I wish this dev blog was released with the actual release of the new controls on holodeck not just tribble now we have to wait till next week or till the bugs are fixed #lookingforwardtonewcarrierUI.
this is gonna completely re-open my immersion with carriers again i look most forward to the docking and being able to track where my fighters are also i don't care about the whole "i can't spam fighters anymore!" because i never do that! i'm a RP person so i always hope my fighters survive the battle and i don't re-launch unless i feel that i lost too many! so yea a BIG Qa'pla! from me !
Great question. This is, like, totally unfair. Obviously Cryptic hates non-carriers. All ships should have the new carrier UI splayed all over their screen. In fact, non-carrier ships should have the carrier UI double-sized, to make up for the fact that, having no actual fighters to command, it will be literally useless.
Great question. This is, like, totally unfair. Obviously Cryptic hates non-carriers. All ships should have the new carrier UI splayed all over their screen. In fact, non-carrier ships should have the carrier UI double-sized, to make up for the fact that, having no actual fighters to command, it will be literally useless.
Right, like the Galaxy, Odyssey, and Prometheus-class ships. None of those have a piece that breaks off to attack independently of the player. None of those classes have any sort of pets to concern themselves with in any way, shape, or form.
One thing I have always hoped for was for ships to act not as combat/carrier hybrids, but as true carriers. When I think of carriers I think of classic modern day carriers with virtually zero combat capability themselves, but carrying an immense number of small strike craft. I would be overjoyed if STO would not rest with ships having two FWD/AFT weapon bays and two hanger bays, but would implement perhaps a ship with only room for a beam array or turret forward and aft, but carry as many hanger bays as would equal a normal DPS setup; whether that be six, eight, ten hangers onboard. Just a wish i've always had.
Great work with the new UI. I noticed that the pets appear to be removed rather than
'stored' when they dock with your ship. Assuming that is a bug?
On a more technical level. I assume non-persistence between maps is a technical issue. How hard *would* it be for the docked pets to be transferred between maps along with the character's inventory, equipped items, powers, etc?
I'll be happy if/when this is implemented for the little ships that come with the Odyssey and Bortasqu' cruisers. If I lose visual track of them during battle, I tend to assume they're dead and end up calling them back too soon, thus wasting them. Likewise, trying to heal them in battle requires a Where's Waldo? visual hunt as well.
I do believe they fixed that problem by making the Odyssey's Aquarius escort the size of a small moon. Easy to find now.
so we ask for one thing, and get a bunch of others.
we get a new UI tray, which in the old UI would not have been the problem, but the current UI takes too much screen away, and one more is just... too much
we get debuffs on all fighters, just because they can level up. good luck with fighters on that. owait, and feds dont have frigates either. gj
we get debuffs on carrier spawn, except for maybe the vesta, it gets a buff (well, yay for that, nay for the rest)
meddling with the pet AI is also a tricky thing, I do believe that the whole thing will just break carriers for a good week or so
Couldn't agree more!!! The UI is a big waste of available space, and most pets would be lucky if they could even survive long enough to make any use of the gainful benefits. And as for the AI.......well we'll see how that works out.
Sadly as soon as you change maps or the squadron is destroyed they lose the rank, so I doubt there will be time for that.
That's unfortunate. If an AI squadron actually manages to earn T5 standing, IMO, that squadron should be remembered by our account. Along with my squadron naming idea. At least until it is actually defeated in combat. Once defeated, gone goes the benefits it had. In which case, we would be building (hopefuly) another squadron toward the T5 standing.
(/\) Exploring Star Trek Online Since July 2008 (/\)
I've tested the new Recall command with both Fed and KDF toons, using 'support carriers' (Single Hangar) and 'full carriers' (Dual Hangars) and had the same problem as others have mentioned so far. That being the fact that when you recall and the fifteen seconds hits, instead of 'redocking' and allowing you to immediately redeploy your fighters/frigates when you give a new carrier command, it appears to 'wipe' your wings of fighters and you cannot even launch 'fresh' craft without a map change. Assuming this is a bug.
I have tested it a little on an Atrox with Tholian fighters. I too was unable to relaunch the fighters after recalling them. I also noticed that in the current setup on holodeck, you can rescind (deactivate) your commands but, I was unable to do this on the new setup on tribble.
I'm generally enthusiastic about the goals in this update.
However from reading your article you stated that you will be decreasing the damage from the pets slightly (4%). Is this really necessary? With escorts doing so much top end damage, why would you nerf some of the damage dealing capabilities at all.
I would also wish you would consider decreasing the recharge times of the pets special abilities based on rank also. This will allow us to at least consider just not launching endless gorups of fighters and going around the system anyway. I'm not sure how the system is set up now... I don't think it can recast certain abilities. For example My recluse pets (dil store frigates) won't recast beta 2, at least that's my impression. For me that's such a huge buff that I won't bother trying to get Rank 5 pets in the system proposed.
Thanks for all the work you've done. You really manage to have a great, well thought out touch, to anything you work on.
Where on the screen, exactly, do we put this very large user interface?
I call bull on the screenshots in the blog. They removed all other UI elements to make those shots. Superimpose all of the other UI elements that are on the screen, and there just isn't enough room for the new carrier pet interface.
