Instead of going near an enemy signal contact and automatically engaging them, can you make it like entering systems where you HAVE to click "talk to enemy signal contact".
There are a few good reasons to do this:
1) I'm tired of getting blown up because I auto-engaged into an enemy signal contact fight that is above my level (and you don't always have the option to exit to sector before getting stuck in a red alert battle that disables the exit to sector).
2) It's a waste of time to do enemy signal contacts that are significantly below your level.
3) It's a waste to do an enemy signal contact that you didn't pre-sign up for the reward for doing 3 of them.
4) Sometimes during long travels across sector maps, I alt-tab to minimize the game and check email (or the forums. :-) ) and then when I maximize, I got blown up because I auto engaged an enemy signal contact and they fired on me at will. It would be nice to just let the long boring sector travels go by while the game is minimized without risk of anything happening until you maximize the game and click on the enter system button or the warp to the next sector button.
5) It's also nice to use a long boring sector travel as a bathroom or food break without having to worry about something happening while you're away for a few minutes.
I hope it still requires some effort to avoid them. Possibly make it an option (Allow/Disallow) predatory Enemy Signal Contacts). I sometimes find it immersive to have to pilot around them: The Federation is at War, and if a ship doesn't want to get mucked up in it, it has to plot an alternate course (just like they did in the shows, every once in a while/ a lot on Voyager).
They don't need to be removed. Just made so they don't suck you into them by force.
Also the Borg ones are ridiculous. Those Cubes die SO FAST. My group took out a cube in like 3 seconds.
The cubes seem to die fast because of all the Escorts. I cannot kill one fast by any means in my cruiser. The one time I was in a mostly cruiser DSE, cubes took around a half minute to minute to destroy. However, when you've got the wolf pack of Escorts, things die FAST, cube or not.
Deepspace Encounters (Enemy Signal Contacts) is on our list of things that need to be completely redone in Season 3.
There was a complaint about how all of the DSE's within a sector block looked alike no matter where you got sucked in, the other one was that two people on the opposite ends of a block could end up in the same encounter.
One solution would be to confine these to the border disputed areas of space, though this would likely also require a re-think about sector space too. However, using the Klingons as an example, It'd make more sense for this (and while we're at it Starbase 24) to happen near the Hromi cluster.
The closer you get to the border areas of Federation space the more dangerous things get, and more frequently too.
Deepspace Encounters (Enemy Signal Contacts) is on our list of things that need to be completely redone in Season 3.
Thank you. I realize that "wandering monsters" and having to avoid them is a built-in trope of the MMO genre, but it's really, really annoying.
Before season three, can we get the tiniest of tweaks? When they aggro on someone, they follow that person all the way to the sector border or to the planet or station they enter ... and then sit there. Can we code the AI for these so that when they're not actively following someone, they move back towards their spawning points? I ask this because it's a pain in the neck trying to get to Memory Alpha (in particular) because it's almost constantly surrounded, at point-blank range, by a Crystalline Entity and one or two level 24 Romulan fleets. (That's especially annoying for level 4 characters who have a mission to Memory Alpha.) But it's an issue elsewhere, as well.
I know you have "go back to your spawning point when you break aggro" code for NPCs on ground maps, so I'm hoping it would just take adding one subroutine call to the code to at least keep them from all clumping up so badly. Please?
I agree, they can be enjoyable. In fact, I love that when you get engaged in Alpha Trianguli against the Terran Empire, you can't get out until you beat them.
However, I certainly agree the auto-engage creates alot of issues. My girlfriend got auto-engaged in the Orion Sector (generally a Lieutentant level area) but when she got pulled in, she was instantly vaporized by a +37 Klingon Neg'var Battleship.
I would like to see DSEs changed so that the award reflects YOUR level, regardless of where you engage, and I would like to see it be something you seek out, and not something that jumps you while you are trying to travel.
Actually the problem of things clumping up at memory alpha is the crystalline entity. If you target the rommies near it, sometimes you'll see that they aggroed it.
Also please don't do away with them completely, I enjoy space combat more than ground and this is by far the easiest way to make sure what kind of combat you're getting into.
No they canot be removed because players need them to lv up because the missions alone cannot get you high enough to get to next lv.
Unless you're crazy about play super efficient (which, from what I can read, doing DSEs only appears to be the fastest way, even trumping quests, to level), I find doing Explore missions to be better: You get XP and Badges to get better gear.
Actually, I'd like to see auto-navigate build in: So for example I tell my ship I want to go to DS9 and it keeps switching maps merrily while I go get a coffee.
In this scenario, auto-engage is totally worth it - do you risk the coffee, or do you stay at the helm to execute evasive manoeuvres
Actually, I'd like to see auto-navigate build in: So for example I tell my ship I want to go to DS9 and it keeps switching maps merrily while I go get a coffee.
