I tested a little bit more... I've created a new character and I was forced to take this new character with the preselected traits you chose, not a good start. You should expect everybody to think: "I know better what I'll need, then Cryptic/Perfect-World does...", so everybody will directly use a respec-token to clear the selection you made. [...]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
If Star Trek Online was an Open-Source (GPL) Game, we would have a low-grind fork.
No, it's not hidden, you've got to create the character and can use a respec-token while you are in the Tutorial...
That's kind of bad design if I'm honest and means that there is none in character creator - We used to be able to choose our traits, why do they deny us this right now?
And what about a race change token? After playing human for 3 or so years, with 2,5 years out of it leadership being broken and now in S8 nerfed to hell again once it worked for half year, I would prefer to change my race and get some useful bonus from it.
"Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
That's kind of bad design if I'm honest and means that there is none in character creator - We used to be able to choose our traits, why do they deny us this right now?
It's simple: Because the players chose the wrong traits on creation of their characters, now Cryptic chooses the wrong traits for us, the only difference is that you will be able to change the traits whenever you want to.
And what about a race change token? After playing human for 3 or so years, with 2,5 years out of it leadership being broken and now in S8 nerfed to hell again once it worked for half year, I would prefer to change my race and get some useful bonus from it.
You won't be able to change the race/species/gender for some more time. But you will be able to get "Techie" for your Hull-Regeneration and -Heals, when LoR hits Holodeck.
I wonder, when will they finally really balance the traits? This Thread allready lists weak traits, but the massive wave of complaints will begin with the open-beta for LoR and the test-weekend. Making the test-weekend the last weekend before LoR goes live would give the DEVs no time for Bug-fixing and rebalancing...
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
If Star Trek Online was an Open-Source (GPL) Game, we would have a low-grind fork.
First off, I like to know what happened to the 9th Trait slot that was in Closed Beta.
Second, ever work out the bugs with the free Trait we get for the Race? Still does not show up, is it active or just a choice?
Third, why is Regular Trill Traits better than Joined Trills?
Anyhow, everyone I know is choosing space traits. Be nice some slots dedicated to ground and some for space. That or you limit the choice of class traits so we get 2 of the 4 (they are rather unbalancing, expecially tactical).
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
You can now get free respecs on Drozana station. There is a console called "Test Special Items" that the you can use to get all the free respecs you want. Please use them to test out different builds, traits, etc, and please leave your feedback!
I'm in New Drozana as I type this and I can find no such console anywhere.
So, my thoughts on Trait selection and Character Creation.
[Re-posted for legibility]
1) There is no way to select Traits during Character Creation. This results in every Alien in the universe having the exact same Traits. Yes, the Respec Traits token allows you to fix this after the fact, but it just bugs me that we need to do so. Can we get the option to select Traits from the beginning put back please?
2) As a side effect of not choosing Traits at Character Creation, there is no way to know what Traits a Race/Class has prior to starting the game. This means that if, for example, a player wanted Efficient Captain as a means to help balance the reduced power from a Singularity Core, they must:
---a) Make a Romulan, Respec Traits, check to see what is available, Change Character.
---b) Delete the Romulan, make a Reman, Respec Traits, check to see what is available, Change Character.
---c)Delete the Reman, make an Alien, Respec Traits, check to see what is available, Change Character.
---d) Delete the Alien, make whichever character had access to the traits the player desires, then finally play that character.
It seems a bit cumbersome.
3) Romulans can be neither Efficient Captains, nor Elusive. Clearly you and I have different impressions of the Romulan people...
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Next, display and/or actual functional errors in the new Traits.
[Re-posted for legibility]
1) I have noticed that the Traits behave like politicians. At Character Creation, they promise one thing, then on the in-game Traits tab they indicate a lesser benefit once you actually have those Traits. So far as I have been able to determine, it seems specific to Ground Traits; Space Traits seem to have their full promised effects.
