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Advanced STF's

mehlindemehlinde Member Posts: 53 Arc User
What we need is to remove this idea that we should fail if we don't complete the optional from Advanced. Get rid of it. The queues are dead. You probably have logs. You know what the volume was before and after DR launch. Maybe I'm a little whinny but people don't play if they don't win.

Maybe the best idea for these queues is to do the level you down back to 50 thing and change the difficulty of the mobs back to what they were pre DR. Just a thought.
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    tamzaktamzak Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    The optionals would be just sweet, if they were not glitched or unbalanced. They pugs are now basicly one big unbalanced and sometimes fataly glitched mess.
    Personaly, I do like the core idea of normal/advanced/elite with scaling and optionals. But it requires removing glitches from optionals, rebalancing the timers a bit, rebalancing hps (raptors, probes).
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    mehlindemehlinde Member Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    The definitely need rebalancing.
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    trekkietravistrekkietravis Member Posts: 214 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Agreed. The Normal/Advanced/Elite queues need their Difficulty/Rewards majorly tweaked.

    Blowing through something should grant lessened rewards, but the rewards should still include the NECESSARY things to progress (VR crafting materials & neural processors/power cells/etc). Dilithium rewards now are also out of sync.

    I'd just something more along the lines of:

    Normal Queue: 960 dilithium, VR mats box (roll for 0-3 VR Mats), 50% roll for one neural processor/etc

    Advanced Queue: 1,440 dilithium, VR Mats box (roll for 1-4 VR mats), 100% chance for one neural processor/etc

    Elite Queue: 1,920 dilithium, VR Mats box (roll for 2-10 VR Mats), 100% chance for one neural processor/etc + a 25% chance for 3 additional neural processors/etc

    That may need some tweaking, but something along those lines seems more realistic in my opinion.
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    dkratascodkratasco Member Posts: 585 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Idea where normal-optionals become objectives at advance is great. With that system you should master normal mode first, then go to advance and new challenges/optionals.
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    cookiecrookcookiecrook Member Posts: 4,524 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I think the terminology is misleading. They list as optionals still in advanced where they need to be renamed, objectives. Advanced is supposed to be the old Elite but it really doesn't seem that way. People flew through the old Elite with the optionals easily before DR. I'm not sure whether it is the increased HP of the enemies or that there are just too many people that don't know what to do in Advanced queues. Either way, I find the Nornal queues boring, unrewarding, and no challenge at all but the Advanced without a team of friends is just too likely to fail to continue to bother with. What makes failure worse is the lock out for a half hour. I do understand this is needed to prevent people from just failing to get marks but 15 minutes seems more reasonable.
    <
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    Looking for a new fleet? Drop by the in-game chat channel, "tenforwardforum", and say hi to the members of A Fleet Called Ten Forward (Fed) and The Orion Pirates (KDF). If you already have a fleet you are happy with, please feel free to drop by our chat channel if you are looking for a friendly bunch of helpful people to socialize with.
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    woodwhitywoodwhity Member Posts: 2,636 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Not able to complete advanced? Play normal.

    But fixes to VCA/E would be appreciated, as those are real bugs.
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    sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    woodwhity wrote: »
    Not able to complete advanced? Play normal.

    But fixes to VCA/E would be appreciated, as those are real bugs.

    Advising middle of the road players not to play the middle of the road missions? Play elite.
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

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    bansheedragonbansheedragon Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    mehlinde wrote: »
    What we need is to remove this idea that we should fail if we don't complete the optional from Advanced. Get rid of it. The queues are dead. You probably have logs. You know what the volume was before and after DR launch. Maybe I'm a little whinny but people don't play if they don't win.

    Maybe the best idea for these queues is to do the level you down back to 50 thing and change the difficulty of the mobs back to what they were pre DR. Just a thought.

    The idea of optionals in normal becoming objectives in Advanced is only a bad idea for those unwilling to try to learn and adapt.

    The problem with that is simply that people have for too long been used to that they can just steamroll the Elite runs(now advanced) and not need to think about what they are doing.
    Now that things have changed and they cant do that anymore, instead of trying to adapt and learn new tactics, they come here and complain about it being too difficult because they cant do it like they used to but have to learn something new.

    That said, I agree that the difficulty of the mobs in advanced needs adjustments.
    The advanced runs are intended for players lvl 50 to 60, as it stands right now there are many of the advanced runs that cannot be completed unless you have massive amounts of DPS.

