Okay, this is going to be a fairly harsh review and maybe a little QQing, but here goes:
First off whole mission (much like the ground part) has the feel of a bad foundry mission. Map jam packed with stuff to look impressive, and none of the stuff is part of the mission. Compared to the other three space STFs which have very purposeful map designs, I was HIGHLY disappointed by the crowded slapped together look of the map.
Okay now to the actual mission review:
Played on Elite (play by play follows)
(I am M.A.C.O. Elite Commander. Completed all optionals in PuG groups except for IGE which I did with premade. Wanted to experience the mission like most people will when it rolls with random group)
Alien Tac officer in Armitage Heavy Escort Carrier with full Omega Force MK XII set. Since I PvP in this ship I won't detail my load out of weapons DOFFs and BOFFs, but worst weapons I have are (Borg) MK XII (of course all matched energy types with Blue MK XI tac consoles)
(I will probably fly a different ship for this mission in the future as the first part could make my fighters a liability to the team if I don't control them VERY carefully)
One guys does what someone always does in pugs, and flies into the mass of tac cubes at full impulse and opens fire. 20 minutes and 10-15 Ship Injuries later (repaired them of course during the long wait to respawn each time) we manage to clear them out.
CUT SCENE (personally, I am not a fan of cut scenes in general, but it's a nice cut scene)
(HOWEVER ... STO cutscenes seem to overlap the start of game play and this one was no exception. By the time my game returned from the cut scene to live action I was already getting pounded ((happens to me at the start of the Fleet Action Starbase Defense every time as well))
No worries, respawn and go after ... wait ... TWO giant Borg Hot Dog ships? Already bored I park my ship in the sweet spot and start Pew Pewing as my teammates one by one get mad and drop out of the mission. I tried to singlehandedly shoot down the Energy Ball of Death each time and kill all the regen probes and DPS the Hot Dog, but since no-one was flying a heal boat (or using it as such if they were) was just a slow steady death.
Didn't get to see Boss Fight since before we even managed to kill one hot dog of death, team dwindled down to two people and we decided to give up, with two escorts vs two B'Gers, it was over.
POINT BY POINT REVIEW:
1. OK, it was a pug on Elite. This is the way MOST people will play the mission and it's gonna be a nightmare for a couple weeks after S7 goes live trying to complete it with pugs. I will likely only do this mission with premade team.
2. It is IMHO really boring. It lacks the artistry and co-ordinated movement factor that all the other space STFs have. I spend the vast majority of my time either reversing to stay out of tractor range or diving in and out, while the cubes slowly crept forward. (edit to clarify: what I mean is there is a lot of sitting still and very little actual flying involved)
3. Mission is difficult not because it requires strategy but just because of massive damage by enemies. I fly a cash shop ship with pure Purple XII weapons and Purple MK X/Blue MK XI or better in all consoles, and I died a lot. Again, no one even tried to heal me so that didn't help.
4. Seems to also lack the interaction with BOFFs pop ups to help coach along the mission. As much as these annoy me, and they DO annoy me, LOL, I think a lot ofplayers rely on them and are gonna feel lost on this one.
SUMMARY:
KASE and CSE require communication and co-ordination to complete. ISE requires timing and and DPS. This mission has none of that. PuGs will fail and fail some more IMHO and mission content is not interesting enough to make this something to run again and again. I will likely join a good premade team and do it once to get optional (as I am guessing that will be required for a costume of some sort) And then go back to spamming the ISE, KASE, KAGE circuit to get marks so I can unlock my passives from the rep system. (only gear I don't already have will be the crossover sets which I want for my fed but not for my klink) Until the rep system was announced I intended to happily PvP and never set foot in STF again, but that is a whole 'nother topic.
NOTE: Will try this again on normal setting just to see if the mission is more interesting in any way when it's done successfully, but all in all I was left feeling REALLY let down by both this and Into The Hive. Both seem to lack any actual artistry and are just "look how much enemies we make ... ja ja!!!" rather than having the creativity present in all the other STFs. I was really hoping that since I MUST return to STFs (from which, having completed all objectives, I was happily retired, that The Hive series would be something to break up the monotony, but instead both left me feeling like I was playing a console game rather than an MMO.
UPDATE: Played it or normal and was Faceroll easy to do on normal. That made it even more boring and non-STF-like.
Finally some challenge in the STF! Died a few times but not too many. I expected some extra deaths while getting used to the new stf.
