[Console - Universal - Cnidarian Defense] Disabled at Battle of Wolf 359 TFO

ryogahabiki

I have submitted two tickets on this issue (1033376 + 1131926).
The Consoles [Console - Universal - Cnidarian Defense] and [Console - Universal - Linked Command Matrix] are not working when you do the Battle of Wolf 359 TFO. You can not activate "Cnidarian Defense" to transform into a "Star-Jelly" or summon a "Heavy Attack Craft".

Per GM Ovric, GM Mimosa, and GM Zildross, they have received similar reports from other affected players that are also unable to use the Cnidarian Defense, the issue has already been relayed to be investigated by the developers. (They have known about this issue since at least 01-Mar-2024 due to my earlier Ticket)
I was advised/encouraged to send a bug report to our official forums. (Doing this will help increase its visibility and supplement the details you already provided here. More examples of the same issue from other affected players in the forums may help the developers research the problem and prioritize a potential fix.)
I have advised them that some people are saying this is not a bug, but the game developers purposely disabled these modules in an attempt to "nerf" them as they were too powerful in the Battle of Wolf 359 TFO. In response I was told they looked into this further; however, there was no confirmation that the console was disabled for this operation. They would like to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, but some reported issues require intervention and development time from departments outside of Customer Support and cannot be immediately resolved by a Game Master.

I have checked all the Patch Notes for anything regarding this, and found nothing. No mention that they disabled the modules. No mention that it's a known issue. No mention at all.

As such I am creating this report on the official forums, so others can share what they know about these modules not working in the featured TFO. If you have found a way to make the module work, I'm sure we all would like to know how you did so. If you are going to comment and say the modules were disabled on purpose and it's not a bug, I simply ask you share your source. If you are a developer and know what's going on, please let us know. This is making for a frustrating experience.

inferiority

On rare occasions, certain special abilities are disabled in certain TFO's.
When the "Battle of Wolf 359" was released, it was indeed possible to use the "Star-Jelly" but it was disabled in a subsequent patch.
Thus, it is Working As Intended (Not Working As Intended?), and Not A Bug.

ryogahabiki

inferiority wrote: »

On rare occasions, certain special abilities are disabled in certain TFO's.
When the "Battle of Wolf 359" was released, it was indeed possible to use the "Star-Jelly" but it was disabled in a subsequent patch.
Thus, it is Working As Intended (Not Working As Intended?), and Not A Bug.

I'm not doubting you, but I've read all the Patch Notes, and there is no mention of it being disabled (One way or the other). So what is your source that this was done on purpose and not a bug? (I ask because Cryptic Support says it's a bug and it should work)

inferiority

ryogahabiki wrote: »

...what is your source that this was done on purpose and not a bug?

It was never mentioned in Patch Notes, but I remember reading it somewhere. It may have been Reddit or Twitter, but I do not recall.

shadowleopard64

I actually think it being disabled in some tfos is a good thing as a Anti-AFK measure too many times players use that console to sit in one place use some sort of macro player or AHK in randoms and not move and when say that phase has ended will still sit there not helping the team complete the next phase or set of objectives that are in other parts of the map not covered by the UFO/star jelly mode. While defending an area for a little while was the intended effect its one of the most hated ships and consoles in the game due to the ease of its abuse.

While I can understand not everyone does this I haven't really seen anyone flying one in a TFO not abusing the console to cheat/AFK the number of players that I have ever seen that don't can be counted on just one hand with fingers to spare. I think disabling it in some TFOs or perhaps some measure of preventing 100% uptime is needed or making it so its not affected by Unconventinal systems trait and or triggers.

Take jupiter irratus, starbase one and a few others for instance.

It has gotten to the point that if I see a UFO/jellyfish in a team I will gladly take the leaver penalty switch to another character and enter the random system again. no one should have to sit in a TFO with AFK players or those not playing the objective and not even caring for the fact that it will impact the reward that their team mates receive especially in Elite randoms.

phoenixc

shadowleopard64#3762 wrote: »

I actually think it being disabled in some tfos is a good thing as a Anti-AFK measure too many times players use that console to sit in one place use some sort of macro player or AHK in randoms and not move and when say that phase has ended will still sit there not helping the team complete the next phase or set of objectives that are in other parts of the map not covered by the UFO/star jelly mode. While defending an area for a little while was the intended effect its one of the most hated ships and consoles in the game due to the ease of its abuse.