    The mobs simply have far too much hit point for the average player to be able to handle, and I believe that is the real reason the advanced queues are so empty, not because of the change in how its done.
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    thunderfoot#5163 thunderfoot Member Posts: 4,540 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Don't like the "New! Improved!" STFs the way they are? Do what I am doing. Do not play them at all. There is other content in the game which awards Dilithium in the amounts people used to get from running the STFs. We leave those public queues as empty as they are right now for long enough, pwe/cryptic will do something about the mistakes they have made. Such as keeping the name "Optional" for something which is now a requirement. Wonder which genius thought this was a good idea? Probably the same guy who thought people were exploiting when they were playing the game as allowed to.

    The primary problem I have with the 'New! Improved!" STFs isn't with the difficulty settings. It is with the rewards. They are half of what they should be. Another brilliant game design concept from the fine folks at pwe/cryptic. I'll just bet the people over at Blizzard are quaking in their boots now that they can hear those footsteps coming up behind them. yay, pwe/cryptic. way to show 'em, team.

    Make the rewards worth the effort based upon what past rewards for these missions were worth. Since you guys at pwe/cryptic are always publicly chanting the mantra about the New Advanced being similar to the Old Elite, that means somewhere slightly above 960 Dilithium. Since the other thing you guys keep telling us is it supposed to be more challenging, then the New Elite ought to be around about 1500 Dil. yeah, right. went for the trifecta there did you, Devs?

    And since we're speaking about the alleged challenge part of the "New! Improved!" STFs, congratulations are in order. I now have to faceroll my space bar twice as often per target as I used to and I get to faceroll my space bar twice as often per STF overall. woo. frakkin'. hoo. Somehow I don't think this is what the player base had in mind. A Turkey Shoot with twice as many turkeys who are individually twice as big is still just a Turkey Shoot. you Devs are the very definition of 'cutting edge' aren't you? I'll just bet your email box is chock full of job offers from EA. From the way DR has been mishandled, you are soo their kinda folks.

    Not gonna play the STFs, on any setting, until this whole sorry mess gets repaired and pwe/cryptic does right by their customers. ALL of them. I thought hard about how it might be time for me to convert myself from F2P to a whale when I first heard about DR coming out. Been here long time and have spent a lot of discretionary income. Now, I'm not so sure you really need the money. Look at the foolish things you've done with the money you've already gotten.
    A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
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    rezkingrezking Member Posts: 1,109 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    The idea of optionals in normal becoming objectives in Advanced is only a bad idea for those unwilling to try to learn and adapt.

    The problem with that is simply that people have for too long been used to that they can just steamroll the Elite runs(now advanced) and not need to think about what they are doing.
    Now that things have changed and they cant do that anymore, instead of trying to adapt and learn new tactics, they come here and complain about it being too difficult because they cant do it like they used to but have to learn something new.

    No.

    The problem is everything switched to pure, unfiltered DPS.
    I had no idea...none at all...that DPS was a "tactic".
    NO to ARC
    RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
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    bansheedragonbansheedragon Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    rezking wrote: »
    No.

    The problem is everything switched to pure, unfiltered DPS.
    I had no idea...none at all...that DPS was a "tactic".

    I'm going to assume that you didnt take the time to read or understand what I said.

    I said I do not agree that change in objectives is what makes the current setup difficult, because that is just a matter of learning and adapting.

    I said I do Agree that mobs are too tough and/or that players are doing too little damage compared to the amount of HP mobs have.

    Next time, please do me the courtesy of actually reading and try to understand what I'm saying before responding.
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    rezkingrezking Member Posts: 1,109 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I'm going to assume that you didnt take the time to read or understand what I said.

    I said I do not agree that change in objectives is what makes the current setup difficult, because that is just a matter of learning and adapting.

    I said I do Agree that mobs are too tough and/or that players are doing too little damage compared to the amount of HP mobs have.

    Next time, please do me the courtesy of actually reading and try to understand what I'm saying before responding.

    Perhaps you can afford me that courtesy :rolleyes:
    NO to ARC
    RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
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    vengefuldjinnvengefuldjinn Member Posts: 1,520 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Agreed. The Normal/Advanced/Elite queues need their Difficulty/Rewards majorly tweaked.

    but the rewards should still include the NECESSARY things to progress (VR crafting materials & neural processors/power cells/etc).

    I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. People need tools to improve, along with practice.

    Locking things like the ancient power cells behind advanced and elite content ONLY, hinders players from getting the tools/gear they will need to successfully progress to the more challenging content.

