One crazy-sounding idea that would both make the Gamma Recruitment event more useful and throw a nice bone to the people who have been asking for a Cardassian faction, without actually making any new factions would be to make the c-store Cardassians eligible for the Gamma recruitment but keep them using the regular tutorials that they use now.
It would make it more like the Delta Recruitment flexibility-wise, the main difference from the usual Gamma Recruit would be that the player would have to make the choice of red/blue faction before starting the character and use that tutorial instead of the Gamma one.
That setup could represent something like the repatriation of Cardassians who's families collaborated with the Dominion and evacuated through the wormhole (or simply a tendency for such to volunteer for "exchange" positions at the other Alliance academies out of curiosity (the war was about thirty-five years ago from the point of view of the "present" game date) as part of the Alliance's inter-nation coordination efforts).
It would help encourage people to actually buy the Cardassian race unlock (and maybe even ships) who otherwise might not and would get more people who have no use for Jem'Hadar toons (and if chat is anything to go by there are a lot of those players) to actually participate in the Gamma Recruitment.
except i doubt the Dominion would have a Cardassian as a "first". heck they don't even have the Vorta option which would make more sense
One crazy-sounding idea that would both make the Gamma Recruitment event more useful and throw a nice bone to the people who have been asking for a Cardassian faction, without actually making any new factions would be to make the c-store Cardassians eligible for the Gamma recruitment but keep them using the regular tutorials that they use now.
It would make it more like the Delta Recruitment flexibility-wise, the main difference from the usual Gamma Recruit would be that the player would have to make the choice of red/blue faction before starting the character and use that tutorial instead of the Gamma one.
That setup could represent something like the repatriation of Cardassians who's families collaborated with the Dominion and evacuated through the wormhole (or simply a tendency for such to volunteer for "exchange" positions at the other Alliance academies out of curiosity (the war was about thirty-five years ago from the point of view of the "present" game date) as part of the Alliance's inter-nation coordination efforts).
It would help encourage people to actually buy the Cardassian race unlock (and maybe even ships) who otherwise might not and would get more people who have no use for Jem'Hadar toons (and if chat is anything to go by there are a lot of those players) to actually participate in the Gamma Recruitment.
A
except i doubt the Dominion would have a Cardassian as a "first". heck they don't even have the Vorta option which would make more sense
That would be true in the show, but STO already breaks that canon by having Jem'Hadar officers at all (they were strictly noncom and lower ranked in the show). The Vorta exclusively were the officer corps, even though the Vorta sometimes pretended otherwise the show clearly showed that they were the field officers (the Founders functioned as the equivalent of the flag ranks and above of course).
DS9's Dominion policies simply don't apply to STO because of (in the game lore) Odo's influence dismantling a lot of the rigid cast system they had up until sometime after the Dominion/Alliance war but before the Hur'q war. And if there was any doubt that things changed, the simple fact that in the game the rank "First" has become an officer rank when it was a noncom rank in DS9 shows that.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,681Community Moderator
Its still relatively rigid. Its not until after the Gamma Arc that we start to see things loosen up. They'd have to go through some pretty crazy gymnastics to try and justify a Vorta in a story told from the perspective of the Jem'Hadar. Federation, KDF, and Romulan stories are flexible enough to allow for variety of species, but the Dominion story lead up to the Gamma Arc is very well locked into a Jem'Hadar perspective.
IN THEORY they could change some dialog and say that Odo wanted to try and diversify his fleet by allowing for the creation of some Vorta Commandos, but... we come into the problem of getting that past the other Founders, especially the female who is a control freak.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
To be honest, while the Vorta and Cardassians would be cool additions to the Dominion faction, it'd require entirely different opening storylines, but I think it'd only affect the initial, what, three or four "tutorial" missions...? That is, you'd still start at 60, then you'd join the main storyline path at 65 or so (your first list of missions would be the Gamma arc, like for Jems and Vanguards.)
It would still involve quite a bit of work. That being said, we still get Federation Cardies.