---Example 1) Covert
Character Creation: +30% Stealth, +15% Exploit Damage
In-game Traits tab: +20% Stealth, +10% Exploit Damage
---Example 2) Plasma Weapon Specialist
Character Creation: +15% Plasma Energy Weapon Damage
In-game Traits tab: +10% Plasma Energy Weapon Damage
---Example 3) Resilient
Character Creation: +7.5 Physical/All Energy Damage Resistance Rating
In-game Traits tab: +5 Physical/All Energy Damage Resistance Rating
Actually, this is not behaving like a politician at all... there is no way a politician would fulfill a full 2/3 of what is promised!
2) Creative in not working as described; it neither applies its bonuses to all kit powers, nor all heals. Specifically:
---a) Engineer turrets and drones from the Fabrication Specialist kit receive no damage bonus.
---b) Engineer medical generators (unsure about the shield generator proc) and Reroute Power to Shields III receive no healing bonus.
---c) Engineer bombs and mines from the Enemy Neutralization kit receive no damage bonus.
This may be working as intended, but the description needs to specify that this does not apply to damage/healing done by explosives or pets (unless it does work on the Tactical captain grenades and pets?). It should, however, affect Reroute Power to Shields, as this is a shield HoT; I assume that part is not WAI.
This was tested on a ground combat map in order to allow all appropriate modifiers. I checked the tooltip damage without Creative active, then added Creative and hit the Commit Traits button before re-checking tooltip damage with Creative active. I then deleted, re-copied, and re-tested to confirm the change.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
If you wanted this to be the Official Trait Revamp Feedback Thread, and we all just got full access during the Tribble Test Weekend, why didn't this thread get a "Sticky" to keep it readily available for feedback? I suspect you lost out on some valuable feedback on potential issues and bugs by not making it a priority, as well as generated several redundant threads on related topics for you to comb through.
Once the wrinkles are ironed out, the new Trait system is going to be pretty awesome. It offers greater customization for our captains, and gives us an array of options we never had before. I applaud your efforts in this direction, and I thank you for your hard work and patience in dealing with all of our... let's just say passionate... feedback on the game. Think of it this way: we wouldn't give so much feedback if we didn't all enjoy the game. Now, get to work :P
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
2) Creative in not working as described; it neither applies its bonuses to all kit powers, nor all heals. Specifically:
---a) Engineer turrets and drones from the Fabrication Specialist kit receive no damage bonus.
---b) Engineer medical generators (unsure about the shield generator proc) and Reroute Power to Shields III receive no healing bonus.
---c) Engineer bombs and mines from the Enemy Neutralization kit receive no damage bonus.
This may be working as intended, but the description needs to specify that this does not apply to damage/healing done by explosives or pets (unless it does work on the Tactical captain grenades and pets?). It should, however, affect Reroute Power to Shields, as this is a shield HoT; I assume that part is not WAI.
This was tested on a ground combat map in order to allow all appropriate modifiers. I checked the tooltip damage without Creative active, then added Creative and hit the Commit Traits button before re-checking tooltip damage with Creative active. I then deleted, re-copied, and re-tested to confirm the change.
If this is true, then there is no reason for me to take creative. I was considering adding that trait to my engineer. I wonder if creative is even working on Holodeck. From what I can tell, the trait system still has many bugs. I hope these will be fixed before the launch of "Legacy of Romulus".
The tooltip for passives on the "passives" tab in the character window, the tooltip in the traits tab, and the actual effects of said traits are all very inconsistent. Is there any chance these things could be clarified/updated before LoR goes live? For example Covert lists +30% stealth and 15% exploit damage on the passives tab, +20% stealth and +10% exploit damage on the traits tab, and actual effect of the trait is +20% stealth and +10% exploit damage.
...the whole Elusive/Accurate thing reminds me of something called "Feat tax" in D&D. Abilities that are so good in comparison to the rest that they appear mandatory if the objective is to be competitive.
I remember a Dev saying he was aware of this. He didn't like it. However, he was loathe to push for them to be removed since they were part of so many 'successful' builds.
I would argue that pulling them out puts everyone on even ground and grants the other traits more limelight. No more tax, more choices.