    Not too long ago, we were told that rep passives were being limited to four active at a time, to help bridge the gap between new players vs veteran players, so that newer players would not be left too far behind.

    It just seems to me that a lot to do with this expansion has done nothing but fly in the face of that reasoning.
    Ie, ship masteries, gear/ship upgrades, lock box only passives ect. ect. ect..

    This expansion is most definitely not, new player friendly, and I believe that we are seeing the results of this in queue/expansion popularity numbers.

    I also think we're definitely seeing a severe inbalance with the entertainment vs grind ratio.

    As broken and buggy the LOR expansion was, it's got this one beat hands down in this player's opinion. I can't believe that Cryptic really thinks DR is the most popular one to date.
    tumblr_o2aau3b7nh1rkvl19o1_400.gif








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    necaradan666necaradan666 Member Posts: 83 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I don't mind the new reward scheme. The only real trouble I have is advanced mobs seem to gain damage resistance, going from normal to advanced the same weapons do a third of their usual damage, making good time to complete optionals would be more achievable if I was still hitting for the same amount as in normal, even if the hit points are larger. I'm not sure what can be done about it either, there's a 5% armour penetration trait from Delta Rep but I haven't noticed any other way to increase it.
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    orbdamorbdam Member Posts: 15 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Just tried to play Advanced Viscous Cycle. After killing the first Planet Killer, we were supposed to investigate an anomaly (optional) within 30 seconds or something. As I happened to be the nearest ship to the anomaly, I hit evasive maneuvers and set my course towards it. I wasn't under fire, but the red alert mode lasted almost 15 seconds, which prevented me from using full impulse (the anomaly was rather far from the PK). When I finally arrived at the anomaly, I tried to scan it (there was perhaps 7 seconds left in the timer at this point) but the scan kept restarting after every half second. Thus we failed the mission. What's the point of having these missions if they fail for such idiotic reasons? We had no problems killing the undine. :confused:
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    mehlindemehlinde Member Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I still believe for advanced they should reduce our rank to 50 like they do in other places, change the mobs difficulty back to what they were before DR. The additional mobs are okay to keep.

    I'm still hazy on the idea of fail the optional fail the map, but if they can do something like the previous paragraph then it'll probably be fun again.

    The queues are dead right now. Dilithium isn't so much a major reward for advanced but losing the chance at the R&D material rewards is major imho. No queues, no chance at materials.
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    calford24calford24 Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I personally feel that the new Advanced STF are way too difficult. They are not anything like the old Elites. I have played "Infected: The Conduit" 8 times now and 8 times we failed due to the "Optional" Task.

    I'm going into them with full purple gear (Rep gear and Fleet gear) I have tried other tactics to keep the nanite spheres away, but the fact is, for the vast majority of PuGs out there, the Spheres are too many and too powerful. They simply overwhelm PuGs.

    I'm also sick of people telling me to just not play them. These are supposed to be middle of the road STFs. These are not the new Elites. The Normal STFs are useless to me because they don't give Neural Processors. All the set gear in the rep system needs BNP

    It looks like, in order for me to get neural processors, I have to already have them, so I can get the gear to be able to play the new Advanced STF so that I can.... get... the gear...??? Anyway, How does one get the neural processors to get good gear to beat the new STFs if you... uhhh see there I go again. Its mind boggling.

    I do not find this fun at all anymore. I understand some people like the new difficulty. But most of those people are veterans that can pump out ungodly amounts of damage and have strong fleets and good teams. But again, That is what the new Elites are supposed to be for. The new advanced STF's should be a challenge, but not impossible for pick up groups. And right now, it seems that way.
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    cmdrscarletcmdrscarlet Member Posts: 5,137 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I had no idea...none at all...that DPS was a "tactic".

    It's not. But really look around these forums, rarely is anyone looking for a build that is "fun". Mostly, they are looking for ways to boost damage output to kill the target quicker. You know, DPS.

    Cryptic answer = more target HP. More HP = player having to do more per target than pew pew.

    So I guess doing more = poor gaming experience ;)
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    lordsteve1lordsteve1 Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Locking things like the ancient power cells behind advanced and elite content ONLY, hinders players from getting the tools/gear they will need to successfully progress to the more challenging content.

    Not too long ago, we were told that rep passives were being limited to four active at a time, to help bridge the gap between new players vs veteran players, so that newer players would not be left too far behind.