Its still relatively rigid. Its not until after the Gamma Arc that we start to see things loosen up. They'd have to go through some pretty crazy gymnastics to try and justify a Vorta in a story told from the perspective of the Jem'Hadar. Federation, KDF, and Romulan stories are flexible enough to allow for variety of species, but the Dominion story lead up to the Gamma Arc is very well locked into a Jem'Hadar perspective.
IN THEORY they could change some dialog and say that Odo wanted to try and diversify his fleet by allowing for the creation of some Vorta Commandos, but... we come into the problem of getting that past the other Founders, especially the female who is a control freak.
There were already Vorta lead commando squads back in DS9, just like every Dominion military ship captain shown in the show was Vorta. They are not the meek little chipmunks that Weyoun tried to get the Federation to believe they were, remember Weyoun was a disinformation specialist and in the show they had little hints that he was lying, such as his statement in one episode where he said the Dominion was two thousand years old, then a few episodes later claimed that it was ten thousand years old.
And the game is primarily a "space navy" setting rather than a "space marine" one anyway, even though they do have ground sections in the missions. Vorta were already the ship captains in the show so the Founders would have had no problems with Vorta in space combat positions (not even the control freak female one) since they were already in those positions in DS9.
Technically the Gamma arc does not need any adjustment at all for a Vorta player-character because it is NOT written from a Jem'Hadar point of view. Instead the Jem'Hadar is the main protagonist like the way most or all the other special guest star plots are set up and the player character is the Viewpoint Character, which is not always the same as the main protagonist character (such as Sherlock Holmes was the main while Watson was the viewpoint). In STO whenever they have a guest star the PC is shifted into the "Watson perspective" in the story, and Gamma with its plot revolving around a certain Jem'Hadar from the show is no different from the others in that respect.
Vorta and Cardassian PCs could ignore the Ketracel addiction-breaking subthread the same way a Romulan, KDF, or Federation PC would.
The only part that would have to be changed would be if the devs decided to put the Vorta (Cardassians probably would not make sense doing this since they are not clones) characters through the Dominion-based tutorial the Jem'Hadar currently use instead of just using the other factions' tutorial. And that would be a simple matter of changing one cutscene (the first one) and omitting or changing the shroud training part of the tutorial for Vorta (that section could be changed to telekinesis training if they wanted to change it for Vorta rather than omit it altogether for them).
The Cardassian part of my original suggestion specifically used the tutorial from whatever non-Dominion faction the Cardassian Gamma Recruit character was started from as a sort of "experimental training program" since the Dominion itself doesn't actually train anyone for their equivalent of a military (the Jem'Hadar are programmed with the skills they need before they are decanted, and the Vorta remember their experiences and skills from past lives). The only change there would be an "interlude" somewhere in or just after the tutorial where the "gamma" Cardassian receives the Recruit item, just like it is done in all the other recruitments.
Since making shields relevant again has been bandied about, how about adjusting things so shields have to be knocked down for Boarding Party and Transported Warhead to work. Pretty basic Star Trek lore, for one thing.
Since making shields relevant again has been bandied about, how about adjusting things so shields have to be knocked down for Boarding Party and Transported Warhead to work. Pretty basic Star Trek lore, for one thing.
True, though they would also need to tone down and balance the overly powerful shield ripping effects of NPC tachyon and tractor beams to something closer to the anemic levels of the PC versions or those boarding party and transported warhead abilities would become absolutely useless to a lot of players. Quite often between shield pen abilities and exotic effects that bypass shields altogether I destroy enemy ships with their shields still relatively intact for instance.
Also, VOY and most of the various NuTrek series both tend(ed) to ignore that shields-block-transporters point of traditional Trek lore whenever it became inconvenient to the plot instead of thinking of something that would drop the shields (or allow them to synch with the shields long enough to get the attack through like the Duras sisters did in Generations).