You are not going to be able to do Elite on a standard PUG, that's for sure and you'd need a tank & sci ship for max effectiveness, further encouraged with the lack of timers on optionals except the first optional.
My only suggestion is reduce the queens version of the isometric charge, that one hurts a lot with no defense. Everything else has a defense and is well done for both elite and normal.
---
"We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
Sincerely,
The Cube Assimilating Your Ship Right Now
This mission is wholly unenjoyable for me. 6 tac cubs is not my definition of a good time... nor are 2 unimatrix vessels... with feedback pulse and spinal lances...
I found it to be a challenge... but an enjoyable challenge.. the STF's we have are too easy.
Well done Cryptic!
As noted in other entries here... there needs to be a mix of players present... eng, sci, and tac. Having mothballed my sci sometime ago I am personally very excited!
Did it in a PuG like I do all my elite STFing. Managed to complete it in little over 30 minutes and a ton of deaths. The entire thing just gives me a 'meh' feeling and I wasn't really sure why until I read glassguitar 's post and I simply have to agree with him.
It just feels like the No Win Scenario borg style. Which is fine for the No Win Scenario but it just didn't feel like an STF. Their was nothing going on, no triggers, nothing happening really other than a bunch of ducks lined up to be kilt.
But thats fine, I already have 3 ESTFs to play so I do not think the difficulty itself should be lowered or anything let this be for those who enjoy the style.
That and it does seem really odd to be outnumbered by borg tac cubes and still annihilate them. Not even Voyager sissified the borg as much as this mission does.
First part was fine but the Unimatrix ship part was HELL!
A full team couldn't even kill one of those things before we started losing team members (partly due to the one-shot torp spread) while focusing fire on it.
Mission was impossible to complete once people started leaving, and next to impossible even with everyone there.
We tried to stay within the "safe zone" between the ships, made little difference seeing as how we could evade the lances anyway.
My advise: Either remove one of the Unimatrix ships and give a warning everytime the ship is about to fire the lance, so we can evade, or remove the lance altogether.
Since we didn't get past this part, I can't comment on the rest of the mission.
Oh, and the stacking respawn timer was a pain, but that goes for all STFs.
Supper fun mission and feels like the epic Grand Finale for the Borg STFs.
On Normal it feels just right, fair amount of challenge but still easy enough for most people to complete.
Elite on the other hand...the Borg Tac Cubes and Spheres are an interesting challenge you need to think what your doing so you don't aggro more than one at a time and still try to destroy them fast enough to get the optional.
However when you get to the 2 Unimatrix ship things turn nasty with uber 1 hit plasma torpedoes spreads and the lances that can one hit, avoiding the lances is easy enough...however staying near the Queen to avoid the lances like Admiral D'vak suggests will prove suicidal as your now caught in the cross fire of 2 Plasma Spreads :eek:
I think much like the other STF needed when they were redone, the Elite version may need a slight balance pass as right now am guessing the have been Auto scaled.
I found it to be a challenge... but an enjoyable challenge.. the STF's we have are too easy.
Well done Cryptic!
As noted in other entries here... there needs to be a mix of players present... eng, sci, and tac. Having mothballed my sci sometime ago I am personally very excited!
There is a difference between too easy and too hard. And this mission is hard not because it requires somesort of strategy that everyone needs to know... its hard because Cryptic has decided to throw 6 Tactical Cubes, 2 Unimatrix vessels, and an Octahedron that can kill in one shot. Its hard because the enemies can kill you in one or two hits and they have such massive amounts of health (and in the case of the Unimatrix vessels the ability to spawn pets and heal their health quickly). Thats not the "right" kind of hard... its just un-fun.
And quite franly the difficulty of the current STFs is just fine... they are fun this way... and they keep me coming back. Add more of a challenge (which to cryptic means making the enemies super powerful) and I'll stop playing them.
My feedback (for the first and second parts of the mission before the Queen.):
Part 1:
- 6 tactical cubes is too much. Drop it to 4. Or 6 regular cubes.
- Lose the spheres. They dont add to the challenge, and its a touch excessive with the tactical cubes sitting right there.
Part 2:
- 2 Unimatrix vessels is a touch excessive, but thats not the major problem here. Give them only 1 one hit KO ability. Either the Lance or the large plasma energy bolts. Not both.
- The Unimatrix vessels should not be able to spawn regeneration probes as often as I saw them spawning them in my run. If they need to be able to... then the regeneration probes super hazard emitters need to be toned down. going from 20% to 50% in the span of 3 seconds does not add challenge.
