I must admit, having played through the game (Fed and KDF) umpteen million times, it was a breath of fresh air to have some new content.
Then I got to this mission, the shuttle battle was bad enough with its random stalls that result in death but this defence mission just frankly sucked one.
People have to remember, the player is still at a low level, with a mixxy blob of kit (some still from the rank before) because people have put simple consoles on the exchange for fantastically stupid prices, or you are using the drops from the game to supply your ship. Bear in mind, not everyone has a bottomless amount of EC to swap about different toons. Then theres the BOffs, a new player to the game will use whats given and adapt, someone more seasoned might change the setup but with the limited points for training them its not always possible to make it worthwhile.
All well and good saying RSP+TT, that buys you what? 15 seconds before you die anyway!
I tried many methods, doing the uncloak in to alpha gets you mega aggro, so 10 seconds is about the top line. Go in slowly, stalk around, you may get 30 seconds before getting hassled.
I actually found, even after 2500+ STFs with over 70% being elites that this mission was much much much harder and far more frustrating.
Anybody that says they could survive 5+ capital ships and an endless (about 10) line of escorts and destroyers on their own whilst at level 30 odd (cant remember precisely) using a mixed array of equipment is frankly lying. I was even getting blown up whilst in cloak and well out of range. Getting killed outside of that cone (by about 5-6km at times), hit by the torps that are fired at like 20 a time and nearly kill you on one sweep only to have a second ship do the same.
It was really like going against an elite tac cube in an STF in a shuttle.
At least tone it down a little, or boost the prowess of the help.
Do it, for the sake of the children.
Provided you want to spend avg 2.5 - 3hrs on it, dying every 15-20 secs and spending more time trying to impulse to the battle group from the ridiculous re-spawn point than actually doing anything else.
Missions like these destroy the game. Its that simple.
As for all the proposed methods of completing it... Sure, suicide run every time on the command ship... for an average of 2-5% hull loss each time. Warp plasma through it... Hmm great idea till it just jumps to the other side of the battle zone (which happens EVERY time)... Ooohh Singularity effect... Yep got it good for an average DPS of 2... (at level 5 power).
Face it.. Good Idea.. TRIBBLE Execution... ITs the original Crystaline Entity all over again.
So in which case, we might actually see a fix on this in about 3 years and another 7 or 8 seasons if we are lucky.
In my opinion, simply turning off the enemy respawns and changing the allies from repair to infinite 1 hp would be a perfect adjustment to this one.
Still plenty epic, still rewards good playing, HOWEVER, it enables a new player with TRIBBLE gear to wear down the enemy fleet. As it stand the infinite respawns are what render the fight into a giant bore that lasts well over an hour.
My most successful tactic has been to get the command ship's aggro, then pull it away from your allies while doing hit and runs. Only about 4 or 5 escorts/support will follow it all the rest will be corpse camping your allies. You can kill the supports then finish of the dreadnaught in a minimally frustrating fight.
The first and second wave is ok, its the third wave that is annoying. When I did the mission in my agile D'deridex the Romulan part of the fleet got wiped out in about 30 seconds. The allied part that appeared hung around repairing. Effectivly I had to tackle the majority of the third wave with only one ship. Mine.
I died about six or seven times, but managed to uncloak, alpha strike a hostile ship to oblivion, cloak, repair, repeat. In hindsight I went through their fleet almost alone. Still wasn't very fun. After about my third or fourth death I simply wanted to get this mission over with.
It is the only Romulan mission so far I have not enjoyed playing.
It might be much more fun to play this mission grouped up with four other players. Even when your fleet is destroyed in wave three you will have a fairer chance of fighting.
The user formerly known as Khern!
I hate the fact Perfect World force-joined STO and PW accounts...
I've just spend about 60-90 minutes to complete the mission and this was hard as hell... This mission is made really bad. My ship was getting destroyed every 10 seconds and the dps from my shields to hull was like 2-3 seconds and BOOOM ... ship destroyed. I don't want to sound like a nerd or noobish but this is stupid. My alies died in 10 seconds and the alied fleet that arrived was stuck at repairing all the time.
FIX THIS MISSION!!! We are not like bunch of Rambo's here getting MG and killing bad guys till the MG melts down from firing.