Boarding Party only uses transporters for the return - presumably, the commandos involved managed to disable shields long enough to beam out, and they know their own ship's harmonics frequency (the same trick used by O'Brien to beam aboard the Rutledge to talk his old captain down). They launch on shuttles, which is one of the reasons I really like the Point Defense console that tries to shoot down incoming shuttlecraft if my BFAW is on cooldown.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,681Community Moderator
Since making shields relevant again has been bandied about, how about adjusting things so shields have to be knocked down for Boarding Party and Transported Warhead to work. Pretty basic Star Trek lore, for one thing.
Herein lies the problem. Keeping those shields down long enough to take advantage of it. We know torpedoes generally do more damage if they can hit the hull directly, especially Maelstrom Torpedoes. But the problem is by the time you actually fire a torp, there's now a sliver of shields up to eat it. Its the same problem that generally comes up with offlining enemy subsystems. They are almost never down long enough for you to capitalize on before they come back up.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Since making shields relevant again has been bandied about, how about adjusting things so shields have to be knocked down for Boarding Party and Transported Warhead to work. Pretty basic Star Trek lore, for one thing.
Herein lies the problem. Keeping those shields down long enough to take advantage of it. We know torpedoes generally do more damage if they can hit the hull directly, especially Maelstrom Torpedoes. But the problem is by the time you actually fire a torp, there's now a sliver of shields up to eat it. Its the same problem that generally comes up with offlining enemy subsystems. They are almost never down long enough for you to capitalize on before they come back up.
In my experience that only applies to the CPU. I'm lucky to have any shields at all five minutes into the fight.
I swim through a sea of stars. . . .
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,681Community Moderator
In my experience that only applies to the CPU. I'm lucky to have any shields at all five minutes into the fight.
Yea... NPC shield ripping capability is an order of magnitute higher than players. With the Borg it makes sense. With Fed/Terrans or anyone else who has shield ripping capability it is a bit overkill.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Since making shields relevant again has been bandied about, how about adjusting things so shields have to be knocked down for Boarding Party and Transported Warhead to work. Pretty basic Star Trek lore, for one thing.
True, though they would also need to tone down and balance the overly powerful shield ripping effects of NPC tachyon and tractor beams to something closer to the anemic levels of the PC versions or those boarding party and transported warhead abilities would become absolutely useless to a lot of players. Quite often between shield pen abilities and exotic effects that bypass shields altogether I destroy enemy ships with their shields still relatively intact for instance.
Also, VOY and most of the various NuTrek series both tend(ed) to ignore that shields-block-transporters point of traditional Trek lore whenever it became inconvenient to the plot instead of thinking of something that would drop the shields (or allow them to synch with the shields long enough to get the attack through like the Duras sisters did in Generations).
It's actually very easy to disable enemy shields. Carrier waved shield hacking allows you to do it for a few seconds with tractor beam. The T6 Luna has the Opening Salvo console, which deals damage and knocks shields offline for up to 12 seconds on multiple targets. That's just two examples, there are other, if less potent abilities.
Of course, very few people are interested in this draining stuff so few players use it. But the abilities are certainly there. And one might wonder how many people use Transport Warhead or Boarding Party too. Shield drains and TW, BP all seem to be pretty niche.
If shields (and offline status) were made a bit more relevant, it could help making these types of builds more interesting. I don't think that requires any sort of reworking of NPC drain abilities.
I'd also like to see more Tholian content. The latest arc seems to be teasing us with a rapprochement with the Assembly; I'd like to see them build on that.
Considering the company/team changes I'd like to seem them taking it slow. Getting more familiar with the code and everything by fixing issues (bug & feedback sections are surely full of stuff to pick from both old and new) and maybe some simple single/patrol missions or a 3rd fluffly/leisure R&R time map for Risa (maybe one with actual swimming and diving; something for new future summer games as the main maps starts to get a bit crowded). Training wheels instead of an epic arc full of new stuff.
Then any epic arc that does not(!) involve time travel would probably fine with me
In the long run a renewed peek at some new form of exploration/procedual genereated contend would be nice. Between the time the old thing got turned off and now there had been some development and insight into these things in the gaming landscape; maybe some of that can be applied to STO.
Since making shields relevant again has been bandied about, how about adjusting things so shields have to be knocked down for Boarding Party and Transported Warhead to work. Pretty basic Star Trek lore, for one thing.
