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*Not sure if I am supposed to post this here, figured it is developmental discussion...*
So Al Rivera, one of this games esteemed devs, asked players about ideas for science players, ships and powers. http://priorityonepodcast.com/po158-5/
I have a few suggestions and following this please critique mine and add yours. The more info they have from us the better!
My thoughts will entirely center on "pure science" characters. This means they are a science toon, and fly a science ship, which is defined by having a commander science slot.
1) Secondary Deflectors - Perhaps a deflector can reduce the Cool down(CD) of deflector abilities, tykens, gravity wells etc... Those are generally considered a havoc science captains equivalent of cannon rapid fire or cannon vollys. For comparison the tactical powers mentioned have a cool down of 30 seconds. Yet deflector abilities have CD's of 1 minute this needs to be balanced.
Another suggestion would be to allow for 2 powers to be used with a secondary deflector.( eg no cooldown put on tykens when you use a GW )
These would A) level things out for science ships a bit + make them more useful, especially in PvP settings and might stem the flow of science players moving toward cruisers since their own ships are inadequate right now.
2)Better shields - not of a higher amount(Hit Points) but perhaps of better damage resistance, even if only against cannons, i'm suggesting say a 5-10% increase in shield damage resistance. There should be a remote chance that we can hold our own against a volly of cannon fire, i'm not saying make it easy, but we should be able to survive once in a while. (Perhaps make this a buff, that way other science players could clean it from us)
3) Subnuc cool down is a bit long with new doffs coming out that can wipe its effects.
Our one saving grace was that we could make a hole for escorts to kill something.
4) Tachyon beam, Tykens rift and feedback pulse need to be upgraded. Currently I never run any of those because they are so weak. Even against NPC's they are somewhat useless. In an escort I have no fear of attacking someone with feedback pulse since the damage is so minimal, tykens effects me little and I can fly away from it quite easily and tachyon beams supposedly pull my shields down...borg ones are effective but player ones are pathetic.
I choose to be a science player to support the team. However My heals are no longer needed often because escorts can heal themselfs(wtf??) and my havoc powers are ineffective...I'm actually seen as a drag on my team often because I do nothing of purpose(of course i dont do dps either...which is how it should work)
I myself am personally able to keep from getting destroyed alright after tens of hours of tweaking my build never mind all the respec tokens. However any tactical that has done a bit of the same can easily overcome my defenses. As said before I think we should be able to get killed quickly, however the amount of damage the cannons do now is too much.
Cruiser to science battles work out as intended I think, however as soon as a tactical players escort comes in things are quickly thrown out of balance.
Cruisers I would add also need help ( I dont know enough about cruisers to give meaningful suggestions). The command power, and secondary deflector have both been helpfully, but not enough to fix the issue.
Finally Key binds such that people add to their game files such as this:
Button4 "+power_exec Distribute_Shields"
Space "GenSendMessage HUD_Root FirePhasers$$+trayExecBytray 6 0$$+trayexecbytray 6 1$$+trayexecbytray 6 2$$+trayexecbytray 6 3$$+trayexecbytray 6 4$$+trayexecbytray 6 5$$+trayexecbytray 6 6$$+trayexecbytray 6 7$$+trayexecbytray 6 8$$+trayexecbytray 6 9$$+power_exec Distribute_Shields"
T "team Target: >> $target <<"
Need to be combated. It makes new people feel inadequate because "they cant heal that fast" which is true because human reaction time will always be better then automation. Also healer science captains cant use these because if they put their heals into this they would not be able to heal their mates. This puts them at a disadvantage when trying to keep themselves alive.
Thats my view on science. Anyone who reads this please offer your opinions on my ideas or add your own. Like I already said the more info put out there the better!
So Al Rivera, one of this games esteemed devs, asked players about ideas for science players, ships and powers. http://priorityonepodcast.com/po158-5/
I have a few suggestions and following this please critique mine and add yours. The more info they have from us the better!
My thoughts will entirely center on "pure science" characters. This means they are a science toon, and fly a science ship, which is defined by having a commander science slot.
1) Secondary Deflectors - Perhaps a deflector can reduce the Cool down(CD) of deflector abilities, tykens, gravity wells etc... Those are generally considered a havoc science captains equivalent of cannon rapid fire or cannon vollys. For comparison the tactical powers mentioned have a cool down of 30 seconds. Yet deflector abilities have CD's of 1 minute this needs to be balanced.
Another suggestion would be to allow for 2 powers to be used with a secondary deflector.( eg no cooldown put on tykens when you use a GW )
These would A) level things out for science ships a bit + make them more useful, especially in PvP settings and might stem the flow of science players moving toward cruisers since their own ships are inadequate right now.
2)Better shields - not of a higher amount(Hit Points) but perhaps of better damage resistance, even if only against cannons, i'm suggesting say a 5-10% increase in shield damage resistance. There should be a remote chance that we can hold our own against a volly of cannon fire, i'm not saying make it easy, but we should be able to survive once in a while. (Perhaps make this a buff, that way other science players could clean it from us)
3) Subnuc cool down is a bit long with new doffs coming out that can wipe its effects.
Our one saving grace was that we could make a hole for escorts to kill something.
4) Tachyon beam, Tykens rift and feedback pulse need to be upgraded. Currently I never run any of those because they are so weak. Even against NPC's they are somewhat useless. In an escort I have no fear of attacking someone with feedback pulse since the damage is so minimal, tykens effects me little and I can fly away from it quite easily and tachyon beams supposedly pull my shields down...borg ones are effective but player ones are pathetic.