I died several times to this mission yesterday, and today I beat it on the first try, without dying.
The key is: survive. Don't go all-out. Try to stay away from the bulk of the fight as much as possible, pick your targets carefully so you're away from the thick of the battle and is engaged by only one or two. The smaller enemy ships seem to respawn, but the big ones don't - go for these, one at a time. When things get too hot, Evasive Maneuvers + Ramming Speed + Teleport, put some distance and cloak until you can breath again, and repeat. Eventually all the big enemy ships will be gone and it'll be you, your allies (which aren't destroyed, they just go into "repair" a lot) and the command ship, with maybe a couple of smaller enemy vessels - then it'll be just a matter of fishing it off.
I finally called in a friend to help. The only balance issue is the energy cone. Take that out of the mix, and it's a heck of a furball that will keep you on your toes. Right now, with every ship in the third wave acting like a phalanx of bulldozers piling a ton of dirt on you and your allies, it quickly devolves into a zergfest.
just go to stealth mode and stay close to the command ship...and wait til youre immortal allies finish the job. less frustrating than try and die every 10 sec.
the problem isn't any one elachi ability, not the energy cone, not the viral matrix, or deep scan, or the tractor mine torps, or the extend shields spider tanking, or even the space jumps.
The problem is the synergy of all of that, across the ships, combined with the numbers of the third wave. The cones wouldn't wipe out the fleet if there weren't as many of them, take out a couple of the battle ships and you have less crowd control and spider tanking, remove a single dreadnought so its down to 2, take out some of the escorts so there are less cones, and less firepower.
The elachi them selves are fine, even with fighting small groups, its this large pack and the synergy between their ships that makes this so rough.
I died about 4-5 times doing it, managed to pull/push, repulsers work on it!, the command ship off to a side a good distance away. but even then once they deal with your buddies, some of them, if not all, will suddenly decided they need to be were the command ship is.
But as a enemy the elachi are interesting to fight, and require a shift in tactics from most targets, I would hate to see that lost when the mission in question just needs some ship number adjustments, not nerfs to the elachi.
I think the only issue is that people have not yet become familiar with Elachi tactics and weaknesses.
E.g. their shields are horrible, but their hulls are weak. Use piercing weapons or when progressing further into the reputation the nukara tetryon sets and they become easy to handle.
Only on the ground i find the Elachi annoying.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
No, actually it IS the setups and builds of the people having problems....
I can't believe that people can look at this mission and believe that it's working as intended. It's obviously not working properly. It doesn't matter whether you can complete it or not. I seriously don't care if somebody can beat it without getting killed in under fifteen minutes. The allied ships are meant to stay in the fight and help. Instead, they get wiped out very quickly.
I can't believe that people can look at this mission and believe that it's working as intended. It's obviously not working properly. It doesn't matter whether you can complete it or not. I seriously don't care if somebody can beat it without getting killed in under fifteen minutes. The allied ships are meant to stay in the fight and help. Instead, they get wiped out very quickly.
No. actually it is scripted so that the romulan forces retreat in any case until the allied parties show up in a big damn lame heroes moment.
the romulan allies clearly are not meant to last.
The problem is that you people try to play this like a giant slugfest instead of using the premier tool of your ship: decloak alpha damage and space magic that gets you a clean get away.
You pick of the small ships first then work your way up - there is no reason not sit under cloak for a bit wait for cooldowns to come down.
You should fight this the romulan way: clever but cheap as hell.
Maybe you should change your strat from all offense. I hope it does not get nerfed, most of the missions are easymode, even on hard
Maybe that'd be easy if a lot of us that are playing romulans arent new to the game and dont have easy access to a wide variety of parts and abilities past "whatever the **** we can find"
No. actually it is scripted so that the romulan forces retreat in any case until the allied parties show up in a big damn lame heroes moment.
the romulan allies clearly are not meant to last.
The problem is that you people try to play this like a giant slugfest instead of using the premier tool of your ship: decloak alpha damage and space magic that gets you a clean get away.
You pick of the small ships first then work your way up - there is no reason not sit under cloak for a bit wait for cooldowns to come down.
You should fight this the romulan way: clever but cheap as hell.
>_<
The mind boggles.
