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Suggested C-Store/Skill/Difficulty Balancing Item: Cytherian Consoles
leviathan99
Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
The Cytherians were a race in TNG which placed the Enterprise under the sole command of an upgraded Lt. Barclay to bring the Enterprise to the center of the galaxy. This suggested tremendous automation potential.
Meanwhile, a major source of balance discrepancy in STO is the difference between skilled and unskilled use of bridge officer abilities. This skill barrier creates a wide range of discrepency between players whose ability to manually trigger abilities varies. This may be desirable to some extent but it seems to currently give skilled players an advantage of hundreds or even thousands of percent, the difference between perhaps 5k DPS and 100k DPS. Consoles which focus on automating some facets of flying our ships (without scaling upwards to give skilled player additional advantage) would help narrow the gap.
Here is my proposal:
Cytherian Consoles - 250 ZEN each.
Cytherian Tactical Automation Console
Decreases the effectiveness and accuracy of Tactical Bridge Officer abilities by 20%.
Increases basic weapon damage by 50%.
Increases driver coil by 10.
Cytherian Science Automation Console
Decreases the effectiveness and accuracy of Science Bridge Officer abilities by 20%.
Increases shield value by 50%. Increases shield hardness by 20%.
Increases driver coil by 10.
Cytherian Engineering Automation Console
Decreases the effectiveness and accuracy of Engineering Bridge Officer abilities by 20%.
Increases hull value by 50%. Increases all resistances by 20%. Increases turnrate by 30%.
Increases driver coil by 10.
What these do is to allow the less skilled player to de-emphasize bridge officer management in exchange for basic performance. The maximum performance with 10 of these equipped would still be well below what a skilled player could perform but would no longer be a major hindrance to teammates or as pronounced a PvP liability. Because these consoles are by type, the tendency of the gains from Cytherian automation would tend to favor the flavor of the ship while the areas where the ship underperforms by design might require closer management.
A ship with 5 tactical consoles, for example, would deal a combines total of 3.5x base weapon damage but would no longer see any numerical improvement from tactical bridge officer abilities. Something like BFAW would do 0 damage and be a guaranteed miss. A ship with 3 tactical console slots would retain some effectiveness for tactical bridge officer abilities but this would be greatly diminished relative to autofire damage.
The presence of these consoles would allow for "training wheels" builds for new players or player who are weaker at some area of a ship's function.
Meanwhile, a major source of balance discrepancy in STO is the difference between skilled and unskilled use of bridge officer abilities. This skill barrier creates a wide range of discrepency between players whose ability to manually trigger abilities varies. This may be desirable to some extent but it seems to currently give skilled players an advantage of hundreds or even thousands of percent, the difference between perhaps 5k DPS and 100k DPS. Consoles which focus on automating some facets of flying our ships (without scaling upwards to give skilled player additional advantage) would help narrow the gap.
Here is my proposal:
Cytherian Consoles - 250 ZEN each.
Cytherian Tactical Automation Console
Decreases the effectiveness and accuracy of Tactical Bridge Officer abilities by 20%.
Increases basic weapon damage by 50%.
Increases driver coil by 10.
Cytherian Science Automation Console
Decreases the effectiveness and accuracy of Science Bridge Officer abilities by 20%.
Increases shield value by 50%. Increases shield hardness by 20%.
Increases driver coil by 10.
Cytherian Engineering Automation Console
Decreases the effectiveness and accuracy of Engineering Bridge Officer abilities by 20%.
Increases hull value by 50%. Increases all resistances by 20%. Increases turnrate by 30%.
Increases driver coil by 10.
What these do is to allow the less skilled player to de-emphasize bridge officer management in exchange for basic performance. The maximum performance with 10 of these equipped would still be well below what a skilled player could perform but would no longer be a major hindrance to teammates or as pronounced a PvP liability. Because these consoles are by type, the tendency of the gains from Cytherian automation would tend to favor the flavor of the ship while the areas where the ship underperforms by design might require closer management.
A ship with 5 tactical consoles, for example, would deal a combines total of 3.5x base weapon damage but would no longer see any numerical improvement from tactical bridge officer abilities. Something like BFAW would do 0 damage and be a guaranteed miss. A ship with 3 tactical console slots would retain some effectiveness for tactical bridge officer abilities but this would be greatly diminished relative to autofire damage.
The presence of these consoles would allow for "training wheels" builds for new players or player who are weaker at some area of a ship's function.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I'm sure that sooner or later, a real number cruncher will come along and tear this apart, but i support the principle at least
In short, you're assuming the wrong thing is the culprit and creating game-breaking potential new items to fix something... that isn't broken!
Hey, if space isn't your cup of tea, there is ground. If ground isn't, there's always space. The problem is NOT as you describe it, and I think all of this is a terrible idea that has the potential to do more damage than DR has done to date.
Umm, the problem at all levels is user error. This solves user error.
Of course no one able to fly competently will need it, but it would mean those who cant fly competently (or cant be bothered to fly competently) are now capable of being contributing team members unlike before where they were basically being carried through everything.
I think it deserves consideration.
You can't fix stupid. You CAN educate people, though. This "fix" doesn't fix anything. It doesn't change the amount of knowledge a person has when using it.
Yes, you cannot fix stupid. But you can give stupid an infallible but very inferior build that even stupid can make work. It is not a paid "I win" button, far from it, it will be a massive self nerf - it is an "I can not be carried through PvE and just pew pew" button.
It in no way is aimed at the likes of us, who actually know what to do - it is aimed at those who don't and don't want to, but still blunder into PvE on our teams.
And anyway, you've tried changing the knowledge of a typical STO player, you know how well that goes...
I think you have to be careful not to allow too much knowledge to be too much power.
And in a game where a knowledgeable player can get 101k DPS, this would provide, at most... Maybe 30k? It's not really so much an "I win" button as an "I can participate" button. Skill and traditional play would still "win", unskilled play simply wouldn't lose as badly or might scrape by, which allows devs to focus on balancing content with a range rather than having to cover the full 1-100k spread.
You might get 30k DPS out of it. Min/maxing every factor.
Of course, A) on a build of gear to that spec you would do far better playing it your self, and b) anyone likely to use (or who needs to use) these wouldn't manage 10k at best from it.
It is very much an "I can participate" button.
Dont get me wrong, it is an interesting concept and thought provoking, i just think they would be far too open to abuse and would definately prove detramental to the game. Too many people are looking for the quick easy route, and this could only encourage dumb and dumber.