True, though they would also need to tone down and balance the overly powerful shield ripping effects of NPC tachyon and tractor beams to something closer to the anemic levels of the PC versions or those boarding party and transported warhead abilities would become absolutely useless to a lot of players. Quite often between shield pen abilities and exotic effects that bypass shields altogether I destroy enemy ships with their shields still relatively intact for instance.
Also, VOY and most of the various NuTrek series both tend(ed) to ignore that shields-block-transporters point of traditional Trek lore whenever it became inconvenient to the plot instead of thinking of something that would drop the shields (or allow them to synch with the shields long enough to get the attack through like the Duras sisters did in Generations).
It's actually very easy to disable enemy shields. Carrier waved shield hacking allows you to do it for a few seconds with tractor beam. The T6 Luna has the Opening Salvo console, which deals damage and knocks shields offline for up to 12 seconds on multiple targets. That's just two examples, there are other, if less potent abilities.
Of course, very few people are interested in this draining stuff so few players use it. But the abilities are certainly there. And one might wonder how many people use Transport Warhead or Boarding Party too. Shield drains and TW, BP all seem to be pretty niche.
If shields (and offline status) were made a bit more relevant, it could help making these types of builds more interesting. I don't think that requires any sort of reworking of NPC drain abilities.
Opening Salvo is great you also get it on the Titan Science Destroyer which is a very powerful ship is one of my faves so far. The Court Of Silence and Polarity Coil along with the ship trait Darmok and Jalad is fantastic for wiping out shields from the recent Tamarian Deep Space Cruiser. It disables and weakens enemy shields, i've been using just The Court Of Silence on the Alliance Rex Escort mainly on borg cubes and bigger ships and the shields are wiped out fast lol. I love going after the shields so it was exactly what i was looking for :P
Quality of life improvements like fixing the visual spam issues, toning them down and/or putting in setting to mitigate that would go a long way.
UI improvements as well since it's way more noticeable on smaller screens how much the UI can clutter things up.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I think there needs to be some more Ground TFOs that are playable, and definitely more Competitive but most of the Reps could use some more for Ground.
Another thing I'd like to see is an end to paying known actors for voice overs and diverts those funds in part to better development practices, and in part to a team of exterminators. (Plus, give the up-and-coming voice actors a chance by creating new characters!)
The better development practices to increase the ability to avoid future bugs and the exterminators to work at squishing the existing bugs.
I bring this up because I'm tired of busting Cryptic's chops in my game play live streams when I encounter multiple bugs on a strikingly regular basis. These are bugs that have been around for quite a while, on the order of years, in fact, i.e. Loading Screen disconnects, Breaking Loadouts, etc...
I know... "Deca is taking over, why should we expect Cryptic to care, blah, blah, blah..."
Hey, it's not my resume` that will get laughed at.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,681Community Moderator
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
I know... "Deca is taking over, why should we expect Cryptic to care, blah, blah, blah...
Pretty sure Cryptic is still the Developer. Its just who is signing the checks above Cryptic that is changing again.
"Pretty sure...?"
I wonder why they would want to keep the Forum Moderators out of the loop. It seems to me that looping you in would be a good way to head off speculation that could be detrimental. I mean 'An Absolute Take Over' or 'Not An Absolute Take Over' doesn't exactly qualify as a proprietary secret that, once revealed, would spell DOOM (insert drama here) for the game.
I can imagine other reason for keeping the Forum Moderators out of the loop, but they are speculative at best so I prefer not to go into them at this time.
Additionally, regarding the portion of my post that you quoted, I was anticipating and heading off a potential incoming argument, not making a statement about status/relationship between Cryptic and Deca.
NON-SEQUITUR
I found plenty of typos in the above post. I bet I missed more than a few. I'm getting more coffee...
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,681Community Moderator
Did the developer change when STO went from Atari to PW? Did the developer change when STO went from PW to Gearbox?
The Distributor/Publisher may have changed, but the Developers haven't. And I wasn't trying to argue, I was just stating my understanding of the situation in case others start going all DOOOOOM.