Whatever. I expect the devs to repair the mission sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.
The problem is that you people try to play this like a giant slugfest instead of using the premier tool of your ship: decloak alpha damage and space magic that gets you a clean get away.
Actually, I played it the "Romulan" way and still found myself dead from the stupid one-shot cone weapon before I even fired a shot more often than not. The mission is broken, regardless of whether you personally were able to complete it without dying.
I played it by due cloak alpha then run away, sadly it doesn't work all the time. As soon as you lay DPS down you get mega aggro from everything.
The first 2 lines are pretty good, didn't die on those bits but still had moments of 'oh sh*t'.
It's the 3rd part that is just plain stupid.
I assume from the ones that have said its ok have managed to survive elite stf space stuff with low level gear and vastly outnumbered by ships that far outclass your own.
Some are also forgetting that not everyone has gone tactical, so how do you expect them to decloak alpha strike? They don't have the benefit of alpha!
I'm afraid to say that a decloak SNB or decloak VM doesn't really have the same effect.
I played it by due cloak alpha then run away, sadly it doesn't work all the time. As soon as you lay DPS down you get mega aggro from everything.
The first 2 lines are pretty good, didn't die on those bits but still had moments of 'oh sh*t'.
It's the 3rd part that is just plain stupid.
I assume from the ones that have said its ok have managed to survive elite stf space stuff with low level gear and vastly outnumbered by ships that far outclass your own.
Some are also forgetting that not everyone has gone tactical, so how do you expect them to decloak alpha strike? They don't have the benefit of alpha!
I'm afraid to say that a decloak SNB or decloak VM doesn't really have the same effect.
Everyone has a form of alpha, not as strong as a tac, but has one.
EPS/Nadion inversion +boff powers for engis. Sensor scan + boff powers for sci.
I went into that still in my Mogai, and got my kester handed to me.
I went back in with the D'derix that I had earned but hadn't bothered to pick up yet, and I actually did ok. Got blown to bits a few times, but it was nowhere near as bad as the first time.
Everywhere I look, people are screaming about how bad Cryptic is.
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
I went into that still in my Mogai, and got my kester handed to me.
I went back in with the D'derix that I had earned but hadn't bothered to pick up yet, and I actually did ok. Got blown to bits a few times, but it was nowhere near as bad as the first time.
Everywhere I look, people are screaming about how bad Cryptic is.
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
I went into that still in my Mogai, and got my kester handed to me.
I went back in with the D'derix that I had earned but hadn't bothered to pick up yet, and I actually did ok. Got blown to bits a few times, but it was nowhere near as bad as the first time.
This mission is too difficult on the standard difficulty. I did play it with the Mogai and I had to resort to the tactic of shoving my ship into the hull and letting them blow me up repeatedly. This worked until I got it down to 3000 health and it miraculously healed back up to 181K health and then I had to start all over. This time I went and figured out where all the allies were. They were stuck in their own battles and when I relieved them of that they went and battled with the Command ship force. But still spawning 80-100Km away from the battle is hideous. The third wave needs to be easier on standard difficulty and I dont want to think how it is on Elite difficulty. Players who are not as dedicated to this game as some of us will just leave out of pure frustration on this mission or Last stand which also took me 2 hours to complete because it felt like it was built for 3 people. This mission as it stands is on par or harder than an Elite STF which require 5 people.
I did this mission last night, I was having trouble keeping up with the big level 30 cruiser, so I switch to a fed sanpaulo defiant class escort, the trick is to hit the big command ship, supporting your fleet heavys, fast runs with torpedo spread 3, rapid fire 3, polarize hull also help, and evasive maneuvers, but I think is one tuff mission that needs to be tune down a bit
its fine just the way it is very challenging indeed when i played my level 30 character science romulin character i used the upgraded one in that tier since their is only 2 ships to choose from i only died once which was from the battleship in which we killed each other with our torps after dancing around for a while it was quite satifying cloaking and using almost submarine warfare on those enemies and our ships can in fact counter all thier tactics.:D putting a torp on your aft really is helpful since i notice if your are really tearing them a new one they always seem to pop up behind you to try to return the favor.
