First of all, let me state that English is not my native language. So please do not mind any mistakes i WILL make nor mock on it. (primacy-effect)
I´ve encountered many posts like this one, begging for "love" to boost solo-capabilities.
I don't like to cry nerf and I'm not going to because I think all of the other ships (except maybe for a few KDF of which I have no experience with) are fine the way they are. I've found it very frusterating lately playing an escort in pvp and having to rely on other ships. I understand that this is an MMO and team work should be supported, however, it's difficult when you don't have team mates that will work with you...bla...bla...
To my point:
When/If you start increasing the survivability of escorts (add random class/ship) or add any other special that makes them more successful in soloplay due to the fact, that the player does not want to be dependent on the skills of their team-mates, this power increase is STILL there, when you join a team of skilled and willing players.
You cannot balance a ship for soloplay alone for it will also shift (read: increase) the power a team inviting escorts. Easy thing if you do not have to concentrate on your escort-friend staying alive and instead are free to concentrate on dps, controlling and debuffing.
In my opinion you CAN NOT and really SHOULD NOT balance the lack of social skills ("team? me? no!") or gaming-skills ("keyoard? i have a two button mouse that can click all icons!") or game-theory ("Use RSP!" "You called me Arsepee? What?"). Be it the team-members or be it your own.
You cannot balance people unwilling to hit their "invite to team"-button.
You cannot balance people unwilling to hit their "join team"-button.
You cannot balance people that stay out of pbae-buff-zones.
You cannot balance people that stay out of healing range.
You cannot balance people that ignore "focus fire calls".
You cannot balance people....
For if you boost the ships solo-capability to a degree that any player can achive his goals on his own, there is NO NEED TO JOIN GROUPS, THUS KILLING THE
MMO!
I really feel sorry for those developers that have to please any customer to make it a profitable game.
They have to even please the mass of gamers not willing to be part of a
MMORPG-community with all the efforts it takes to establish social ingame connections making you part of a team.
Increasing solo-capabilities kills the need for teaming!
That´s what happened to "Champions online" btw. (Almost) everyone -including me- started their solo grinding to reach max-level without socializing and interacting with other players on a noticeable degree. So there never has been a community that made the game a desireable experience. It was an average (at best) single player game with inbuilt chat.
A mmorpg needs ARCHETYPES dependent on each other, creating large amounts of synergism to make teaming a reward on it´s own! (recency-effect)
PS: Hope you did keep the first and last message in mind (primacy-recency effect! :rolleyes: )
Comments
Are you attempting to make it where the game garners team play as a must?
When you watch ST, usually the episodes are of one ship against great odds.....that has been and always will be trek's format.
The solo part isnt bad, but what your talking about would make teaming a necessity in certain aspects. problem is, the way the game is set up, that wouldnt be very productive on a personal level. i agree teams need a better stick for combat with including more people to a team...from like 5 to 8 maybe? That would be a good start. And you would see more people teaming....the more the merrier.
You would first have a strong sense of community, while we have that in a way, its not what it needs to be to feel more open and inviting to others to team.
Yes you can solo the game, you can also team up..thats what the STF's are for. But what your talking about wont change unless the map system is more open and less instanced...otherwise we could be wasting our time.
And I disagree, your english is great!
And that is the core of the problem, especially in fed PuGs, they expect to be to lone Hero that beats everything. For obvious reasons that can't work in a MMO.
The answer is not a modification to the escort class. The answer is to join a fleet and to PvP with the same people A LOT. Just like any team sport, practicing together means that you get to know each others playstyle to the extent that no one has to say anything and everyone knows what to do.
Even so, were they to make the escort more survivable, which I think is unwise, it would not affect solo play in the slightest. I have NOT ONCE died in an escort on normal and I'm up to level 25. I mean, I don't even break a sweat. Will it get harder later? Perhaps. But still, I've done the Deferi missions and that boss ship at the end of mission one went down in like 30 seconds. This was my 4th time playing it with various characters and was BY FAR the easiest.
In other words, soloing with an escort (at least on normal) is ALREADY too easy. Increasing survivability wouldn't really change a thing.
Well, I see your point, and there are those that just think they are gods gift to the bridge, but thats leroy jenkins syndrome and its found in any MMO.
The idea here is to entice those in a PUG to team more often. I like the idea.....its a break from the regular grind. That and you have to expect when entering PvP that teaming might be necessary. This is whats missing...that fore thought to "Gee, maybe we'd win this if we were more organized?" teaming does this, not to mention it would make those you team with better players and actually enjoy teaming.
In the end though, you cant make someone understand, you just have to blow them up enough until they get the message.
Teaming is better......
Thank you for reading.
I see this same stupid argument over and over. There is no reason to force players to group in games like these. Especially with Open Teaming, Fleet Actions, and STFs players can come together naturally but are not prohibited from playing the game if they don't want to group or don't have anyone available. In short, play the game as you like but don't force your preferences on others.
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Cryptic's first MMO, City of Heroes, fairly recently (since cryptic sold it) altered one classes inherent boost to give a damage boost that drops off rapidly with larger group sizes. i.e. a big boost when solo, medium when in a duo and pretty much nil or negligible at 4+ people (CoH allows teams of 8).
I can think of no reason why this sort of mechanic can't be used in STO if some ships/classes/etc are seen to need a boost for solo play, but are balanced fine for teams.