Your intent may have been to make a joke, but don't forget that it doesn't always translate via text alone. What may have been intended as a joke may come across as more serious or even trollish or inflamitory. I'm not gonna slam you for it, but might want to at least be aware of that possibility.
As for "keeping us out of the loop", we're volunteer moderators. Not Cryptic Employees. We're not privy to the business end of things. We just keep the peace on the forums. Sometimes we hear things ahead of time, but most of the time its about the same time as you guys. We can just more easily ask for clarification from Kael and pass that on.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Did the developer change when STO went from Atari to PW? Did the developer change when STO went from PW to Gearbox?
The Distributor/Publisher may have changed, but the Developers haven't. And I wasn't trying to argue, I was just stating my understanding of the situation in case others start going all DOOOOOM.
Your intent may have been to make a joke, but don't forget that it doesn't always translate via text alone. What may have been intended as a joke may come across as more serious or even trollish or inflamitory. I'm not gonna slam you for it, but might want to at least be aware of that possibility.
As for "keeping us out of the loop", we're volunteer moderators. Not Cryptic Employees. We're not privy to the business end of things. We just keep the peace on the forums. Sometimes we hear things ahead of time, but most of the time its about the same time as you guys. We can just more easily ask for clarification from Kael and pass that on.
I'll see if I can find the exact spot where it was said, but there was a reddit post where the difference between the other changes and this one was noted. In the other case (PW/Gearbox), the new company was just doing the publishing. The development stayed with Cryptic. That does not mean changes did not happen because of a new structure, but basically Cryptic was still Cryptic.
This time, DECA is not only the publisher, but are currently hiring/training for development as well. Obviously we don't know what this might change on the game side. For all I know, it could make things better in some ways. We will have to wait and see. If anything, my fear isn't that new devs won't care about the game, but that they will try to make "improvements" that will be very jarring for people who have been playing for a decade or more. I'm trying to keep an open mind on it, though.
Specifically, in response to another poster, he says:
"Under Gearbox, for our live games, they were operated independently. We did not utilize Gearbox talent or tech while supporting these games. Most of the support we received from Gearbox was focused on the new games we were spinning up.
With DECA, we're moving the games to them. It's a vastly different approach. DECA is building a team to operate these games with some support and expertise from Cryptic."
Answers have already been given. But we as moderators are not allowed to comment on what we know about what is going on.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Old school TFO back in the day (many years ago). Really required good teamwork, observation skills and trusting one another of your team to do their assigned jobs, but to also be willing to assist if things went sideways and having the ability to know when something was about to go south.
Comments
except i doubt the Dominion would have a Cardassian as a "first". heck they don't even have the Vorta option which would make more sense
That would be true in the show, but STO already breaks that canon by having Jem'Hadar officers at all (they were strictly noncom and lower ranked in the show). The Vorta exclusively were the officer corps, even though the Vorta sometimes pretended otherwise the show clearly showed that they were the field officers (the Founders functioned as the equivalent of the flag ranks and above of course).
DS9's Dominion policies simply don't apply to STO because of (in the game lore) Odo's influence dismantling a lot of the rigid cast system they had up until sometime after the Dominion/Alliance war but before the Hur'q war. And if there was any doubt that things changed, the simple fact that in the game the rank "First" has become an officer rank when it was a noncom rank in DS9 shows that.
IN THEORY they could change some dialog and say that Odo wanted to try and diversify his fleet by allowing for the creation of some Vorta Commandos, but... we come into the problem of getting that past the other Founders, especially the female who is a control freak.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
It would still involve quite a bit of work. That being said, we still get Federation Cardies.
RETURN OF AZRAEL
HA HA HA HA
There were already Vorta lead commando squads back in DS9, just like every Dominion military ship captain shown in the show was Vorta. They are not the meek little chipmunks that Weyoun tried to get the Federation to believe they were, remember Weyoun was a disinformation specialist and in the show they had little hints that he was lying, such as his statement in one episode where he said the Dominion was two thousand years old, then a few episodes later claimed that it was ten thousand years old.
