I'm not against tweaking torpedoes, but if they do it too much it can make them too powerful.
I remember reading some articles when the game first came out about how ship combat was supposed to work. Really the focus was on PvE (particularly leveling content). You were supposed to use your energy weapons to weaken the enemies shields and then you use the torpedoes when they were down. It was actually a rather fun gameplay mechanic that created some degree of strategy and timing and made leveling ship content rather fun.
In end game content and PvP this isn't quite the same, in endgame its primarily just raw dps, you don't do too much dancing around the enemy. PvP is its own animal. Personally I don't really have a problem with torps at the moment (but then I'm not big into PvP) and I am a little afraid that if they buff it too much it will simply make torps the primary weapon in the game. After all why use an energy weapon at all. They could counter this by giving torpedoes a charge (say 5 uses in 10 minutes) or a long cooldown.
I like the sound of weapons effecting consoles. Perhaps it could be tied to a crew system revamp. Torpedo attacks could have a random chance to take a console offline (other than shields/deflector/impulse) and the more consoles you have offline the more your weapons systems etc are effected (not taken offline completely - but greatly reduced effectiveness/power level) Also the higher the crew count on your ship the quicker you can repair these systems.
Would make things really interesting, right now the high crew compliment on cruisers etc means nothing but this would really alter thing.
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In the Cardassian Mission Facilty 4028 what does the Andorian Captain say to his tactical officer when he wants to really up the damage to the Jem'Hadar ships so you are able to warp out of the area?
"Full torpedo spread! FIRE!"
And I am thinking...well that's useless why does he even bother to give that order? lol
In the Cardassian Mission Facilty 4028 what does the Andorian Captain say to his tactical officer when he wants to really up the damage to the Jem'Hadar ships so you are able to warp out of the area?
"Full torpedo spread! FIRE!"
And I am thinking...well that's useless why does he even bother to give that order? lol
Don't I know - because in STO they just bounce off shields.
Of course playing a player is different than an NPC - a player has so many resists+passives+rep items+boff abilities that have been added in the last 2 years on TOP of shields 75% kinetic resist it is almost impossible to get a players shields down long enough for the torps to hit.
If the player can get just a tiny tiny tiny sliver of shield up before the torps hit - they are a waste of a weapons slot.
What would be fun to see is some of these passives and actives be added to the Borg or other Npc's - then everyone would see just how useless Torps have become.
The canon reason for why voyager could ne replicate its photon torpedoes is in trek they can''t replicate antimatter for some strange reason.
Random ideas,
change the firing method of torpedoes, let each launcher act independent from the others, and not like now they only act as extra cool down reduction.
Pissoff all the energy only users by making hull a flat 75% damage resists against energy weapons.
Give torpedoes 2 firing modes, direct line of sight, just like now. and indirect fire, allows to fire torpedoes from all launchers, but the torps from the launchers not facing the target are arcing around first.
ummm last time i looked they dont need to replicate it that have a warp core that makes it wow how some forget this
No...
just NO...
A Warp Core USES Anti-Matter and Matter to produce Energy... it does not produce it, it needs it to work...
Sorry that's the first thing you can find about Warp Cores.
Let's see... torps share cooldowns so hard to load up on them.
Damage boosting consoles are just as good as the energy weapon ones but if you can only have 1-2 torps, you are losing DPS compared to a boosting console that will affect ALL your energy weapons that can all fire at the same time.
IF torps didn't share a global cooldown, you would see some awesome torp boats out there.
Sometimes I think I play STO just to have something to complain about on the forums.
A Warp Core USES Anti-Matter and Matter to produce Energy... it does not produce it, it needs it to work...
Sorry that's the first thing you can find about Warp Cores.
if terrorist extract can AntiMatte from the ENT-D to make a bomb ya just yes....
The torpedo's just as useful or useless as the person firing them...