What people need is knowledge about some of the enemies mechanics.
I am amazed that after having the red alerts for so long in the game, that people still seem to have no idea that plasma bolts and regen probes can and must be shot down quickly.
Against plasma bolts there are a few reliable ways to kill them.
Unlessyou have super accurate weapons they will miss a lot. Tractor beams and repulsors however will not. Pin them on the spot and shoot them more accurately
Warp plasma creates an excellent firewall against them.
probably a million sci abilities that I dont use help.
Suspect fighters on intercept are great here.
Maybe mine the ends of the unimatrixes? That will take care of teh regen probes at the same time which die pretty fast btw. A few energy hits and torps will make short work of them.
What people need is knowledge about some of the enemies mechanics.
I am amazed that after having the red alerts for so long in the game, that people still seem to have no idea that plasma bolts and regen probes can and must be shot down quickly.
Against plasma bolts there are a few reliable ways to kill them.
Unlessyou have super accurate weapons they will miss a lot. Tractor beams and repulsors however will not. Pin them on the spot and shoot them more accurately
Warp plasma creates an excellent firewall against them.
probably a million sci abilities that I dont use help.
Suspect fighters on intercept are great here.
Maybe mine the ends of the unimatrixes? That will take care of teh regen probes at the same time which die pretty fast btw. A few energy hits and torps will make short work of them.
But what people currently expect in elite is:
Warp in, blow some stuff up, let the people who know how it works do the actual work, die, respawn, do anything, die, respawn, die, die, boss fight (die again or go afk), get the loot.
Played normal version of Hive Onslaught found it a about right in terms of difficulty of the mission challaging but not i want to give up now kind of attuide. I found knowing when to break off attack and recharge shields and hull then get back on the attack. I used the Druganought Cruiser with a science vice admiral character to help with shields and photonic support ships to help with the many targets.
Had a problem with no omega marks at the end of the mission.
(by the way this is my 1st post ever on star trek online and today was my first time i tribble server)
tried elite, so why is this mission 30 times harder then any other elite stf? why are we going from 1 or 2 cubes at a times, a single tac cube at a time, to 6 tac cubs and 2 unimatrix ships? couldn't even finish it, team all left after the half hour it took to kill the cubes. we had the damage dealing to do the mission, there were 4 well set up escorts, but the 1 shots ruined everything.
oh sure its technically just a dps race, but really its more of a race against 1 shots. everywhere 1 shots, hope you like 50 injuries and maxing out your respawn timer in the first 10 minutes of the mission. 3 kinetic resist consoles, didn't do squat. invisible standard plasma torps popping you with 1 hit almost every time. have any points in threat control? don't bother queing, seriously.
guess the trick is stay between the unimatrix ship? um ok, thats so clever or something. that would magically not make them fire their lance, because. whatever. couldn't get farther then that.
Normal x3 and Elite x1. Completed them all. Yeah Elite was a real challenge, but what do you expect? It's a brand new STF, you just need to figure out what strategies work best, imagine that? So it will take some time and more testing. People who expect to go in there and come out as unscathed heroes are being a touch unrealistic.
It's the Borg Queen for goodness sake, of course she will be surrounded by formidable protection. Don't expect a walk in the park for the Borg STF finale.
Lot's of things I like about it. You need a balanced team, and hey, a real tank is required. Thank you, Cryptic, cruisers still have a purpose. Besides good tanking, coordinated healing/support, and some dps make this very doable...as long as you work together as a team. Charging in with all guns blazing and not noticing what your teammates are doing will definitely get you wiped. Communicate, read the suggested tactics, agree on who will be doing what. Be methodical and follow the lead of the tank instead of being a one ship deathstar, which most people are probably used to because the rest of the game can be played that way.
I admit, it was annoying getting one shotted and perhaps it should be made slightly easier but please don't make this into a KASE or ISE. Let's have a STF where each type of ship and captain can play the role they were cut out for, and see what a difference team work makes. If there are some ppl who avoid this STF so be it. But please don't dumb it down too much.
BTW I used a Sci Ody with mk xii borg stuff and mk xi blue consoles. Nothing special.
Uh... but it is NOT a DPS race that 4-5 escorts are meant to breeze through.
This mission is a nice mix of DPS in the beginning, with a good measure of aggro controll however.
And then it is designed to be tanked! Really, take a look at the optionals... it gives you all the time in the world to do it but clearly says: TANK! Keep 3 players alive, keep 1 player alive!
