Romulan Tier 3 Feedback

azurianstar · December 2012

Liked the Environment

Liked the Story

But I HATED that Tholian Captain battle! :mad:

Score: C-

This NPC was not designed for soloists, but this is more like an NPC for player teams. Because BOFFs easily die to the 1-shot Tholian canon and with the zerg mobs, all players can do is respawn, respawn, respawn.

And frankly, Cryptic really needs to give us better fights without zerg tactics. This is just as bad as the final battle in the Tier 2 Zone, where you have to fight 3 groups of NPCs at the same time, while fighting 2 BOSS mobs.

edna · December 2012

azurianstar wrote: »

But I HATED that Tholian Captain battle! :mad:

I liked it.I died because I was not ready .To not die you have to kick your boffs.They are annoying as hell and of course they dont help

ddesjardins · December 2012

I guess everyone's perspective is subjective

Romulus - Planet Side

Environment: B+
Simply one of the best environment STO has produced. Thumbs up

The variety of flora and fauna mad me want to explore, checking everything. The added hidden accolades - that was a lot of fun. While 'scanning' radiation lost it's charm quickly, the four mini-missions, and the red alert missions planet side were a lot of fun. Coaxing nanoth is not only fun, its stupid-fun.

Music: A
As of Friday's update, the ambient music on Romulus really caught the despair and hope the Romulan people must be undergoing. I was stunned. A real winner.

Cut Scenes: A for ingenuity, C for Tholian/Tal Shiar minion conversations.

The Cut Scenes are used to move the New Romulus story along, showing to the Federation and Klingon players who the various antagonists are. As spoiler free as possible:

Tier 1: Awesome, although the Tal Shiar agent come off as petulant.
Tier 2: Other than the same petulant character, the introduction of the 'boss and his aide' was very very good.
Tier 3: Seriously awesome, but the dialog is more stilted than a George Lucas script. I assume that's because 'verbal communications' are difficult for crystals. LOL

New Creatures: Varies, B+ for Fauna, Hirogen updates, A+ for Tholians.

Tier 3 Mission (Tholian Captain) A+:

FINALLY a solo boss that scared me. I want that mecha armour! During my first engagement I noticed only one of my team was doing any harm. I switched to the Cryo-cannon from the breen missions, with a small improvement in damage. The real winner was the weapons with the 'sonic' proc. My math is fuzzy, but it appears to do additional damage in excess of what it says on the weapon. Might have something to do with them being in envrionment suits.

Romulan Ground Missions: Hit and miss.

Warehouse - fun, and at time ridiculously hard.

Mountain pass is too buggy, and require you leave your team behind, trigger all of the in game events, then return to the bottom to properly end the mission.

Overgown Caves - sweet, sweet fun. Entirely new environment, great surprises. And of course, the dreaded Tholian Captain.

Ill review space later - checking out the subtle changes from Friday right now.

Regards

Admiral Thrax

coupaholic · December 2012

I've just finished the mission a few hours ago, it's good that the Tholian's are getting fleshed out a bit.

That captain fight was tough, I had to re-spawn a few times before my team put him down for good. Of course if everyone had those sonic weapons from Nukara drops it might have been a different story.

But that aside I enjoyed it, and looking forward to learning more at tier 4.

Oh and the New Romulus background tune is fantastic.

azurianstar · December 2012

Thats exactly my point!

Having to respawn multiple times to complete the objective and shruging off death, like it's nothing? That shows how dumbed down STO's gameplay has become.

All they need is just the Tholian Captain in that room and that alone is a challenge, due to that AoE 1-shot kill. I bet if they had these missions having a failure mechanic, people wouldn't be praising Cryptic for such lazy mechanics.

mimey2 · December 2012

azurianstar wrote: »

All they need is just the Tholian Captain in that room and that alone is a challenge, due to that AoE 1-shot kill. I bet if they had these missions having a failure mechanic, people wouldn't be praising Cryptic for such lazy mechanics.

AoE 1-shot? *blinks in confusion* I did that mission earlier for my first time, I never noticed that personally. I killed him on my first attempt, didn't die at all.

Maybe I was just lucky. *shrug*

trek21 · December 2012

azurianstar wrote: »

Thats exactly my point!

Having to respawn multiple times to complete the objective and shruging off death, like it's nothing? That shows how dumbed down STO's gameplay has become.