Maybe torpedoes were powerful in the shows, but this is a game. They're designed for hitting the hull directly, and when they do they deal TONS of damage. So, if you want your torpedoes to actually do something, STOP FIRING THEM ON SHIELDS. Time your shots and hit the hull directly. Yes I know, it actually takes some skill and practice! OH THE HORROR! :rolleyes:
Torpedoes in game are undershadowed due to how the game has gravitated towards energy weapons, especially cannons. But they do work, just not noticeable at end-game due to all the fancy particle effects. You only really see this in action at low levels with the simple - traditional Trek Battles.
Cannons are the current STO weapon of choice because torpedoes are trivialized by STO shields. If torpedoes could deal more than just kinetic damage, then the shield vs. torp stranglehold would be corrected without increasing torpedo damage.
The torpedo's just as useful or useless as the person firing them...
Maybe torpedoes were powerful in the shows, but this is a game. They're designed for hitting the hull directly, and when they do they deal TONS of damage. So, if you want your torpedoes to actually do something, STOP FIRING THEM ON SHIELDS. Time your shots and hit the hull directly. Yes I know, it actually takes some skill and practice! OH THE HORROR! :rolleyes:
With all the new passives and actives when does a player shields go down long enough to hit? That takes 10x the skill - but mostly luck of just 1 year ago!!
And like I said all a player has to do is get a tiny tiny tiny sliver of shield back up and most of the torps damage is absorbed - ie useless.
why does 5% shields protect a ship as much as 100% shield strength?
The torpedo's just as useful or useless as the person firing them...
Maybe torpedoes were powerful in the shows, but this is a game. They're designed for hitting the hull directly, and when they do they deal TONS of damage. So, if you want your torpedoes to actually do something, STOP FIRING THEM ON SHIELDS. Time your shots and hit the hull directly. Yes I know, it actually takes some skill and practice! OH THE HORROR! :rolleyes:
Yes, that's how STO torpedoes work, but the latter doesn't make sense because STO torpedoes only deal kinetic damage when they should be able to deliver a variety of damage types and effects, like borg shield drain, borg gravimetric torpedo sheer, enveloping Romulan plasma, etc.
Why are 25th century projectile weapons functioning no better than World War II era ballistics?
Take a plasma torpedo for example. When it hits a target, it should deal both plasma damage, kinetic damage, and a plasma fire effect, right? Not under STO rules... plasma torpedoes deal no plasma damage despite being made entirely of plasma (not counting the magnetic bubble guidance core)... they only deal kinetic damage and start plasma fires.
How about a photon torpedo. It's an antimatter warhead that should give off a concusive / kinetic blast and deadly gamma radiation. However, in STO it's just a basic gun powder explosive.
The sad part is that multi-damage torpedoes would actually enrich STO space PVP because it would remove torpedo situational effectiveness without making them overpowered. Only kinetic damage deals double normal damage vs. exposed hulls. Other damage types do not. The non-kinetic energy damage components would function normally against shields.
By mixing the various torpedo damage component amounts, Cryptic can make some really interesting specialty torpedoes, including the borg shield drain torpedo, without making them game-breakers.
Science skills are terrible when your ship and captain aren't set up for them.
Energy weapons are terrible when your ship and captain aren't set up for them.
Kinetic weapons AREN'T terrible when your ship and captain ARE set up for them.
My kinetic specialist has dropped elite cubes in 5~ seconds with her quantum boat - solo, fully-shielded. Her Plasma boat does even more disgusting amounts of damage that is only really outperformed by the most elite of pvp DHC builds.
Just like everything else in the game, you actually have to build towards something if you want to see its maximum potential.
Yes, that's how STO torpedoes work, but the latter doesn't make sense because STO torpedoes only deal kinetic damage when they should be able to deliver a variety of damage types and effects, like borg shield drain, borg gravimetric torpedo sheer, enveloping Romulan plasma, etc.
Why are 25th century projectile weapons functioning no better than World War II era ballistics?
Take a plasma torpedo for example. When it hits a target, it should deal both plasma damage, kinetic damage, and a plasma fire effect, right? Not under STO rules... plasma torpedoes deal no plasma damage despite being made entirely of plasma (not counting the magnetic bubble guidance core)... they only deal kinetic damage and start plasma fires.
