I think shuttle combat can be fun, when the content is geared for it. For example, while not perfect, I think with a decent group atmosphere assault can be fun. But that's because the mission is geared for shuttles. The only one-hit kill you have to worry about are the walker's torpedoes, and those are destructible. Plus, as silly as it may sound, things being generally to scale doesn't break immersion and makes things more fun.
Instead of taking content obviously geared for actual ships and just throwing out a bunch of shuttles instead, I'd really like to see some more content made specifically for shuttle combat.
Example:
The mission starts off with two carriers 15km apart. They're to scale so from the perspective of a shuttle, they're absolutely huge. The objective of the mission is to destroy the opposing carrier before yours is destroyed.
It's a pretty simple premise, but it helps maintain immersion and hopefully would require some amount of teamwork (fighting past a bunch of fighters plus getting past the enemy carrier's defenses). What's even better is that something simple like this could be geared for PVE and PVP, with the opposing shuttles being NPCs or other players.
I really do think that shuttle combat has a lot of potential, but to tap it, more effort is gonna be needed than just tweaking ship content and saying it's for shuttles.
If they had different mechanics for shuttle combat instead of less mechanics vs ship combat or different kinds of shuttles (tankier shuttles) I may consider it but I hate this aspect of the game
1) I am in my 40's and have a hard time with twitch combat. I cannot fly escorts or raiders either. But I don't have to fly raptors and raiders. I can choose cruisers. But in shuttle fighting there is no other choice. It is either fast shuttles or fast shuttles.
The problem with shuttles in STO I think is two fold:
1. Your skill in flying the thing means nothing. If I could dodge an attack through piloting skill, that would be one thing. But I can't. Whether that attack hit me or not was determined by a virtual die roll at the instant the attack was launched. It doesn't matter how much TRIBBLE you kick at games like TIE Fighter or Rogue Squadron. If the die says you got hit, you get hit. This makes sense in a capital ship which, understandably, can't dodge around things easily, but has enough bulk to take some hits. But in a fighter, generally you get shot once you die. The goal there is to not get shot, period. But in STO, the dice land hits on us, and we're supposed to be able to absorb it. Which leads me to...
2. One, maybe two Boff powers (if in a Delta Flyer or a Lobi shuttle). Now, you can play some tricks with this. I tend to use transphasic torps in shuttles, which spares me the need for a weapon buff (a Breen cluster torp still kills everything you hit with it, even when fired from a shuttle). So, I'm free to stack 2-3 DCEs and run EPtS for defense/shield heal and be good to go right? Nope. You have to carry Hazard Emitters in case anything shoots a plasma torpedo at you. If you get the DoT from a plasma torp, especially a heavy one, you will die right through your shield. You MUST be able to cleanse it. So that's it, your one Boff ability is going to be HE1 unless you KNOW nothing is using Plasma. Or any other kind of DoT or shield penetration. And herein lies the problem, the game still expects you to be able to cope with DoTs, disables, holds, etc, plus healing and damaging your opponent with just your captain powers and one Boff skill. That must be one magical Boff skill. Where do I get the HE1/ET1/ST1/PH1 combo that sits in a single ensign slot? Is there somewhere to go where Jesus trains your Boff to perform actual miracles?
I fly shuttles for friendly PvP matches among my fleet, or when the story forces me to. And that's it. I did not touch a shuttle for this entire weekend, bonus marks be damned. The game is not set up for nor balanced around shuttles, and no amount of getting used to it will change that. I've "gotten used to" a lot of crappy Gundam and Kamen Rider games because I'm such a fanboy that I'll tolerate it, but I won't sit here and tell you they weren't broken.