While I can understand not everyone does this I haven't really seen anyone flying one in a TFO not abusing the console to cheat/AFK the number of players that I have ever seen that don't can be counted on just one hand with fingers to spare. I think disabling it in some TFOs or perhaps some measure of preventing 100% uptime is needed or making it so its not affected by Unconventinal systems trait and or triggers.

Take jupiter irratus, starbase one and a few others for instance.

It has gotten to the point that if I see a UFO/jellyfish in a team I will gladly take the leaver penalty switch to another character and enter the random system again. no one should have to sit in a TFO with AFK players or those not playing the objective and not even caring for the fact that it will impact the reward that their team mates receive especially in Elite randoms.

While some do AFK with it, many (probably most) jelly pilots don't, and people just assume that they are even when they are doing things easily seen such as launching Voth power cores and holographic ships and whatnot because the normal weapons are locked out in that mode.

The reason for the Wolf359 lockout is probably not the AFK nonsense, more likely it is because early on in the event players discovered the proper use of the jelly's aura and sat inside of it using the powerup and protection to shift more power to weapons and take the cube down so fast it was funny.

A bastion tank like that is there to support the entire team without having to hold aggro (and aggro is pretty much impossible to hold for a tank in STO). In more team-oriented games (STO was designed as story-oriented primarily) bastions are normally limited mobility secondary tanks and the players (at least hopefully) know how to employ them along with the main tank and the healers and DPS units, but STO doesn't use that kind of intricate teamplay, so the ship gets a lot of undeserved hate.

ryogahabiki

inferiority wrote: »

It was never mentioned in Patch Notes, but I remember reading it somewhere. It may have been Reddit or Twitter, but I do not recall.

Just to be clear, you never read it on any official website. Reddit or Twitter (Which I searched as well) is fans talking amongst ourselves. I did find a Reddit post about it being disabled. However when the person was asked what was their source. They said none. That they assumed it was disabled. Needless to say, that's not actually a viable source.
Again, if you have the source for something official, I'm ready to accept it. The only reason I have any doubts is having 3 GameMasters say the console should be working and the reason it's not is due to some bug, which they have forwarded to the dev team. Over the years, I have seen them disable certain consoles for certain TFOs or Missions, however in the past when that happened, they let us know via a "Patch Note". Like I said, in the Patch Notes, there's no word at all.

ryogahabiki

shadowleopard64#3762 wrote: »

I actually think it being disabled in some tfos is a good thing as a Anti-AFK measure too many times players use that console to sit in one place use some sort of macro player or AHK in randoms and not move and when say that phase has ended will still sit there not helping the team complete the next phase or set of objectives that are in other parts of the map not covered by the UFO/star jelly mode. While defending an area for a little while was the intended effect its one of the most hated ships and consoles in the game due to the ease of its abuse.

The thread was discussion about why is it disabled during the Wolf 359 TFO. But we can talk about should it be disabled. I'm going to argue against you on this. When I do Iuppiter Iratus, before the TFO starts, I get on the team chat to coordinate our team. I'll fly in and take on all the ships until we get to the 2nd phase. Then I'll park just above the central station and go star-jelly and deploy my sentinels around me in a ring. I'll then use my powers to spawn ships as often as I can and have them go and help deal with the invading ships, and heal other players if they are getting pounded too much. The other 4 can focus on the 3 outer stations. I would do another station, but once I deploy those consoles, I can't move. Which means I can't close the ruptures. The ship is a flying brick. So using it for the 3 outer stations in II is beyond pointless. After that when we go to the last phase and have to play "Whack-a-Enterprise", I un-jelly and work with the rest of my team to whack the enterprise. Keep in mind, I tell the whole team my plan BEFORE we start and try to get everyone to agree to a battle plan, such as having 3 players claim dibs on one of the stations and then the last player "floats" around helping, until we figure out who is the "Weakest Link". For the record, I have more then firepower to protect the center station from invaders and they blow up before they can do anything. I don't stay still and be AFK the whole time. Anyone who does that should get that "AFK Penalty".
Let me give you an example of someone doing what I think you are describing, but they were in a Defiant class, so they weren't going Star-Jelly. After the first phase, I went above the center station and activated my 2 consoles. This player decided to park underneath me (about 3 meters underneath) and sat there. Didn't fire on anything, didn't activate any abilities. Just sat there. Everyone called him out for parking. He did respond and told me to move my ship while in Star-Jelly by going to full impulse. Everyone laughed at him. He then claimed he was helping and told us to shut up. I kept watching my Combat Log Reader and he was still at 0 damage dealt 0 received. Then we got to "Whack-a-Enterprise" and 4 of us were fighting and chasing after one of our favorite terrains. In the end, he did no damage and received no damage, and never moved from his hiding spot. He then PMed me upset that he got nailed with a AFK penalty. Not sure if that was automagically done or if that was because 4 of us reported him.