Not kill everything as fast as possible.
Did it in a PuG like I do all my elite STFing. Managed to complete it in little over 30 minutes and a ton of deaths. The entire thing just gives me a 'meh' feeling and I wasn't really sure why until I read glassguitar 's post and I simply have to agree with him.
It just feels like the No Win Scenario borg style. Which is fine for the No Win Scenario but it just didn't feel like an STF. Their was nothing going on, no triggers, nothing happening really other than a bunch of ducks lined up to be kilt.
But thats fine, I already have 3 ESTFs to play so I do not think the difficulty itself should be lowered or anything let this be for those who enjoy the style.
That and it does seem really odd to be outnumbered by borg tac cubes and still annihilate them. Not even Voyager sissified the borg as much as this mission does.
Great comment about the No Win Scenario flavor. The strength of STO is story-line and game mechanics. IN this STF we get no story-line, and no chance to use some of the best mechanic of this game. Even in ISE (widely regarded as the easiest Space STF) I actually fly my ship, timing turns and throttle changes to get the best placement for certain parts of the mission. I have a feeling successful Hive runs will be a slow crawl forward, hit reverse before tractor range, someone spamming heals on the DPS ships, followed by spam attack the hot dogs til you get one shot, respawn and repeat.
Will comment on boss fight after I try it on normal. I think the chances of getting a pug that can get through the hot dog fight on Elite are very slim.
Tac Cubes were fun, makes it so you have to actually pay attention and not aggro them all. Myself + 2 geared/experienced fleetmates and 2 pug randoms hit the optional (just barely)
The cutscene lag caused our ships to be automatically killed by the 2 Unimatrix ships before we could react, thus wiping the group and losing us the optional. Annoying, but we pushed through it. Plasma lance needs to be tuned down, which is apparently known.
The queen. Ahh, the queen. Gave it about 10 attempts before we collectively bailed. We tried kiting, varied distances, different sides, completely surrounding, everyone just died horribly and quickly. If there's a strategy to the queen in her current state, we could not discover it. This was the time where it went from "yay, new content" to "welp, TRIBBLE on this TRIBBLE."
Other than that, love the STF, just fix the cutscene thing, plasma lances and tune the queen a bit and you're golden
Uh... but it is NOT a DPS race that 4-5 escorts are meant to breeze through.
This mission is a nice mix of DPS in the beginning, with a good measure of aggro controll however.
And then it is designed to be tanked! Really, take a look at the optionals... it gives you all the time in the world to do it but clearly says: TANK! Keep 3 players alive, keep 1 player alive!
Not kill everything as fast as possible.
Jackwagons came in aggro'd everything then filled an entire screen complaining about how hard this is.
One quit.
We get through that, The Vgers come in and they start complaining about being one-shottted... despite two of us saying STAY CLOSE TO THE QUEEN.
Then they started complaining about not being able to damage Vger1, tell them to target the regen probes they start complaining "WHO PUT YOU IN CHARGE" and out comes the third-grade level profanity.
Two more quit.
Really.
It's come to this?
I expect this kind of behavior on Holodeck now we have it on Tribble too? Maybe instead of swearing and get ticked off... READ the directions, LISTEN the two players giving advice MAYBE the mission isn't that hard...
Could be those players have never run a Red Alert. Many people skip them because they are buggy as hell and don't drop relevant rewards. Even if that was the case this mission would have worked if they followed the promptings of the other two players.
Wow.
No more pugging on tribble after this , that is for sure
Best STF ever. Never ever ever ever ever nerf this. (for Hive Onslaught anyway)
However, given the difficulty it should give exponentially better rewards compared to the other space ones which are a pushover and no where near the same difficulty.
Best STF ever. Never ever ever ever ever nerf this. (for Hive Onslaught anyway)
However, given the difficulty it should give exponentially better rewards compared to the other space ones which are a pushover and no where near the same difficulty.
Did you destroy the regeneration probes? That's the first thin I learned when I set foot in a Red Alert. Kill regen probes before even firing at the mothership.
[*]The cutscene lag caused our ships to be automatically killed by the 2 Unimatrix ships before we could react, thus wiping the group and losing us the optional. Annoying, but we pushed through it. Plasma lance needs to be tuned down, which is apparently known.
Other than that, love the STF, just fix the cutscene thing, plasma lances and tune the queen a bit and you're golden
Cut scene lag does this to me a lot. Should build a short timer after the cut scene into the mission mechanics to prevent this (maybe, I am not a programmer)
Uh... but it is NOT a DPS race that 4-5 escorts are meant to breeze through.