If they had different mechanics for shuttle combat instead of less mechanics vs ship combat or different kinds of shuttles (tankier shuttles) I may consider it but I hate this aspect of the game
let me get this right... you are complaining about how shuttles are bad because you are terrible at this game?
shame on you
So, perhaps you'd like to explain how, in a typical shuttle with one Boff power, you are going to defend against both DoTs and Holds at the same time. Because if you have anything but HE, I will burn you to death. If you have HE, I will just tractor you and blow you to hell. It's not just a PvP problem either, remember the Borg, Terran Empire, and Romulans like their Tractors too, and two of those fire plasma, and the third is known for epic quantum spreads that kill starships through shields with 100% accuracy. And don't tell me I need a Lobi shuttle with an extra Sci station, because I'm not paying hundreds of Lobi to work around a broken mechanic.
The reason our fleet likes shuttle PvP is that it's the great equalizer. Everybody sucks, everybody dies. Many laughs are had on TeamSpeak when a shuttle eats tens of thousands of damage on a Breen Cluster crit, or got run down by a dozen Hyper Plasma torps. Seasoned vet who complains Elite queues are too easy, or fresh green noob sauce, doesn't matter. Skill in the game, at that point, means little.
Whoever said the event was there to sell Lobi shuttles nailed it. Make an event where your only reasonable chance of survival is a Lobi shuttle, then put said shuttles on sale and rake in the Master Key sales.
So, perhaps you'd like to explain how, in a typical shuttle with one Boff power, you are going to defend against both DoTs and Holds at the same time. Because if you have anything but HE, I will burn you to death. If you have HE, I will just tractor you and blow you to hell. It's not just a PvP problem either, remember the Borg, Terran Empire, and Romulans like their Tractors too, and two of those fire plasma, and the third is known for epic quantum spreads that kill starships through shields with 100% accuracy. And don't tell me I need a Lobi shuttle with an extra Sci station, because I'm not paying hundreds of Lobi to work around a broken mechanic.
The reason our fleet likes shuttle PvP is that it's the great equalizer. Everybody sucks, everybody dies. Many laughs are had on TeamSpeak when a shuttle eats tens of thousands of damage on a Breen Cluster crit, or got run down by a dozen Hyper Plasma torps. Seasoned vet who complains Elite queues are too easy, or fresh green noob sauce, doesn't matter. Skill in the game, at that point, means little.
Whoever said the event was there to sell Lobi shuttles nailed it. Make an event where your only reasonable chance of survival is a Lobi shuttle, then put said shuttles on sale and rake in the Master Key sales.
id like to play shuttle pvp with your fleet sometime
He's 40... haha 40!!! Dude your 40!!! Go play with your kids, if you don't have kids, well then have kids. And if you have kids, get some grandkids! Go fish, go hunt, go buy a '57 Chevy and take it for a drive. You're 40, you are supposed to have bettering things to do with yoru life then us young punks who sit around playing this game.
I actually didn't mind the shuttle combat. What made me facepalm was what a bunch of SHUTTLES could do to a fleet of Borg. :eek:
Heh, yeah that's the gag when they let you put starship-class weapons on there. Remember how in Star Wars, the only way they could beat a massive battle station was to make an extremely unlikely shot into a poorly guarded exhaust port? In Trek, we'd just put battleship grade weapons on the fighters, and send in a team of five to just blow the station to dust. Take THAT, Star Wars fans. :P
I had fun with the shuttles. It is twitch combat only if you want it to be.
Set up a Danube with the 360 ap beam+obelisk core, the wide angle quantum torp, old aegis set and hazard emitters as the power and you can broadside like a champ and tank some fire too. Swap it to a dbb+photon with three purple torpedo doffs and BO1 and you will do a lot of damage instead. Or use a matching weapon and space gear set like the Dyson+dyson weapons or Borg+omega weapons and you can get some unique and surprisingly effective builds.
A tip for the next time, changing the camera mode to follow can help a lot if you are going with forward facing firepower.
And anyway, it was a nice change from the usual grind. I got over 6000 rep marks during the weekend for one of my alts, enough to fully fund the Undine rep and fully gear the ship as well.
