Fist off, Fix SNB, it is game-breaking.. until you make the game NOT based on buffs and abilities, one that strips buffs and abilities (limited to 1 class too), is the definition of game-breaking.
After you have done that. Look as some of these options:==============================
Add in rolling for all ships, it is space is it not?
Add in axis strafing for all ships (see defiant in beginning of First Contact)
Remove a large majority of accuracy bonuses (or gained through skill point spending)
Have performing an axis strafe, roll, etc actually increase defense for a few seconds (increase based on speed of the ship)
After that try this:=============================================
Fix defense so it works, this can be partially accomplished by removing or increasing the cap, as well as either the amount gained by speed or base speed as a whole.
Increase the size of T5 cruisers and sci vessels, or reduce the size of T5 escorts.
Than, add in some weapon-to-target collision effects, like if say a defiant was hit by a phaser beam array from a T5 cruiser it would cause an actual physics reaction causing the ship to *Bounce* or basically what happens in a sea based boat suddenly gains too much weight to one side. Altering its course slightly as well. (were talking about quick effects here)
Finally do some of the following tweaking and changes:=====================
Move Beam Target; Subsystem abilities from the tac BoFF pool, to the Science BoFF pool. They are affected by sci consoles anyway, and sci ships get tier 1 innate.
Remove the ability to stack the same type of subsystem target.
Add in Cannon: Target subsystem abilities to the Tac BoFF pool, "I" starting at ensign, and "III" ending at LTcom. Have one be an accuracy debuff, and another maybe a crew killer with chance to disable crew related abilities for a few seconds, etc, etc.
Have them unable to be stacked of the same type as well.
Next.... Increase the noticeable affect from VM, but make sure the counter still works.
Than enforce the 100% cap on damage reflected from FBP.
Have power in Aux, increase shield cap.
Reduce the stats of tactical consoles based on energy damage type to 25 @ MKX max value
After fixing the whole grandfather sci console stupidity, have all EPS flow regulators, Also grant +2 to a certain powerlevel (meaning you could get one that does +2 to weap, or get one that does +2 to shields, etc).
Remove Hull resist consoles as being an engineer slot item. However add a separate form of slots to every ship, with cruisers getting double of all other ships, and escorts getting the least.
Example: Star Cruiser will have normal number of eng consoles, sci consoles, and tac consoles, but will have another type off to the side (like the hangar bay on carriers) just for Hull resist items.
T5 cruiser could have 4, T5 sci could have 2, and T5 escorts could get 1. (slots that is)
For Klings: BC would get 3, Carrier would get 2, Raptor would get 1, and BoP would NOT get a slot.
Next.... Reduce the max stat buff values from Attack Pattern Alpha to 75% of current, and add in a 10% defense buff.
Next... Instead of having MES work (or not even work) as a cloak, have it work as an actual Mask.
Have it a toggle, given innate to T5 Fed escorts, and remove it from sci BoFF pool all-together, as well as any aux affiliation. Have the power disguise the players ship as one of the enemies faction.
Example: Escort toggles on MES out of combat, Approaches player from enemy team, and on the enemy's team's screen, he looks and is colored like a friendly. However it would only be able to be toggled out of combat, any combat or attacking a target breaks the effect. At the same time, even though the player would look friendly, if the enemy actually targeting him they would be able to fire on him (unlike if it was an actual friendly player)
When toggled the ability would drain shield health over time, this value would be decreased by skill points spent in appropriate spots.
Lastly, Reduce innate crit severity of all ships by 20%
NOTE: Yes a lot of the changes above would increase defense, and in some eyes make defense even overpowered (as in making escorts and kling equiv near impossible to hit) however, it would also draw use to the counters it would spawn , like Tractor beam, Targeting engines, VM, etc. This would also be balanced by the damage reduction that escorts would experience alone from all the changes above.
Comments
I therefore am left with the assumption that you're talking about PvP here... so I'll leave you to it. Good luck.
not easily dismissed
have wierd trek things
get rid of everything else- the art s good- use it-one ship and make it to just captain
get rid of all the clutter- the grids , the signs, and transparent blue ..roads?
have your one ship be able to fly all over the place and land on planets. and meet aliens
and fight space battles, and try to take over a planet with your commerades.
stick to the content
the evidence is clear
Sort sort of alteration to the treaty of Algeron in exchange for some technology/information/etc should be easy enough to write up that would allow cloaking devices on vessels under a certain mass(ie escorts). Or perhaps if the Federation will just officially go to war with the Romulans... that seems fairly likely with them becoming a faction anyway.