How about a photon torpedo. It's an antimatter warhead that should give off a concusive / kinetic blast and deadly gamma radiation. However, in STO it's just a basic gun powder explosive.
The sad part is that multi-damage torpedoes would actually enrich STO space PVP because it would remove torpedo situational effectiveness without making them overpowered. Only kinetic damage deals double normal damage vs. exposed hulls. Other damage types do not. The non-kinetic energy damage components would function normally against shields.
By mixing the various torpedo damage component amounts, Cryptic can make some really interesting specialty torpedoes, including the borg shield drain torpedo, without making them game-breakers.
I think if they polled most players they would find that almost all are for a buff to torps and changes in how torp/shield mechanics work. The problem is that energy weapons do pretty much the same damage to hull as torps do and they are much much faster to target vs super slow torps. They should change the NPC's in the game to give them the same resists that players get. Now that would make things interesting!!
Science skills are terrible when your ship and captain aren't set up for them.
Energy weapons are terrible when your ship and captain aren't set up for them.
Kinetic weapons AREN'T terrible when your ship and captain ARE set up for them.
My kinetic specialist has dropped elite cubes in 5~ seconds with her quantum boat - solo, fully-shielded. Her Plasma boat does even more disgusting amounts of damage that is only really outperformed by the most elite of pvp DHC builds.
Just like everything else in the game, you actually have to build towards something if you want to see its maximum potential.
Like I keep saying try that on a player ship - which actually can resist your attacks and actually has passive resists and heals - something that tac cube DOES NOT HAVE!!
This will be my last post - because yes torps are not bad against the easy/non-resisting/ and ultra dumb NPC's - they don't get those fancy soon to be 4 rep system powers - they can't drop a tac team to quickly move shield facing power - they don't use batteries - they don't have consoles that boost their shields when they fire their weapons - etc etc etc - maybe if they did the game would be more fun for some of us.
Pissoff all the energy only users by making hull a flat 75% damage resists against energy weapons.
This would make me happy.
As a user of double fore torps, I think that that the torp vs. shield mechanics should be looked over.
You could completely remove all native kinetic resists from shields to begin with. Even just tone it down a lot. As for the "outrunning" of torpedoes... I know that they will always hit if they land a hit, but I rack up a trail of quantums just by flying at full speed (not full impulse) with engines set to 65. Double the flight speed of targetable torps and triple the speed of non-targetable torps.
On a related note, I was in a PvP que a while back. There was this transphasic T'Varo, not very deadly, but he was there (once every few minutes). He came in to cloak-launch some torps and I got a target lock and let loose a TS3 on him. He hit a bunch of speed buffs and shot away (about 20km in about 1/2 a second). My torp spread just disappeared about 3 km in front of me. I'm not sure if it went on to hit him or if it bugged out.
I think if they polled most players they would find that almost all are for a buff to torps and changes in how torp/shield mechanics work. The problem is that energy weapons do pretty much the same damage to hull as torps do and they are much much faster to target vs super slow torps. They should change the NPC's in the game to give them the same resists that players get. Now that would make things interesting!!
I agree as well... the STO torp system is in desperate need of an overhaul. I still advocate all torpedoes having access to multiple damage types instead of being kinetic-only damage -- this will make them more effective vs. raised shields while increasing their overall versatility.
From what I can tell on the shows and movies is energy weapons and torpedoes are somewhat in the same when used together.
Shields on the big screen didn't seem to always have the bleed thru issue like we have on here, instead space weapons would cause kinetic impacts even when absorbed by the shields (kinda like a armored vest absorbing a bullet) causing the ship to violently rock from impacts and cause circuits to overload.
Mostly they would tend to use them in tandem for full effect, and when the shields were weak or dropped they would cause massive hull damage.
Energy weapons would burn thru hull plating causing great damage while a torpedo would cause massive damage to a given area, kind of like a string of bullets making swiss cheese of you while a cannon would make a huge hole or mess of you.
Yes some work on the game mechanics could be redone to closer fit what you see in canon, but they are deadly none the less.