All they need is just the Tholian Captain in that room and that alone is a challenge, due to that AoE 1-shot kill. I bet if they had these missions having a failure mechanic, people wouldn't be praising Cryptic for such lazy mechanics.

Isn't getting back up again like that a common 'acceptable break from reality'? :P How is a common mechanic lazy on Cryptic's part, or indication of dumbed down?

dariusmajere · December 2012

Solo'd did not Die, Just use The Weapons that all tholian Fear.. Rare and Very Rare Sonic Weapons Drop like Candy on Nakura.. Set your skills, Use your Kits, and Command your boffs Intelligently.. You're a Captain, Give Orders.. Please Stop Asking the Games to be Dumbed Down Because YOU had Issues.

ceekayzero · December 2012

I recommend going with EV suit armor for the Tholian Captain battle - the Mines and cannon shots are all doing radiation damage, which armor such as MACO XII does nothing to defend against. Once I had resistances, I stopped getting one-shotted and was able to tank the Captain to death.

shockwave85 · December 2012

I think people's perception of this mission depends largely on how well they've adapted to STO's ground combat. It's no secret most players focus more on space and either don't bother with or actively dislike the ground combat. I personally didn't play it much and wasn't very good at it until I spent some time on Nukara.

Now, speaking as somebody who is solidly... decent at ground combat, I didn't have much trouble. I got knocked out once, but revived by a BO. I had to revive one of them once or twice, that's about it. I didn't even bother equipping my Tholian ground set, was just using my Elite Fleet gear. Granted, that's good gear, but good gear is part of being ready for content. You could probably do almost as well with purple armor/shields and some Sonic AP weapons off the exchange (for next to no cost).

ddesjardins · December 2012

If you're dying MULTIPLE times, you're doing it wrong. Not every opponent is designed to attack in the same manner. Agreed the Tholian Captain put a new level of difficulty for ground opponents - so change your tactics Captain Kirk!

Here is how my under-powered engineer solved the problem with only 1 death:

Position your away team two to a side of the corridor. Note: 'corridor' NOT big room with no defensible positions.
Move to the edge of the room entrance.
Target an away team member. (important - to prevent accidental start of this process.)
Moving backward towards your team, deploy a phaser turret, then a quantum mortar. Note: these are little more than a distraction to the Tholian's.
Place a hard shield slightly facing slightly to the right or left (the gold one) and then finally a health gen.
Go to the gap on the left or right (the shield should be covering the health generator)
Slowly move up until you can target 1 of the rooms occupants. Fire and move back slowly.
Commence Tholian Executions.
Repeat 2x with Commander waves, then for the final Captain wave.

STO gave you the tools and designed it so that a smart player could box the Tholian waves in. Fighting in the open is foolish against a weapons system that can easily kill you in 1-2 shots.

Funnel your opponent into your trap. They will try to rush in, but now you're focusing 3-5 attacks on a a single target automatically. The floor weapons (phaser turrets) act as targets to keep the main attack of your team.

Obviously, Sonic weapons plays a HUGE role adding almost 25% damage to each volley, depending on the weapon. Fully auto weapons really make use of the sonic bonus here, adding 7.5 damage to each shot.

Grenades are a problem in confined spaces, one nasty side effect is that it will propel a Tholian Commander or two OVER your shield and behind you. You can simply turn around and destroy them quickly before they knock out your heals.

I've now run this successfully with no HERO deaths for SCI, TAC and Engineer toons with both factions.

The biggest challenge you will face is your own lack of planning.

Admiral Thrax

hypl · December 2012

Are you kidding? I heard about this Tholian Captain, expecting a tough fight. The wimp went down in 8 seconds. Honestly, Commander Rhuul's group was harder than this.

The environment was the same as a foundry pre-made cave map. Nothing new.

Thumbs up for the story. More Tholian goodness. I just wish we could've read what the Dewan wall tablet said. There was an accolade, but I couldn't find it.

Looking forward to tier 4. Judging from the map, tier 4 might be the last instance on New Romulus, unless tier 5 is somewhere else...or it could be a space mission?

fiberteksyfir · December 2012

Yea I liked it, did it a few days ago on both toons that I have the rep system going on. It's the first one of the lot that I actually really wanted to run a second time too. It's the first one that REALLY gave you the feeling of looking into the mystery plot of New Romulus.