The content part is already in progress anyway, they are adding a new faction as well.
Look at their schedule.
The main problem is the balance of things.
Btw, PVP infuses the community with the greatest challenge, sheer instincts, and unpredictability that is the backbone of any successful MMO.
PVE however while it is a PART of successful MMOs, can be debated because anyone can play a single player RPG with a chat program up to get the community part. Add to that STO is closer to an arcade shooter anyways, so the whole well PVPers can go play a shooter is already what is being done.
Don't believe me? Look at klingon Pop.
In other words, there are tons of players posting about new content to add with good ideas. So that area is covered, however the players worried about balance (and its a lot of players) mostly make posts just complaining about X and Y without giving any possible solutions, or giving a solution that would lead to the end of anyone playing X or Y. That is where me and a few others step in.
Anyways... Thanks for the feedback either way
I can kind of agree with this statement.
PvP is a pointless endevour when it requires every player to FOTM thier toons and vessels to match the best working set-up to be effective. Something I was hoping Cryptic would stay clear of in thier PvP.
played pvp all day
50 - 50
they changed the defense or something
pvp is one of the main reasons to join an mmo
unless you like decorating better
I hope most players build specifically for pvp. i built specifically for role playing and can compete with them apparently. I must be great
the evidence is clear
I fall into the camp that wants more PvE missions and factions. Thanks!
Now back to killing Klingons!
Yeah, if you're purposefully looking for PvP in an MMO. I've joined 3 MMO's and have stuck with them and none of my choices were influenced by PvP. If you enjoy PvP, have fun with it, just don't expect people to agree with you, that PvP is the pillar of MMO's because that's definitely not true for many players in many MMO's out there.
It is too true that a lot of the players in any PvP game tend to be less than good sportsmen, but PvP can be fun if presented properly.
I just wish that a developer would design the mechanics of PvP as they like, tune it back a bit in effectiveness and then step away.
The constant trying to balance based on the complaints of the players never leads in the right direction or to equality of abilities. SNB is a good example of an overcompensation of trying to balance the DPS output of Escorts. Why would anybody play anything but science now?, especially since I can now play at RA5 and shutdown my opponents for anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 full minutes. Thats too long for PvP.
SNB is a good concept, but poorly instrumented.
That being said, I agree with nothing the OP says. Powers like SNB and VM have become more of a challenge. (VM is still useful if you wait for a fed to use his eng team you can sneak it in and WHAM before his tac team cools down - the only thing left is rapid fire on his shields and you do a nice bit of damage before they can recover. And if you nerf any team - even tac - then you have a whole boat load of other issues and complaints that will come flying at the devs. Personally, ever BOff I have has a team power - they are the most useful, non-OP power in the game. They are the Spock, O'Brien, and Worf of the game. FOTM usually only occurs when an OP exist and it exist in PvP as well as PvE. How many people ask you what you are using in an open mission when you are killing and not taking much damage? A lot ask, and then WHAM, they have it too. That is the nature of the player, not the PvPer. (How many ppl do you think used VM, SNB and other OP's against the final boss in Cure?) I completely agree with you about focusing on PvP. I personally believe that CO shot itself in the foot trying to appease the PvP community instead of focusing on content, fixing its team mechanics, and not making more TF's.
It's the PVP crowd who get their egos bruised who constantly cry for nerfs.
While I know that the tendency to use what others have perfected (to a point) is a common factor in any MMO and especially PvP, I was hoping that Cryptic would attempt to break the mold by limiting the need for FOTM builds.
Since there are only "x" amount of ship layouts slotwise, only "y" amount of skills and only three careers, my hope was that the Dev's would limit the amount of chainable abilities usable at one time and leave the deciding difference in combat to equipment and skill choice, with no single skill or equipment being overpowered in comparison to the rest.
Lets be honest players wouldn't complain about the dammage output of escorts if escorts couldn't chain so many abilities together for massive dammage. The same could be said for science's abilty to chain so many debuffs and engineering's ability to chain so many self buffs..
I suspect a lot more people are like me, and they just keep to themselves, play their PvE and have fun with what they have. Given the choice between playing with someone against NPC's, or playing against someone, I'm prone to choose "with" and not "against".