    It just seems to me that a lot to do with this expansion has done nothing but fly in the face of that reasoning.
    Ie, ship masteries, gear/ship upgrades, lock box only passives ect. ect. ect..

    Pretty much exactly how i see it all.

    They nerfed the hell out of the reputation passives because they said the newbie players would not be able to be competitive with the "veterans" who had 10+ passives stacked on their ships.

    Then they effectively add in a metric tonne of new passive traits, specializations etc that puts us right back where we were originally!
    A new players is still not going to have the 4 rep passives, 4 rep actives and all the starship and specialization traits that a full level 60 players has!
    So well done! You've basically gone full circle and achieved nothing! :confused:

    And then you have the issue with the PVE queues. The only way to get resources required to get the nice shinny toys you need to be at your best are only available in advanced or higher content.
    But how in the hell is a fresh level 50 or even level 60 player going to be able to finish those advanced STF's when they don't have access to the best kit to use in the fight!?!?!

    Are you expecting us to go through 5 tiers of a rep earning BNPs or Ancient Power Cells by kitting our ship out with only story rewards and cheap vendor trash rewards?!?! :rolleyes:

    And supposing we somehow manage to fight through some advanced PVE to get the goodies, they then need to be upgraded to be of any use in endgame content anyway!

    The only way to really get anywhere now is to pay a king's ransom in $$$'s for toys or to grind until your eyes bleed.

    It's just total madness and I think you are risking loosing a huge section of the player population if nothing is done soon.
    SulMatuul.png
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    ghyudtghyudt Member Posts: 1,112 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I think the terminology is misleading. They list as optionals still in advanced where they need to be renamed, objectives. Advanced is supposed to be the old Elite but it really doesn't seem that way. People flew through the old Elite with the optionals easily before DR. I'm not sure whether it is the increased HP of the enemies or that there are just too many people that don't know what to do in Advanced queues. Either way, I find the Nornal queues boring, unrewarding, and no challenge at all but the Advanced without a team of friends is just too likely to fail to continue to bother with. What makes failure worse is the lock out for a half hour. I do understand this is needed to prevent people from just failing to get marks but 15 minutes seems more reasonable.

    The problem is enemy HP. The average player doesn't go for all out dps. They like certain things, and don't like others. Some hate using cannons, or dual beams. They prefer the canon look of single beam arrays. Nor do they like using certain ships. Not everyone likes ships with a huge bias towards tactical. But the new queues almost make it a necessity, and thats not fun. But neither are the NIR al stfs, since they reward practically nothing and are far too easy for advanced players. For instance, I used to do the elite stfs in my exploration cruiser. It was a challenge that I enjoyed, and I usually succeeded. Now, I have to do mirror invasion on nor.al, because advanced requires far too much dps to accoomplish it. But playing on normal, I don't even try. I do the entire thing without even using my captain and ship/ console abilities. There is just way too bug a difference between normal and advanced.
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    calford24calford24 Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    lordsteve1 wrote: »
    Pretty much exactly how i see it all.

    The only way to really get anywhere now is to pay a king's ransom in $$$'s for toys or to grind until your eyes bleed.

    if nothing is done soon.

    The thing that makes me sick to my stomach is that I did pay the king's ransom.

    I started playing this game back in August and was hooked in the first few hours. I was playing all the time and grinding every chance I got. I've admittedly spent $230 in the past 3 months because I want this ship or that gear. I bought a T6 Ship. Grinded all purple gear and some fleet gear, and now I've hit a wall. I cant complete any sets because even with all purple gear I cant beat any advanced STF.

    I'll tell you all right now, and I hope a dev is seeing this. I NEVER would have spent this much money if I had hit a wall like this in the first few weeks. This is not Fun. I hated the grinding as it was just to get reputation armor (And I only wanted it cus it looks cool) But now to spend days failing every PuG I join. Its sickening.

    The veterans of this game can bash me all they want. But from a business point of view. I'm the guy who drops the money for content and this wall has stopped that cash flow for the time being.

    I don't care about having a ship that can do 20K DPS. I don't like PvP. I like Role Playing. But I still want the cool looking pew pews and what not when I'm on a mission. Basically, the new difficulty has devalued all that grinding I've been doing in the reputation system. I'm almost tier 5 in them all and its pointless until the change this. I do not have the time to fail advanced STFs over and over again hoping that I can get one Borg Neural Processor every now and then. And I need 5 for one item and 15 or more for a set. It could take weeks to get one set. That's not fun. that's just a chore.
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    mehlindemehlinde Member Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    The following is in the November 4 patch notes:

    Systems:
    Space NPC ships level 50-60 have had their Hit Points reduced.
    This change affects Space NPC ships in Normal and Advanced modes.
    Hit Points have not been altered for NPCs in Elite mode.


