Universal bridge officer specialization seats?

nishkacm · March 2015

Currently we have 2 main specializations and with pilot we'll have 3. Can future ships feature universal bridge officer specialization seats?

It'd make it a lot more useful to make use of all those lovely abilities and mix match them how I see fit. We can only have 1 specialization active on a bridge officer at any given time, so it's not like you can combine intel abilities with command or pilot abilities anyway.

Preferably I'd see this option retrofitted to universal bridge officer stations as well, but the above would be a big improvement already.

jovoloro · March 2015

I fully agree, ALL universal bridge officer seats need to be made true universal.
It would help older ships hold there value long after purchase. And add some incentive to open old lock boxes to get a new/old ship with a new/old boff setup.

strifeseh · April 2015

I also think universal specialization seats needs to happen, whether it be newly introduced ships, an upgrade system similar to the recent ship upgrade system, or introducing a "template" seating system that allows you to alter your existing boff seating to allow for use of specialization abilities.

arrmateys · April 2015

if anything, this could be monetized by cryptic.

500 zen for ensign, 1000 for lieutenant, etc. token of specific specialization. you apply the said token to a matching seat on any t5u/t6 ship, for example turning the risian corvette's tac commander seat into tac/intel commander seat, or fleet avenger's engineering commander seat into command/engineering commander seat.

obviously, since this would probably cut into profits from new ships, the tokens would have to be released with a 1-2 specializations delay, so now that we're getting pilot we could get intel seat tokens.

and then the game would spiral into p2w territory even more.

pweistheworst · May 2015

+1 to the original request.

Now that we have specializations with unique powers I really, REALLY want future T6 ships to have a universal BOff slot that allows us to use any BOff with ANY ability in that slot (standard, intel, command, pilot, or whatever else shows up).

duncanidaho11 · May 2015

jovoloro wrote: »

I fully agree, ALL universal bridge officer seats need to be made true universal..

Meh, I think that's just being pedantic.

Look at it form a gameplay point of view. Universal seats have been designed and balanced to allow additional combinations of eng/sci/tac abilities. That meant "anything" prior to DR but only in general description only. It specifically meant interchangeable eng/sci/tac abilities. It still means interchangeable eng/sci/tac abilities. That mechanic has not been touched. It is only that "anything" is no longer an appropriate description of what you can slot in there.

So you can either toss out that outdated viewpoint (as we generally do) or you could ask for radical balancing changes that will kill the specialization system. Why? Well you'd allow any given starship with universal seating to outcompete specialization ships with analogous spec seating because THEY will also have access to command/inte/pilot/tac/sci/eng [which ATM is 9 combos], not just one specified combination of two (never mind what this would do to the usefulness of T5 ships without universal stations). Even the in-built specialization abilities won't be enough to overcome this towering versatility (I'd say it might even become the end-all of within-class ship choice. LC universal > all.)

Personally, I'd just use the more precise way of describing "universal" stations instead of stabbing the game in the heart and watching it bleed out for my own, simple pleasure. This truly is a bad idea (not to say that its stupid or such like but only that it would colossally fail). It might seem "appropriate" but only if you don't consider the higher level consequences (ie. what a too-literally universal station would do to the game NOW).

And to the OP, Cryptic can take advantage of specialization combinations (which is the next benefit of the specialization system to be exploited) without the above "ruination of ship design." See. the Xindi escort carrier.

eristhevorta · May 2015

I would spend 1000 Zen for turning the Lt. Commander universal buffslut on my Nicor into an Intel or Command or Pilot one. Would definitely make older luckbox ships worth (worf lol) their effort.

mustrumridcully0 · May 2015

jovoloro wrote: »

I fully agree, ALL universal bridge officer seats need to be made true universal.
It would help older ships hold there value long after purchase. And add some incentive to open old lock boxes to get a new/old ship with a new/old boff setup.

It also makes new ships lose value, as you can just pick an old universal BOFF slot ship and get access to the same abilities as the new ships.

That is why it will never happen.

To help you "fix your mental model", I suggest just renaming "Universal" to "Generalist". Obviously, a generalist seat doesn't take a specialization!

cryptkeeper0 · May 2015

I honestly had a interesting idea, based on a first officer system. Where regardless of your chosen ship, you would have a choose of abilities up to lt. com of any specialization or field based on what your first officer have. + a bonus ability based upon the officers main field.

This wouldn't take too much from the new ships, especially those with commander specializations. It would also allow for the ability to use more specs with no bias vs new or old ships, as they will all benefit

Universal bridge officer specialization seats?

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