On a 1366x768 screen, which is pretty standard, having the new hanger pet UI while in group with other players will mean that you are flying your carrier like Ace Ventura driving his car, with the majority of your screen occupied by interface.
Let's not assume that everyone is running 1080p and lets not obstruct visibility, ok?
EDIT, a solution: Make the new hangar pet UI much smaller. Firstly, we don't need an actual silhouette of the hangar pets in the interface. Just a tiny circle showing shield strength next to a green bar for hull strength, with the ships name printed inside the green hull strength bar should suffice. Place them in list for to occupy as little space as possible. That might work.
This looks like a really interesting UI change, although I've never used a ship with carrier commands before, so I don't really have a point of comparison.
Note: Although non-hangar crafts will not benefit from the rest of the updates described in this blog, this Warp Core avoidance will also be added to crafts like Saucer Separation, Multi-Vector Assault Mode, Ha?apax Separation, and other similar crafts.
I've gotta' say, I'm a little disappointed about this. Separation modules tend to act pretty brick-stupid from what I've seen, and I know from my own experience that my Varanus' repair drones are daft little blighters that could really use a carrier-command interface to get them to fix allies with any degree of reliability.
Still, that point aside, this looks really interesting and quite exciting for carrier players!
Edit: If I may make a recommendation, try to avoid putting hangers on too many new ships for the time being, or it may very well rob hanger access of any degree of feeling special for having it.
True success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
-- Winston Churchill
This looks like a really interesting UI change, although I've never used a ship with carrier commands before, so I don't really have a point of comparison.
The old carrier controls either went into your tool bar or were on the weapon window in a very small and workable form.
Comments
Sadly as soon as you change maps or the squadron is destroyed they lose the rank, so I doubt there will be time for that.
Great question. This is, like, totally unfair. Obviously Cryptic hates non-carriers. All ships should have the new carrier UI splayed all over their screen. In fact, non-carrier ships should have the carrier UI double-sized, to make up for the fact that, having no actual fighters to command, it will be literally useless.
Right, like the Galaxy, Odyssey, and Prometheus-class ships. None of those have a piece that breaks off to attack independently of the player. None of those classes have any sort of pets to concern themselves with in any way, shape, or form.
/eyeroll
'stored' when they dock with your ship. Assuming that is a bug?
On a more technical level. I assume non-persistence between maps is a technical issue. How hard *would* it be for the docked pets to be transferred between maps along with the character's inventory, equipped items, powers, etc?
I do believe they fixed that problem by making the Odyssey's Aquarius escort the size of a small moon. Easy to find now.
And lots and lots of laaaaaaaaaaag...
Lets not make this EVE online shall we, hmmm?
I AM THE SWORD OF THE RIGHTOUS!
Couldn't agree more!!! The UI is a big waste of available space, and most pets would be lucky if they could even survive long enough to make any use of the gainful benefits. And as for the AI.......well we'll see how that works out.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
That's unfortunate. If an AI squadron actually manages to earn T5 standing, IMO, that squadron should be remembered by our account. Along with my squadron naming idea. At least until it is actually defeated in combat. Once defeated, gone goes the benefits it had. In which case, we would be building (hopefuly) another squadron toward the T5 standing.
However from reading your article you stated that you will be decreasing the damage from the pets slightly (4%). Is this really necessary? With escorts doing so much top end damage, why would you nerf some of the damage dealing capabilities at all.
I would also wish you would consider decreasing the recharge times of the pets special abilities based on rank also. This will allow us to at least consider just not launching endless gorups of fighters and going around the system anyway. I'm not sure how the system is set up now... I don't think it can recast certain abilities. For example My recluse pets (dil store frigates) won't recast beta 2, at least that's my impression. For me that's such a huge buff that I won't bother trying to get Rank 5 pets in the system proposed.
Thanks for all the work you've done. You really manage to have a great, well thought out touch, to anything you work on.
Same here, I never know how my Andorian wing cannons are doing.
I call bull on the screenshots in the blog. They removed all other UI elements to make those shots. Superimpose all of the other UI elements that are on the screen, and there just isn't enough room for the new carrier pet interface.
On a 1366x768 screen, which is pretty standard, having the new hanger pet UI while in group with other players will mean that you are flying your carrier like Ace Ventura driving his car, with the majority of your screen occupied by interface.
Let's not assume that everyone is running 1080p and lets not obstruct visibility, ok?
EDIT, a solution: Make the new hangar pet UI much smaller. Firstly, we don't need an actual silhouette of the hangar pets in the interface. Just a tiny circle showing shield strength next to a green bar for hull strength, with the ships name printed inside the green hull strength bar should suffice. Place them in list for to occupy as little space as possible. That might work.
I've gotta' say, I'm a little disappointed about this. Separation modules tend to act pretty brick-stupid from what I've seen, and I know from my own experience that my Varanus' repair drones are daft little blighters that could really use a carrier-command interface to get them to fix allies with any degree of reliability.
Still, that point aside, this looks really interesting and quite exciting for carrier players!
Edit: If I may make a recommendation, try to avoid putting hangers on too many new ships for the time being, or it may very well rob hanger access of any degree of feeling special for having it.
-- Winston Churchill
The old carrier controls either went into your tool bar or were on the weapon window in a very small and workable form.