Thank you for all of your feedback! We've tried our best to digest all of it, and distill it down to a few actionable items we can undertake over a short time frame, in order to get some changes into next week's patch.
Here are the adjustments we will be making:
Basic Difficulty:
* Hitpoint values @ Level 60 reduced to ~80% of current Holodeck values
* This means that enemies also scale less aggressively as you level up between 50 and 60.
Advanced Difficulty:
* Hitpoint values @ Level 60 reduced to ~70% of current Holodeck values
Elite Difficulty:
* Hitpoint values @ Level 60 increased to ~110% of current Holodeck values
These are likely to be the first of many, many changes, as we continue monitoring feedback and actual gameplay metrics. As more players reach level 60 and begin earning additional Specializations and Starship Masteries, as well as continue to Upgrade their Equipment, we anticipate playstyles and feedback will shift over time. As such, we're hesitant to make too many changes, too quickly.
Despite this caution, it was obvious to us that the NPC hitpoint values currently on Holodeck were having a negative impact on the quality of gameplay in Basic and Advanced, and the above changes are an attempt to alleviate that. Even these changes are still cautious though, and we're willing to consider additional reductions if they end up being deemed necessary.
We're still keeping an eye on NPC damage output, shield hardness, and more. There's always a chance that tweaks to those values may come in future patches.
We will not be making any adjustments to queue rewards just yet. Until these hitpoint modifiers are in place, and we have updated metrics and feedback to review, we're going to just change one aspect at a time.
And with that, I believe that this thread has run its course - I'm going to request to have it closed.
Thank you all again for your feedback and passion for this game. And for your patience as we continue to iterate on this process of making Star Trek Online an enjoyable and challenging experience.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Comments
Here are the adjustments we will be making:
Basic Difficulty:
* Hitpoint values @ Level 60 reduced to ~80% of current Holodeck values
* This means that enemies also scale less aggressively as you level up between 50 and 60.
Advanced Difficulty:
* Hitpoint values @ Level 60 reduced to ~70% of current Holodeck values
Elite Difficulty:
* Hitpoint values @ Level 60 increased to ~110% of current Holodeck values
These are likely to be the first of many, many changes, as we continue monitoring feedback and actual gameplay metrics. As more players reach level 60 and begin earning additional Specializations and Starship Masteries, as well as continue to Upgrade their Equipment, we anticipate playstyles and feedback will shift over time. As such, we're hesitant to make too many changes, too quickly.
Despite this caution, it was obvious to us that the NPC hitpoint values currently on Holodeck were having a negative impact on the quality of gameplay in Basic and Advanced, and the above changes are an attempt to alleviate that. Even these changes are still cautious though, and we're willing to consider additional reductions if they end up being deemed necessary.
We're still keeping an eye on NPC damage output, shield hardness, and more. There's always a chance that tweaks to those values may come in future patches.
We will not be making any adjustments to queue rewards just yet. Until these hitpoint modifiers are in place, and we have updated metrics and feedback to review, we're going to just change one aspect at a time.
And with that, I believe that this thread has run its course - I'm going to request to have it closed.
Thank you all again for your feedback and passion for this game. And for your patience as we continue to iterate on this process of making Star Trek Online an enjoyable and challenging experience.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
We are now going to close this thread and get to work.
See you back in-game!
~CaptainSmirk