In this scenario, auto-engage is totally worth it - do you risk the coffee, or do you stay at the helm to execute evasive manoeuvres
On a real ship, you could tell your helmsman to avoid all enemy ships on the way to DS9 while you get the coffee. Although, actually, on a real ship, you'd get it delivered to the bridge. :-)
But still, you could have standing orders with the helmsman to auto-engage or not, which leads me to think the best situation would be to have it be an option (I would think default would be auto-engage off) in the option menu to turn auto engage on or off. It would seem to be an easy thing to program.
All I ask for is so that you can decline them. Usually in space travel I am looking at other things and not the screen, so running into these things get bothersome.
I personally don't mind the Deepspace Encounters (Enemy Signal Contacts) and accept them as part of the game. I figure that while traveling through space your might encounter the roaming Klingon or Romulan, and you need to avoid them by going around them. Dodging the Borg cubes in the B'tran cluster is not that hard - I get sucked in to combat once a week max. I kinda miss the danger I felt then I first started playing
What I would like to change is the ability to engage Enemy Signals that are lower than my current rank. Sometimes I feel like working towards an accolade (romulan for example), and none of them will engage me. It takes me ages to find an existing Contact to entre.
He must be a Yankee fan, too, because my posts on this subject were pretty much DOA in terms of dev-ine intervention. :cool:
Hmm...I thought the STO offices were in Boston and CA. I'm not sure which one he's in. Highly unlikely that there are any Yankees fans in the Boston office, though.
Comments
Also the Borg ones are ridiculous. Those Cubes die SO FAST. My group took out a cube in like 3 seconds.
There was a complaint about how all of the DSE's within a sector block looked alike no matter where you got sucked in, the other one was that two people on the opposite ends of a block could end up in the same encounter.
One solution would be to confine these to the border disputed areas of space, though this would likely also require a re-think about sector space too. However, using the Klingons as an example, It'd make more sense for this (and while we're at it Starbase 24) to happen near the Hromi cluster.
The closer you get to the border areas of Federation space the more dangerous things get, and more frequently too.
Wholeheartedly .. make it so
Sounds good to me. I've never watched an episode where the Enterprise was ambushed by an entire armada of enemy starships.
Before season three, can we get the tiniest of tweaks? When they aggro on someone, they follow that person all the way to the sector border or to the planet or station they enter ... and then sit there. Can we code the AI for these so that when they're not actively following someone, they move back towards their spawning points? I ask this because it's a pain in the neck trying to get to Memory Alpha (in particular) because it's almost constantly surrounded, at point-blank range, by a Crystalline Entity and one or two level 24 Romulan fleets. (That's especially annoying for level 4 characters who have a mission to Memory Alpha.) But it's an issue elsewhere, as well.
I know you have "go back to your spawning point when you break aggro" code for NPCs on ground maps, so I'm hoping it would just take adding one subroutine call to the code to at least keep them from all clumping up so badly. Please?
Thanks for the reply. While it is a bit too vague for my liking, it's nice to see the head honcho answering posts in the forums. :-)
no way !
/not signed
I hope not. I actually enjoy them.
I agree, they can be enjoyable. In fact, I love that when you get engaged in Alpha Trianguli against the Terran Empire, you can't get out until you beat them.
However, I certainly agree the auto-engage creates alot of issues. My girlfriend got auto-engaged in the Orion Sector (generally a Lieutentant level area) but when she got pulled in, she was instantly vaporized by a +37 Klingon Neg'var Battleship.
I would like to see DSEs changed so that the award reflects YOUR level, regardless of where you engage, and I would like to see it be something you seek out, and not something that jumps you while you are trying to travel.
Also please don't do away with them completely, I enjoy space combat more than ground and this is by far the easiest way to make sure what kind of combat you're getting into.
In this scenario, auto-engage is totally worth it - do you risk the coffee, or do you stay at the helm to execute evasive manoeuvres
I'd rather see ground combat completely redone before DSEs.
On a real ship, you could tell your helmsman to avoid all enemy ships on the way to DS9 while you get the coffee. Although, actually, on a real ship, you'd get it delivered to the bridge. :-)
But still, you could have standing orders with the helmsman to auto-engage or not, which leads me to think the best situation would be to have it be an option (I would think default would be auto-engage off) in the option menu to turn auto engage on or off. It would seem to be an easy thing to program.
What I would like to change is the ability to engage Enemy Signals that are lower than my current rank. Sometimes I feel like working towards an accolade (romulan for example), and none of them will engage me. It takes me ages to find an existing Contact to entre.
He must be a Yankee fan, too, because my posts on this subject were pretty much DOA in terms of dev-ine intervention. :cool:
Hmm...I thought the STO offices were in Boston and CA. I'm not sure which one he's in. Highly unlikely that there are any Yankees fans in the Boston office, though.