Ok, having tinkered with my Science captain's Traits a bit I've found more issues. Field Researcher does not seem to apply to everything it should; I assume the damage is only intended to apply to basic ground attacks and not damaging powers.
I have tested with the following display results:
---Nausicaan Tegolar Sword, Nanopulse Edge Bat'leth, Tritanium Rending Bat'leth
No bonus: Slash (left, Expose Attack), Slash (right, Exploit Attack)
Bonus applied: Sword Pummel/Cross Strike
---Klingon Honor Guard Pulsewave Rifle
No bonus: Photon Grenade Launcher
Bonus applied: Pulsewave Setting, Rifle Butt
---Polarized Disruptor Split-Beam Rifle
Bonus applied: Beam Setting, Rifle Butt
Bonus applied, a lot: Auto-Targeting Beam (claims to be +225)
I am unsure if the damage bonus is being or not; since I lack a combat log parser I just used basic observation. While I did see an increase in damage against debuffed targets, I noticed no difference between testing with/without Field Researcher.
I would ask anyone with a combat log parser and a Science captain to test this in more detail and post your results here. Creativity needs testing for this as well, as tooptips indicate that it is also under performing.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
I tried field researcher using my tricorder scan as the debuff source (since it's the most readily available debuff we have) and so far nothing, no seeing any difference with or without the field researcher, it just doesn't seem to work at all.
Besides we still don't know just what kind of damage increase are we looking at, some tooltip say +25% some just say +25. A flat +25 would be way overpowered with fast firing weapons like the minigun and very weak on pulsewave, so I hope not. 25% would be good if it's a "final" modifier, but if it's only 25% of the base damage of the weapon, well ouch, that would suck.
A bonus question: Is the damage bonus supposed to work with kit power like tachyon harmonic?
Am I the only one who thinks that Aliens are now getting the short end of the stick on Traits? I mean get to choose all 9 traits vs choice of 8 plus a racial trait with 2 or more traits combined.
Maybe give us some Alien only traits like:
Helium Breather
Silicone Base Lifeform
Exposure to Ancient Tech
Primitive
Plant Base Lifeform
Gamma Quadrant Origins
Delta Quadrant Origins
Or give us a 10th slot..... I mean you don't have to make the pendulum swing so damn hard from one extreme to another...
It would be cool to be able to select Alien racial traits. One option that could be interesting would be to allow Aliens to select ANY 2 traits that have a 50% effect each, in place of the current +1 optional. This would allow Alien captains to be more distinctive, while still giving them only 1 trait's worth of bonuses.
As a side note, Aliens aren't the only ones that are a bit borked by the altered racial traits. Have you noticed that Telepathy provides +10 Perception, +1 sec Expose duration, and +1.5% Expose chance while "Limited" Telepathy provides +10 Perception, +1 sec Expose duration, and Res(Flanking) by 40 degrees? Oh, and Gorn have gone from automatically getting Reptillian Strength of +17.5% Physical Damage and Knockback to NOT even being able to choose Physical Strength for +15% Physical Damage and 15% chance of +0.66m Knockback. I created a Gorn Science captain on Tribble to check this, and no option for Physical Strength was listed on my Traits tab. None. Seriously.
"Limited" Telepathy seems to be superior to the full version, or at least doesn't seem at all limited, and Gorn have somehow become enfeebled (my Klingon Science captain will have both the Klingon trait and Physical Strength, bwahahaha!). At least we now know why the Gorn lost to the Klingons now: they were weaker.
The devs still have some work to get done, and a few days to do so, before LoR launches. Here's hoping they do some work to re-balance this stuff, though I doubt it given that even this "Official" thread doesn't have a "Sticky" designation while the Uniform one is at the top of the list at the moment. Hint hint salamiinferno...
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
It would be cool to be able to select Alien racial traits. One option that could be interesting would be to allow Aliens to select ANY 2 traits that have a 50% effect each, in place of the current +1 optional. This would allow Alien captains to be more distinctive, while still giving them only 1 trait's worth of bonuses.
