Ok, so I've been playing in the commander level now (as klingon, dabbled a bit in comm as fed), and I still don't think that cloak is OP. That being said, there is one advantage that it gives which it shouldn't.
The problem, as I see it, and I think that it's been mentioned elsewhere here, is that the Klingons always get to regroup if they so choose, whereas the feds always spawn in randomly and often have little chance to prepare again. This is what is unfair. As a Klingon if we get owned we cloak, regroup, restrategize, and then attack again. The feds, if they get owned often keep getting owned until the end.
So here's my suggestion: Have staging areas.
When you spawn, rather than coming into the game from the transwarp you enter into a staging area. This area is safe. The enemy can neither enter, fire, nor see into this area, and though you can't fire out of it you can see out of it. Once your team is ready, you can head out to fight. Once you are out, you can't go back in until dead.
When you respawn, if there's someone on your team in a staging area you spawn with them. This will keep the single person from being ganked right at spawn when the team is spawning elsewhere. This is a team PvP after all.
So what this will do is give the feds what they really need, which is time to prepare their strategy, coordinate, team up, and move out ready for battle. The cloak then is only a slight advantage and would seem far less OP when taking everything into consideration.
Ultimately it's not that cloak is OP to me, because when we play against a good group it's always a good game, and anyone can win. It's that feds don't get the time to decide what they're doing if the Klingons are there first.
I've played T1 and T2 on both the Fed and Klingon sides, and when the sides are both organised it ends up as a very tight, very enjoyable match. When one side doesn't coordinate then they are very vulnerable as they'll get seperated, picked off and then taken out one by one due to respawn delays (and the delay in getting back into action).
When this happens to Klingons they can cloak, regroup and then re-launch. When it happens to the feds though the best course of action is to sacrifice the ships that are left in the battle and regroup where they've spawned. So I think a protected spawn zone would be good.
After that I don't see what other balancing would be needed.
Just a bump. I changed the thread name to, hopefully, attract the people who should read this, but it won't help if the thread falls of the edge of the forum.
Edit - Ahh well... I guess I can't change the name
Excellent ideas. Klingons who rely on spawn camping Feds as they zone in might actually have to resort to *gasp!* tactics!? Don't get me wrong. I've seen a few honorable groups who actually do wait for our 5th person to zone in. Five seconds later they de-cloak and begin obliterating us. Apparently everyone's computer loads the game within 5 seconds? I support these ideas as they would improve the overall PvP experience with zero drawback.
+1 to this idea, a safe spawn point would eliminate spawn camping and provide a place to gather while teams are being evenly populated. It would also make regrouping/recovery more feasible for both sides.
As others mentioned, there should be a max time allowed to be spent inside the safe zone, to prevent abuse.
Next on the list should be queues evenly populating teams before starting the match, or otherwise holding start of match until both spawn points have even numbers.
I'm in completely agreement, even when Cryptic starts implementing the Open PVP zones (Space and Ground), we still need safe spawn sites that can be used for staging areas.
Also, Cryptic also needs to implement a Faction Chat.
As others mentioned, there should be a max time allowed to be spent inside the safe zone, to prevent abuse.
I'm not to sure that I agree with this one. We Klingons can take our time so it's only fair that the feds can too. I don't think that they'd need the same amount of time since they still would be unable to pick targets as effectively, so I don't foresee too much in the way of abuse except. I just don't want the Feds to continue to cry nerf because we can cloak as long as we like but the staging area has a timer.
Ok, so I've been playing in the commander level now (as klingon, dabbled a bit in comm as fed), and I still don't think that cloak is OP. That being said, there is one advantage that it gives which it shouldn't.
The problem, as I see it, and I think that it's been mentioned elsewhere here, is that the Klingons always get to regroup if they so choose, whereas the feds always spawn in randomly and often have little chance to prepare again. This is what is unfair. As a Klingon if we get owned we cloak, regroup, restrategize, and then attack again. The feds, if they get owned often keep getting owned until the end.
So here's my suggestion: Have staging areas.
When you spawn, rather than coming into the game from the transwarp you enter into a staging area. This area is safe. The enemy can neither enter, fire, nor see into this area, and though you can't fire out of it you can see out of it. Once your team is ready, you can head out to fight. Once you are out, you can't go back in until dead.
When you respawn, if there's someone on your team in a staging area you spawn with them. This will keep the single person from being ganked right at spawn when the team is spawning elsewhere. This is a team PvP after all.
So what this will do is give the feds what they really need, which is time to prepare their strategy, coordinate, team up, and move out ready for battle. The cloak then is only a slight advantage and would seem far less OP when taking everything into consideration.
Ultimately it's not that cloak is OP to me, because when we play against a good group it's always a good game, and anyone can win. It's that feds don't get the time to decide what they're doing if the Klingons are there first.
Thoughts?
I do agree staging area would be good also being able to select a spawning point that has been captured similar to BF2 respawn system on the maps where you captur points on the map.
