i have been thinking the missions were too easy myself.
during my last mission (patrol donia sector) i decided to do a test on the last group.
I flew into range fired at the first ship in the group ( the group was 3 +1 vishap frigate, just like the other 4 groups)
stopped my ship and only pressed the space bar once per ship to get my phasers to start auto firing.
not only did the enemy group all get destroyed with no meaningful input from myself but the enemies didnt even bring one of my shields down.
I have been slowly progressing through the PVE missions and i havent played any fleet actions.
I was using a regenerative shield I and two standard issue phasers (I haven't felt the need thus far to buy anything).
Also I have not used a single skillpoint on my character yet, although I have trained some BOFF skills they never came into play since all I did was let the autofire do the work.
Now although I understand the game does and should start off easily I would like to think I had to put some more input in than just flying at a spawn and opening up on them, anywhere but the tutorial.
Me, two other admirals and two captains couldn't take out the Jem'Hadar Dreadnaught without it blowing our shields away and doing 17-20k damage hits to our hull.
Well I think the learning curve was just about right in the final parts of CB. You really had to use your skills to destroy the enemies, and concentrate on what was happening. It was fun and entertaining even at Lieutenant levels.
Then the nerf bat hit, and even with the slight fixes the game is still silly easy.
I can just full impulse in middle of the enemies (that was a death sentence in CB, you got blown up in seconds as you shields had no power) , put on autofire and go AFK to check the internet. As I've done numerous times now. The combat is just too boring to play.
At the moment I get into a team with one or two other players but just solo our missions. That way the enemies are more numerous and harder, and it makes the game fun and challenging again.
The game gets a bit more difficult after the early Lt.Cmdr, and as numerous folks have said, way way later it gets even harder.
But that's too late in my book. I don't want to rush thru to captain just to find challenging and fun battles.
So I'm suggesting to the Devs, start stepping up the difficulty around Lt. 4. That has given more than enough time to figure out the controls and basic skills.
Or give us the difficulty slider sooner rather than later. Just be sure to increase the power of the enemy ships, and not just add more squishy enemy ships.
The devs made clear that the current difficulty level is what they want, fine. Now, they must realize that once a newbie goes Admiral and start an alt, he has a lot of advantages :
- better gear
- better knowledge of the ropes
- better understanding of the skills, the combinations of powers
- better handling of the UI
So the "easy" will become "boring". There is only one way to prevent that : different difficulty settings. They did it in COX and in Champions Online, they can do it in STO.
Cryptic, you want the admirals to be bored and leave ? Don't do it !
Cryptic, you want your experimented players still find the game challenging ? Do it.
Judging STO from the intro content is foolish. It's like buying World of Warcraft and telling everyone that it sucks because the first 10 levels were too easy. In Warcraft you couldn't even use the talent tree until level 10. I can tell you now that STO opens up at level 11 and level 21. Each adding new skills and new content to explore. Some people were complaining about strategies. There are different ships to fight in game other than klingons, orions and gorn from the starting sectors. For example.......**spoiler alert****.......the romulan dreadnaught has abilities that will completely obliterate your ship even with full shields and 100% hull. You have to pay attention and maneuver appropriately during combat. Anyway, give it a few levels before judging. Every MMO has to have intro content to pull people in. If everyone kept dying right out of the gate, they would never experience the higher content and people would write it off. The devs know this and made the changes.
I have played through the open beta and in fact i got through more on day one of it than I have thus far into the headstart the game was more challenging when i played through it the first time.
As it stands going through the missions is so dull I am finding it rather hard to actually play the game, there hasn't been a single occasion thus far where i have even lost a shield to an enemy.
I have seen the more difficult enemies etc as well but to be honest if the only challenge is going to be later on then why bother with the first rank at all since you literally dont have to do anything, aside from stand the boredom of sitting in front of the screen.
As I have said i think any mission where you can literally sit dead still in a starter ship with starter equipment and then let autofire do the mission for you, probably needs to be rebalanced slightly i would say. I've never known a game where doing this wouldnt end up with you dead.
That said it doesnt work on every mission / group of enemies at this level as I have tested further but it really shouldnt work on any.
I also agree a slider of some sort would probably clear this up for everyone.
I'm kind of glad they nerfed it because after playing OB being stuck in a light cruiser again sucks. The easier it is the faster I can level and get a T2 ship.
That being said I hope they do ramp up the difficulty at levels 11+.