As far as the boss battlle at the end (if you can call it that), as somebody that is very avid at ground in STO, I found it a reasonable battle for a solo mission. Not one of the hardest by far, but it was action enough to definitely be fun. Only issue I had was I think the next-to-the-last bit of tholians if you respawn, it respawns you on the far side of the encounter, instead of moving you back a few feet (it respanws you to what equates to behing BEHIND the Tholians, instead of in front of them).

And I did like the little nugget of story at the end, I just hope Tiers IV and V start to either combine or explain the double-story that seems to be going on here.

Overall the Romulan rep missions have been good for me, this by far being the best I think, and is nice we are being treated to an equivical "Mini-FE" series.

beerstickman · December 2012

I enjoyed this battle. It wasnt too hard. I play engineer, and have 2 others on my away team. I just dumped turrets and sheild generators all over.

A+

derbeelzebot · December 2012

hypl wrote: »

Are you kidding? I heard about this Tholian Captain, expecting a tough fight. The wimp went down in 8 seconds. Honestly, Commander Rhuul's group was harder than this.

The environment was the same as a foundry pre-made cave map. Nothing new.

Thumbs up for the story. More Tholian goodness. I just wish we could've read what the Dewan wall tablet said. There was an accolade, but I couldn't find it.

Looking forward to tier 4. Judging from the map, tier 4 might be the last instance on New Romulus, unless tier 5 is somewhere else...or it could be a space mission?

I read the accolade text in my character's log (right-most tab in "J" menu). Ther Dewans somehow got themselves killed through trying to reactivate the portal.

nicha0 · December 2012

The battle was kind of difficult because we had no clue what to expect. If you do it again it will be easier.

The major problem here is the massive aoe 1 hit kills, while you can minimize the chance by moving around a lot and spreading out, you really can't control your Boffs so when 3 of them go down in one shot your are not going to recover from it.

foundrelic · December 2012

azurianstar wrote: »

Liked the Environment

Liked the Story

But I HATED that Tholian Captain battle! :mad:

Score: C-

This NPC was not designed for soloists, but this is more like an NPC for player teams. Because BOFFs easily die to the 1-shot Tholian canon and with the zerg mobs, all players can do is respawn, respawn, respawn.

And frankly, Cryptic really needs to give us better fights without zerg tactics. This is just as bad as the final battle in the Tier 2 Zone, where you have to fight 3 groups of NPCs at the same time, while fighting 2 BOSS mobs.

This is, sadly, the answer Cryptic has to the "It's not challenging enough" complaint.

Rather than make the bosses SMARTER (healing, buffing, focusing on one character then taking out the easier ones) they just zerg rush and create OHKO's.

mrkollins · December 2012

Nice mission, love it ♥

Just watch for the tholian bomb, the rest is a piece of cake

somrik · December 2012

Died once. Will try the EV suit since I didnt know they did Rad damage. Will have to try it with the sonic weapons as well.

daveyny · December 2012

Liked it up to the final room... then Hated it.

One-shot shield destroyers from the enemy NPC's, are ridiculous.

Nothing up to this point in the game, prepares one for this type of game play.

My SCI toon didn't stand a chance, I have the Physicist Mk X Kit...

It was like throwing cotton balls at the Tholians.

Only have the Crystal Space suit and the Cryo-Gun to work with.

Gave my BOff's the three Tholian Sonic Weapons I've earned so far.

Died to many times to count.

Another part of the Season 7 New Romulas area, I won't touch again.

As a casual player having to use what I have earned along the way to Admiral, I wouldn't suggest to anybody to try this mission twice.

Very happy for all you Eliters that enjoyed this mission, just don't expect me to pat you on the back.

If this is the direction that They are going to take the game, IMO it's going to disenfranchise a lot of players.

daveyny · December 2012

ddesjardins wrote: »

If you're dying MULTIPLE times, you're doing it wrong. Not every opponent is designed to attack in the same manner. Agreed the Tholian Captain put a new level of difficulty for ground opponents - so change your tactics Captain Kirk!

Here is how my under-powered engineer solved the problem with only 1 death:
Position your away team two to a side of the corridor. Note: 'corridor' NOT big room with no defensible positions.