But you are right Feds in T1 and T2 (what I have played so far) do have a much harder time regrouping than the Klingons. Infact as a klingon with cloak you should never worry about regrouping unless you spawn in the middle of a Fed fleet then well your dead.
I do agree staging area would be good also being able to select a spawning point that has been captured similar to BF2 respawn system on the maps where you captur points on the map.
But you are right Feds in T1 and T2 (what I have played so far) do have a much harder time regrouping than the Klingons. Infact as a klingon with cloak you should never worry about regrouping unless you spawn in the middle of a Fed fleet then well your dead.
Well I've spawned in at the same location as fed players several times. Sometimes I manage to cloak and speed off, but other times he gets me first and, depending on the ship and player, I tend to die. Next time I may just try to keep getting out of reach instead of turning around and duking it out
In T3 the feds still don't have it easy. It's starting to take longer to down ships because there is more teamplay happening, and that means that we are still engaged when the others respawn, but rather than take this as a cue to regroup they often still rush in to battle on full impulse anyway. If we steamroll the feds then we have a huge advantage, but when they steamroll us we just cloak. I've also noticed some klingons are getting better at escaping these situations, and in good Klingon teams, when one person gets caught in the open by the entire fed team, he's left to die and they refuse to get suckered into fighting. The feds don't have those options.
One addition : when you enter a pvp map, you should automatically team up with your side, hunting for already scouting klingons and invite them one by one is not fun. Same for feds. This feature should ignore team settings.
The other solution would be faction chat or similar where you can at least say 'hi' to get teamed up.
One addition : when you enter a pvp map, you should automatically team up with your side, hunting for already scouting klingons and invite them one by one is not fun. Same for feds. This feature should ignore team settings.
The other solution would be faction chat or similar where you can at least say 'hi' to get teamed up.
I agree with this post, it is a pain. also maybe we could have a highly reinforced defensive area to respawn. Then player would not enter zones.
count me in. good idea. on the timer point: dont include it unless que system gets cleared up. safe zone for 5 min wont do much if it takes a group 10 min to get full. so keep the spawn zone free (the staging area) but dont put in a timer. when groups are full would be stupid to stay there. so no need for a timer.
Comments
what you said is almost the exact same idea that I and many others have thought of. also - spawncamping sucks and this would solve that too.
I've played T1 and T2 on both the Fed and Klingon sides, and when the sides are both organised it ends up as a very tight, very enjoyable match. When one side doesn't coordinate then they are very vulnerable as they'll get seperated, picked off and then taken out one by one due to respawn delays (and the delay in getting back into action).
When this happens to Klingons they can cloak, regroup and then re-launch. When it happens to the feds though the best course of action is to sacrifice the ships that are left in the battle and regroup where they've spawned. So I think a protected spawn zone would be good.
After that I don't see what other balancing would be needed.
Edit - Ahh well... I guess I can't change the name
10char
As others mentioned, there should be a max time allowed to be spent inside the safe zone, to prevent abuse.
Next on the list should be queues evenly populating teams before starting the match, or otherwise holding start of match until both spawn points have even numbers.
Also, Cryptic also needs to implement a Faction Chat.
I'm not to sure that I agree with this one. We Klingons can take our time so it's only fair that the feds can too. I don't think that they'd need the same amount of time since they still would be unable to pick targets as effectively, so I don't foresee too much in the way of abuse except. I just don't want the Feds to continue to cry nerf because we can cloak as long as we like but the staging area has a timer.
I'm ambivalent about the timer, but if there would be a timer, it should be reasonably long. Say, 5 mins?
I do agree staging area would be good also being able to select a spawning point that has been captured similar to BF2 respawn system on the maps where you captur points on the map.
But you are right Feds in T1 and T2 (what I have played so far) do have a much harder time regrouping than the Klingons. Infact as a klingon with cloak you should never worry about regrouping unless you spawn in the middle of a Fed fleet then well your dead.
Well I've spawned in at the same location as fed players several times. Sometimes I manage to cloak and speed off, but other times he gets me first and, depending on the ship and player, I tend to die. Next time I may just try to keep getting out of reach instead of turning around and duking it out
In T3 the feds still don't have it easy. It's starting to take longer to down ships because there is more teamplay happening, and that means that we are still engaged when the others respawn, but rather than take this as a cue to regroup they often still rush in to battle on full impulse anyway. If we steamroll the feds then we have a huge advantage, but when they steamroll us we just cloak. I've also noticed some klingons are getting better at escaping these situations, and in good Klingon teams, when one person gets caught in the open by the entire fed team, he's left to die and they refuse to get suckered into fighting. The feds don't have those options.
One addition : when you enter a pvp map, you should automatically team up with your side, hunting for already scouting klingons and invite them one by one is not fun. Same for feds. This feature should ignore team settings.
The other solution would be faction chat or similar where you can at least say 'hi' to get teamed up.
I agree with this post, it is a pain. also maybe we could have a highly reinforced defensive area to respawn. Then player would not enter zones.