Now... While watching ST:First Contact yestoday, the feeling that the Borg in STO weren't canon enough came back.
Ok, so almost 40 years have passed, and of cause the Borg have developed, but going away from the ability to adapt to weapons and regenerate seems like somthing the Borg would not do... It is just too much of a advantage to let go.
So looking back on previous games I've played that includes the Borg, and thinking mostly on ground, I realized that you could perhaps adjust the Borg in STO without having to re-do the entire Borg missions (including STF), but perhaps minor modifications.
Now remember: Theese are my ideas, and not a suggestion to change the game. I had an idea, and I wanted feedback on them... That's it.
Some things I belive have to go:
First: Get rid of Heavy Tactical and Elite Tactical Drones. They are ugly, and serve little purpose (and the "immune" bug related to the Elites is just plain anoying). Apart from that they aren't quite canon.
Secondly: Protodrones: They look EXACTLY like finished drones, but have barely no health... Get rid of them. They dont add to the expirience.
Third: Borg patroling?! Gotta go.
Fourth: Stun, root and Hold: They stack and are THE thing that annoys people the most. Also the borg have never used anything like that, because it dosen't make sence for them to do it. If they were to hold you, it should be at VERY close range (less than .3 meters), immediatly followed by an assimilation attempt.
Fifth and final: the 10 meter assimilation pipe: Come'on... In the series/movie it was 2x 15 cm long .5 cm thick tubes shot from fingers or hand/wrist. Make it right, and combine it with the close range stun, indicated in#4.
Now... With theese gone, my idea comes into play:
Enemies:
- Regular Drones
- Tactical Drones
- Workers
- Partially / Infected Drones.
- Distrobution Nodes
The above list seems more reasonable dosen't it?
So: Right now the Borg are disabled when shot at, only to revive themselves if the node hasn't gone down before they were "stunned".
What I suggest is to first doubble the health of any of the above mentioned Drone types (except workers), and adding a permanent regeneration to them, as well as better resist against exposes and most weapon types... NOW NOW... before you tell me I am making them OP, read on... solution is on the way:
Now. ALL drones should be attached to a Distrobution node, that is close by. The drones will not wander more than say... 40 meters away from them, as they are connected to the Hive via. this node, and get their energy supply from it (think: Best of both worlds, PT 1).
The Node should be bigger than it is now, being higher than the drones, for better visability. Perhaps one of them terminals we saw in the tutorial and had to shoot. We will get back to where this is important later.
So, in the series/games/movies, the Borg weren't able to adapt right away. The needed 10 - 12 shots to analyse and adapt to a given weapon type.
So we add this ability to the Borg here too. a condition that says that if the drone has been hit by 10 shots by a given weapon type, it becomes immune, except for meele type attacks, forcing the player to change weapon into somthing else OR:
Shoot the DistroNode.
If the DistoNodes go down, the Borg attached to it deactivate and reset. This basically means:
- All adaptations reset to 0.
- Borg go dead, like they do now, if the nodes have NOT been shot.
- They still slowly regenrate (The nanoprobes are independent from the distro node after all).
In the time the node is disabled, the Borg are without the ability to move and the adaptations are gone, making them basically sitting ducks. This is where the increased health and resistance comes in... To make sure that they aren't too easy to get rid of, but are still destructable.
Now: The Distrobution node has a regenration system, letting the device repair itself over time. The time it could take could be 1 minute. While it repairs, it is immune to damage.
When the node has reparied the surrounding borg that have not been taken care of re-initialize and continue the fight.
Given the fact that even Nanoprobes do not have unlimited resources, it would also be resonable to make the number of times that the distro nodes can regenrate limited (also for the expirience).
The only drones not attached to the Distrobution node would be the workers, who would have their own power supply (a worker that can't work would not make a lot of sence if the cube is damaged right?).
IF my thoughts are coorrect, it would make the Borg in the game seem more cannon, while adding a little strategy to the game, as well as encourage teamplay in the lategame missions in Gamma.
