The big problems I see with this area as I see it are
As you have said...mixing a PVE and mission area not a good idea. Only people that really like it are those that go there to pvp because people prepared for pvp are too difficult for them. they only want to kill PVErs.
My other gripe is numbers...in this day and age you should not go into any pvp zone in ANY game and be outnumbered 8 to 1. is it really that difficult to look at the numbers and say no that's too many from one side, or simply allow say 1 fed in for every Klingon and only allow more if numbers allow....unfair balance, simple just put some people on hold until the numbers allow. The resets are the perfect time for this.
being seriously outnumbered like that has happened regularly to me and tbh just isn't fun and this is a game after all.
If you're a Klink, try N'Vat, never any Feds there, same rewards and same soft, easy Borg targets.
Hell, most of the time you've got the run of the place-nobody's there, everyone is at Kerrat.
It's funny how I keep forgetting that's even there. That might work for farming on my KDF guys... there's no point in hitting Ker'rat for farming on my Fed, there's so many faster and potentially less means to do it. Now if only my Feds had some Empire Defense to zip through for Dil...meh.
Still, even more than the restart respawn issue - even more than borg hiding inside of objects - even more than stretchy cubes and rubberband spheres - the thing that's always bothered me the most about Ker'rat has been latency issues there.
I'm talking about where you're watching a slideshow in Ker'rat. You hit sector, it's fine. You run some random mission, it's fine. You hit up SB24 with all those objects on the screen - and - it's fine. You got back to Ker'rat, and it's like watching a slideshow.
It's rare - no doubt everything else happens far more often - all sorts of things wrong there... but that's definitely the most annoying for me.
Ker'rat is brilliant. The zone chat is among the most entertaining in game, it serves as a place to test drive new builds, and as a nice waiting area before Arena kicks off. It also allows you to hunt in a more natural and organic way rather than a death match.
The zone only resets often when you've got one or two power-farmers, and they're often easy to bring to heel once you figure out who they are and consistently gun them down. After all, part of the objective is to stop the other side, and anything flying on blue team's a big juicy dilithium pinata anyhow.
One element that appeared then vanished was the ability to change instances though. I think that went a ways towards people being able to have the Ker'rat experience they want, rather than one dictated by the majority at any one time.
Regarding it's being a refuge for people afraid to take on "real" PVP, when you're on the wrong end of a numerical disparity it's certainly more challenging to score a kill. It requires far more thought stalking your target then dropping them at the opportune moment. It's a case where proper planning and strategy can trump gear/skill load out. And is anything funnier than nudging a ship using FAW in amongst some cubes with TBR or PSW?:D
It was kind of funny last night, I was on one of my KDF and the Feds left me alone as I was on a "special" mission. I was dropping plasma on the stretchy Borg. Everybody wanted them gone because they're so annoying. It was definitely kind of funny... when it was done, they went back to killing me.
I'm a new player and one visit to Ker'rat was enough for me. On my only day there, I was ganked unmercifully three times. I never saw the person(s) that attacked me the first two times. Twice while trying to run the mission, I was blasted out of space as soon as a Borg cube engaged me. At the time, I didn't realize what was happening until I thought about the multiple green rays hitting me in addition to white.
To add insult, a fellow federation ship attacked me soon after I respawned. I couldn't understand how or why until I began reading these forums and learned about the "bug". I guess the gank was taking too long for him because he warped away after we traded fire for a while.
I usually go out of my way to avoid PVP and I take full responsibility for not thoroughly understanding what Ker'rat entailed. I do remember reading the mission text about it being a "Warzone" but I don?t recall seeing the words open PVP. My mistake if I missed them.
I do know that I'm not going back to Ker'rat or anything similar. It's just not my idea of fun. At the time I was ganked, I was peeved enough to quit the game but fortunately for me I continued and discovered Ker'rat is not the norm.
I was thinking about Ker'rat yesterday... trying to figure out why Feds bother to go there. Well, trying to think of why I'd bother going there on my Feds. On my KDF, well - that's pretty simple. Kill 10 Starfleet, kill 10 KDF that have bugged, die 25 times, win 3, kill NPCs... I've got all sorts of missions almost daily to go there. I haven't seen the actual Ker'rat daily in over two months on any toon...
Yet, there's always hordes of Feds in there - whether they're camping the KDF spawn or off completing the in-zone mission - there's always bunches and bunches of Feds there.