Impacts from torpedoes more mimicking what a chroniton impact does by knocking abilities useless for a second or two would be a step towards canon, but overall their biggest drawback is the slow speed to launch them and to reach their target along with the innate 75% kinetic resistance from shields.
Why do shields have a built in 75% kinetic resist?
Shields are based on the same principles as the deflector, mainly to deflect particles and space debris from the path of the ship travelling at impulse and warp. This is effectively a KINETIC SHIELD only. This is why armour is still needed for some players with lower value shields.
Why can almost ALL escorts in this game OUTRUN torpedo's?
With the exception of slow, targetable torpedos (plasma as an example) all traditional KINETIC weapons will hit their targets. Faster targets (fighters for example) are harder to hit (higher target value) and may appear to dodge some torpedoes.
The 75% penalty against torps always made sense to me: when a deflector shield has to deal with an incoming energy attack, it has to deflect the entire course of the bolt/beam, of which is likely to chew up a lot of energy over the duration. When it comes to kinetic, of which are nearly always explosive warheads, all the deflectors need to do is trigger the warhead, of which likely uses far less energy.
Of which is a moot point anyhow, considering that combat in this game had to be altered substantially from it's (otherwise inconsistant) onscreen examples to get it to fit the MMO model to begin with.
My escorts are typically the only ships I can land good torp hits with between both ships turning and shield regeneration. Torps are great when you're leveling up a character in pve but as soon as you hit those end game boss ships they drop off pretty heavily. I'd love it if they all got some buffs.
I'd like to see a supped up photon or quantum torp from a rep system. I tend to like to play faction only weapons on ships, so all my feds are looking at just fleet or mk12 regular torps, none of the fance set torp parts.
OMEGA torps are quite good; and a next generation replacement for quantums. Add the Adapted maco set, and you have an additional +25% damage without wasting console space.
The problem here is that most people here argue from a PvE standpoint and as a matter of fact everything goes against NPCs. A halfway experienced player can field MK X white gear and still perform decently in the so called 'elite' STFs. Some players here should try bringing their torpedo builds into a PvP arena and try to kill a player. Unlike PvE most players know how to distribute their shields and even a tiny fraction of shieldpower is enough to almost entirely absorb a torpedo barrage, be it a spread or a HY. I have died countless times in PvP but I can't remember any situation where a torpedo finished me off.
Alternatively maybe Cryptic should give all NPCs two copies of Tactical Team for nonstop uptime. Then maybe some folks here will notice how utterly useless torpedoes are.
The funny part is shields would be considered energy, not sure but I would assume that energy is a form of matter and if hit by an anti-matter weapon like a torpedo it wouldn't protect you for long. Hence why Voyager was always badly beaten by any form of torpedo including anti-matter weapons.
The OP has a few points, but for the most part his assumptions are wrong.
Shields are based on the same principles as the deflector, mainly to deflect particles and space debris from the path of the ship travelling at impulse and warp. This is effectively a KINETIC SHIELD only. This is why armour is still needed for some players with lower value shields.
Shields are either UP or DOWN. No middle ground. How much more they can resist is based on the energy available, and their ability to recover.
I think the OP was questioning why shield quantity is not factored in when torpedo damage reduction is calculated -- it's an all-or-nothing scenario which doesn't make much sense. Consider a 10000 resilient fresh shield facing vs. another shield facing that has taken weapon fire and now sits at 1 shield point -- how is that 1 shield point able to turn a 30k Omega Torpedo critical hit into a mild breeze?
I believe a minimum shield strength must be present to mitigate kinetic damage... perhaps 7.5% kinetic damage reduction per 100 shield points, capped at 75%. This would mean that once shield strength drops below 1000 points, kinetic damage reduction values will start to plummet, dropping in a linear manner as shield value approaches zero. This shield point to damage reduction ratio is arbitrary and can be fine-tuned later, but it does offer an alternative to the all-or-nothing shield vs. torpedo disparity. It would also increase the combat value of projectile weapons and make them a little less situational.
