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Let's talk about Rhi Atmosphere
vaewen
Member Posts: 32 Arc User
Wow a 5v many atmosphere dogfight - this is so awesome! Whoever all came up with this need to get some extra cookies.
And those walkers - that's really great. I want one! Seriously! You can make whole new missions with these things - this could be a major part of rank 50-> 60 play! Endless new possibilities of planetside missions, with the admirals in THEIR walkers/shuttles/fighters etc
Yep a lot of greatness going on there in Rhi Atmosphere.
However, there is a little bit of a worm in the apple. It's honestly bizarrely too hard.
It's not simply a challenge; the bonuses appear to be un-doable, UNLESS, possibly, all or nearly all of the team has a great shuttle with the best equipment. I don't even know if they are doable if everybody had the best shuttle and best gear and did the perfect thing at all times. A challenge I like, and I like the challenge of Rho Atmosphere, but; it is TOO hard.
I fly a Danube Runabout. Should everybody be required to have something marginally better to get the bonuses? Actually, literally, Pay to Win now? That sure don't seem right.
I've tried a fair variety of fitting combinations. I might not be able to use literally the best of everything in the game (again; SHOULD the whole team have to have literally the best of everything to get all the bonuses? If so, hardly anybody will play this once people realize that and lots of otherwise great content would be laid waste)
What I've settled on is:
Romulan Hyper-Plasma Torpedo Launcher is absolutely mandatory for shuttles. This is because the plasma torps will be going after the shuttle you're targeting until it's dead, but once it is, they will switch to another target, and so will you and you will put more torps into the air. Quantum torps, hargh'peng, etc 1) have a good chance to simply miss 2) once fired, that's it for them - if they miss, they're gone, if the target blows up while theyre enroute, they are gone too
Besides Romulan Hyper-Plasma Torpedo, probably everybody needs to use their one single ensign ability for Torpedo Spread 1. Again; the way both Rhi Atmosphere AND The Vault Shuttle Event (not the episode) are, you really have to be able to attack multiple targets both actively (torpedo spread) and passively (torps retargettign themselves if the fired on target blows up)
I also have a turret since the turret does more dps than a S type beam. I like to use the Jem'Hadar space set, so I use a VR Phased Polaron Turret Mk XII. I use a different defelctor to help some with tank (SIF, EM, etc).
I also use a borg assimilated console. Those are a lot harder to get these days; all the less chance everybody in the team would have one.
I use a ZPE Conduit. Hope I don't have to count on everybody in the team to have one of those.
And I use a [HuH] embassy science console... after all, we're in SHUTTLES and we ONLY have one single ensign ability to choose from. Sure there's several hull heal ensign abilities, but I feel the torp spread I is necessary due to there being way too many targets for a 5 man team to take down.
So all of this and more, and I usually get defeated at least once during a game. The most bonuses I've gotten yet is 2. Usually we get 0 bonuses.
I realize perfectly well that it's new and many of the times I've played it was the 1st time for many of the teammates, and maybe even all the others. That's fine but notwithstanding that, it is too hard. There is no possible way for a decent team to get all the bonuses. There's too many shuttles, too often, they hit too hard, are too hard to kill and there's too little time to do it all in.
I recommend the enemy shuttles shields be made slightly weaker, their dmg per shot 9and correspondingly dps) be slightly reduced, a new wave of shuttles shouldn't arrive until the prior wave is done, and add 30 seconds to the timers for each wave. I estimate that should still let be it a significant challenge, and 5 new players wouldn't get any bonuses, but a team with mostly experienced people with at least a decent shuttle fitting hopefully should be able to get all or nearly all the bonuses.
Discus.
And those walkers - that's really great. I want one! Seriously! You can make whole new missions with these things - this could be a major part of rank 50-> 60 play! Endless new possibilities of planetside missions, with the admirals in THEIR walkers/shuttles/fighters etc
Yep a lot of greatness going on there in Rhi Atmosphere.
However, there is a little bit of a worm in the apple. It's honestly bizarrely too hard.
It's not simply a challenge; the bonuses appear to be un-doable, UNLESS, possibly, all or nearly all of the team has a great shuttle with the best equipment. I don't even know if they are doable if everybody had the best shuttle and best gear and did the perfect thing at all times. A challenge I like, and I like the challenge of Rho Atmosphere, but; it is TOO hard.