For the guys trying to come in first on the in-zone mission...have they thought about building a spamboat and trying to come in first at SB24/KSF/GM? None of the hassle and better rewards. Throw in an ESTF or two during the CDs...and Hell, Ker'rat looks pretty pathetic by comparison.
For the guys camping...lol...nothing really to say about that outside of show us on the dolly where the evil Klingon touched you.
Folks will do 1v1s at Cracked - but folks could set up 1v1s via OPvP - without having to worry about interference from other players, NPCs having made their way over there, or the zone resetting before the fight's done.
It's just something...one of those...why bother as a Fed, eh?
Which also got me wondering about the mention of the Fed/KDF Battlefront Reputation...is Ker'rat going to play a role in that? Are there going to be other such planets in various zones along the "battlefront" - will there be Red Alerts? But then it's a case of remembering that the Fed/KDF Battlefront Reputation was mentioned separated from the PvP Reputation. Does that mean there are going to be NPC Red Alerts along the zone where Feds are fighting KDF NPCs and KDF are fighting Fed NPCs? Will Ker'rat just continue to die off...will PvP continue to die off...?
I played it a lot during leveling up, as the loot drop at the end was usually quite good if you came out in first place. I also saw the KDF sabotage as a cool additional challenge, as the Borg aren't all that hard in this mission (you can generally avoid all the cubes and just take on spheres and probes). At VA though, with all the intensely fine tuned builds people put in PVP, the Fed mission just doesn't seem worth it for one eSTF quality loot drop.
With Task Force Omega in full swing, it doesn't really make sense that the KDF would be so intent on attacking Federation vessels during an anti-borg operation. I think it would be better if Kerrat were just a simple PVP arena, just with a hell of a lot of Borg there to really mess things up, and add a new element to the game (Repulsor an enemy towards a tac cube etc.).
Evil Klingon eh? Very well...it's always a good thing calling guys by their proper names!:D
Play both sides for any period of time, and it's pretty easy to see that both sides have more than their fair share of Evil going on...lol.
You could be on your KDF - watching 2-3 other KDF, cloaked, moving in to take out the Fed that's almost dead from fighting Borg...and think, that's kind of harsh.
You could be on your Fed - flying away from the KDF spawn after a restart, watching 2-3 Feds dropping trics and waiting for that lone KDF guy to spawn 'n die again...and think, that's kind of harsh.
That's Ker'rat, though. It's not the pretty of a queued match...it can be brutal.
Despite its many bugs, I find Ker'rat quite good fun, so wouldn't want them to remove / change it much, other than to fix some of the bugs.
I've seen many people complain about being attacked by another player (sometimes repeatedly), when they are "only there for the PvE mission", to which I'd reply do you even read the mission description? Its KDF against Federation to steal Borg tech, so fighting is to be expected. Certainly this has grown more widespread since KDF was removed from lower ranks - Feds get used to being able to go to Ker'rat and not be attacked by Klingons, simply because Klingons don't exist at the lower ranks and are then surprised, when upon reaching Commander rank and going to Ker'rat they get jumped by a Klingon player intent on turning their ship into space dust.
I don't recall seeing anyone complain about the zone resetting too quickly because someone kept completing the mission but I guess it could happen. In which case, I'd say to the whiner(s) "If you did what you were supposed to and stopped the enemy completing their scans, the mission wouldn't complete so often."
Its a strange place and obviously there are PvPers and PvEers who don't like that the other style of play happens simultaneously in "their" zone but really there are so few places in STO where this sort of ad-hoc fighting can happen that it really needs to be kept in game as is, after all there is supposed to be a war going on between the two factions.
Have to admit its a place I visit much more often as a Klingon than as a Fed - I like the ability to cloak and stalk my prey, which just fits the KDF style much better than Fed style. Sometimes even more so when outnumbered by the Feds, as it just makes it more of a challenge to pull off that ambush and escape.
The user formerly known as DogsBody.
Here before PWE (and hopefully) here long after PWE is gone.
What this game needs is PvP, NOT PWE.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
To me, Ker'rat is the epitomy of fair. There are no rules, there are no bounds, it's just "kill everything that isn't an ally" (and sometimes if you can, get them killed too =D).
I personally love it when I get to zip around cloaked on my KDF looking for item farmers, and I will admit to being guilty of attacking someone who is already fighting the Borg on more than one occasion as both KDF and Starfleet.