    Hopefully this resolves our issue.
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    shinnok918shinnok918 Member Posts: 312 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    It's not. But really look around these forums, rarely is anyone looking for a build that is "fun". Mostly, they are looking for ways to boost damage output to kill the target quicker. You know, DPS.

    Cryptic answer = more target HP. More HP = player having to do more per target than pew pew.

    So I guess doing more = poor gaming experience ;)
    i was playing an infected: conduit yesterday and got told (i was lagging for a sec) by one jerk of a player that "your damage is TRIBBLE just go afk i dont want you around". he's on my ignore list now but still...i have a build i find fun. key FUN. a word that doesnt apply to the "new and improved" stf's.
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    lordsteve1lordsteve1 Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    There seem to be plenty of this kind of idiot coming out of the woodwork now with things being harder.
    Some of them seem to think that the only way to play the game is to power through things in seconds with massive dps, but they seem to have forgotten the FUN part of the game. Not everyone wants to power through, a lot of us want to enjoy the time we play so being told your build is rubbish because it doesn't do a billion dps really hacks me off.

    At the same time there's also plenty of idiots that can't even understand the mission requirements because their head is so full of trying to out-dps all the other players. Like the guy in mirror invasion I had last night, started acussing me of being useless because I dared to tell the team to close the dammed rifts. We had about 5 closed, all of which I'd done and the station was getting overrun. It went down twice and there is only so much a single player can do when faced with 40-odd ships to fight through to save it! Funny thing was I had to blow away about half those ships just to get to where the rest of the team including him were getting ***** by the npcs and needed rescuing. He was so convinced that dps was the only way he didn't know how to play the mission...

    Dps is good if you know when to use it and when you need to try something else. Mirror invasion is a good example, you can try to just kill stuff but you'll soon get overrun. Following the guide at the start actually helps in this mission, closing the rifts and keeping the thing alive gets you more marks.
    SulMatuul.png
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    eurialoeurialo Member Posts: 667 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    mehlinde wrote: »
    The following is in the November 4 patch notes:

    Systems:
    Space NPC ships level 50-60 have had their Hit Points reduced.
    This change affects Space NPC ships in Normal and Advanced modes.
    Hit Points have not been altered for NPCs in Elite mode.


    Hopefully this resolves our issue.

    if people need to nerf even normal queues, avanced queues will be always difficult (to them).
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
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    orondisorondis Member Posts: 1,447 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    People are constantly forgetting that elite difficulty couldn't always be pugged. It was only after a year or two of continual powercreep and players learning the ropes that you could pug even ISE.

    We've got a whole new power creep now, all of which will eventually make ISA easier than old ISE was.
    lordsteve1 wrote: »
    He was so convinced that dps was the only way he didn't know how to play the mission...

    This is so unbelievably true.

    The reason people are having such a hard time with advanced is they take a "shoot everything" approach. So you get generators in ISA getting popped before anyone is ready, people in Disconnected aggroing the 3 factions when they should be rescuing the disconnected Borg.

    No thought, just pew pew pew.

    Advanced doesn't need a nerf, it needs the people playing it to up their game. Don't have the time to do that? That's what normal difficulty is for.
    Previously Alendiak
    Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
    Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
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    eurialoeurialo Member Posts: 667 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    orondis wrote: »
    The reason people are having such a hard time with advanced is they take a "shoot everything" approach. So you get generators in ISA getting popped before anyone is ready

    people forget the "10% rule"... it was and it is enough to play advanced if you follow it and have just a decent build.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
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    stohenrikstohenrik Member Posts: 50 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Well, with the reduction in advanced space HP in today's patch, perhaps it's time to try an advanced queue again to see how they are... Sending the Kang off 3-5 min. into the normal Cure Found PUGs are getting a bit silly :confused:
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    orondisorondis Member Posts: 1,447 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Well I've just pugged ISA and it's a joke. It's now even easier than pre-DR's elite STF.
    Previously Alendiak
    Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
    Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
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    dragonsbrethrendragonsbrethren Member Posts: 1,854 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    orondis wrote: »
    Well I've just pugged ISA and it's a joke. It's now even easier than pre-DR's elite STF.

    And people are still complaining.
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