There's no reason to give them only 50% of each, most of the other racial traits give either a full 100%(or more) of 2 or more traits as it is. Klingons, for instance, get 22.8 to damage... now I figure 7.5 of that is from aggressive and 15 is from physical strength...but as those are the only 2 types of physical damage boosters I remember... (not counting the gorn over-riding 20% physical strength or 'reptillian strength' and apparently now the caitans) and they still come out .3% ahead. And they include Soldier as well in theirs. It should probably just be choosing 2 traits that combine or (and I mean, having both options, not just make one or the other option) choose one of the other race's racial trait... it's not like racial traits are really that unique anyway... Leadership has always seemed like a stupid thing for a human racial trait since it implies no race is capable of leadership... It seems like an artificial designation designed around the fact that all of the main character-in-command of the tv shows and movies happened to be humans.
As a side note, Aliens aren't the only ones that are a bit borked by the altered racial traits. Have you noticed that Telepathy provides +10 Perception, +1 sec Expose duration, and +1.5% Expose chance while "Limited" Telepathy provides +10 Perception, +1 sec Expose duration, and Res(Flanking) by 40 degrees? Oh, and Gorn have gone from automatically getting Reptillian Strength of +17.5% Physical Damage and Knockback to NOT even being able to choose Physical Strength for +15% Physical Damage and 15% chance of +0.66m Knockback. I created a Gorn Science captain on Tribble to check this, and no option for Physical Strength was listed on my Traits tab. None. Seriously.
It was bad enough that Alien's couldn't select Gorn level strength (like the Gorn are the strongest race in the universe or something amidst so many undiscovered ones...) but then I saw that only Tac Gorn's got physical strength (and that it's 20% I believe) AND both Cat races get 20% physical damage too?? Since when are the felines stronger then Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons and non-Tac Gorn? I noticed the lake of flanking resistance on telepath too... and actually cursed not being able to take the basic form 'limited telepathy' on my alien chars...Ridiculous. I hope Borg can select at least 15% physical strength... I have no intention of ever playing one, but their cybernetics should absolutely be capable of that, even liberated...
"Limited" Telepathy seems to be superior to the full version, or at least doesn't seem at all limited, and Gorn have somehow become enfeebled (my Klingon Science captain will have both the Klingon trait and Physical Strength, bwahahaha!). At least we now know why the Gorn lost to the Klingons now: they were weaker.
Wait...wait... you mean the Klingons get an automatic 22.8 and still get to throw in the physical strength that all Klingons seem to have (as a racial to start with) on TOP of that? And they still took away physical strength from the non-tac Gorn? I'm starting to think they're trying to chase us off this game, instead of just suspecting it...
It was bad enough they were making us use our respec tokens from the start just to customize our traits...but all the oddities in the system on top of the singularity cores poor quality has not only balanced out my eagerness to start giving them money again from the anticipation of the Romulan faction to actual lethargy toward playing...
On the Traits, if they really wanted to revamp it, they probably should have made it an actual trait 'point' system with basic, advanced, and superior levels of traits at 1, 2, and 3 points respectively with higher traits overriding lower ones. (example, if you took Physical Strength 15% at creation, then selecting 20% strength would replace 15%, raising your 'used points' by 1 and putting 15% back on the list as 'unavailable' unless you remove your Strength trait and still have points. If you want to raise it later when you get more trait points at rank/level break, the advanced and superior versions would be discounted by 1 and override your old 15%)
Keeping in mind that Racial traits should cost an amount = to all the traits or simulated traits they consist of... (Vulcans, I believe, have Basic Telepathy and 15% Strength, so 2 points.) and leaving races with at least enough starting trait points to get 1 Superior 1 Advanced and 1 Basic (Alien's should be able to make a racial trait by combining 2 other traits or choosing another race's trait), after all, you're a 'hero' character, you should be better at start then a blue or purple Bridge Officer... Really, there shouldn't be any traits not available to the Alien race, since they're supposed to be so versatile, although they should only get 1 Race trait (either combined from 2, or chosen from a list of other race traits). It would have given more customization to characters, it would have made the most balance between being a cannon STO race, and being an Alien, and you wouldn't run into things like Limited Telepathy being better then full Telepathy... at least if done correctly...