But tbh, I go to Ker'rat for pretty mcuh one reason: mass demolition. I go there to fight other players, kill them, laugh at their attempts at insults in chat, and then kill them again. Sufficed to say, Ker'rat is quite entertaining. I don't go there for loot, I don't go there for expertise. I only go there for the joy of killing someone that can actually use their BOff abilities, and use their ships better than an NPC.
However, more often than not, the chat makes the whole trip worth it. Because let's face it, it has the absolute BEST whining and most amazing cries of foul you'll ever see.
My personal faves are these: "Let me warp out, I don't want to fight!" (um... you came to Ker'rat... this is a PvP warzone...), "LOL it took 5 of you to kill me!" (yeah well guess what, all 5 of us are still alive and you're dead. Who's laughing now?), "No fair! You had help!" (fair? You were spawn camping us jackwagon!), "Let me farm! I don't want to fight, I just want items!" (um... do a fleet action, that way only NPCs shoot at you), and my absolute personal favorite: "You cheated! Hacker!" (so... you couldn't kill my beam cruiser with your cannon escort and I cheated... ok then)
Don't change Ker'rat. It's a wonderful place full of noobs, pros, bored people, and rude NPCs that interrupt fights between players.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Comments
As you have said...mixing a PVE and mission area not a good idea. Only people that really like it are those that go there to pvp because people prepared for pvp are too difficult for them. they only want to kill PVErs.
My other gripe is numbers...in this day and age you should not go into any pvp zone in ANY game and be outnumbered 8 to 1. is it really that difficult to look at the numbers and say no that's too many from one side, or simply allow say 1 fed in for every Klingon and only allow more if numbers allow....unfair balance, simple just put some people on hold until the numbers allow. The resets are the perfect time for this.
being seriously outnumbered like that has happened regularly to me and tbh just isn't fun and this is a game after all.
If you're looking for a single player instance where you can easily farm... Ker'rat is not it.
It's funny how I keep forgetting that's even there. That might work for farming on my KDF guys... there's no point in hitting Ker'rat for farming on my Fed, there's so many faster and potentially less means to do it. Now if only my Feds had some Empire Defense to zip through for Dil...meh.
I'm talking about where you're watching a slideshow in Ker'rat. You hit sector, it's fine. You run some random mission, it's fine. You hit up SB24 with all those objects on the screen - and - it's fine. You got back to Ker'rat, and it's like watching a slideshow.
It's rare - no doubt everything else happens far more often - all sorts of things wrong there... but that's definitely the most annoying for me.
The zone only resets often when you've got one or two power-farmers, and they're often easy to bring to heel once you figure out who they are and consistently gun them down. After all, part of the objective is to stop the other side, and anything flying on blue team's a big juicy dilithium pinata anyhow.
One element that appeared then vanished was the ability to change instances though. I think that went a ways towards people being able to have the Ker'rat experience they want, rather than one dictated by the majority at any one time.
Regarding it's being a refuge for people afraid to take on "real" PVP, when you're on the wrong end of a numerical disparity it's certainly more challenging to score a kill. It requires far more thought stalking your target then dropping them at the opportune moment. It's a case where proper planning and strategy can trump gear/skill load out. And is anything funnier than nudging a ship using FAW in amongst some cubes with TBR or PSW?:D
To add insult, a fellow federation ship attacked me soon after I respawned. I couldn't understand how or why until I began reading these forums and learned about the "bug". I guess the gank was taking too long for him because he warped away after we traded fire for a while.
I usually go out of my way to avoid PVP and I take full responsibility for not thoroughly understanding what Ker'rat entailed. I do remember reading the mission text about it being a "Warzone" but I don?t recall seeing the words open PVP. My mistake if I missed them.
I do know that I'm not going back to Ker'rat or anything similar. It's just not my idea of fun. At the time I was ganked, I was peeved enough to quit the game but fortunately for me I continued and discovered Ker'rat is not the norm.
Yet, there's always hordes of Feds in there - whether they're camping the KDF spawn or off completing the in-zone mission - there's always bunches and bunches of Feds there.
For the guys trying to come in first on the in-zone mission...have they thought about building a spamboat and trying to come in first at SB24/KSF/GM? None of the hassle and better rewards. Throw in an ESTF or two during the CDs...and Hell, Ker'rat looks pretty pathetic by comparison.
For the guys camping...lol...nothing really to say about that outside of show us on the dolly where the evil Klingon touched you.
Folks will do 1v1s at Cracked - but folks could set up 1v1s via OPvP - without having to worry about interference from other players, NPCs having made their way over there, or the zone resetting before the fight's done.