This mission is a nice mix of DPS in the beginning, with a good measure of aggro controll however.
And then it is designed to be tanked! Really, take a look at the optionals... it gives you all the time in the world to do it but clearly says: TANK! Keep 3 players alive, keep 1 player alive!
Not kill everything as fast as possible.
how is anyone supposed to tank when there are hits that take between 90-100% of your heath every 30 seconds? i agree with what your saying, but any attempts to tank is undone by all the 1 shots, it derails everything. not the lances, the most of the time invisible normal plasma torps. with the respawn timer and the absurd amount of injuries from it all, its the opposite of fun.
Well, I was perfectly able to tank it on normal with my tactical captain ina regent class ship not even purpose build for tanking. i consider it a balanced build.
I couldn't do the same thing in Elite, but a dedicated tank might just be able to do it, assuming he gets help and heals from his 4 other team mates.
Focus fire on ONE cube at a time do not agro ALL the cubes.
STAGE TWO:
Stay on the INSIDE next to the queen ship. Focus fire on REGEN PROBES and PLASMA TORPS as they appear. Target one B'Ger at a time and BE PATIENT they have a lot of hull to chew. If a Regen appears drop what you are doing and shoot it. SUBNUKE the B'Ger periodically to disable the reflection shield.
STAGE THREE:
Fire everything. Subnuke the Queen ship and use subsystem disabling attacks. Keep her AUX offline if possible. DPS her into submission.
This is not a DPS free-for-all where you can blitz the map in 10 min and pocket a load of salvage. You have to develop a strategy and coordinate.
I've been able to do that. Why would you think that because you can't do it or don't know how to do it no one can? It's a bit arrogant...
I beat the mission in an Excelsior running Pol Hull and Subspace Modulator, MACO shields, capacity console and not much else in the way of healing. Eng 1 I think.
I beat the mission in an Excelsior running Pol Hull and Subspace Modulator, MACO shields, capacity console and not much else in the way of healing. Eng 1 I think.
I've done it in a galor, tanked the cigares, tanked the queen as long as our burden pick up didn't get closer than 5km. A galor isn't really a tanky ship. Sure it's a cruiser and it's resilient but I can't imagine how one could die in an odyssey for instance.
But peole keep saying "it's too hard if i can't zerg the boss and dps race it" (that's what the current STFs are), instead of admitting they can progress and learn some tips to overcome the challenges.
Comments
First off whole mission (much like the ground part) has the feel of a bad foundry mission. Map jam packed with stuff to look impressive, and none of the stuff is part of the mission. Compared to the other three space STFs which have very purposeful map designs, I was HIGHLY disappointed by the crowded slapped together look of the map.
Okay now to the actual mission review:
Played on Elite (play by play follows)
(I am M.A.C.O. Elite Commander. Completed all optionals in PuG groups except for IGE which I did with premade. Wanted to experience the mission like most people will when it rolls with random group)
Alien Tac officer in Armitage Heavy Escort Carrier with full Omega Force MK XII set. Since I PvP in this ship I won't detail my load out of weapons DOFFs and BOFFs, but worst weapons I have are (Borg) MK XII (of course all matched energy types with Blue MK XI tac consoles)
(I will probably fly a different ship for this mission in the future as the first part could make my fighters a liability to the team if I don't control them VERY carefully)
One guys does what someone always does in pugs, and flies into the mass of tac cubes at full impulse and opens fire. 20 minutes and 10-15 Ship Injuries later (repaired them of course during the long wait to respawn each time) we manage to clear them out.
CUT SCENE (personally, I am not a fan of cut scenes in general, but it's a nice cut scene)
(HOWEVER ... STO cutscenes seem to overlap the start of game play and this one was no exception. By the time my game returned from the cut scene to live action I was already getting pounded ((happens to me at the start of the Fleet Action Starbase Defense every time as well))
No worries, respawn and go after ... wait ... TWO giant Borg Hot Dog ships? Already bored I park my ship in the sweet spot and start Pew Pewing as my teammates one by one get mad and drop out of the mission. I tried to singlehandedly shoot down the Energy Ball of Death each time and kill all the regen probes and DPS the Hot Dog, but since no-one was flying a heal boat (or using it as such if they were) was just a slow steady death.