The only mission that would be heavily affected by theese changes would be The Cure, but I think the balance would probably remain intact, and it would take less time, because you would not have to fight a Borg group every 20 meters you go.
I encourage Feedback.
Comments
This would frighten me as my BO's already have it in for me.....they keep making me beam down to fight a full squad of Hirogen all by myself...........;) You know what i mean........
If anything they should have the borg kit and have the B.S.S (Bull**** shieldremover) removed from their ships (I don't even remember seeing anything like that in the shows? ) .
As far as ground borg go, It seems like the OP has an interesting idea. I'd try it out. Maybe on the Klingon infected (ya'll all know why. It's not like it could be ANY worse than it is now with all the bugs Infected has over there)
Another way around this could be that when you or your BO's are assimilated, and you press respawn, another Partially assimilated drone that looks alot like your char is added to the group that you were fighting.
Bonus:
- Adds a preventive action to simply pressing "Respawn" when you die in both regular and STF missions.
- Would make sence to the assimilation process, unlike now.
Bad thingie:
- I see some borg squads become QUITE big.
Actually what your refering to is a shield inversion beam, and yes it was in TNG when the good Picard first encountered the Borg via Q...it is a canon piece that the Borg actually had. It's just depicted differently in game for effect purposes....
I'm not saying they should have the actual Aegis set, I'm saying they should have something like the "Reactive Shielding" set bonus from it, which allows your shields to resist up to seven different types of energy weapon fire. Doesn't that sound like something the Borg should be doing?
I'd rather it be through shield regeneration. The Borg as the invincible boogeyman always seemed like a lame comic villain to me. Ultimately though I feel that the borg do not need any help in space. (especially the ones at Kerrat)
I like them..
for one i seriusly hate fighting the borg on the ground since they spam stun and hold. having a hard time to see the fun in that.
the what you have described things sounds really good.
Fair enough, though I also included the drones you encounter on the ground in my original post. Currently I've never felt particularly threatened by them in ground combat. Removing the "immune" effect from the Elite Tactical drones, and giving all Borg drones some form of reactive shielding would be better. The higher "rank" the drone is, the more types of energy weapons it can resist. This wouldn't make them immune but would make it tougher to break down their shields using certain types of weapon.
For example:
Phaser/Disruptor Resist:
Drone
Medical Drone
Phaser/Disruptor/Polaron/Tetryon Resist:
Tactical Drone
Heavy Tactical Drone
Elite Tactical Drone
Phaser/Disruptor/Polaron/Tetryon/Antiproton Resist:
Essentially any unique or named Borg, either currently in-game or added in the future:
Assimilated Undine
Ogen
Armek of Borg
Manus of Borg
Borg Queen
I also think that the borg just look to zombie like in this game.. Just give them their "fatter" look again. They look so fragile now..
That's exactly what they were going for, in a dev blog on IGN they stated:
"When you see a new Borg drone in STO it will be obvious there is no coming back from assimilation. Instead of adding a gun attachment to an arm, they have removed the whole limb and replaced it with an enhanced synthetic weapon. Much of the torso has been converted to a more efficient cybernetic construct. Why would a drone need a stomach if it gets all its energy from regeneration cycles in a Borg alcove?"
Dev Blog on the Borg: http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/105/1050342p1.html
You say that they aren't canon, but we have never ever seen ALL the Borg in existence. Plus, the last Borg we've actually seen on TV late in the timeline was in the last season of Voyager. Who knows what kind of changes could have occurred because of Janeway's acts against the Borg. You can't claim it's not canon when simply put we don't know.
I kinda agree with this. They just increase the numbers you have to fight against and die in a few shots. They are kinda pointless.
I agree with both of these points as well.
For this part I am a little unsure about. To me it just sounds like you're replacing the simplistic frustration that currently exists witht he Borg and replacing it with a more strategic frustration. I'm not sure which one is actually better, regardless of how close to the show they would act like. I'm not against the idea.. however I am unsure as to how well it would work.
First: I said they weren't quite canon... along with my first paragraph that emplies exactly the point you made in regards to this subject.