It's just something...one of those...why bother as a Fed, eh?
Which also got me wondering about the mention of the Fed/KDF Battlefront Reputation...is Ker'rat going to play a role in that? Are there going to be other such planets in various zones along the "battlefront" - will there be Red Alerts? But then it's a case of remembering that the Fed/KDF Battlefront Reputation was mentioned separated from the PvP Reputation. Does that mean there are going to be NPC Red Alerts along the zone where Feds are fighting KDF NPCs and KDF are fighting Fed NPCs? Will Ker'rat just continue to die off...will PvP continue to die off...?
With Task Force Omega in full swing, it doesn't really make sense that the KDF would be so intent on attacking Federation vessels during an anti-borg operation. I think it would be better if Kerrat were just a simple PVP arena, just with a hell of a lot of Borg there to really mess things up, and add a new element to the game (Repulsor an enemy towards a tac cube etc.).
Play both sides for any period of time, and it's pretty easy to see that both sides have more than their fair share of Evil going on...lol.
You could be on your KDF - watching 2-3 other KDF, cloaked, moving in to take out the Fed that's almost dead from fighting Borg...and think, that's kind of harsh.
You could be on your Fed - flying away from the KDF spawn after a restart, watching 2-3 Feds dropping trics and waiting for that lone KDF guy to spawn 'n die again...and think, that's kind of harsh.
That's Ker'rat, though. It's not the pretty of a queued match...it can be brutal.
I've seen many people complain about being attacked by another player (sometimes repeatedly), when they are "only there for the PvE mission", to which I'd reply do you even read the mission description? Its KDF against Federation to steal Borg tech, so fighting is to be expected. Certainly this has grown more widespread since KDF was removed from lower ranks - Feds get used to being able to go to Ker'rat and not be attacked by Klingons, simply because Klingons don't exist at the lower ranks and are then surprised, when upon reaching Commander rank and going to Ker'rat they get jumped by a Klingon player intent on turning their ship into space dust.
I don't recall seeing anyone complain about the zone resetting too quickly because someone kept completing the mission but I guess it could happen. In which case, I'd say to the whiner(s) "If you did what you were supposed to and stopped the enemy completing their scans, the mission wouldn't complete so often."
Its a strange place and obviously there are PvPers and PvEers who don't like that the other style of play happens simultaneously in "their" zone but really there are so few places in STO where this sort of ad-hoc fighting can happen that it really needs to be kept in game as is, after all there is supposed to be a war going on between the two factions.
Have to admit its a place I visit much more often as a Klingon than as a Fed - I like the ability to cloak and stalk my prey, which just fits the KDF style much better than Fed style. Sometimes even more so when outnumbered by the Feds, as it just makes it more of a challenge to pull off that ambush and escape.
Here before PWE (and hopefully) here long after PWE is gone.
What this game needs is PvP, NOT PWE.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I personally love it when I get to zip around cloaked on my KDF looking for item farmers, and I will admit to being guilty of attacking someone who is already fighting the Borg on more than one occasion as both KDF and Starfleet.
But tbh, I go to Ker'rat for pretty mcuh one reason: mass demolition. I go there to fight other players, kill them, laugh at their attempts at insults in chat, and then kill them again. Sufficed to say, Ker'rat is quite entertaining. I don't go there for loot, I don't go there for expertise. I only go there for the joy of killing someone that can actually use their BOff abilities, and use their ships better than an NPC.
However, more often than not, the chat makes the whole trip worth it. Because let's face it, it has the absolute BEST whining and most amazing cries of foul you'll ever see.
My personal faves are these: "Let me warp out, I don't want to fight!" (um... you came to Ker'rat... this is a PvP warzone...), "LOL it took 5 of you to kill me!" (yeah well guess what, all 5 of us are still alive and you're dead. Who's laughing now?), "No fair! You had help!" (fair? You were spawn camping us jackwagon!), "Let me farm! I don't want to fight, I just want items!" (um... do a fleet action, that way only NPCs shoot at you), and my absolute personal favorite: "You cheated! Hacker!" (so... you couldn't kill my beam cruiser with your cannon escort and I cheated... ok then)
Don't change Ker'rat. It's a wonderful place full of noobs, pros, bored people, and rude NPCs that interrupt fights between players.
Klingon scum! From hell's heart, I stab at thee! :mad:
Agreed. It's one of the most successful environments in the game. Rather than messing with it, they need to use it as a template to add content.