Didn't get to see Boss Fight since before we even managed to kill one hot dog of death, team dwindled down to two people and we decided to give up, with two escorts vs two B'Gers, it was over.
POINT BY POINT REVIEW:
1. OK, it was a pug on Elite. This is the way MOST people will play the mission and it's gonna be a nightmare for a couple weeks after S7 goes live trying to complete it with pugs. I will likely only do this mission with premade team.
2. It is IMHO really boring. It lacks the artistry and co-ordinated movement factor that all the other space STFs have. I spend the vast majority of my time either reversing to stay out of tractor range or diving in and out, while the cubes slowly crept forward. (edit to clarify: what I mean is there is a lot of sitting still and very little actual flying involved)
3. Mission is difficult not because it requires strategy but just because of massive damage by enemies. I fly a cash shop ship with pure Purple XII weapons and Purple MK X/Blue MK XI or better in all consoles, and I died a lot. Again, no one even tried to heal me so that didn't help.
4. Seems to also lack the interaction with BOFFs pop ups to help coach along the mission. As much as these annoy me, and they DO annoy me, LOL, I think a lot ofplayers rely on them and are gonna feel lost on this one.
SUMMARY:
KASE and CSE require communication and co-ordination to complete. ISE requires timing and and DPS. This mission has none of that. PuGs will fail and fail some more IMHO and mission content is not interesting enough to make this something to run again and again. I will likely join a good premade team and do it once to get optional (as I am guessing that will be required for a costume of some sort) And then go back to spamming the ISE, KASE, KAGE circuit to get marks so I can unlock my passives from the rep system. (only gear I don't already have will be the crossover sets which I want for my fed but not for my klink) Until the rep system was announced I intended to happily PvP and never set foot in STF again, but that is a whole 'nother topic.
NOTE: Will try this again on normal setting just to see if the mission is more interesting in any way when it's done successfully, but all in all I was left feeling REALLY let down by both this and Into The Hive. Both seem to lack any actual artistry and are just "look how much enemies we make ... ja ja!!!" rather than having the creativity present in all the other STFs. I was really hoping that since I MUST return to STFs (from which, having completed all objectives, I was happily retired, that The Hive series would be something to break up the monotony, but instead both left me feeling like I was playing a console game rather than an MMO.
UPDATE: Played it or normal and was Faceroll easy to do on normal. That made it even more boring and non-STF-like.
LOVED IT!
Finally some challenge in the STF! Died a few times but not too many. I expected some extra deaths while getting used to the new stf.
You are not going to be able to do Elite on a standard PUG, that's for sure and you'd need a tank & sci ship for max effectiveness, further encouraged with the lack of timers on optionals except the first optional.
My only suggestion is reduce the queens version of the isometric charge, that one hurts a lot with no defense. Everything else has a defense and is well done for both elite and normal.
"We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
Sincerely,
The Cube Assimilating Your Ship Right Now
I found it to be a challenge... but an enjoyable challenge.. the STF's we have are too easy.
Well done Cryptic!
As noted in other entries here... there needs to be a mix of players present... eng, sci, and tac. Having mothballed my sci sometime ago I am personally very excited!
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
Did it in a PuG like I do all my elite STFing. Managed to complete it in little over 30 minutes and a ton of deaths. The entire thing just gives me a 'meh' feeling and I wasn't really sure why until I read glassguitar 's post and I simply have to agree with him.
It just feels like the No Win Scenario borg style. Which is fine for the No Win Scenario but it just didn't feel like an STF. Their was nothing going on, no triggers, nothing happening really other than a bunch of ducks lined up to be kilt.
But thats fine, I already have 3 ESTFs to play so I do not think the difficulty itself should be lowered or anything let this be for those who enjoy the style.
That and it does seem really odd to be outnumbered by borg tac cubes and still annihilate them. Not even Voyager sissified the borg as much as this mission does.
First part was fine but the Unimatrix ship part was HELL!
A full team couldn't even kill one of those things before we started losing team members (partly due to the one-shot torp spread) while focusing fire on it.
Mission was impossible to complete once people started leaving, and next to impossible even with everyone there.
We tried to stay within the "safe zone" between the ships, made little difference seeing as how we could evade the lances anyway.
My advise: Either remove one of the Unimatrix ships and give a warning everytime the ship is about to fire the lance, so we can evade, or remove the lance altogether.
Since we didn't get past this part, I can't comment on the rest of the mission.
Oh, and the stacking respawn timer was a pain, but that goes for all STFs.