The devs made clear that the current difficulty level is what they want, fine. Now, they must realize that once a newbie goes Admiral and start an alt, he has a lot of advantages :
- better gear
- better knowledge of the ropes
- better understanding of the skills, the combinations of powers
- better handling of the UI
So the "easy" will become "boring". There is only one way to prevent that : different difficulty settings. They did it in COX and in Champions Online, they can do it in STO.
Cryptic, you want the admirals to be bored and leave ? Don't do it !
Cryptic, you want your experimented players still find the game challenging ? Do it.
Pretty simple.
Agreed. Soon, I will number myself among the above mentioned admirals. After I play all three character classes , I will need some kind of challenge to keep me awake. Coffee and Red Bulls can only do so much. Mental stimulation is the key to my addiction. :rolleyes:
On that note I thought the difficulty at the end of closed beta was quite good. (ST 2.02 or whatever it was).
AND PLEASE NO NERFS!!! Just turn the heat up a bit, nerfs are always my number one reason for becoming discontent with a game.:(
Comments
during my last mission (patrol donia sector) i decided to do a test on the last group.
I flew into range fired at the first ship in the group ( the group was 3 +1 vishap frigate, just like the other 4 groups)
stopped my ship and only pressed the space bar once per ship to get my phasers to start auto firing.
not only did the enemy group all get destroyed with no meaningful input from myself but the enemies didnt even bring one of my shields down.
I have been slowly progressing through the PVE missions and i havent played any fleet actions.
I was using a regenerative shield I and two standard issue phasers (I haven't felt the need thus far to buy anything).
Also I have not used a single skillpoint on my character yet, although I have trained some BOFF skills they never came into play since all I did was let the autofire do the work.
Now although I understand the game does and should start off easily I would like to think I had to put some more input in than just flying at a spawn and opening up on them, anywhere but the tutorial.
It's supposed to be easy.
Me, two other admirals and two captains couldn't take out the Jem'Hadar Dreadnaught without it blowing our shields away and doing 17-20k damage hits to our hull.
Then the nerf bat hit, and even with the slight fixes the game is still silly easy.
I can just full impulse in middle of the enemies (that was a death sentence in CB, you got blown up in seconds as you shields had no power) , put on autofire and go AFK to check the internet. As I've done numerous times now. The combat is just too boring to play.
At the moment I get into a team with one or two other players but just solo our missions. That way the enemies are more numerous and harder, and it makes the game fun and challenging again.
The game gets a bit more difficult after the early Lt.Cmdr, and as numerous folks have said, way way later it gets even harder.
But that's too late in my book. I don't want to rush thru to captain just to find challenging and fun battles.
So I'm suggesting to the Devs, start stepping up the difficulty around Lt. 4. That has given more than enough time to figure out the controls and basic skills.
Or give us the difficulty slider sooner rather than later. Just be sure to increase the power of the enemy ships, and not just add more squishy enemy ships.
- better gear
- better knowledge of the ropes
- better understanding of the skills, the combinations of powers
- better handling of the UI
So the "easy" will become "boring". There is only one way to prevent that : different difficulty settings. They did it in COX and in Champions Online, they can do it in STO.
Cryptic, you want the admirals to be bored and leave ? Don't do it !
Cryptic, you want your experimented players still find the game challenging ? Do it.
Pretty simple.
As it stands going through the missions is so dull I am finding it rather hard to actually play the game, there hasn't been a single occasion thus far where i have even lost a shield to an enemy.
I have seen the more difficult enemies etc as well but to be honest if the only challenge is going to be later on then why bother with the first rank at all since you literally dont have to do anything, aside from stand the boredom of sitting in front of the screen.
As I have said i think any mission where you can literally sit dead still in a starter ship with starter equipment and then let autofire do the mission for you, probably needs to be rebalanced slightly i would say. I've never known a game where doing this wouldnt end up with you dead.
That said it doesnt work on every mission / group of enemies at this level as I have tested further but it really shouldnt work on any.
I also agree a slider of some sort would probably clear this up for everyone.
That being said I hope they do ramp up the difficulty at levels 11+.
Agreed. Soon, I will number myself among the above mentioned admirals. After I play all three character classes , I will need some kind of challenge to keep me awake. Coffee and Red Bulls can only do so much. Mental stimulation is the key to my addiction. :rolleyes:
On that note I thought the difficulty at the end of closed beta was quite good. (ST 2.02 or whatever it was).
AND PLEASE NO NERFS!!! Just turn the heat up a bit, nerfs are always my number one reason for becoming discontent with a game.:(