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Proposed revamp for Photonic Officer
darramouss1
Member Posts: 1,811 Arc User
Hello all.
For me, Photonic Officer (PO) is one of those abilities that looks good on paper but falls short on execution. I think is needs a revamp and I have a suggestion on how it could work.
(This suggestion is based on the common sense thought that when you activate PO, an actual photonic crewman is generated on the bridge to assist your bridge officers perform their tasks. I realise, however, that not only is common sense uncommon but STO doesn't let common sense get in the way of how they want things to work)
Old method
Currently, when you activate PO your cooldowns (CDs) drop by the percentage associated with the level of PO, excluding global CDs. When the PO finishes any CDs that were reduced by it go back to what they would have been had the PO not been activated.
If we were to apply to this to a real world situation, my wife is cooking stir fry, a task that takes her 15 minutes. She "summons" me to help and after complaining about being in the middle of something I start to chop vegetables for her. This reduces the total time to make the dinner by 5 minutes. 7 minutes in to me helping her the phone rings, I stop helping her to answer it and all of a sudden the total time to making dinner springs back to 15 minutes.
I don't get how that works. Maybe the vegetables regenerate and need to be chopped again. Who knows.
New proposed method
Rather than reduce the CDs by a set amount, I propose that PO boosts the power recharge speed, like the temporal inversion field does. When PO finishes then all CDs count down as per normal. This would more correctly reflect that the bridge officer was helped by the PO and make PO more useful.
Going back to the real world example I used above, when called away from helping the wife, my contribution would have reduced the overall time to cook dinner but after leaving to answer the phone my wife would then proceed at regular cooking speed. Dinner would have taken less than 15 minutes to complete due to my help. Logical, yes?
Different levels of PO would have different levels of boost to the power recharge speed. The current CD reduction levels for PO would most likely need a little bump up to make PO viable.
Does anyone else agree/disagree with this suggestion? Please keep it constructive.
(To those who think poorly of me for making the wife cook, please bear in mind that I do all the housework EXCEPT for cooking and ironing. I don't iron because I hate it and I don't cook as I'd probably end up killing everyone who tried my wares.)
For me, Photonic Officer (PO) is one of those abilities that looks good on paper but falls short on execution. I think is needs a revamp and I have a suggestion on how it could work.
(This suggestion is based on the common sense thought that when you activate PO, an actual photonic crewman is generated on the bridge to assist your bridge officers perform their tasks. I realise, however, that not only is common sense uncommon but STO doesn't let common sense get in the way of how they want things to work)
Old method
Currently, when you activate PO your cooldowns (CDs) drop by the percentage associated with the level of PO, excluding global CDs. When the PO finishes any CDs that were reduced by it go back to what they would have been had the PO not been activated.
If we were to apply to this to a real world situation, my wife is cooking stir fry, a task that takes her 15 minutes. She "summons" me to help and after complaining about being in the middle of something I start to chop vegetables for her. This reduces the total time to make the dinner by 5 minutes. 7 minutes in to me helping her the phone rings, I stop helping her to answer it and all of a sudden the total time to making dinner springs back to 15 minutes.
I don't get how that works. Maybe the vegetables regenerate and need to be chopped again. Who knows.
New proposed method
Rather than reduce the CDs by a set amount, I propose that PO boosts the power recharge speed, like the temporal inversion field does. When PO finishes then all CDs count down as per normal. This would more correctly reflect that the bridge officer was helped by the PO and make PO more useful.
Going back to the real world example I used above, when called away from helping the wife, my contribution would have reduced the overall time to cook dinner but after leaving to answer the phone my wife would then proceed at regular cooking speed. Dinner would have taken less than 15 minutes to complete due to my help. Logical, yes?
Different levels of PO would have different levels of boost to the power recharge speed. The current CD reduction levels for PO would most likely need a little bump up to make PO viable.
Does anyone else agree/disagree with this suggestion? Please keep it constructive.
(To those who think poorly of me for making the wife cook, please bear in mind that I do all the housework EXCEPT for cooking and ironing. I don't iron because I hate it and I don't cook as I'd probably end up killing everyone who tried my wares.)
Post edited by darramouss1 on
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Comments
I'm sure your DPS is great, but as Kahless said, "a petaQ with high system mastery is still a petaQ." (Well, he should have said it...!)
You use TT1 which has a CD of 30s. With PO1 active, the new CD will be...
30 / (1 + 0.24) = 30 / 1.24 = 24.2s
When PO1 expires, the CD will be multiplied by 1.24 to reflect the PO is no longer there.
So if TT1's remaining CD was 10s when PO1 expires, the new CD would be 12.4s.
And if TT1's remaining CD was 20s when PO1 expires, the new CD would be 24.8s.
But if TT1's remaining CD was 25s when PO1 expires, the new CD would be 30s. It wouldn't go to 31s, but instead return to the original amount.
Given your example of helping in the kitchen, well - we can look at the numbers.
Stir Fry: 15m CD
You: 33% CD Reduction, 7m Duration
Stir Fry CD reduced from 15m to 10m. 7m later, you answer the phone. 3m would remain on Stir Fry CD at that point before your departure. Your departure would cause the Stiry Fry CD to increase by 33% at this point...taking it from 3m to 4m. Not 15m again.
The total time to make dinner went from 15m to 10m to 11m. Your helping, if the phone hadn't rang would have reduced it by 5m - that you had to scoot early, still reduced it by 4m.