shadowleopard64#3762 wrote: »

While I can understand not everyone does this I haven't really seen anyone flying one in a TFO not abusing the console to cheat/AFK the number of players that I have ever seen that don't can be counted on just one hand with fingers to spare.

And I can't undo your experiences. I can tell you that I've run dozens (if not hundreds by now) of TFOs with my Cnidarian Defender, and only one encountered a Jelly-Star player who was AFK like you said. The rest of the time I've worked with other Jelly-Stars we were talking on team chat before the TFO, had organized our selves to maximize our ships abilities, and did NOT stay parked being AFK the whole time. Cryptic made the bloody console and should have realized how it was going to be used. So retroactively disabling it (If that is what happened) is nothing more then a slap to the face of players like me who work hard tweaking their ships to get every ounce of power out of them and setting up different ships for different TFOs to make clearing every objective easier.

shadowleopard64#3762 wrote: »

I think disabling it in some TFOs or perhaps some measure of preventing 100% uptime is needed or making it so its not affected by Unconventinal systems trait and or triggers.

Why? Why is your remedy disabling the console? What if during certain TFOs, the console is activated between phases. Using Iuppiter Iratus as an example. What if right before the final phase, the game activates the console in question if you are a Star-Jelly and it's disabled unless you move at least 20km. Or they add a "Parking Penalty" if you stay in the same spot (or area) for 90%+ of the TFO, you get a "Parking Penalty" similar to AFK Penalties now. This would hit the guy who parked in my earlier example, so he would have had 2 penalties.

shadowleopard64#3762 wrote: »

Take jupiter irratus, starbase one and a few others for instance.
It has gotten to the point that if I see a UFO/jellyfish in a team I will gladly take the leaver penalty switch to another character and enter the random system again. no one should have to sit in a TFO with AFK players or those not playing the objective and not even caring for the fact that it will impact the reward that their team mates receive especially in Elite randoms.

So if you see a Cnidarian Defender in a TFO, you automatically assume they are a jerk? Do you know how closed minded you come across? This also means you are willing to tell 4 players you are ok with abandoning them, because you discriminate. As a result, now the team has gone from 5 players to 4 players, making it harder for them to clear the TFO and all the objectives.
No offense, but it makes it kind of hard to support your idea when you come across as a closed minded jerk who discriminates and is willing to break the rules (leaver penalty) if everyone else doesn't do what he wants.

pottsey5g

ryogahabiki wrote: »

“I can tell you that I've run dozens (if not hundreds by now) of TFOs with my Cnidarian Defender, and only one encountered a Jelly-Star player who was AFK like you said. “

Opposite for me. I would say 20% or 30% ish are active and 80% ish AFK out of the 100’s I have met. Last event one was sitting AFK not closing portals which made the event drag on ages. Then they never moved in the wrack a mole bit.

Another time I called out I have the centre hacking point covered in the starting timer as my setup is better then a jellyfish for that. 2mins into the TFO they moved from the starting point and setup next to me. Then never moved even after that section has finished. They did almost no DPS and tanked no DPS. In one bad run I had 3 of them all setup overlapping.

I have at times tried a friendly warning they risk a AFK penalty if they setup near me because I tend to kill the NPC faster then them. Most never respond.

I don’t mind the jellyfish that respond in chat and have situational awareness. It’s the other ones that give everyone a bad name.

ryogahabiki wrote: »

“ I can't move. Which means I can't close the ruptures. The ship is a flying brick. So using it for the 3 outer stations in II is beyond pointless.”