There's no reason to give them only 50% of each, most of the other racial traits give either a full 100%(or more) of 2 or more traits as it is. Klingons, for instance, get 22.8 to damage... now I figure 7.5 of that is from aggressive and 15 is from physical strength...but as those are the only 2 types of physical damage boosters I remember... (not counting the gorn over-riding 20% physical strength or 'reptillian strength' and apparently now the caitans) and they still come out .3% ahead. And they include Soldier as well in theirs. It should probably just be choosing 2 traits that combine or (and I mean, having both options, not just make one or the other option) choose one of the other race's racial trait... it's not like racial traits are really that unique anyway... Leadership has always seemed like a stupid thing for a human racial trait since it implies no race is capable of leadership... It seems like an artificial designation designed around the fact that all of the main character-in-command of the tv shows and movies happened to be humans.
The only reason I suggested 50% of ANY two traits was that the devs basically interpreted the underlying flexibility as a "trait" in the description of the Alien species. Two full traits didn't look likely. It also wouldn't really balance with the premade species, since they lack any flexibility in their Species: X trait.
It was bad enough that Alien's couldn't select Gorn level strength (like the Gorn are the strongest race in the universe or something amidst so many undiscovered ones...) but then I saw that only Tac Gorn's got physical strength (and that it's 20% I believe) AND both Cat races get 20% physical damage too?? Since when are the felines stronger then Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons and non-Tac Gorn? I noticed the lake of flanking resistance on telepath too... and actually cursed not being able to take the basic form 'limited telepathy' on my alien chars...Ridiculous. I hope Borg can select at least 15% physical strength... I have no intention of ever playing one, but their cybernetics should absolutely be capable of that, even liberated...
I double-checked by creating a Tac Gorn on Holodeck. It doesn't look like any Gorn have access to Reptilian or Physical Strength... which is the exact opposite of the first sentence of the Description in Character Creation. "A cold-blooded, reptilian species, Gorn are many times stronger than Humans, but are slower and less agile."
Wait...wait... you mean the Klingons get an automatic 22.8 and still get to throw in the physical strength that all Klingons seem to have (as a racial to start with) on TOP of that? And they still took away physical strength from the non-tac Gorn? I'm starting to think they're trying to chase us off this game, instead of just suspecting it...
Actually, I had been adding the Species: Klingon +15% melee damage and the Physical Strength +15% melee damage... I hadn't considered adding Aggressive for another +5% on top of the other two. Also, try not to go off of the Character Creation or Status>Passives information. The displays are bugged and overstate the effectiveness of Ground traits.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Comments
Don't think we can presently unless it's well hidden.
What Cryptic should consider before releasing anything.
Yeah... I couldn't find a way to do that.
No, it's not hidden, you've got to create the character and can use a respec-token while you are in the Tutorial...
If Star Trek Online was an Open-Source (GPL) Game, we would have a low-grind fork.
That's kind of bad design if I'm honest and means that there is none in character creator - We used to be able to choose our traits, why do they deny us this right now?
What Cryptic should consider before releasing anything.
It's simple: Because the players chose the wrong traits on creation of their characters, now Cryptic chooses the wrong traits for us, the only difference is that you will be able to change the traits whenever you want to.
You won't be able to change the race/species/gender for some more time. But you will be able to get "Techie" for your Hull-Regeneration and -Heals, when LoR hits Holodeck.
I wonder, when will they finally really balance the traits? This Thread allready lists weak traits, but the massive wave of complaints will begin with the open-beta for LoR and the test-weekend. Making the test-weekend the last weekend before LoR goes live would give the DEVs no time for Bug-fixing and rebalancing...
If Star Trek Online was an Open-Source (GPL) Game, we would have a low-grind fork.