With 3 vr photonic doff's and PO3, you could effectively lower your boff's skills by 40% for 1 min, with PO refreshing in 1min as well after it's activation time has expired (so 2mins overall per PO use) all in 1 skill vs the 2eng, however you don't get the nifty power boost like you do from aux2batt.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
I do, I've just said what I could in my own thread on this awhile back.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=827501
I was going to mention that in my first reply, but I did an edit before posting. Honestly, I'd never bothered with PO - I only posted what I did up there after spending a few minutes with PO1 on one of my guys - the first time in however long that I'd ever looked at it...that I remember.
Where as if hypothetically there was another PO4 which had 50% "reduction" this wouldn't make a 60s ability go to 30s left, it would be 45s.
In contrast if you could stack 5 technicians for 50% reduction with aux to batt then that 60s would become 30s. So yeah look at it as a speed up, not a reduction.
Sorry but you don't need 3 of the doffs, you only need 2 to hit global and 1 with the fleet deflector should get very close from what I remember in Mimeys thread. Still that is 2 doffs and 1 ability for a speed up half the time vs 3 doffs and 1 ability which can be activated every 27s to reduce everything by 30%.
TL/DR a single aux to battery with technicians produces better performance in nearly all cases than PO.
Indeed if you also think about it you only expend a lt eng position for aux to batt while to get a good amount of cool down with PO you need to use a lt.com or commander science position.
Edit: certainly removing the cool down reset would be nice but I think the best way is to allow for constant uptime with a reduction in the shared cool down and maybe a slight reduction in the cool down so that 2 doffs, maybe even 1 at the higher levels is enough to keep it up constantly.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
My main issue is that after PO expires, time gets added to any ability that was previously affected by PO. That shouldn't happen. With my cooking example, if I left the kitchen there shouldn't be time added to the reduced meal preparation time.
This time being added on to cooldowns when PO expires makes it more efficient for small powers that can cooldown within PO's duration but less for powers with longer cooldowns, like DEM.
Sure, people may say "just use Aux2Batt". That works unless you want a science build. Then you're left with PO. Sure, there are builds that can utilise PO but nowhere as effectively as Aux2Batt.
For example, with PO1 and it's 24% - just like it adds 24% back at the point it expires (5s left on a CD, the CD will jump to 6.2s) - it will also reduce the 24% at the point it is applied...
30s CD would drop to ~24.2s, a reduction of ~5.8s...
Trigger PO1 while there's only 15s left on that CD, you don't get a ~5.8s reduction. You get ~2.9s, because it's reducing the 15s.
It leaves me curious if [SciCdr] and 2pc MACO work like CD/1.15 or CD/1.1/1.05...
Cause the 2pc MACO also affects weapon CDs.
But a 30/1.15 would be a ~26.1s regardless...no concerns about where PO expired - no using a BOFF ability for it. 30/1.1/1.05 would be ~26.0s or so (heh, so no much difference).
But that would only be Sci abilities for the 1.15 or 1.1/1.05. DEM would be ~85.7s compared to ~75.6s with PO1 or ~70.8s with PO2 if you timed them consecutively.
Hrmm, so yeah - in general, imho, PO's a PITA all around. Can definitely see the push to want it not to add a percentage back, regardless of the remaining CD...but I'm not sure I'd stop there in asking for it to be adjusted, eh?
PO needs to keep cooldowns where they are when it expires.
It should also reduce cooldowns based on the max cooldown just like aux2bat, not the current cooldown. If you fire Grav Well, then PO 15 seconds later; PO should cooldown Grav Well x*60 (its max cooldonw), not x*45 (its current cooldown), which is what it currently does.
On a side note; Sci commander abilities really need a buff or an addition, Grav Well 3 is what most people take. Energy Siphon 3 would be great if cryptic would fix the DEFLECTOR DOFF to actually cool it down like it says it should. Feedback pulse 3 is really a PVP only skill, the rest are useless.
butcher suspect, "What'd you hit me with?"
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Personally I think the cool down speed up effect should be buffed or it changed in actually being a cool down reduction, I mean 24% would get GW down to nearly shared nicely, 32% would get emergency power abilities down to same ability cool down nicely and the 40% would be a powerful boon that on its own isn't amazing but would let you spam more stuff making up for the disadvantages inherent to science ships/abilities.
Then make the doffs able to keep it up for longer and longer durations so you need 2/3 to get that always on effect similar to aux to battery.
TLDR: I would personally prefer higher uptime, with the ability to have it up 100% of the time.
Then either buff how it works now, not too much mind or change it to a CD reduction instead of a cool down speed up.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
What I would do is make the recharge time drop even stronger than it currently is with the changes the OP suggests but also have the PO heal the Crew. Currently we have next to no crew healing mechanics but lots of crew loss. Crew can be vaguely useful so as an added side effect PO I should be able to heal 30% of the crew back to full readiness, PO II would heal 60%, and PO III would heal 90%.
+1. No, on second thoughts, +1,000. I've sent tickets in regarding thisand am waiting for them to correct it but I won't hold my breath, even though blue is my favourite colour.
My wife's stir-fry is awesome!!
I did. The rate of countdown should be sped up whilst it's active. Like Temporal Distortion Field.
That's an awesome idea. I really like this. Like you're also calling an EMH.
I use it anyways
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