They can move with EpTE3 or various teleports or 4-8km jumps. 1 jump console power and there are lots to choose from and you could sit at a rupture closing all the portals. Its been a long time since I used a jellyfish from what I remember set engine boosts like EpTE are flat speed boosts. Not 100% sure on EpTE its been a long time.

EDIT:
Speaking of jellyfish and I don't think this is strictly a jellyfish thing its just more noticeable when they do it. Every so often I see a jellyfish run a duplicate console and 5 jellyfish are flying around it looks like 4 summons and 1 player. Seen it a few times now, I think its a new ish console or trait within the past few months. Any one got any ideas what is being used?

baucoin

EDIT:
Speaking of jellyfish and I don't think this is strictly a jellyfish thing its just more noticeable when they do it. Every so often I see a jellyfish run a duplicate console and 5 jellyfish are flying around it looks like 4 summons and 1 player. Seen it a few times now, I think its a new ish console or trait within the past few months. Any one got any ideas what is being used?

That would be the Console - Universal - Temporal Disorder from the last A Good Day to Die event.

baucoin

They can move with EpTE3 or various teleports or 4-8km jumps. 1 jump console power and there are lots to choose from and you could sit at a rupture closing all the portals. Its been a long time since I used a jellyfish from what I remember set engine boosts like EpTE are flat speed boosts. Not 100% sure on EpTE its been a long time.

They can also teleport using the Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field from the recent Risan ship the Vovin. Has a 20km range to teleport to enemies or allies.
The console from the Fek'lhri Gok'tad Carrier Fiery Charge lets you move 15km toward an enemy in your forward arc.

I don't believe EpTE of any rank increases their speed (hasn't from my tests) they are stuck at impulse 3.

pottsey5g

Thanks for the info Baucoin

ryogahabiki

phoenixc#0738 wrote: »

While some do AFK with it, many (probably most) jelly pilots don't, and people just assume that they are even when they are doing things easily seen such as launching Voth power cores and holographic ships and whatnot because the normal weapons are locked out in that mode.

The reason for the Wolf359 lockout is probably not the AFK nonsense, more likely it is because early on in the event players discovered the proper use of the jelly's aura and sat inside of it using the powerup and protection to shift more power to weapons and take the cube down so fast it was funny.

A bastion tank like that is there to support the entire team without having to hold aggro (and aggro is pretty much impossible to hold for a tank in STO). In more team-oriented games (STO was designed as story-oriented primarily) bastions are normally limited mobility secondary tanks and the players (at least hopefully) know how to employ them along with the main tank and the healers and DPS units, but STO doesn't use that kind of intricate teamplay, so the ship gets a lot of undeserved hate.

Nicely put, for some reason I didn't see your comment the other day. What you are saying matches what I see personally. Most Star-Jelly's aren't AFKing, but instead working hard. They know if their health drops too much, they un-jelly. They are also using their abilities that didn't disable, it takes practice to figure out which powers disable and which ones don't, then using your powers you will lose in Star-Jelly first, before going Star-Jelly and using your other powers. Finally just sitting still doesn't work if/when you hit the point where staying there hurts more then helps. I wish STO focused more on the teamplay side of TFOs, but that might be wishing for too much.

ryogahabiki

pottsey5g wrote: »

Opposite for me. I would say 20% or 30% ish are active and 80% ish AFK out of the 100’s I have met. Last event one was sitting AFK not closing portals which made the event drag on ages. Then they never moved in the wrack a mole bit.

Another time I called out I have the centre hacking point covered in the starting timer as my setup is better then a jellyfish for that. 2mins into the TFO they moved from the starting point and setup next to me. Then never moved even after that section has finished. They did almost no DPS and tanked no DPS. In one bad run I had 3 of them all setup overlapping.

I have at times tried a friendly warning they risk a AFK penalty if they setup near me because I tend to kill the NPC faster then them. Most never respond.

I don’t mind the jellyfish that respond in chat and have situational awareness. It’s the other ones that give everyone a bad name.