Second, ever work out the bugs with the free Trait we get for the Race? Still does not show up, is it active or just a choice?
Third, why is Regular Trill Traits better than Joined Trills?
Anyhow, everyone I know is choosing space traits. Be nice some slots dedicated to ground and some for space. That or you limit the choice of class traits so we get 2 of the 4 (they are rather unbalancing, expecially tactical).
[Edit] Actually, I went into enough text that it just looks horrendous. Will re-post incrementally so that it can be read.
I'm in New Drozana as I type this and I can find no such console anywhere.
Pointer, please? Thank you.
I'd like to know too, i've a joined trill I payed for. Will be a bummer if the free trill is better.
The Evil Queen - Tac - Hobo
John May Lives - Sci - Hobo
[Re-posted for legibility]
1) There is no way to select Traits during Character Creation. This results in every Alien in the universe having the exact same Traits. Yes, the Respec Traits token allows you to fix this after the fact, but it just bugs me that we need to do so. Can we get the option to select Traits from the beginning put back please?
2) As a side effect of not choosing Traits at Character Creation, there is no way to know what Traits a Race/Class has prior to starting the game. This means that if, for example, a player wanted Efficient Captain as a means to help balance the reduced power from a Singularity Core, they must:
---a) Make a Romulan, Respec Traits, check to see what is available, Change Character.
---b) Delete the Romulan, make a Reman, Respec Traits, check to see what is available, Change Character.
---c)Delete the Reman, make an Alien, Respec Traits, check to see what is available, Change Character.
---d) Delete the Alien, make whichever character had access to the traits the player desires, then finally play that character.
It seems a bit cumbersome.
3) Romulans can be neither Efficient Captains, nor Elusive. Clearly you and I have different impressions of the Romulan people...
[Re-posted for legibility]
1) I have noticed that the Traits behave like politicians. At Character Creation, they promise one thing, then on the in-game Traits tab they indicate a lesser benefit once you actually have those Traits. So far as I have been able to determine, it seems specific to Ground Traits; Space Traits seem to have their full promised effects.
---Example 1) Covert
Character Creation: +30% Stealth, +15% Exploit Damage
In-game Traits tab: +20% Stealth, +10% Exploit Damage
---Example 2) Plasma Weapon Specialist
Character Creation: +15% Plasma Energy Weapon Damage
In-game Traits tab: +10% Plasma Energy Weapon Damage
---Example 3) Resilient
Character Creation: +7.5 Physical/All Energy Damage Resistance Rating
In-game Traits tab: +5 Physical/All Energy Damage Resistance Rating
Actually, this is not behaving like a politician at all... there is no way a politician would fulfill a full 2/3 of what is promised!
2) Creative in not working as described; it neither applies its bonuses to all kit powers, nor all heals. Specifically:
---a) Engineer turrets and drones from the Fabrication Specialist kit receive no damage bonus.
---b) Engineer medical generators (unsure about the shield generator proc) and Reroute Power to Shields III receive no healing bonus.
---c) Engineer bombs and mines from the Enemy Neutralization kit receive no damage bonus.
This may be working as intended, but the description needs to specify that this does not apply to damage/healing done by explosives or pets (unless it does work on the Tactical captain grenades and pets?). It should, however, affect Reroute Power to Shields, as this is a shield HoT; I assume that part is not WAI.
This was tested on a ground combat map in order to allow all appropriate modifiers. I checked the tooltip damage without Creative active, then added Creative and hit the Commit Traits button before re-checking tooltip damage with Creative active. I then deleted, re-copied, and re-tested to confirm the change.
If you wanted this to be the Official Trait Revamp Feedback Thread, and we all just got full access during the Tribble Test Weekend, why didn't this thread get a "Sticky" to keep it readily available for feedback? I suspect you lost out on some valuable feedback on potential issues and bugs by not making it a priority, as well as generated several redundant threads on related topics for you to comb through.