I choose to be a science player to support the team. However My heals are no longer needed often because escorts can heal themselfs(wtf??) and my havoc powers are ineffective...I'm actually seen as a drag on my team often because I do nothing of purpose(of course i dont do dps either...which is how it should work)
I myself am personally able to keep from getting destroyed alright after tens of hours of tweaking my build never mind all the respec tokens. However any tactical that has done a bit of the same can easily overcome my defenses. As said before I think we should be able to get killed quickly, however the amount of damage the cannons do now is too much.
Cruiser to science battles work out as intended I think, however as soon as a tactical players escort comes in things are quickly thrown out of balance.
Cruisers I would add also need help ( I dont know enough about cruisers to give meaningful suggestions). The command power, and secondary deflector have both been helpfully, but not enough to fix the issue.
Finally Key binds such that people add to their game files such as this:
Button4 "+power_exec Distribute_Shields"
Space "GenSendMessage HUD_Root FirePhasers$$+trayExecBytray 6 0$$+trayexecbytray 6 1$$+trayexecbytray 6 2$$+trayexecbytray 6 3$$+trayexecbytray 6 4$$+trayexecbytray 6 5$$+trayexecbytray 6 6$$+trayexecbytray 6 7$$+trayexecbytray 6 8$$+trayexecbytray 6 9$$+power_exec Distribute_Shields"
T "team Target: >> $target <<"
Need to be combated. It makes new people feel inadequate because "they cant heal that fast" which is true because human reaction time will always be better then automation. Also healer science captains cant use these because if they put their heals into this they would not be able to heal their mates. This puts them at a disadvantage when trying to keep themselves alive.
Thats my view on science. Anyone who reads this please offer your opinions on my ideas or add your own. Like I already said the more info put out there the better!
Post edited by ridingink on
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Comments
Joined January 2009
The main issue with these abilities is that they they require a fair bit of speccing into to make them 'useful'.
I wouldn't call Tyken's Rift usless, I've been using it on my Nov and have been shutting clusters of ships completely down with it alone before even bringing my Polarons to bear. That said, I would like to see the duration upped a bit. I really do wish Science was able to 'sculpt the terrain' of space a bit more with semi-persistant environmental hazards the way Engineers alter the battlefield on ground.
Feedback Pulse, honestly, I would like to see it trade places with Extend Shields. It's more of a 'tanking' ability, whereas Extend Shields is more of a support ability - and THE primary reason I use Cruisers instead of Science Ships for defensive support builds.
Tachyon Beam - I agree, this is something Mobs use to great effect, but it's not particularly useful for players. A Doff-enhanced tractor beam will generally render it obsolete. Ideally, I'd like to see it merged with Energy Siphon and then have an analogy to Exothermic Radiation in space(a super-heated/radiactive 'field') take the latter's place.
Mask Energy Signature is another ability that really need to be looked at. It comes with a lot of drawbacks and doesn't really provide a meaningful benefit from my experiences.
As for General Ideas, I still would like to see science ships be able to deploy environmental hazards via probes. How many times have seen ships caught in anomolies that impact a ship in various ways in Star Trek? Would it not be interesting if Science Ships(or even as a console ability) were able to create a pocket-badlands or such(complete with Skybox changes)? Again, something I feel Star Trek Online is really missing is a lot of 'spacial terrain'(the dyson sphere adventure zones had a ton of potential for it).
Interesting idea, it would certainly change things up that is for sure.
defensive patterns hmm??? i like this .....make it so
Don't specialized computers and powerful sensors result in having access to more information?
I'd like to see the possibility for faster gauge speeds when interacting with a mission objective.
I'd like to see better sensor ranges, being able to locate objects slightly farther, and be able to identify them from farther too. "Yeah, that hostile contact 27 km away is a Negh'var battleship."
I'd like to get more information on my target; I think it'd be fantastic to be able to see the power levels of an hostile ship I'm targeting. "That escort is coming in on us hot with full powers to weapons, but its power to shields is minimal: quick, target their shield subsystems!" It'd also help us really measure the effectiveness of Tyken Rift and Energy Siphon by actually being able to see the result.
...
I think the above would be highly satisfying to have for science vessels to seem much cooler, without actually increasing their combat potency all that much. Just stress more that 'knowledge is power', and that such knowledge is at the disposal of a science ship's captain.
I don't need more hangars. I don't need more space magic. What I need is for science ships to feel more science-y.
Tyken's does work fine, but you are right, the time it's upped should be upped to 15 seconds while keeping the global/shared cooldowns on it intact. Tachyon Beam 1 is junk, 2 works great at extremes, and 3 works great at mid flow caps level, but I never use 3 because using energy siphon or Tyken's rift in its place are much more efficient at bringing down shields than tachyon beam. Draining shield power to zero doesn't let the target bring their shields up, on the other hand, tachyon beam drains them and the target just brings them back up in a flash with all the power creep and heals, which is why people never use it.
Feedback pulse is very effective, but again, requires heavy investment. I don't think I know anyone that uses mask energy signature.
works pretty well for that, actually...only in PvE, though - PvP's got way too much snooping going on for it to do any kind of good
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"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
#1 - Get rid of "science vessels", "escorts", and "cruisers". Make turn-rate a function of hull strength. Make sensor analysis meaningful. Make SST meaningful.
#2 - Separate science/engineering powers in space so they are meaningful sets in space (more like they are on the ground though the ground can use work).
#3 fix Captains.
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