Fair enough. Phoenixc and myself could be the exception. I can't say. All I can say is 2 of us have had mostly positive experiences and you have had mostly negative. If you and I were in the same TFO, we'd likely have talked out a plan before it started. Normally in Iuppiter Iratus I have the highest DPS or the second highest and with my setup at center, I destroy the ships just as they enter weapon range. So I might give you a run for your money. However I have tweaked my setup to maximize the damage she creates in that setup.

pottsey5g wrote: »

They can move with EpTE3 or various teleports or 4-8km jumps. 1 jump console power and there are lots to choose from and you could sit at a rupture closing all the portals. Its been a long time since I used a jellyfish from what I remember set engine boosts like EpTE are flat speed boosts. Not 100% sure on EpTE its been a long time.

I don't think I have "EpTE3", and would have to look into various teleports/jumps. The only ones I know of use up a console slot, which means lowering my ships combat power, but it might be worth it. Could you list the ones you use and how you got them? I'd be interested in trying it out at the very least.

pottsey5g wrote: »

EDIT:
Speaking of jellyfish and I don't think this is strictly a jellyfish thing its just more noticeable when they do it. Every so often I see a jellyfish run a duplicate console and 5 jellyfish are flying around it looks like 4 summons and 1 player. Seen it a few times now, I think its a new ish console or trait within the past few months. Any one got any ideas what is being used?

Yes, I use that console on my Star-Jelly all the time because i can summon 4 copies of myself, which helps. It's the [Console - Universal - Temporal Disorder] from one of the recent events.

ryogahabiki

baucoin wrote: »

They can also teleport using the Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field from the recent Risan ship the Vovin. Has a 20km range to teleport to enemies or allies.
The console from the Fek'lhri Gok'tad Carrier Fiery Charge lets you move 15km toward an enemy in your forward arc.

I don't believe EpTE of any rank increases their speed (hasn't from my tests) they are stuck at impulse 3.

I'll try it out. If I can get my "flying brick" to teleport and bring all of it's pets that could be a game changer for my setup. I'd lose a console, which is always the hard part, picking what to remove (LOL).

ryogahabiki

Game Master Zildross got back to me via email. They once again stated the [Console - Universal - Cnidarian Defense] should work in the Battle of Wolf 359 TFO and it not working is a bug.
They advised that (private correspondence redacted - rattler)
I understand the theory that it's not a bug, but was disabled on purpose. However, it seems like bad business for the developers not to tell their own Customer Service about it as they end up wasting time working with players like myself. That being said, if someone has found an official post or video or something saying the Developers disabled it on purpose, I'm all ears (Vulcan Pun) and would love the URL so I can see it myself. Unfounded rumors on Reddit are fun to read, but not official.
Until I hear something from either side of this, I will wait. I'm sure the Developers know this issue won't simply go away.

pottsey5g

ryogahabiki wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

Opposite for me. I would say 20% or 30% ish are active and 80% ish AFK out of the 100’s I have met. Last event one was sitting AFK not closing portals which made the event drag on ages. Then they never moved in the wrack a mole bit.

Another time I called out I have the centre hacking point covered in the starting timer as my setup is better then a jellyfish for that. 2mins into the TFO they moved from the starting point and setup next to me. Then never moved even after that section has finished. They did almost no DPS and tanked no DPS. In one bad run I had 3 of them all setup overlapping.

I have at times tried a friendly warning they risk a AFK penalty if they setup near me because I tend to kill the NPC faster then them. Most never respond.

I don’t mind the jellyfish that respond in chat and have situational awareness. It’s the other ones that give everyone a bad name.

Fair enough. Phoenixc and myself could be the exception. I can't say. All I can say is 2 of us have had mostly positive experiences and you have had mostly negative. If you and I were in the same TFO, we'd likely have talked out a plan before it started. Normally in Iuppiter Iratus I have the highest DPS or the second highest and with my setup at center, I destroy the ships just as they enter weapon range. So I might give you a run for your money. However I have tweaked my setup to maximize the damage she creates in that setup.

pottsey5g wrote: »

They can move with EpTE3 or various teleports or 4-8km jumps. 1 jump console power and there are lots to choose from and you could sit at a rupture closing all the portals. Its been a long time since I used a jellyfish from what I remember set engine boosts like EpTE are flat speed boosts. Not 100% sure on EpTE its been a long time.