OMEGA torps are quite good; and a next generation replacement for quantums. Add the Adapted maco set, and you have an additional +25% damage without wasting console space.
I started a thread a while back about what the 25% damage bonus really was. It turns out that the 25% damage bonus is really a 25% bonus of a Mark ZERO torpedo. In actuality that "25%" bonus is only around 7%.
It's so underwhelming that I personally see no reason to go 2-piece KHG (or Adapted MACO if fed) over the 2-piece Borg set's passive hull regeneration, especially when the crew mechanic is so horrendously broken.
What I would really like for torpedoes is a bonus to shield penetration inversely proportional to the amount of shields remaining on the target. For example, at 100% shields the torpedo shield penetration would be at its current level. At 10% shields, the torpedo shield penetration would be at 75%.
One upside to the Devs changing torpedo shield penetration would be that Science and Engineers would actually be required again for healing and support. As it stands now, 5 escorts (or a mix of escorts and carriers) can just faceroll all of the current (non-broken) STFs.
The reason the Devs can't do this however, is that it would buff the Borg NPCs to the point that the STFs would be virtually unbeatable for a large part of the STO community. The Devs would then have to rewrite the Borg NPC AI to not be Torpedo and drain TRIBBLE and rely more on energy damage.
Comments
someone didn't get the memo that the colors change up in TNG but blue TNG security is not red in TNG its gold tan same is said for tactical
system Lord Baal is dead
I remember reading some articles when the game first came out about how ship combat was supposed to work. Really the focus was on PvE (particularly leveling content). You were supposed to use your energy weapons to weaken the enemies shields and then you use the torpedoes when they were down. It was actually a rather fun gameplay mechanic that created some degree of strategy and timing and made leveling ship content rather fun.
In end game content and PvP this isn't quite the same, in endgame its primarily just raw dps, you don't do too much dancing around the enemy. PvP is its own animal. Personally I don't really have a problem with torps at the moment (but then I'm not big into PvP) and I am a little afraid that if they buff it too much it will simply make torps the primary weapon in the game. After all why use an energy weapon at all. They could counter this by giving torpedoes a charge (say 5 uses in 10 minutes) or a long cooldown.
Would make things really interesting, right now the high crew compliment on cruisers etc means nothing but this would really alter thing.
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"Full torpedo spread! FIRE!"
And I am thinking...well that's useless why does he even bother to give that order? lol
Don't I know - because in STO they just bounce off shields.
Of course playing a player is different than an NPC - a player has so many resists+passives+rep items+boff abilities that have been added in the last 2 years on TOP of shields 75% kinetic resist it is almost impossible to get a players shields down long enough for the torps to hit.
If the player can get just a tiny tiny tiny sliver of shield up before the torps hit - they are a waste of a weapons slot.
What would be fun to see is some of these passives and actives be added to the Borg or other Npc's - then everyone would see just how useless Torps have become.
Random ideas,
change the firing method of torpedoes, let each launcher act independent from the others, and not like now they only act as extra cool down reduction.
Pissoff all the energy only users by making hull a flat 75% damage resists against energy weapons.
Give torpedoes 2 firing modes, direct line of sight, just like now. and indirect fire, allows to fire torpedoes from all launchers, but the torps from the launchers not facing the target are arcing around first.
ummm last time i looked they dont need to replicate it that have a warp core that makes it wow how some forget this
system Lord Baal is dead
No...
just NO...
A Warp Core USES Anti-Matter and Matter to produce Energy... it does not produce it, it needs it to work...
Sorry that's the first thing you can find about Warp Cores.
Damage boosting consoles are just as good as the energy weapon ones but if you can only have 1-2 torps, you are losing DPS compared to a boosting console that will affect ALL your energy weapons that can all fire at the same time.