Trials of Blood and Fire
Moving On Parts 1-3 - Part 4
In Cold Blood
On Normal it feels just right, fair amount of challenge but still easy enough for most people to complete.
Elite on the other hand...the Borg Tac Cubes and Spheres are an interesting challenge you need to think what your doing so you don't aggro more than one at a time and still try to destroy them fast enough to get the optional.
However when you get to the 2 Unimatrix ship things turn nasty with uber 1 hit plasma torpedoes spreads and the lances that can one hit, avoiding the lances is easy enough...however staying near the Queen to avoid the lances like Admiral D'vak suggests will prove suicidal as your now caught in the cross fire of 2 Plasma Spreads :eek:
I think much like the other STF needed when they were redone, the Elite version may need a slight balance pass as right now am guessing the have been Auto scaled.
There is a difference between too easy and too hard. And this mission is hard not because it requires somesort of strategy that everyone needs to know... its hard because Cryptic has decided to throw 6 Tactical Cubes, 2 Unimatrix vessels, and an Octahedron that can kill in one shot. Its hard because the enemies can kill you in one or two hits and they have such massive amounts of health (and in the case of the Unimatrix vessels the ability to spawn pets and heal their health quickly). Thats not the "right" kind of hard... its just un-fun.
And quite franly the difficulty of the current STFs is just fine... they are fun this way... and they keep me coming back. Add more of a challenge (which to cryptic means making the enemies super powerful) and I'll stop playing them.
My feedback (for the first and second parts of the mission before the Queen.):
Part 1:
- 6 tactical cubes is too much. Drop it to 4. Or 6 regular cubes.
- Lose the spheres. They dont add to the challenge, and its a touch excessive with the tactical cubes sitting right there.
Part 2:
- 2 Unimatrix vessels is a touch excessive, but thats not the major problem here. Give them only 1 one hit KO ability. Either the Lance or the large plasma energy bolts. Not both.
- The Unimatrix vessels should not be able to spawn regeneration probes as often as I saw them spawning them in my run. If they need to be able to... then the regeneration probes super hazard emitters need to be toned down. going from 20% to 50% in the span of 3 seconds does not add challenge.
Oh, and I like it just because its something new.
tone it down a bit:P
I am amazed that after having the red alerts for so long in the game, that people still seem to have no idea that plasma bolts and regen probes can and must be shot down quickly.
Against plasma bolts there are a few reliable ways to kill them.
Unlessyou have super accurate weapons they will miss a lot. Tractor beams and repulsors however will not. Pin them on the spot and shoot them more accurately
Warp plasma creates an excellent firewall against them.
probably a million sci abilities that I dont use help.
Suspect fighters on intercept are great here.
Maybe mine the ends of the unimatrixes? That will take care of teh regen probes at the same time which die pretty fast btw. A few energy hits and torps will make short work of them.
But what people currently expect in elite is:
Warp in, blow some stuff up, let the people who know how it works do the actual work, die, respawn, do anything, die, respawn, die, die, boss fight (die again or go afk), get the loot.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Had a problem with no omega marks at the end of the mission.
(by the way this is my 1st post ever on star trek online and today was my first time i tribble server)
oh sure its technically just a dps race, but really its more of a race against 1 shots. everywhere 1 shots, hope you like 50 injuries and maxing out your respawn timer in the first 10 minutes of the mission. 3 kinetic resist consoles, didn't do squat. invisible standard plasma torps popping you with 1 hit almost every time. have any points in threat control? don't bother queing, seriously.
guess the trick is stay between the unimatrix ship? um ok, thats so clever or something. that would magically not make them fire their lance, because. whatever. couldn't get farther then that.
Normal x3 and Elite x1. Completed them all. Yeah Elite was a real challenge, but what do you expect? It's a brand new STF, you just need to figure out what strategies work best, imagine that? So it will take some time and more testing. People who expect to go in there and come out as unscathed heroes are being a touch unrealistic.
It's the Borg Queen for goodness sake, of course she will be surrounded by formidable protection. Don't expect a walk in the park for the Borg STF finale.
Lot's of things I like about it. You need a balanced team, and hey, a real tank is required. Thank you, Cryptic, cruisers still have a purpose. Besides good tanking, coordinated healing/support, and some dps make this very doable...as long as you work together as a team. Charging in with all guns blazing and not noticing what your teammates are doing will definitely get you wiped. Communicate, read the suggested tactics, agree on who will be doing what. Be methodical and follow the lead of the tank instead of being a one ship deathstar, which most people are probably used to because the rest of the game can be played that way.