And the game is primarily a "space navy" setting rather than a "space marine" one anyway, even though they do have ground sections in the missions. Vorta were already the ship captains in the show so the Founders would have had no problems with Vorta in space combat positions (not even the control freak female one) since they were already in those positions in DS9.
Technically the Gamma arc does not need any adjustment at all for a Vorta player-character because it is NOT written from a Jem'Hadar point of view. Instead the Jem'Hadar is the main protagonist like the way most or all the other special guest star plots are set up and the player character is the Viewpoint Character, which is not always the same as the main protagonist character (such as Sherlock Holmes was the main while Watson was the viewpoint). In STO whenever they have a guest star the PC is shifted into the "Watson perspective" in the story, and Gamma with its plot revolving around a certain Jem'Hadar from the show is no different from the others in that respect.
Vorta and Cardassian PCs could ignore the Ketracel addiction-breaking subthread the same way a Romulan, KDF, or Federation PC would.
The only part that would have to be changed would be if the devs decided to put the Vorta (Cardassians probably would not make sense doing this since they are not clones) characters through the Dominion-based tutorial the Jem'Hadar currently use instead of just using the other factions' tutorial. And that would be a simple matter of changing one cutscene (the first one) and omitting or changing the shroud training part of the tutorial for Vorta (that section could be changed to telekinesis training if they wanted to change it for Vorta rather than omit it altogether for them).
The Cardassian part of my original suggestion specifically used the tutorial from whatever non-Dominion faction the Cardassian Gamma Recruit character was started from as a sort of "experimental training program" since the Dominion itself doesn't actually train anyone for their equivalent of a military (the Jem'Hadar are programmed with the skills they need before they are decanted, and the Vorta remember their experiences and skills from past lives). The only change there would be an "interlude" somewhere in or just after the tutorial where the "gamma" Cardassian receives the Recruit item, just like it is done in all the other recruitments.
True, though they would also need to tone down and balance the overly powerful shield ripping effects of NPC tachyon and tractor beams to something closer to the anemic levels of the PC versions or those boarding party and transported warhead abilities would become absolutely useless to a lot of players. Quite often between shield pen abilities and exotic effects that bypass shields altogether I destroy enemy ships with their shields still relatively intact for instance.
Also, VOY and most of the various NuTrek series both tend(ed) to ignore that shields-block-transporters point of traditional Trek lore whenever it became inconvenient to the plot instead of thinking of something that would drop the shields (or allow them to synch with the shields long enough to get the attack through like the Duras sisters did in Generations).
Herein lies the problem. Keeping those shields down long enough to take advantage of it. We know torpedoes generally do more damage if they can hit the hull directly, especially Maelstrom Torpedoes. But the problem is by the time you actually fire a torp, there's now a sliver of shields up to eat it. Its the same problem that generally comes up with offlining enemy subsystems. They are almost never down long enough for you to capitalize on before they come back up.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
In my experience that only applies to the CPU. I'm lucky to have any shields at all five minutes into the fight.
Yea... NPC shield ripping capability is an order of magnitute higher than players. With the Borg it makes sense. With Fed/Terrans or anyone else who has shield ripping capability it is a bit overkill.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
It's actually very easy to disable enemy shields. Carrier waved shield hacking allows you to do it for a few seconds with tractor beam. The T6 Luna has the Opening Salvo console, which deals damage and knocks shields offline for up to 12 seconds on multiple targets. That's just two examples, there are other, if less potent abilities.
Of course, very few people are interested in this draining stuff so few players use it. But the abilities are certainly there. And one might wonder how many people use Transport Warhead or Boarding Party too. Shield drains and TW, BP all seem to be pretty niche.
If shields (and offline status) were made a bit more relevant, it could help making these types of builds more interesting. I don't think that requires any sort of reworking of NPC drain abilities.
Then any epic arc that does not(!) involve time travel would probably fine with me
In the long run a renewed peek at some new form of exploration/procedual genereated contend would be nice. Between the time the old thing got turned off and now there had been some development and insight into these things in the gaming landscape; maybe some of that can be applied to STO.