Using "romulan" tactics I did not die until wave 3 and then I died 4 times separating 1 dreadnought from the doom ball and then died 14 to 18 times trying to kill it(I lost track). As I play for fun NOT a challenge (RL is challenging enough) I did not find wave 3 fun at all. If you want a challenge play it on a harder difficulty and leave normal alone.
Been having fun with most of the Romulan storyline until this point. I appreciate the desire for a climactic battle however this is just poorly executed and tedious. The ally 'help' and I use that in its widest sense is next to pointless. I consider myself fairly experienced in the game with a fair knowledge of boff layout etc but as a reman science captain in a d'deridex, the iconic romulan ship for that level the only way I could make any headway was repeated suicide rushes. Not, I expect the way it was envisaged.
Comments
Then I got to this mission, the shuttle battle was bad enough with its random stalls that result in death but this defence mission just frankly sucked one.
People have to remember, the player is still at a low level, with a mixxy blob of kit (some still from the rank before) because people have put simple consoles on the exchange for fantastically stupid prices, or you are using the drops from the game to supply your ship. Bear in mind, not everyone has a bottomless amount of EC to swap about different toons. Then theres the BOffs, a new player to the game will use whats given and adapt, someone more seasoned might change the setup but with the limited points for training them its not always possible to make it worthwhile.
All well and good saying RSP+TT, that buys you what? 15 seconds before you die anyway!
I tried many methods, doing the uncloak in to alpha gets you mega aggro, so 10 seconds is about the top line. Go in slowly, stalk around, you may get 30 seconds before getting hassled.
I actually found, even after 2500+ STFs with over 70% being elites that this mission was much much much harder and far more frustrating.
Anybody that says they could survive 5+ capital ships and an endless (about 10) line of escorts and destroyers on their own whilst at level 30 odd (cant remember precisely) using a mixed array of equipment is frankly lying. I was even getting blown up whilst in cloak and well out of range. Getting killed outside of that cone (by about 5-6km at times), hit by the torps that are fired at like 20 a time and nearly kill you on one sweep only to have a second ship do the same.
It was really like going against an elite tac cube in an STF in a shuttle.
At least tone it down a little, or boost the prowess of the help.
Do it, for the sake of the children.
Of course this mission is possible to complete.
Provided you want to spend avg 2.5 - 3hrs on it, dying every 15-20 secs and spending more time trying to impulse to the battle group from the ridiculous re-spawn point than actually doing anything else.
Missions like these destroy the game. Its that simple.
As for all the proposed methods of completing it... Sure, suicide run every time on the command ship... for an average of 2-5% hull loss each time. Warp plasma through it... Hmm great idea till it just jumps to the other side of the battle zone (which happens EVERY time)... Ooohh Singularity effect... Yep got it good for an average DPS of 2... (at level 5 power).
Face it.. Good Idea.. TRIBBLE Execution... ITs the original Crystaline Entity all over again.
So in which case, we might actually see a fix on this in about 3 years and another 7 or 8 seasons if we are lucky.
Honestly, once you knock out one dreadnaught, the second isn't too bad, if you can avoid the cone.
Hmmm... I think that sounds more frustrating than dying after every alpha strike but finishing in 30-45 minutes.
Still plenty epic, still rewards good playing, HOWEVER, it enables a new player with TRIBBLE gear to wear down the enemy fleet. As it stand the infinite respawns are what render the fight into a giant bore that lasts well over an hour.
My most successful tactic has been to get the command ship's aggro, then pull it away from your allies while doing hit and runs. Only about 4 or 5 escorts/support will follow it all the rest will be corpse camping your allies. You can kill the supports then finish of the dreadnaught in a minimally frustrating fight.
I died about six or seven times, but managed to uncloak, alpha strike a hostile ship to oblivion, cloak, repair, repeat. In hindsight I went through their fleet almost alone. Still wasn't very fun. After about my third or fourth death I simply wanted to get this mission over with.
It is the only Romulan mission so far I have not enjoyed playing.
It might be much more fun to play this mission grouped up with four other players. Even when your fleet is destroyed in wave three you will have a fairer chance of fighting.
FIX THIS MISSION!!! We are not like bunch of Rambo's here getting MG and killing bad guys till the MG melts down from firing.