I don't think I have "EpTE3", and would have to look into various teleports/jumps. The only ones I know of use up a console slot, which means lowering my ships combat power, but it might be worth it. Could you list the ones you use and how you got them? I'd be interested in trying it out at the very least.

pottsey5g wrote: »

EDIT:
Speaking of jellyfish and I don't think this is strictly a jellyfish thing its just more noticeable when they do it. Every so often I see a jellyfish run a duplicate console and 5 jellyfish are flying around it looks like 4 summons and 1 player. Seen it a few times now, I think its a new ish console or trait within the past few months. Any one got any ideas what is being used?

Yes, I use that console on my Star-Jelly all the time because i can summon 4 copies of myself, which helps. It's the [Console - Universal - Temporal Disorder] from one of the recent events.

My builds tend to destroy the ships before weapon range and often before being targeted. Its why I give a friendly warning to the active jellyfish players who setup near me. Based on this chat I don’t think we have a problem if we bumped into each other in a random TFO. We would work out positions in the starting timer.

To asnwer you question on teleports there are a surprising amount of options.

The one I use is Subspace Fracture Tunnel: 4km in front, facing target,

The others which I have only briefly messed around with

Ambush Gateway: 3km behind your target
Lorca Maneuver: Teleport 8km forward,
Picard Maneuver: 6km forward.
Point Jump: 4km in front,
Subspace Beacon: 10km - 20km to Beacon.
Subspace Jump: 3km behind your target.
Subspace Vortex: Secondary Teleport into Anomaly.
Trajector Jump: 5km forward.

There are others and a few I listed might not be suitable.

Trajector Jump might be the best one for you as no consoles involved.

ryogahabiki

pottsey5g wrote: »

My builds tend to destroy the ships before weapon range and often before being targeted. Its why I give a friendly warning to the active jellyfish players who setup near me. Based on this chat I don’t think we have a problem if we bumped into each other in a random TFO. We would work out positions in the starting timer.

To answer you question on teleports there are a surprising amount of options.

The one I use is Subspace Fracture Tunnel: 4km in front, facing target,

The others which I have only briefly messed around with

Ambush Gateway: 3km behind your target
Lorca Maneuver: Teleport 8km forward,
Picard Maneuver: 6km forward.
Point Jump: 4km in front,
Subspace Beacon: 10km - 20km to Beacon.
Subspace Jump: 3km behind your target.
Subspace Vortex: Secondary Teleport into Anomaly.
Trajector Jump: 5km forward.

There are others and a few I listed might not be suitable.

Trajector Jump might be the best one for you as no consoles involved.

Yes, I think we would get along if we met in a random TFO. Normally when I talk in chat to my random team, nobody responds, so it would be nice for someone to actually respond and try to act as a team, LOL.

Thank you, I will look into these and see what I need to do to use them. My flying brick may just become a teleporting flying brick, lol.

ryogahabiki

I tried "Trajector Jump", only I found out a couple things.

• If you only use Star-Jelly you can turn left, right, up, and down. So the jump works quite nicely.
• If you use the Sentinels either alone or in concert with Star-Jelly, jumping only moves your ship, the Sentinels do not jump with you. Which would be interesting except...
• When the Sentinels are deployed you can NOT turn left, right, up or down. So jumping takes you forward based on how you were when you deployed them.

Ambush Gateway requires a [Console - Universal - Ambush Gateway Generator] which can be used on any Herald Starship. So I can't use it on my Star-Jelly.
Lorca Maneuver, Picard Maneuver, would have the same issue where I'm only jumping forward.
Point Jump sounds like it would work, only now I have to make the [Lukari Restoration Initiative Reinforced Warp Core] to gain access to the ability. (I know, I maxed each reputation and didn't make one...)
Subspace Vortex actually sounds like it would do the trick, except getting it would require several million Energy Credits.
Subspace Jump sounds good, but requires the [Console - Universal - Subspace Jumper] console. Which I can get if I buy a 150,000 Dil Ship, 25,000 Zen Ship, or just over 100 million Energy Credits.
Subspace Beacon doesn't sound like it work as I'd need a couple beacons set up to jump back and forth.
I'll keep looking, and starting tomorrow, when I do the daily event, I'll put points into making a Lukari Restoration Initiative Reinforced Warp Core.