IF torps didn't share a global cooldown, you would see some awesome torp boats out there.
if terrorist extract can AntiMatte from the ENT-D to make a bomb ya just yes....
system Lord Baal is dead
Maybe torpedoes were powerful in the shows, but this is a game. They're designed for hitting the hull directly, and when they do they deal TONS of damage. So, if you want your torpedoes to actually do something, STOP FIRING THEM ON SHIELDS. Time your shots and hit the hull directly. Yes I know, it actually takes some skill and practice! OH THE HORROR! :rolleyes:
Cannons are the current STO weapon of choice because torpedoes are trivialized by STO shields. If torpedoes could deal more than just kinetic damage, then the shield vs. torp stranglehold would be corrected without increasing torpedo damage.
With all the new passives and actives when does a player shields go down long enough to hit? That takes 10x the skill - but mostly luck of just 1 year ago!!
And like I said all a player has to do is get a tiny tiny tiny sliver of shield back up and most of the torps damage is absorbed - ie useless.
why does 5% shields protect a ship as much as 100% shield strength?
Yes, that's how STO torpedoes work, but the latter doesn't make sense because STO torpedoes only deal kinetic damage when they should be able to deliver a variety of damage types and effects, like borg shield drain, borg gravimetric torpedo sheer, enveloping Romulan plasma, etc.
Why are 25th century projectile weapons functioning no better than World War II era ballistics?
Take a plasma torpedo for example. When it hits a target, it should deal both plasma damage, kinetic damage, and a plasma fire effect, right? Not under STO rules... plasma torpedoes deal no plasma damage despite being made entirely of plasma (not counting the magnetic bubble guidance core)... they only deal kinetic damage and start plasma fires.
How about a photon torpedo. It's an antimatter warhead that should give off a concusive / kinetic blast and deadly gamma radiation. However, in STO it's just a basic gun powder explosive.
The sad part is that multi-damage torpedoes would actually enrich STO space PVP because it would remove torpedo situational effectiveness without making them overpowered. Only kinetic damage deals double normal damage vs. exposed hulls. Other damage types do not. The non-kinetic energy damage components would function normally against shields.
By mixing the various torpedo damage component amounts, Cryptic can make some really interesting specialty torpedoes, including the borg shield drain torpedo, without making them game-breakers.
Energy weapons are terrible when your ship and captain aren't set up for them.
Kinetic weapons AREN'T terrible when your ship and captain ARE set up for them.
My kinetic specialist has dropped elite cubes in 5~ seconds with her quantum boat - solo, fully-shielded. Her Plasma boat does even more disgusting amounts of damage that is only really outperformed by the most elite of pvp DHC builds.
Just like everything else in the game, you actually have to build towards something if you want to see its maximum potential.
I think if they polled most players they would find that almost all are for a buff to torps and changes in how torp/shield mechanics work. The problem is that energy weapons do pretty much the same damage to hull as torps do and they are much much faster to target vs super slow torps. They should change the NPC's in the game to give them the same resists that players get. Now that would make things interesting!!
Like I keep saying try that on a player ship - which actually can resist your attacks and actually has passive resists and heals - something that tac cube DOES NOT HAVE!!
This will be my last post - because yes torps are not bad against the easy/non-resisting/ and ultra dumb NPC's - they don't get those fancy soon to be 4 rep system powers - they can't drop a tac team to quickly move shield facing power - they don't use batteries - they don't have consoles that boost their shields when they fire their weapons - etc etc etc - maybe if they did the game would be more fun for some of us.
Good night sir.
This would make me happy.
As a user of double fore torps, I think that that the torp vs. shield mechanics should be looked over.
You could completely remove all native kinetic resists from shields to begin with. Even just tone it down a lot. As for the "outrunning" of torpedoes... I know that they will always hit if they land a hit, but I rack up a trail of quantums just by flying at full speed (not full impulse) with engines set to 65. Double the flight speed of targetable torps and triple the speed of non-targetable torps.
On a related note, I was in a PvP que a while back. There was this transphasic T'Varo, not very deadly, but he was there (once every few minutes). He came in to cloak-launch some torps and I got a target lock and let loose a TS3 on him. He hit a bunch of speed buffs and shot away (about 20km in about 1/2 a second). My torp spread just disappeared about 3 km in front of me. I'm not sure if it went on to hit him or if it bugged out.