Once the wrinkles are ironed out, the new Trait system is going to be pretty awesome. It offers greater customization for our captains, and gives us an array of options we never had before. I applaud your efforts in this direction, and I thank you for your hard work and patience in dealing with all of our... let's just say passionate... feedback on the game. Think of it this way: we wouldn't give so much feedback if we didn't all enjoy the game. Now, get to work :P
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=619611
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=630611
If this is true, then there is no reason for me to take creative. I was considering adding that trait to my engineer. I wonder if creative is even working on Holodeck. From what I can tell, the trait system still has many bugs. I hope these will be fixed before the launch of "Legacy of Romulus".
--->Ground Combat General Bugs Directory
Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)
Tactical space traits are also totally useless.
Not that it matters, I can put Elusive and Accurate in instead of them.
I remember a Dev saying he was aware of this. He didn't like it. However, he was loathe to push for them to be removed since they were part of so many 'successful' builds.
I would argue that pulling them out puts everyone on even ground and grants the other traits more limelight. No more tax, more choices.
A big nerf that the borg would surely be happy about, but I would be nerdraging.
I have tested with the following display results:
---Nausicaan Tegolar Sword, Nanopulse Edge Bat'leth, Tritanium Rending Bat'leth
No bonus: Slash (left, Expose Attack), Slash (right, Exploit Attack)
Bonus applied: Sword Pummel/Cross Strike
---Klingon Honor Guard Pulsewave Rifle
No bonus: Photon Grenade Launcher
Bonus applied: Pulsewave Setting, Rifle Butt
---Polarized Disruptor Split-Beam Rifle
Bonus applied: Beam Setting, Rifle Butt
Bonus applied, a lot: Auto-Targeting Beam (claims to be +225)
I am unsure if the damage bonus is being or not; since I lack a combat log parser I just used basic observation. While I did see an increase in damage against debuffed targets, I noticed no difference between testing with/without Field Researcher.
I would ask anyone with a combat log parser and a Science captain to test this in more detail and post your results here. Creativity needs testing for this as well, as tooptips indicate that it is also under performing.
Besides we still don't know just what kind of damage increase are we looking at, some tooltip say +25% some just say +25. A flat +25 would be way overpowered with fast firing weapons like the minigun and very weak on pulsewave, so I hope not. 25% would be good if it's a "final" modifier, but if it's only 25% of the base damage of the weapon, well ouch, that would suck.
A bonus question: Is the damage bonus supposed to work with kit power like tachyon harmonic?
Maybe give us some Alien only traits like:
Helium Breather
Silicone Base Lifeform
Exposure to Ancient Tech
Primitive
Plant Base Lifeform
Gamma Quadrant Origins
Delta Quadrant Origins
Or give us a 10th slot..... I mean you don't have to make the pendulum swing so damn hard from one extreme to another...
As a side note, Aliens aren't the only ones that are a bit borked by the altered racial traits. Have you noticed that Telepathy provides +10 Perception, +1 sec Expose duration, and +1.5% Expose chance while "Limited" Telepathy provides +10 Perception, +1 sec Expose duration, and Res(Flanking) by 40 degrees? Oh, and Gorn have gone from automatically getting Reptillian Strength of +17.5% Physical Damage and Knockback to NOT even being able to choose Physical Strength for +15% Physical Damage and 15% chance of +0.66m Knockback. I created a Gorn Science captain on Tribble to check this, and no option for Physical Strength was listed on my Traits tab. None. Seriously.
"Limited" Telepathy seems to be superior to the full version, or at least doesn't seem at all limited, and Gorn have somehow become enfeebled (my Klingon Science captain will have both the Klingon trait and Physical Strength, bwahahaha!). At least we now know why the Gorn lost to the Klingons now: they were weaker.
The devs still have some work to get done, and a few days to do so, before LoR launches. Here's hoping they do some work to re-balance this stuff, though I doubt it given that even this "Official" thread doesn't have a "Sticky" designation while the Uniform one is at the top of the list at the moment. Hint hint salamiinferno...
