Ker'rat is probably one of the stupidest things in STO for a new player. When I started, it was one of the things in my list of missions and with STO being my first (to date, only) MMO, I basically just wandered in like a targ. As you can imagine, it did not go well.
I looked at trying to do better, but the more I worked on improving my build, the further things moved away. First with Fleet equipment limiting success to "Who's Fleet has the highest tier?" then lockbox gadgets and now, Specialization.
Channels like VPvP and RPvP seem to be doing their darndest to keep PvP options open but the first step for them is in undoing the damage that one-shot wonders are doing to the respectable members of the PvP community in places like Ker'rat.
My two cents worth at least...
EDIT: Additionally, I think the key point that I get out of the OP's post is that if a ship with 90k hull and 9k shields can be one-shotted whilst in the middle of defensive maneuvers, what it comes down to is this: most players don't have anywhere near that type of defensiveness, and if a one-on-one requires that you 'chance' survive a one-shot alpha so you can after that, start a PvP match, then the one-shot alpha becomes an impediment to the PvP match. For a multi-versus-one player PvP like Ker'rat, you would need to chance avoid multiple alpha strikes. The whole thing turns into a game of chance... or in plain English, a lottery.
EDIT: Additionally, I think the key point that I get out of the OP's post is that if a ship with 90k hull and 9k shields can be one-shotted whilst in the middle of defensive maneuvers, what it comes down to is this: most players don't have anywhere near that type of defensiveness, and if a one-on-one requires that you 'chance' survive a one-shot alpha so you can after that, start a PvP match, then the one-shot alpha becomes an impediment to the PvP match. For a multi-versus-one player PvP like Ker'rat, you would need to chance avoid multiple alpha strikes. The whole thing turns into a game of chance... or in plain English, a lottery.
Nail on the head...
Yes, im a Tac captain flying what is essentially an Engineer class of ship. From the start on the fed and even on the romulan character (i got the Falchion "Engineering" Scimitar) i went for defense.
That fleet excelsior can sit between the gate and the tac cube in Infected Advanced and take a hammering from both sides for a good number of minutes. Sure, it only manages 15k dps with the rom plasmas, but its enough.
If a 90k hulled ship, with a 9k shield, can be one shotted in the middle of a Rock and Roll manuever which is suppoed to give "Immunity to all damage"...then something is seriously wrong with not just PVP, but the baseline mechanics of this game.
"You know when that shark bites, with its teeth dear... scarlet billows start to spread..."
I've had a solution to vaping for ten years that I've been pitching game developers on and it's always seen as a poison pill:
Set aside resistances, defense, dodge, etc. for a second.
Limit incoming damage per second.
Now, you can have a modifier on this limit by class.
But if the maximum damage I can possibly take is one fifth of my health per second, then I have five seconds to react before I die.
Conversely, change death mechanics such that, on "death" but before injuries/respawn occur, a player goes into a five second death cycle that can be interrupted by any heal. Then it just becomes a matter of controlling healing cooldowns to prevent players from being immortal.
I am by no means an expert in gaming but as I understand some of these pvp style games. they can be set to only allow certain people to play certain.
like only lv 1-10 can play lv 1-10. and so on up.
but they can also put it so only those who have won 10% of there matchers can only play people who have won approx 10% of there matchers.
would this help to some degree in making these one hit wanders have to have face each other. its not perfrct. but it would help give some people a better chance.
as i stopped playing PVP some 2 years ago, i can only say that it has got worse each year...There is NO balance left.
What would i do to "fix" it? Redesign it from scratch, period.
Pre-build ships that are uncostumizeable, but 100% balanced. This would also allow for some interesting PVP scenarios that could include the player flying a NPC ship like a borg sphere or others.
Then there needs to be a tiered PVP system too, otherwise it will be too frustrating for beginners to participate in PVP.
The OP comes across as a fairly knowledgeable player, and by my account should have handled that.
Is there something I'm missing here?
Also - anytime a scottish accent is added to 'Craptic, PVP is simply broken', you have my attention and respect
Sloppy code, handled by staff that turn over quickly, built on top of existing bad code is a recipe for disaster. Each new roll out get progressively worse as more and more unintend bugs join the system.
Cryptic can barely fix serious bugs. Very unlikely to see major changes in pvp.
If, by some miracle, cryptic did make major changes and improvements to pvp, the changes would introduce new bugs which would be fixed only after a long time. It's a no win situation.
Cryptic can barely fix serious bugs. Very unlikely to see major changes in pvp.
If, by some miracle, cryptic did make major changes and improvements to pvp, the changes would introduce new bugs which would be fixed only after a long time. It's a no win situation.
The suggestion done by the OP was surprisingly simple, but probably highly effective: in PvP, let ppl only use base consoles (the kind that drop). That would insta-level the play field, and make the pilot the differentiating factor again.
...ohhh and a note when i say "former developer" no... not for cryptic.
Try it from the other side. You see, unlike Feds/Fed-Roms, we KDF do not get advantages piled on us.
Our beamboats suck by design and intention. Our best ships like BoPs, are so weak that it is an insult to all Fed players that it sometimes takes 4 or 5 Feds to kill one BoP.
To make matters worse, if a Fed pilot is vaguely competent they will see and hear us coming, and if a Nebula is around we may as well not bother as built right it will see straight through our cloaks. And if a T'Varo is around, we can be one-shot and never see our opponent. And unlike Feds, we have no way to see it coming when we are vaped.