KDF Tac: Bortasqu' Tactical
Fed Tac: Fleet Gal-X
Keep those big guns a-thunderin'
I agree as well... the STO torp system is in desperate need of an overhaul. I still advocate all torpedoes having access to multiple damage types instead of being kinetic-only damage -- this will make them more effective vs. raised shields while increasing their overall versatility.
Shields on the big screen didn't seem to always have the bleed thru issue like we have on here, instead space weapons would cause kinetic impacts even when absorbed by the shields (kinda like a armored vest absorbing a bullet) causing the ship to violently rock from impacts and cause circuits to overload.
Mostly they would tend to use them in tandem for full effect, and when the shields were weak or dropped they would cause massive hull damage.
Energy weapons would burn thru hull plating causing great damage while a torpedo would cause massive damage to a given area, kind of like a string of bullets making swiss cheese of you while a cannon would make a huge hole or mess of you.
Yes some work on the game mechanics could be redone to closer fit what you see in canon, but they are deadly none the less.
Impacts from torpedoes more mimicking what a chroniton impact does by knocking abilities useless for a second or two would be a step towards canon, but overall their biggest drawback is the slow speed to launch them and to reach their target along with the innate 75% kinetic resistance from shields.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Shields are based on the same principles as the deflector, mainly to deflect particles and space debris from the path of the ship travelling at impulse and warp. This is effectively a KINETIC SHIELD only. This is why armour is still needed for some players with lower value shields.
Shields are either UP or DOWN. No middle ground. How much more they can resist is based on the energy available, and their ability to recover.
With the exception of slow, targetable torpedos (plasma as an example) all traditional KINETIC weapons will hit their targets. Faster targets (fighters for example) are harder to hit (higher target value) and may appear to dodge some torpedoes.
Of which is a moot point anyhow, considering that combat in this game had to be altered substantially from it's (otherwise inconsistant) onscreen examples to get it to fit the MMO model to begin with.
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Alternatively maybe Cryptic should give all NPCs two copies of Tactical Team for nonstop uptime. Then maybe some folks here will notice how utterly useless torpedoes are.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
I think the OP was questioning why shield quantity is not factored in when torpedo damage reduction is calculated -- it's an all-or-nothing scenario which doesn't make much sense. Consider a 10000 resilient fresh shield facing vs. another shield facing that has taken weapon fire and now sits at 1 shield point -- how is that 1 shield point able to turn a 30k Omega Torpedo critical hit into a mild breeze?
I believe a minimum shield strength must be present to mitigate kinetic damage... perhaps 7.5% kinetic damage reduction per 100 shield points, capped at 75%. This would mean that once shield strength drops below 1000 points, kinetic damage reduction values will start to plummet, dropping in a linear manner as shield value approaches zero. This shield point to damage reduction ratio is arbitrary and can be fine-tuned later, but it does offer an alternative to the all-or-nothing shield vs. torpedo disparity. It would also increase the combat value of projectile weapons and make them a little less situational.
I started a thread a while back about what the 25% damage bonus really was. It turns out that the 25% damage bonus is really a 25% bonus of a Mark ZERO torpedo. In actuality that "25%" bonus is only around 7%.
It's so underwhelming that I personally see no reason to go 2-piece KHG (or Adapted MACO if fed) over the 2-piece Borg set's passive hull regeneration, especially when the crew mechanic is so horrendously broken.
What I would really like for torpedoes is a bonus to shield penetration inversely proportional to the amount of shields remaining on the target. For example, at 100% shields the torpedo shield penetration would be at its current level. At 10% shields, the torpedo shield penetration would be at 75%.
One upside to the Devs changing torpedo shield penetration would be that Science and Engineers would actually be required again for healing and support. As it stands now, 5 escorts (or a mix of escorts and carriers) can just faceroll all of the current (non-broken) STFs.
The reason the Devs can't do this however, is that it would buff the Borg NPCs to the point that the STFs would be virtually unbeatable for a large part of the STO community. The Devs would then have to rewrite the Borg NPC AI to not be Torpedo and drain TRIBBLE and rely more on energy damage.