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Beam Overload is fun! Now: Target Subsystems needs work.
pulserazor
Member Posts: 590 Arc User
If there is one phrase you will hear in virtually every Star Trek episode and movie its: Target their Engines! or Target their Weapons! etc. Targetting a subsystem seemed to be at the core of starship combat, and I think it might enhance and authenticate our the Star Trek experience to put more focus on it in our video game combat.
As it is now, there is a 20% chance that this skill will acually work on a 45 second cooldown, while triggering a global cooldown on the awesome Beam Overload and any other subsystem targetting skill. Not Good Enough.
Also not good enough is the idea that only a Science ship can do this without acually slotting a boff power for it. Every single ship in Star Trek has targetted subsystems, it wasnt just a 'science ship', and come to think about it, No One has ever said Beam Overload!!.
Consider these ideas to enhance and authenticate the Star Trek Experience.
- Allow every single ship in the game access to these subsystem targetting abillities that only a 'sci ship' has, while removing the boff powers. (or leaving the boff powers in to provide players with the option to more frequently attack a particular subsystem)
- Allow the skill to work more reliably then on a 1 in 5 chance, and or more frequently then once every 45 seconds.
- Allow a continuous assault on a subsystem based on firing arcs, using the same mechanics as you have used in the new BOP flanking damage bonus, maybe a toggle like the cruiser commands.
NPC's already have access to their own 'immune to weapons offline' buff which can be explained by the ship responding to the focused assault by modulating their shields or some other 'Mcguffin' plot device so it wouldnt have to break the game, though some balance might have to be done on disable durations. It could still run on the existing captain traits and skills, and allow for more ingenious doff powers, consoles, etc.
I like what you are doing to Beam Overload and Bop Flanking, now lets see what you can do with Target subsystems.
As it is now, there is a 20% chance that this skill will acually work on a 45 second cooldown, while triggering a global cooldown on the awesome Beam Overload and any other subsystem targetting skill. Not Good Enough.
Also not good enough is the idea that only a Science ship can do this without acually slotting a boff power for it. Every single ship in Star Trek has targetted subsystems, it wasnt just a 'science ship', and come to think about it, No One has ever said Beam Overload!!.
Consider these ideas to enhance and authenticate the Star Trek Experience.
- Allow every single ship in the game access to these subsystem targetting abillities that only a 'sci ship' has, while removing the boff powers. (or leaving the boff powers in to provide players with the option to more frequently attack a particular subsystem)
- Allow the skill to work more reliably then on a 1 in 5 chance, and or more frequently then once every 45 seconds.
- Allow a continuous assault on a subsystem based on firing arcs, using the same mechanics as you have used in the new BOP flanking damage bonus, maybe a toggle like the cruiser commands.
NPC's already have access to their own 'immune to weapons offline' buff which can be explained by the ship responding to the focused assault by modulating their shields or some other 'Mcguffin' plot device so it wouldnt have to break the game, though some balance might have to be done on disable durations. It could still run on the existing captain traits and skills, and allow for more ingenious doff powers, consoles, etc.
I like what you are doing to Beam Overload and Bop Flanking, now lets see what you can do with Target subsystems.
Post edited by pulserazor on
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Many powers in STO are based on stuff ships in Starfleet do, and it rarely seems that any of these powers are ship-specific. Auxiliary to Structural Integrity Field? Emergency Power to Shields? Fire At Will? Torpedo Spread?
They would all need to be innate abilities by your logic.
I would even go further and get rid of the innate subsystem targeting on Science Vessels and give them something more generally useful instead. Maybe an extra forward weapon slot or something like that.
And as far as it's use in the television show, it can't have been that great. I mean, if it was such a reliable option, why was there ever a space battle?
The same magic pixie dust that keeps the transporters or whatever else from working so often also prevents the ships from being able to target weapons except for certain times and situations, it seems.
Science ships should remain the only ones with that permanent ability. It adds more to what little choice we have now. What's the point in making all ships the same?
However, I'm all for buffing the ability. Just not giving it to everyone permanently.
Do you realize that this is far from star trek since ages ago, right? that nobody cares if they are playing a star trek based game or not??
And no, i dont want target subsystems to be available in all ships. That was another thing that was intended to make some ships different than others, and it has nothing to do with star trek. This is not star trek anymore, so there is no reason anyways to put that skill in every ship.
Same relationship as power insulators and flow caps, except that flow caps you can actually push high enough to affect the target. Unfortunately, SubD is a tier 5 skill with very little that pushes it up and sub repair isa tier 2 I think, and on top it's innate in human boffs and captains.
Hang on a sec! I like my sci ship's innate system targeting, I find it very useful, much more so than having to power a 7th weapon! Leave my sci ship alone.
Unless of course you want to make my science boff powers more effective to my science captain, THEN I might let you play with my sci ship...
No.
Muhahaha.
:P
When I run my sci in a sci-loadout Hegh'Ta I don't get my sci Target: subsystem skills. Why not? Have it follow the toon around, and have it apply to beams OR cannons -- any weapon type. You can target stuff with warheads as well. Give us that chance of disable. The sci character is so horrifically hobbled as it is by Cryptic, they need to make it more worthwhile. This would be a way to do that. It might lead to more interesting builds, as well.
I'm okay with making it an always-on preset like cruiser commands, but I'd also be okay with having 1-time firing triggers (like now) but with MUCH shorter cooldowns. I almost never use them on the few ships that have them because they take too long to cooldown AND they interfere with my other boff skills.
That's exactly what they do, suck... power very efficiently.
I would love it if the Target Subsystem abilities would improve with the tier of the ship somehow.
Eh, Sci characters are far from hobbled. (although many sci ships are) Subnuke, Photonic Fleet, and Sensor Scan are all very good powers. (the ground powers are weaker, though)
Wrong, go watch ST:E (where they install the ships phaser weapons) and get back to me
Subnuke became less effective the moment the team abilities shared cooldown was removed.
As for the innate subsystem targeting abilities, I'm sure they were very useful once, but just like other abilities like Tachyon Beam, all the power creep has rendered them less useful.
What I don't understand is why the devs decide to keep boosting tac abilities higher and higher, but are so cautious with science ones.
In my opinion, the ONE thing that would make Sci Ships more viable would be to give them the option to have the ability to slot special consoles in their device slots OR to give them slots for "Special Consoles" as a bonus - this would be more in line with Sci ships having a variety of occasionally useful situational powers.
But yes, I agree with you. Totes! :P