Improve your game, don't just whine your "Tank" gets one shot. Because it will - we KDF have guys capable of kicking out your entire hull from just one weapon.
And when we do that, we cannot fire again for at least 2-3 minutes - seriously. If we do try and get another bite of the cherry we inevitably get dragged down into a battle our ships were designed on purpose to never even contemplate winning, if Feds were competent.
Which fortunately for us they aren't in the main, and so you wind up with HoBO pilots tanking several Feds. And the latter then are stupid enough to put in chat a celebration of winning over a ship of f**k all defences.
TL;DR - We either kill you, or you kill us. That is balanced.
Comments
I don't PvP; but I nonetheless agree with everything you said!
I looked at trying to do better, but the more I worked on improving my build, the further things moved away. First with Fleet equipment limiting success to "Who's Fleet has the highest tier?" then lockbox gadgets and now, Specialization.
Channels like VPvP and RPvP seem to be doing their darndest to keep PvP options open but the first step for them is in undoing the damage that one-shot wonders are doing to the respectable members of the PvP community in places like Ker'rat.
My two cents worth at least...
EDIT: Additionally, I think the key point that I get out of the OP's post is that if a ship with 90k hull and 9k shields can be one-shotted whilst in the middle of defensive maneuvers, what it comes down to is this: most players don't have anywhere near that type of defensiveness, and if a one-on-one requires that you 'chance' survive a one-shot alpha so you can after that, start a PvP match, then the one-shot alpha becomes an impediment to the PvP match. For a multi-versus-one player PvP like Ker'rat, you would need to chance avoid multiple alpha strikes. The whole thing turns into a game of chance... or in plain English, a lottery.
Punish the FED !
p.s. dat Minis fly by was amazing
Nail on the head...
Yes, im a Tac captain flying what is essentially an Engineer class of ship. From the start on the fed and even on the romulan character (i got the Falchion "Engineering" Scimitar) i went for defense.
That fleet excelsior can sit between the gate and the tac cube in Infected Advanced and take a hammering from both sides for a good number of minutes. Sure, it only manages 15k dps with the rom plasmas, but its enough.
If a 90k hulled ship, with a 9k shield, can be one shotted in the middle of a Rock and Roll manuever which is suppoed to give "Immunity to all damage"...then something is seriously wrong with not just PVP, but the baseline mechanics of this game.
Set aside resistances, defense, dodge, etc. for a second.
Limit incoming damage per second.
Now, you can have a modifier on this limit by class.
But if the maximum damage I can possibly take is one fifth of my health per second, then I have five seconds to react before I die.
Conversely, change death mechanics such that, on "death" but before injuries/respawn occur, a player goes into a five second death cycle that can be interrupted by any heal. Then it just becomes a matter of controlling healing cooldowns to prevent players from being immortal.
like only lv 1-10 can play lv 1-10. and so on up.
but they can also put it so only those who have won 10% of there matchers can only play people who have won approx 10% of there matchers.
would this help to some degree in making these one hit wanders have to have face each other. its not perfrct. but it would help give some people a better chance.
What would i do to "fix" it? Redesign it from scratch, period.
Pre-build ships that are uncostumizeable, but 100% balanced. This would also allow for some interesting PVP scenarios that could include the player flying a NPC ship like a borg sphere or others.
Then there needs to be a tiered PVP system too, otherwise it will be too frustrating for beginners to participate in PVP.
Is there something I'm missing here?
Also - anytime a scottish accent is added to 'Craptic, PVP is simply broken', you have my attention and respect
Sloppy code, handled by staff that turn over quickly, built on top of existing bad code is a recipe for disaster. Each new roll out get progressively worse as more and more unintend bugs join the system.
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Twitter:
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If, by some miracle, cryptic did make major changes and improvements to pvp, the changes would introduce new bugs which would be fixed only after a long time. It's a no win situation.
The suggestion done by the OP was surprisingly simple, but probably highly effective: in PvP, let ppl only use base consoles (the kind that drop). That would insta-level the play field, and make the pilot the differentiating factor again.
Try it from the other side. You see, unlike Feds/Fed-Roms, we KDF do not get advantages piled on us.
Our beamboats suck by design and intention. Our best ships like BoPs, are so weak that it is an insult to all Fed players that it sometimes takes 4 or 5 Feds to kill one BoP.
To make matters worse, if a Fed pilot is vaguely competent they will see and hear us coming, and if a Nebula is around we may as well not bother as built right it will see straight through our cloaks. And if a T'Varo is around, we can be one-shot and never see our opponent. And unlike Feds, we have no way to see it coming when we are vaped.
Improve your game, don't just whine your "Tank" gets one shot. Because it will - we KDF have guys capable of kicking out your entire hull from just one weapon.
And when we do that, we cannot fire again for at least 2-3 minutes - seriously. If we do try and get another bite of the cherry we inevitably get dragged down into a battle our ships were designed on purpose to never even contemplate winning, if Feds were competent.
Which fortunately for us they aren't in the main, and so you wind up with HoBO pilots tanking several Feds. And the latter then are stupid enough to put in chat a celebration of winning over a ship of f**k all defences.
TL;DR - We either kill you, or you kill us. That is balanced.