Nothing in the Traits
There's no reason to give them only 50% of each, most of the other racial traits give either a full 100%(or more) of 2 or more traits as it is. Klingons, for instance, get 22.8 to damage... now I figure 7.5 of that is from aggressive and 15 is from physical strength...but as those are the only 2 types of physical damage boosters I remember... (not counting the gorn over-riding 20% physical strength or 'reptillian strength' and apparently now the caitans) and they still come out .3% ahead. And they include Soldier as well in theirs. It should probably just be choosing 2 traits that combine or (and I mean, having both options, not just make one or the other option) choose one of the other race's racial trait... it's not like racial traits are really that unique anyway... Leadership has always seemed like a stupid thing for a human racial trait since it implies no race is capable of leadership... It seems like an artificial designation designed around the fact that all of the main character-in-command of the tv shows and movies happened to be humans.
It was bad enough that Alien's couldn't select Gorn level strength (like the Gorn are the strongest race in the universe or something amidst so many undiscovered ones...) but then I saw that only Tac Gorn's got physical strength (and that it's 20% I believe) AND both Cat races get 20% physical damage too?? Since when are the felines stronger then Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons and non-Tac Gorn? I noticed the lake of flanking resistance on telepath too... and actually cursed not being able to take the basic form 'limited telepathy' on my alien chars...Ridiculous. I hope Borg can select at least 15% physical strength... I have no intention of ever playing one, but their cybernetics should absolutely be capable of that, even liberated...
Wait...wait... you mean the Klingons get an automatic 22.8 and still get to throw in the physical strength that all Klingons seem to have (as a racial to start with) on TOP of that? And they still took away physical strength from the non-tac Gorn? I'm starting to think they're trying to chase us off this game, instead of just suspecting it...
It was bad enough they were making us use our respec tokens from the start just to customize our traits...but all the oddities in the system on top of the singularity cores poor quality has not only balanced out my eagerness to start giving them money again from the anticipation of the Romulan faction to actual lethargy toward playing...
On the Traits, if they really wanted to revamp it, they probably should have made it an actual trait 'point' system with basic, advanced, and superior levels of traits at 1, 2, and 3 points respectively with higher traits overriding lower ones. (example, if you took Physical Strength 15% at creation, then selecting 20% strength would replace 15%, raising your 'used points' by 1 and putting 15% back on the list as 'unavailable' unless you remove your Strength trait and still have points. If you want to raise it later when you get more trait points at rank/level break, the advanced and superior versions would be discounted by 1 and override your old 15%)
Keeping in mind that Racial traits should cost an amount = to all the traits or simulated traits they consist of... (Vulcans, I believe, have Basic Telepathy and 15% Strength, so 2 points.) and leaving races with at least enough starting trait points to get 1 Superior 1 Advanced and 1 Basic (Alien's should be able to make a racial trait by combining 2 other traits or choosing another race's trait), after all, you're a 'hero' character, you should be better at start then a blue or purple Bridge Officer... Really, there shouldn't be any traits not available to the Alien race, since they're supposed to be so versatile, although they should only get 1 Race trait (either combined from 2, or chosen from a list of other race traits). It would have given more customization to characters, it would have made the most balance between being a cannon STO race, and being an Alien, and you wouldn't run into things like Limited Telepathy being better then full Telepathy... at least if done correctly...
The only reason I suggested 50% of ANY two traits was that the devs basically interpreted the underlying flexibility as a "trait" in the description of the Alien species. Two full traits didn't look likely. It also wouldn't really balance with the premade species, since they lack any flexibility in their Species: X trait.
I double-checked by creating a Tac Gorn on Holodeck. It doesn't look like any Gorn have access to Reptilian or Physical Strength... which is the exact opposite of the first sentence of the Description in Character Creation. "A cold-blooded, reptilian species, Gorn are many times stronger than Humans, but are slower and less agile."
Actually, I had been adding the Species: Klingon +15% melee damage and the Physical Strength +15% melee damage... I hadn't considered adding Aggressive for another +5% on top of the other two. Also, try not to go off of the Character Creation or Status>Passives information. The displays are bugged and overstate the effectiveness of Ground traits.