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Auto-balance shields

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Players got auto-fire for space and ground weapons in the last few patches because firing weapons was a highly repetitive task that you would want to be doing 99% of the time. Balancing shields easily falls into the same category, so I think there should also be an auto-balance shield option, at least until some game mechanic comes into play that creates a situation where you might NOT want to do this... as it is, there really isn't one. If there was, then at worst, auto-balance could be a simple toggle rather than a mash.
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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I think shield rebalance is a bad component of game play. Making it automatic would just make it worse.

    Having said that, I re-bound this to spacebar, and spam that constantly in combat. Pretty much achieves the same result.

    Try doing that.

    I figure, why gimp myself? If they want to include something as easy as total shield rebalance, I might as well use it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I agree it's a dumb mechanic, but why let it be dumb AND inconvenient?

    I don't mash spacebar enough for that method to be reliable, unfortunately. :(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Edgecase wrote: »
    I agree it's a dumb mechanic, but why let it be dumb AND inconvenient?

    I don't mash spacebar enough for that method to be reliable, unfortunately. :(

    Thats a bit of a smart TRIBBLE comment. So being so smart you will know that a lot of players use macros to balance shields and this whole automated approach technically already exists. Those players probably get the edge over you because there is no way you can manage shields unless your not dishing out a lot of attack but instead tanking.

    There is the mouse scroll approach. Key bind mouse scroll up to balance shields and during battle just scroll away to your hearts content.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Put that in the chat to balance your shields

    /bind Space "GenSendMessage HUD_Root FireAll $$ +power_exec distribute_shields"
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    I think shield rebalance is a bad component of game play. Making it automatic would just make it worse.

    I have to agree with that. They created the wonderful ability for directional damage, then added a button to make it mostly irrelevant... why would they do that? /sigh

    It's a bit late to fix it without rebalancing all damage, so it would make more sense as a toggle...
    Having said that, I re-bound this to spacebar, and spam that constantly in combat. Pretty much achieves the same result.

    Try doing that.

    I figure, why gimp myself? If they want to include something as easy as total shield rebalance, I might as well use it.

    If you don't want to annoy people with space-bar spamming, then 'autohotkey' or a programmable keyboard/keypad will allow you to 'autorepeat' a key whilst it's held down.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    I'd almost say they should remove the ability to balance shields. When in combat, you can only directly reinforce individual shields, out of combat they would start to even out. I think it would make combat positioning much more important.

    Too late now though. I have a feeling a lot of people would cry about this (and rightfully so). Might even make space combat a bit more complicated for some casual users who just spam balance-all (but I don't think it'd be that bad).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    I can honestly tell you just having a programmable keyboard for this power and this power alone is worth it. It actually can help bridge the gap to a heal that is coming off cooldown. Autodistribute plus EPtS and TSS is awesome.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    I don't agree with this because I don't balance my shields that often... I'm an escort, I'm constantly redirecting to my forward shield. So, having it auto-balance wouldn't benefit and my even detriment me.

    Just my thought.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    i have a G13 with delete and space keys bound to sheild balance and fire all phaser on a macro key and i have it as a on off toggle so i can just focus on whats goin on the screen and time the use of my abilites when i need them using the razer naga and G13 together. i posted up a profile in the controls thread with bindings for those that want a copy Profiles thread
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    i got a G15 and i also made a little script to toggle shield ballance on/off

    the only problem with it is that ballance shields allways disrupts scanning and since season 3 it also minimises any Text Popups which can be pretty annoying.

    It might allready be enough if the ballancing would last for 15 seconds instead of only 2.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    only issue i have with the scanning is with the last on in an explore map where the window pops open, else im set, and unless your in combate you should not need to use it anyways zero. what keys are you set on for it? as esc is the only key that should minimise text or F (interact).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    wouldnt this get in the way sometimes? If your fighting and you need more shield juice on one side, the auto balance could waste valuable seconds. i think it best just to hot key it, but thats just me
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    wouldnt this get in the way sometimes? If your fighting and you need more shield juice on one side, the auto balance could waste valuable seconds. i think it best just to hot key it, but thats just me

    It'd be best if it were just a toggle. Click the center and it'll balance until you click the center again or until you tell it to start shifting toward a side instead.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Lets just have the computer do everything, auto pilot too.
    WE can just watch STO.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    If you allow an auto-balanced shield ability, than you will make it far more difficult to damage anything with the way shield resists are applied.

    For example, a 10,000 damage Beam overload smacking into a shield facing with 1 point left with 75% shield resist
    For the bleedthrough:

    10% bleedthrough is subtracted from the hit:
    10,000 * 0.1 = 1,000 Bleedthrough damage
    9,000 points of damage left for the next stage
    NOTE: Resiliant shields discard 50% of bleedthrough, basically:
    1,000 * 0.5 = 500 (Resiliant only)

    For the Shield Hit at 75% resistance:

    1.0 (100%) - 0.75 (75%) = 0.25 (25%) damage left after resistance.
    9,000 * 0.25 = 2,250 points of damage to the shields.
    2,250 - 1 points of shield facing = 2,249 damage and no more shield facing.