Move to the edge of the room entrance.

Target an away team member. (important - to prevent accidental start of this process.)

Moving backward towards your team, deploy a phaser turret, then a quantum mortar. Note: these are little more than a distraction to the Tholian's.

Place a hard shield slightly facing slightly to the right or left (the gold one) and then finally a health gen.

Go to the gap on the left or right (the shield should be covering the health generator)

Slowly move up until you can target 1 of the rooms occupants. Fire and move back slowly.

Commence Tholian Executions.

Repeat 2x with Commander waves, then for the final Captain wave.

STO gave you the tools and designed it so that a smart player could box the Tholian waves in. Fighting in the open is foolish against a weapons system that can easily kill you in 1-2 shots.

Funnel your opponent into your trap. They will try to rush in, but now you're focusing 3-5 attacks on a a single target automatically. The floor weapons (phaser turrets) act as targets to keep the main attack of your team.

Obviously, Sonic weapons plays a HUGE role adding almost 25% damage to each volley, depending on the weapon. Fully auto weapons really make use of the sonic bonus here, adding 7.5 damage to each shot.

Grenades are a problem in confined spaces, one nasty side effect is that it will propel a Tholian Commander or two OVER your shield and behind you. You can simply turn around and destroy them quickly before they knock out your heals.

I've now run this successfully with no HERO deaths for SCI, TAC and Engineer toons with both factions.

The biggest challenge you will face is your own lack of planning.

Admiral Thrax

That's all well and good... but as a SCI toon I have none of those advantages.

daveyny · December 2012

shockwave85 wrote: »

I think people's perception of this mission depends largely on how well they've adapted to STO's ground combat. It's no secret most players focus more on space and either don't bother with or actively dislike the ground combat. I personally didn't play it much and wasn't very good at it until I spent some time on Nukara.

Now, speaking as somebody who is solidly... decent at ground combat, I didn't have much trouble. I got knocked out once, but revived by a BO. I had to revive one of them once or twice, that's about it. I didn't even bother equipping my Tholian ground set, was just using my Elite Fleet gear. Granted, that's good gear, but good gear is part of being ready for content. You could probably do almost as well with purple armor/shields and some Sonic AP weapons off the exchange (for next to no cost).

If one doesn't play ELITE, how does one use Elite Gear???

They should post a warning at the start of this mission indicating that THAT Type of Gear is needed.

Which would probably mean that a very large part of the player base wouldn't even try.

A Fun game gives you a chance... this was not fun.

foundrelic · December 2012

Heads up for level 4. Make sure you have enough EV suits for your whole away team.

daveyny · December 2012

foundrelic wrote: »

This is, sadly, the answer Cryptic has to the "It's not challenging enough" complaint.

Rather than make the bosses SMARTER (healing, buffing, focusing on one character then taking out the easier ones) they just zerg rush and create OHKO's.

They should not be making the main story of the game that difficult for casual/average players.

Create side missions to appease the Elitists if necessary.

foundrelic wrote: »

Heads up for level 4. Make sure you have enough EV suits for your whole away team.

Should I even bother?

starkaos · December 2012

The Tier missions are the only real story content on New Romulus so it is worth it to run the mission. Besides it only costs 1 cent to purchase a EV suit based on the current dilithium exchange rate.

daveyny · December 2012

starkaos wrote: »

The Tier missions are the only real story content on New Romulus so it is worth it to run the mission. Besides it only costs 1 cent to purchase a EV suit based on the current dilithium exchange rate.

The 'cost' isn't the problem with the Fun Factor, it's the 'one shot shield destroyer' that recent NPC's suddenly have, when nothing like this has been encountered through the missions before.

It's the "Elite-Klingon-Sword-Master-In-Normal-Mode" all over again...

And the fact that my Science Toon on the ground, has nowhere near the stopping powers that TAC's and ENG's have.

bluedarky · December 2012

daveyny wrote: »

My SCI toon didn't stand a chance, I have the Physicist Mk X Kit...

Why are you only carrying one kit around? Personally I carry another 5 in my inv so I can switch out if I feel I need too.

My only complaint about the mission is the fact that the respawn point for the final room is too close to the aggro radius unless you wait for the enemies to return to their original position which does force a zerg rush tactic against them.

Romulan Tier 3 Feedback

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