I fly a Danube Runabout. Should everybody be required to have something marginally better to get the bonuses? Actually, literally, Pay to Win now? That sure don't seem right.
I've tried a fair variety of fitting combinations. I might not be able to use literally the best of everything in the game (again; SHOULD the whole team have to have literally the best of everything to get all the bonuses? If so, hardly anybody will play this once people realize that and lots of otherwise great content would be laid waste)
What I've settled on is:
Romulan Hyper-Plasma Torpedo Launcher is absolutely mandatory for shuttles. This is because the plasma torps will be going after the shuttle you're targeting until it's dead, but once it is, they will switch to another target, and so will you and you will put more torps into the air. Quantum torps, hargh'peng, etc 1) have a good chance to simply miss 2) once fired, that's it for them - if they miss, they're gone, if the target blows up while theyre enroute, they are gone too
Besides Romulan Hyper-Plasma Torpedo, probably everybody needs to use their one single ensign ability for Torpedo Spread 1. Again; the way both Rhi Atmosphere AND The Vault Shuttle Event (not the episode) are, you really have to be able to attack multiple targets both actively (torpedo spread) and passively (torps retargettign themselves if the fired on target blows up)
I also have a turret since the turret does more dps than a S type beam. I like to use the Jem'Hadar space set, so I use a VR Phased Polaron Turret Mk XII. I use a different defelctor to help some with tank (SIF, EM, etc).
I also use a borg assimilated console. Those are a lot harder to get these days; all the less chance everybody in the team would have one.
I use a ZPE Conduit. Hope I don't have to count on everybody in the team to have one of those.
And I use a [HuH] embassy science console... after all, we're in SHUTTLES and we ONLY have one single ensign ability to choose from. Sure there's several hull heal ensign abilities, but I feel the torp spread I is necessary due to there being way too many targets for a 5 man team to take down.
So all of this and more, and I usually get defeated at least once during a game. The most bonuses I've gotten yet is 2. Usually we get 0 bonuses.
I realize perfectly well that it's new and many of the times I've played it was the 1st time for many of the teammates, and maybe even all the others. That's fine but notwithstanding that, it is too hard. There is no possible way for a decent team to get all the bonuses. There's too many shuttles, too often, they hit too hard, are too hard to kill and there's too little time to do it all in.
I recommend the enemy shuttles shields be made slightly weaker, their dmg per shot 9and correspondingly dps) be slightly reduced, a new wave of shuttles shouldn't arrive until the prior wave is done, and add 30 seconds to the timers for each wave. I estimate that should still let be it a significant challenge, and 5 new players wouldn't get any bonuses, but a team with mostly experienced people with at least a decent shuttle fitting hopefully should be able to get all or nearly all the bonuses.
Discus.
Post edited by vaewen on
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Comments
I also wanted to clearly point out that there's all this [excessive] challenge and the rewards are not really very good. Almost no loot and fairly few marks.
Lastly; is there some technical reason that the cd on it has to be 30 minutes? I'd really like to see it be shorter. It seems like an utterly ground-breaking experience in STO to me.
Would you say it's significantly harder than the Vault Shuttle Event? Even that one is not very PUG-friendly, but I've come to regard that as part of the fun.
For my shuttle (delta flyer) I have the subatomic disruptor, tetryon gas, and metaphasic shield equipped, along with the PDT. I use photons along with torpedo spread, with projectile doffs it really helps. Hard hitting AoE can make quick work of those fighters. In the last game I played we managed to get about 2 bonuses.
Overall, you don't really need an uber-shuttle for this, just some good AoE (fire at will, torpedo spread, cannon spread, PDT, aceton, etc).
Right... you just named a lot of equipment that a lot of players aren't going to have. That was the whole point of my post; you've confirmed it.
I'd say it's similarly hard. In some ways maybe harder, in some ways maybe not as hard.
It really is pretty awesome and I whole heartedly recommend everybody try it out several times, but I do think the full 5 bonuses are unobtainable, unless maybe most of the team is pay to win (which will be very off-putting to most people, as I pointed out before)