    CURRENTLY that 2,249 is left untouched. If it were restored to pre-resistance values:
    2,249/0.25 = 8,996 (Not currently done in game)

    And the Hull Hit:

    1,000 (Bleedthrough) + 2,249 (Post-Shields) = 3,249
    32.49% of the original hit, a reduction of 67.51%
    Or:
    500 (Bleedthrough) + 2,249 (Post-Shields) = 2,749 (Resiliant Only)
    27.49% of the original hit, a reduction of 72.51%


    So yea, having an ability that auto-spams the redistribute shield that would take at least 50% attacks and negate it off the hull sounds like a swell plan. :rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Cursix wrote:
    If you allow an auto-balanced shield ability, than you will make it far more difficult to damage anything with the way shield resists are applied.

    It'd make it the exact same as it is now, just with less button pressing. It isn't about making it instant, it is about removing the need to hit the button to tell it to balance all the time.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    OmegaOm wrote: »
    Lets just have the computer do everything, auto pilot too.
    WE can just watch STO.

    Yup, because spamming a button to tell your shields to balance all the time is hard. It adds skill to the game.

    Oh, wait, it doesn't. Especially since people just macro it or bind it to something they hit all the time anyway.

    Making a decision which way to balance shields should be important, not spamming a button. Mind you, right now, there isn't much difference between telling it to focus right instead of balancing, but that's another matter.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Actually, I don't mind the redistribute shields as a game mechanic. It doesn't strike me as any more unrealistic then anything else in Trek. Actually, from a real-world perspective, it'd be much easier from an engineering standpoint to apply power equally to all shield facings then to select which particular one to reinforce while drawing equal power away from the others.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Cursix wrote:
    So yea, having an ability that auto-spams the redistribute shield that would take at least 50% attacks and negate it off the hull sounds like a swell plan. :rolleyes:

    We can already do precisely that with a programmable keyboard/keypad or keybinding it to the spacebar etc.

    This thread is about simplifying the game mechanic rather than giving any ability that we don't already have.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Spamming a button is not skill it is about spamming, if the game allows you to bind multiple things to one key it really isn't that different biggest difference is I do not have to worry about breaking my keyboard.

    For you escorts you can make a G-1X keyboards distribute shield strength to any facing if you want. On my G-15 I have a key that just distributes power to the front one also. If there is one thing that this game sucks at is binding multiple BO powers to one key, you usually have to spam the key 2-5 times to get a long alpha strike bind to fire off right.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    My observations have shown 'auto-fire' is more efficient at spamming beams than mashing the fire button constantly, thus I conclude that allowing an auto-balance shield mechanism would allow better efficiency compared to mashing the button or combining it with another combination.

    Having the system redistribute your shield with less than ~10ms pause between compared to mashing a button that gives you 20ms is still a 10ms improvement and thus changing game play in general.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Zypher2011 wrote:
    Put that in the chat to balance your shields

    /bind Space "GenSendMessage HUD_Root FireAll $$ +power_exec distribute_shields"

    This does not seem to work anymore. Was using it for months, now my fleet and myself are finding it is useless.

    Is there a new command for GenSendMessage that seems to be the problem?!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    OmegaOm wrote: »
    Lets just have the computer do everything, auto pilot too.
    WE can just watch STO.

    If you have RSI you need some automation and our health comes first, well for some of us who care it does.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Zypher2011 wrote:
    This does not seem to work anymore. Was using it for months, now my fleet and myself are finding it is useless.

    Is there a new command for GenSendMessage that seems to be the problem?!

    That's odd. I just copied and pasted it directly and it worked fine. I did have a problem before where certain binds (particularly the way point setter) stopped working. The only way I could get them going again was to reset those binds to default (in the UI) and set them up again. Seems like this goes out of it's way to break things with no rhyme or reason sometimes, lol.

    On a side note, I hope by now most people aren't using "HUD_Root FireAll" unless they are only using one type of weapon (i.e. beams, OR turrets, OR cannons, but not all).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    I have periodically noticed my keybinds getting corrupted, at which point I need to re-load them from file.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    so what would that command line be in the chat box if I just wanted to fire all beams?
    Thanks if anybody can help
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    CMikeHardy wrote: »
    I don't agree with this because I don't balance my shields that often... I'm an escort, I'm constantly redirecting to my forward shield. So, having it auto-balance wouldn't benefit and my even detriment me.

    Just my thought.

    Auto balance assumes you want all your shields even. But as was mentioned, that's not always the case. If you want to boost one part of your shields so that when you face them on that side you have more buffer (while maneuvering for a better shot, you'll take dmg to your right shields while boosting your fore shields so that when you turn to bear you have your strongest shields facing them).

    I use balance if I'm taking dmg from all directions, otherwise I don't use it (could just be my bad play style though lol).

    I haven't read the TOS/TOU or EULA but I assume that this MMO also takes the stance that any automation that makes the game easier to play to the extent that the player doesn't have to perform actions (in this case taking out the player's skill to re-balance their own shields as a part of strategy) would be a violation of their TOS/TOU
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    mozoha wrote: »
    so what would that command line be in the chat box if I just wanted to fire all beams?
    Thanks if anybody can help

    Basically just replace the "All" with "Phasers". Even though it says Phasers, it basically means any energy weapon of any type (i.e. Cannons, turrets, beams that are Phaser, Disruptor, Antiproton, etc).

    /bind Space "GenSendMessage HUD_Root FirePhasers"
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Thank u mr. Hale
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    My pleasure. ^^
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