The key is: survive. Don't go all-out. Try to stay away from the bulk of the fight as much as possible, pick your targets carefully so you're away from the thick of the battle and is engaged by only one or two. The smaller enemy ships seem to respawn, but the big ones don't - go for these, one at a time. When things get too hot, Evasive Maneuvers + Ramming Speed + Teleport, put some distance and cloak until you can breath again, and repeat. Eventually all the big enemy ships will be gone and it'll be you, your allies (which aren't destroyed, they just go into "repair" a lot) and the command ship, with maybe a couple of smaller enemy vessels - then it'll be just a matter of fishing it off.
the problem isn't any one elachi ability, not the energy cone, not the viral matrix, or deep scan, or the tractor mine torps, or the extend shields spider tanking, or even the space jumps.
The problem is the synergy of all of that, across the ships, combined with the numbers of the third wave. The cones wouldn't wipe out the fleet if there weren't as many of them, take out a couple of the battle ships and you have less crowd control and spider tanking, remove a single dreadnought so its down to 2, take out some of the escorts so there are less cones, and less firepower.
The elachi them selves are fine, even with fighting small groups, its this large pack and the synergy between their ships that makes this so rough.
I died about 4-5 times doing it, managed to pull/push, repulsers work on it!, the command ship off to a side a good distance away. but even then once they deal with your buddies, some of them, if not all, will suddenly decided they need to be were the command ship is.
But as a enemy the elachi are interesting to fight, and require a shift in tactics from most targets, I would hate to see that lost when the mission in question just needs some ship number adjustments, not nerfs to the elachi.
E.g. their shields are horrible, but their hulls are weak. Use piercing weapons or when progressing further into the reputation the nukara tetryon sets and they become easy to handle.
Only on the ground i find the Elachi annoying.
No, actually it IS the setups and builds of the people having problems....
And just how you can die when you have quantum absorption is way beyond me.
Cloak, make a decloak attack run, destroy a target, cloak again. repeat.
I can't believe that people can look at this mission and believe that it's working as intended. It's obviously not working properly. It doesn't matter whether you can complete it or not. I seriously don't care if somebody can beat it without getting killed in under fifteen minutes. The allied ships are meant to stay in the fight and help. Instead, they get wiped out very quickly.
No. actually it is scripted so that the romulan forces retreat in any case until the allied parties show up in a big damn lame heroes moment.
the romulan allies clearly are not meant to last.
The problem is that you people try to play this like a giant slugfest instead of using the premier tool of your ship: decloak alpha damage and space magic that gets you a clean get away.
You pick of the small ships first then work your way up - there is no reason not sit under cloak for a bit wait for cooldowns to come down.
You should fight this the romulan way: clever but cheap as hell.
Maybe that'd be easy if a lot of us that are playing romulans arent new to the game and dont have easy access to a wide variety of parts and abilities past "whatever the **** we can find"
>_<
The mind boggles.
Whatever. I expect the devs to repair the mission sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.
Actually, I played it the "Romulan" way and still found myself dead from the stupid one-shot cone weapon before I even fired a shot more often than not. The mission is broken, regardless of whether you personally were able to complete it without dying.
The first 2 lines are pretty good, didn't die on those bits but still had moments of 'oh sh*t'.
It's the 3rd part that is just plain stupid.
I assume from the ones that have said its ok have managed to survive elite stf space stuff with low level gear and vastly outnumbered by ships that far outclass your own.
Some are also forgetting that not everyone has gone tactical, so how do you expect them to decloak alpha strike? They don't have the benefit of alpha!
I'm afraid to say that a decloak SNB or decloak VM doesn't really have the same effect.
Everyone has a form of alpha, not as strong as a tac, but has one.
EPS/Nadion inversion +boff powers for engis. Sensor scan + boff powers for sci.
I went back in with the D'derix that I had earned but hadn't bothered to pick up yet, and I actually did ok. Got blown to bits a few times, but it was nowhere near as bad as the first time.
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
I went back in with the D'derix that I had earned but hadn't bothered to pick up yet, and I actually did ok. Got blown to bits a few times, but it was nowhere near as bad as the first time.
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
But did you also post once from each ship :P
Please?
Still want a Fed and KDF version where you're part of the reinforcements that arrive!