Having said all that, I've often tried to suggest that in CoX (City of Heroes/Villains) the Developers should include a special kind of TASK FORCE, one that pits Heroes against the Villains who are trying to create a Giant Monster to terrorize the innocents. A scenario like that, together with proper content and gameplay implementation, would probably get me to play PvP and have fun. Sadly, this proves too much work, probably because the Devs are quite happy to just throw the kids in the sandbox and let them fight for the sake of fighting alone.
You'd definitely be interested in the "Saving STO" thread. Well, perhaps they'd be more interested in you...
Actually I can name a few, every game out there that doesn't have PVP, look it up if you need to.
There are also a few that have PVP.
Most PVE nerfs come from player seeing a blatant player population dominance on a single class/role.
The whole argument of "Well you don't see nerfs coming to PVE its all the PVP ego...." is actually completely wrong, and naive.
When you are PVEing, the objective will be to kill the NPC as fast as you can, and get the loot or reward in the end. Of course you won't see people complaining because the NPC isn't paying for the game, the NPC is not a person who can reply on what is wrong with the game, and the NPC does not posses the intelligence of an actual human being.
That's a good idea for PvP. I do prefer the capture the flag types like capture and hold. Especially when you play at top tier from both sides. It is amazing how both sides have totally different strategies. One believes in sacrificing a pawn for total victory while the other is strength in numbers and rolling over all oposition.
When I was playing WoW for example, my ultimate, shall I say goal was to play with my friends. Leveling up my Warlock was fun and rewarding because of the new abilities I've gained access to with each level. Doing my pet-related quests was also fun and rewarding because I got my pets.
However, once I realized my friends who have essentially lured me to WoW with promises of playing together were not going to create new characters and play them with my low-level Warlock, but instead would be so kind as to wait for my character to reach their levels and then play together... I said byebye to WoW and went elsewhere. WoW, and the rewards it offered, simply weren't enough to keep me playing.
My WoW experience demonstrates and explains why a feature like Side-kicking is more important to me in an MMO than PvP, new factions or even more realism in the game.
I think you've distilled my main issue with PvP. In essence, I'm all about the glory of the story and characters, not simply demolishing the other guy.
When you have good sportsmanship and willing players PvP is a fun endevour, even if you are out numbered or outclassed.
I don't know about now, but Illusion/Storm was an awesome mix. I always enjoyed mine; Doctor Tripps.
Squiddies ftw
STO on the other hand... well, I'd say it's less captivating somehow, and I think that is because both space and ground combat put such hugs emphasis on gear, and the abilities are still sometimes clunky, but worse yet, they eventually seem lackluster in the grand scheme of things.
The problem for me, seems to be focused on the fact that abilities, in STO, come in different tiers, but as opposed to City of Heroes and Champions Online, we do not get to actually decide exactly how these abilities progress. This gameplay mechanism, I think I miss the most!
Yes, we can put points into Captain Skills, and collect and slot gear items that essentially provide the boosts that City of Heroes character-build-system provides, but somehow, it seems less... enticing, and way less personally involving. I'm hoping it's just a matter of concept and that eventually I'll come around though, because I doubt Cryptic will change anything in how things work.
Hopefully it will flesh out and grow over time. In my opinion the equipment/gear should be a small part of the game with the Captain/Bo powers being more important.
To me the real problem is the lack of options for BO abilities. In STO you have the awesome ability to switch out BOs and therefore your abilities on the fly (assuming you're reasonably skilled for them anyway) but the lack of variety in abilities (along with the skill point cap and especially the low cap on admiral rank skill points) means that there is little incentive to do so. Quite a few abilities have a purpose that is, at best, VERY limited (such as Boarding Party or the Tactical AoE abilities) and so no one really usees them. Other abilities are marginalized since they share a global cooldown with other, much more useful, abilities (Tactical team is a good example).
So in general I think we need a wider range of BO abilities and a reduction in the abilities that share a global cooldown (especially abilities that share a global cooldown and are in different trees).
With one major difference, I can't control what exactly a +7 Sensor Array Science console does to my BO abilities, can I? I mean, all that is already predetermined to me, which if you ask me, is a tad too simplistic in comparison with what I could do with CoH builds.
This is definitely a problem which I've experienced already in Closed Beta and I would love it if Cryptic fixed this, but the jury is still out on the "how-to".
Agreed.