety to deal with "power creep." Alternatively, you can simply not look to STO for any notable challenge outside bad runs of elite content, just as we don't look to STO to provide thrilling competitive PVP at a bare industry standard. The game technically supports it but that doesn't mean you have to go smash yourself into that wall. Instead, engage with STO for narrative experiences or as a creativity engine. Leave the hard mode to FromSoft and the like. Shifting appreciation with needs and personal growth is *also* basic behavior in managing gametime. The devs have no real power to change who you are, where you're at in your career in STO, beyond resetting the game (literally or practically with a total balance overhaul, the prospective impact of which is in a word: bad) to the maximum possible outcry from invested players who aren't struggling to reconcile with burnout.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
However, how reasonably would the expactation be that any of these abilities would be used in a somewhat coherent manner with enemies actually challenging your mettle as opposed to randomly spamming it? AI is difficult, and STO is not the master of it. So you will just have random annoyances. Granted, they could be turned up to 9000 by spamming them left, right, and center, but just upping the numbers usually doesn't make for more gameplay fun. (Although some very min-maxy build types may struggle depending on how they annoy.)
And yeah, special abilities in the likes of the Mokai - please don't.
But as for T6-X2 - do not color me too surprised. Players who reached the end need something to go for, and I am also not against the possibility of combining some more star traits, after all, there are dozens of them, many never to be used. Doesn't mean I am that thrilled about it, but something along those lines was to be expected.
I just hope that (a) same tokens are going to be used (I consider that likely but uncertain), (b) it's account unlocks again (very probable), (c) T5-X2 will be a thing (nobody's gonna make my Ferasan part with his Dyson Destroyer - yeah, a TRIBBLE ship but I like it).
I think you solve that by just letting the NPCs have all their skill at global cool down. That would make for 100% uptime on patterns like beta. 30s per GW out of a cube... I don't think you to worry much about AI at that point. Its just puts them in the same situation players are in now... bind it all to space bar cause lets be honest anything important is up 100% of the time anyway. Long ago Cryptic power creeped the idea of timing anything all that much. NPCs suffer from arc and cool down issues... I would say just give them 360 degree arc on all their skills and min cool down.
As much as people don't want "annoyance" I mean what is better NPCs that actually do actively hit sub nukes, impulse bursts and actually do a bit of dmg with transport warheads. OR NPCs that are just dumb zero threat soaks with 50m hit points a piece. To each their own I guess.
If it was up to me (its not of course) I would make the current advance mode Normal. The current Elite Advance and then take current E mode and give the NPCs an ability upgrade. Then players could easily choose. Normal still being easy as advance really isn't hard anymore with all the creep... an advance mode that can be failed and is somewhat challenging if your new to the content. Then an actual real E mode where the NPCs might actually respawn even a good player now and then.