Heh, yeah that's the gag when they let you put starship-class weapons on there. Remember how in Star Wars, the only way they could beat a massive battle station was to make an extremely unlikely shot into a poorly guarded exhaust port? In Trek, we'd just put battleship grade weapons on the fighters, and send in a team of five to just blow the station to dust. Take THAT, Star Wars fans. :P
This. Actually, I'd like a dev statement on the state of shuttles. Someone just say what we all know: They just didn't care anymore. You can put anything on shuttles that you straight "ripped" out of your Galaxy, the weapon effects are not customized to fit shuttles (torpedoes are bigger than shuttles, which shouldn't even have regular torpedoes) and the gameplay is a lazy joke.
Shuttles COULD be an interesting part of the game, with their own equipment, visuals and missions...
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Comments
Instead of taking content obviously geared for actual ships and just throwing out a bunch of shuttles instead, I'd really like to see some more content made specifically for shuttle combat.
Example:
The mission starts off with two carriers 15km apart. They're to scale so from the perspective of a shuttle, they're absolutely huge. The objective of the mission is to destroy the opposing carrier before yours is destroyed.
It's a pretty simple premise, but it helps maintain immersion and hopefully would require some amount of teamwork (fighting past a bunch of fighters plus getting past the enemy carrier's defenses). What's even better is that something simple like this could be geared for PVE and PVP, with the opposing shuttles being NPCs or other players.
I really do think that shuttle combat has a lot of potential, but to tap it, more effort is gonna be needed than just tweaking ship content and saying it's for shuttles.
shame on you
I think you missed the point completely.
So, perhaps you'd like to explain how, in a typical shuttle with one Boff power, you are going to defend against both DoTs and Holds at the same time. Because if you have anything but HE, I will burn you to death. If you have HE, I will just tractor you and blow you to hell. It's not just a PvP problem either, remember the Borg, Terran Empire, and Romulans like their Tractors too, and two of those fire plasma, and the third is known for epic quantum spreads that kill starships through shields with 100% accuracy. And don't tell me I need a Lobi shuttle with an extra Sci station, because I'm not paying hundreds of Lobi to work around a broken mechanic.
The reason our fleet likes shuttle PvP is that it's the great equalizer. Everybody sucks, everybody dies. Many laughs are had on TeamSpeak when a shuttle eats tens of thousands of damage on a Breen Cluster crit, or got run down by a dozen Hyper Plasma torps. Seasoned vet who complains Elite queues are too easy, or fresh green noob sauce, doesn't matter. Skill in the game, at that point, means little.
Whoever said the event was there to sell Lobi shuttles nailed it. Make an event where your only reasonable chance of survival is a Lobi shuttle, then put said shuttles on sale and rake in the Master Key sales.
id like to play shuttle pvp with your fleet sometime
I support the Star Trek Battles channel.
Heh, yeah that's the gag when they let you put starship-class weapons on there. Remember how in Star Wars, the only way they could beat a massive battle station was to make an extremely unlikely shot into a poorly guarded exhaust port? In Trek, we'd just put battleship grade weapons on the fighters, and send in a team of five to just blow the station to dust. Take THAT, Star Wars fans. :P
Set up a Danube with the 360 ap beam+obelisk core, the wide angle quantum torp, old aegis set and hazard emitters as the power and you can broadside like a champ and tank some fire too. Swap it to a dbb+photon with three purple torpedo doffs and BO1 and you will do a lot of damage instead. Or use a matching weapon and space gear set like the Dyson+dyson weapons or Borg+omega weapons and you can get some unique and surprisingly effective builds.
A tip for the next time, changing the camera mode to follow can help a lot if you are going with forward facing firepower.
And anyway, it was a nice change from the usual grind. I got over 6000 rep marks during the weekend for one of my alts, enough to fully fund the Undine rep and fully gear the ship as well.
This. Actually, I'd like a dev statement on the state of shuttles. Someone just say what we all know: They just didn't care anymore. You can put anything on shuttles that you straight "ripped" out of your Galaxy, the weapon effects are not customized to fit shuttles (torpedoes are bigger than shuttles, which shouldn't even have regular torpedoes) and the gameplay is a lazy joke.
Shuttles COULD be an interesting part of the game, with their own equipment, visuals and missions...
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