Opening Salvo is great you also get it on the Titan Science Destroyer which is a very powerful ship is one of my faves so far. The Court Of Silence and Polarity Coil along with the ship trait Darmok and Jalad is fantastic for wiping out shields from the recent Tamarian Deep Space Cruiser. It disables and weakens enemy shields, i've been using just The Court Of Silence on the Alliance Rex Escort mainly on borg cubes and bigger ships and the shields are wiped out fast lol. I love going after the shields so it was exactly what i was looking for :P
UI improvements as well since it's way more noticeable on smaller screens how much the UI can clutter things up.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
The better development practices to increase the ability to avoid future bugs and the exterminators to work at squishing the existing bugs.
I bring this up because I'm tired of busting Cryptic's chops in my game play live streams when I encounter multiple bugs on a strikingly regular basis. These are bugs that have been around for quite a while, on the order of years, in fact, i.e. Loading Screen disconnects, Breaking Loadouts, etc...
I know... "Deca is taking over, why should we expect Cryptic to care, blah, blah, blah..."
Hey, it's not my resume` that will get laughed at.
Pretty sure Cryptic is still the Developer. Its just who is signing the checks above Cryptic that is changing again.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
"Pretty sure...?"
I wonder why they would want to keep the Forum Moderators out of the loop. It seems to me that looping you in would be a good way to head off speculation that could be detrimental. I mean 'An Absolute Take Over' or 'Not An Absolute Take Over' doesn't exactly qualify as a proprietary secret that, once revealed, would spell DOOM (insert drama here) for the game.
I can imagine other reason for keeping the Forum Moderators out of the loop, but they are speculative at best so I prefer not to go into them at this time.
Additionally, regarding the portion of my post that you quoted, I was anticipating and heading off a potential incoming argument, not making a statement about status/relationship between Cryptic and Deca.
NON-SEQUITUR
I found plenty of typos in the above post. I bet I missed more than a few. I'm getting more coffee...
The Distributor/Publisher may have changed, but the Developers haven't. And I wasn't trying to argue, I was just stating my understanding of the situation in case others start going all DOOOOOM.
Your intent may have been to make a joke, but don't forget that it doesn't always translate via text alone. What may have been intended as a joke may come across as more serious or even trollish or inflamitory. I'm not gonna slam you for it, but might want to at least be aware of that possibility.
As for "keeping us out of the loop", we're volunteer moderators. Not Cryptic Employees. We're not privy to the business end of things. We just keep the peace on the forums. Sometimes we hear things ahead of time, but most of the time its about the same time as you guys. We can just more easily ask for clarification from Kael and pass that on.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
I'll see if I can find the exact spot where it was said, but there was a reddit post where the difference between the other changes and this one was noted. In the other case (PW/Gearbox), the new company was just doing the publishing. The development stayed with Cryptic. That does not mean changes did not happen because of a new structure, but basically Cryptic was still Cryptic.
This time, DECA is not only the publisher, but are currently hiring/training for development as well. Obviously we don't know what this might change on the game side. For all I know, it could make things better in some ways. We will have to wait and see. If anything, my fear isn't that new devs won't care about the game, but that they will try to make "improvements" that will be very jarring for people who have been playing for a decade or more. I'm trying to keep an open mind on it, though.
I'll edit in the reddit link when I find it...
https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/1b3g360/an_actual_post_come_say_hello/
Specifically, in response to another poster, he says:
"Under Gearbox, for our live games, they were operated independently. We did not utilize Gearbox talent or tech while supporting these games. Most of the support we received from Gearbox was focused on the new games we were spinning up.
With DECA, we're moving the games to them. It's a vastly different approach. DECA is building a team to operate these games with some support and expertise from Cryptic."
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Thanks for the confirmation.
Huh?
Old school TFO back in the day (many years ago). Really required good teamwork, observation skills and trusting one another of your team to do their assigned jobs, but to also be willing to assist if things went sideways and having the ability to know when something was about to go south.