The latter works quite well if implemented properly... (*chough*Elite-force*cough*)
.. Had to say it
mmh oke, i agree but still. Borg are always assimilating people, so why not add a few "normal lookin" borg between the zombie looking borg?
Wonderful ideas! I always thought the borg were a little too easy to kill myself.
One point I do have to make (and this is not to be annoying, i just want people to take your ideas as seriously as possible). To that end, it is spelled "canon", in the context you are using it.
Benefit of not having English as native language xD (fixed!)
As for the way they look, I am not sure of the explanation for this, I assume it has something to do with these Borg being mainly "grown" as opposed to assimilated.
So if we want to give them a sense of canon, they really kinda are as far as the books are concerned (taking place in the mid 2380's), obviously Cryptic, having the free time to work with, are able to further evolve them, but from what I have read so far, they are fairly close. (but I do have 4 novels left to read in the series too, plus another 4 or 5 that come after it that are directly affected by the events)/
Personally in the game, I would like to see a little more "direction" to the Borg, they DO have an agenda, more than just assimilate this and destroy that. So it would be nice to see them, err "fleshed" out a bit.
That's not to say that changes don't need to be made they do, so while I think they are fairly canon to the books, I do agree with a lot of your points.
I like this plan Id just run to downstairs infected kill a few groups kill boss, run to queen (as usual), continue as usual.
I like it . it makes infected easier.
personally ive never had a problem with multiple roots holds etc. why. my groups target meddrone>infected>drone>tac>heavytac>elitetac
as for the protodrones i can understand. but at the same time I like em. all it a bit of randomness that makes you wonder.
can i take another volley in the a55 before i kill the elite or do i turn around kill him and let the bastrd get closer.
perhaps just limit the number of protos a group can call down. ive seen like 20 of the bstrds.
other than that ive no real problems.
What I am getting at is that I'd like the borg to be more Borg like we know them.
But as I stated in my OP: This is an idea... Nothing I expect implemented in the game one way or another, I just had to write it down, and get feedback.
Proto Drones - they are annoying and need to go or only be reserved for special units like Elite Drones. Not every single Borg in the game.
Heavy and Elite Tacticals - They are good, but need some tweeks.
Nodes: I would be like more true to cannon that if you destroy these, the drones all deactivate. And have their location in spots on the wall as part of the assmilation process.
If outside, Borg are simiply tough to defeat.
Group Resistances / Adaptation: Like said previously a type of Adaptive shielding, but instead of the individual its part of the group. One or two in a group can be easily killed by a certain type of weapon, and after a while the others start having resistances to that weapon type, the more the weapon is used, the harder it is to attack them with that energy type.
This gives groups more reason to mix weapons.
Weaknesses: Borg should be weak against Kinetic or Physical weapons if they are adapted to energy weapons.
Assimilation: In game it's rather stupid at times. Assimilation should only take place within melee range (within 2m). This can go with the Borg Neural Suppressant.
Counter Assimilation: Given the premise of the STFs was finding a Cure for assimilation, players after completing Infected should be able to unlock counter assimilation technology. Such as special Hypos that can be crafted, Engineers building somekind of counter-assmilation device that injects when being assmilated.
Doctors with the Borg Medical Kit (Cure Drop) should have the ability to counter assimilation at will. This gives this kit a more tactical use against the Borg than in everyday use in replacing the standard Medical Kit.
More destruction: Within the STFs or certain Borg missions, some technology can be destroyed that can cause problems for the Borg other than distribution nodes. Like distracting Borg in going into repair mode and begin repairs, which gives you freedom to bypass without attacking.
Unique abilities:
Tactical's - The Hansen Cloak: 7's Parents invented a cloak to fool the Borg, but what's to say Starfleet didn't perfect this ability and gave it to Tactical Admirals use to sneek past
Engineers - Hacking: Ability to use, prevent, or circumvent technology.
Science - Counter Research: Gaining knowledge and the ability to use or counter technology thats unique to some missions. For example in Assimilation, the Undine Drone, you would find it's weak spots.