I admit, it was annoying getting one shotted and perhaps it should be made slightly easier but please don't make this into a KASE or ISE. Let's have a STF where each type of ship and captain can play the role they were cut out for, and see what a difference team work makes. If there are some ppl who avoid this STF so be it. But please don't dumb it down too much.
BTW I used a Sci Ody with mk xii borg stuff and mk xi blue consoles. Nothing special.
This mission is a nice mix of DPS in the beginning, with a good measure of aggro controll however.
And then it is designed to be tanked! Really, take a look at the optionals... it gives you all the time in the world to do it but clearly says: TANK! Keep 3 players alive, keep 1 player alive!
Not kill everything as fast as possible.
Great comment about the No Win Scenario flavor. The strength of STO is story-line and game mechanics. IN this STF we get no story-line, and no chance to use some of the best mechanic of this game. Even in ISE (widely regarded as the easiest Space STF) I actually fly my ship, timing turns and throttle changes to get the best placement for certain parts of the mission. I have a feeling successful Hive runs will be a slow crawl forward, hit reverse before tractor range, someone spamming heals on the DPS ships, followed by spam attack the hot dogs til you get one shot, respawn and repeat.
Will comment on boss fight after I try it on normal. I think the chances of getting a pug that can get through the hot dog fight on Elite are very slim.
Other than that, love the STF, just fix the cutscene thing, plasma lances and tune the queen a bit and you're golden
This +1 !!!
Jackwagons came in aggro'd everything then filled an entire screen complaining about how hard this is.
One quit.
We get through that, The Vgers come in and they start complaining about being one-shottted... despite two of us saying STAY CLOSE TO THE QUEEN.
Then they started complaining about not being able to damage Vger1, tell them to target the regen probes they start complaining "WHO PUT YOU IN CHARGE" and out comes the third-grade level profanity.
Two more quit.
Really.
It's come to this?
I expect this kind of behavior on Holodeck now we have it on Tribble too? Maybe instead of swearing and get ticked off... READ the directions, LISTEN the two players giving advice MAYBE the mission isn't that hard...
Could be those players have never run a Red Alert. Many people skip them because they are buggy as hell and don't drop relevant rewards. Even if that was the case this mission would have worked if they followed the promptings of the other two players.
Wow.
No more pugging on tribble after this , that is for sure
However, given the difficulty it should give exponentially better rewards compared to the other space ones which are a pushover and no where near the same difficulty.
This I can agree with.
Cut scene lag does this to me a lot. Should build a short timer after the cut scene into the mission mechanics to prevent this (maybe, I am not a programmer)
how is anyone supposed to tank when there are hits that take between 90-100% of your heath every 30 seconds? i agree with what your saying, but any attempts to tank is undone by all the 1 shots, it derails everything. not the lances, the most of the time invisible normal plasma torps. with the respawn timer and the absurd amount of injuries from it all, its the opposite of fun.
I couldn't do the same thing in Elite, but a dedicated tank might just be able to do it, assuming he gets help and heals from his 4 other team mates.
Focus fire on ONE cube at a time do not agro ALL the cubes.
STAGE TWO:
Stay on the INSIDE next to the queen ship. Focus fire on REGEN PROBES and PLASMA TORPS as they appear. Target one B'Ger at a time and BE PATIENT they have a lot of hull to chew. If a Regen appears drop what you are doing and shoot it. SUBNUKE the B'Ger periodically to disable the reflection shield.
STAGE THREE:
Fire everything. Subnuke the Queen ship and use subsystem disabling attacks. Keep her AUX offline if possible. DPS her into submission.
This is not a DPS free-for-all where you can blitz the map in 10 min and pocket a load of salvage. You have to develop a strategy and coordinate.
I've been able to do that. Why would you think that because you can't do it or don't know how to do it no one can? It's a bit arrogant...
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
I beat the mission in an Excelsior running Pol Hull and Subspace Modulator, MACO shields, capacity console and not much else in the way of healing. Eng 1 I think.
I've done it in a galor, tanked the cigares, tanked the queen as long as our burden pick up didn't get closer than 5km. A galor isn't really a tanky ship. Sure it's a cruiser and it's resilient but I can't imagine how one could die in an odyssey for instance.
But peole keep saying "it's too hard if i can't zerg the boss and dps race it" (that's what the current STFs are), instead of admitting they can progress and learn some tips to overcome the challenges.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.