Bear in mind I have been out since the whole BFAW, FTW era of the game.
With that said I really don't see how making a weapon or ability weaker be an advantage. Wouldn't it make more sense to beef up the other abilities or weapons to match that with the BFAW?
Wel it depends on how you look at it. If you buff just the abilities in effectiveness (ie damage) than to keep the content challenging and interesting without adding too many mechanics then you need to buff the damage and/or the hp/shields of the enemies to compensate for the increased in damage output. The other side of the coin you will need to reduce the hp/damage of your enemies if you nerf things into balance to make up for the loss of damage output. Its basically power creep as you will see each ability slowly get buffed in a somewhat sterile environment, yet then a combo or circumstance will arise that makes it or another ability/weapon the best thus needing again to buff the lower performing abilities/weapons up to the new par again. Byt using both a buffing an nerfing route you bring things inline at a lower point, while not nerfing/buffing something into the point of being completely useless or op, which help to also keep the power-creep minimized an needing less buffs/nerfs to content an enemies to balance things out.
Bear in mind I have been out since the whole BFAW, FTW era of the game.
With that said I really don't see how making a weapon or ability weaker be an advantage. Wouldn't it make more sense to beef up the other abilities or weapons to match that with the BFAW?
That'd trigger a buffing of NPCs that'd make DR look like a good season.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
You are assuming that you NEED BFAW level of broken to play this game. You don't even need half that to roflstomp this game. We can nerf BFAW quite a bit and still not need to touch the enemies one bit. So once again, WRONG.
I never said anything like that. I said that the enemies have been adjusted to the current average player power level, which is correct. At no point did I say you need to max everything out to be competitive. By no means do I feel that 100k DPS is required for anything in this game, that would be silly. I'm talking about average players, the people pulling 5-10k. You're talking about an elite minority. For the average player, nerfing BFAW would be a devastating blow if enemies weren't altered in kind. The players that have everything maxed out and pull insane DPS are not the majority.
There will always be players like the top guys in the DPS league that can roll through any content uncontested. Adjusting the game to meet their standards is a flawed ideal at best. You don't adjust the power level of a game according to it's highest performing minority, you adjust to the average.
Also it is not an insult to point out logical flaws or lack of understanding of something. If you think it is, how the hell did you ever learn anything?!?
It's insulting to imply that because someone has a different view then yours that it automatically means they lack understanding. Just because someone differs with your opinion does mean they don't know what they're talking about or that they lack understanding. You can state your opinions without being insulting or without putting things in all caps or implying that someone doesn't understand the argument.
weapons need a complete overhaul, torpedoes don't need multiple way to balance them. There really shouldn't be destructible torpedoes, they already have much less shield damage. Remove crew system it's nothing more then a relic of a broken and destroyed mechanic. Give photons and quantums their own special proc, photons should stack a slight hull stress debuff, reducing max hull? Quantums get to bypass all natural shield resistances on proc ? Just some ideas, make single cannons somewhat the equivalent of beams, with the ability to put them in back and 225 degrees, giving them a 45 degree broadside. Improve dual cannons to 70 degrees.
Reduce the ranks of the cannon skills, rank 3 should be a lt.com. The hard change will be trying to make aoe skills only effective during a aoe encounter. Then by making them like that, the skills should not share timers though only one should be able to be activated at any given time.
A system that i also think needs to be updated is shield distribution, why do I have to either use tact team or continually have to tell my BOFFS to redistribute my shields, it's like i have to summon security officers to make sure they do there job at gun point...
8x Beams + Hitting BFAW and Space is just too suprior and boring Beam Overload should also maybe be overlooked that it should do Massive energy spikes for 5-10 seconds like the Romulan Singularity power does. But most the time singletarget abilities are worthless if there are always 10 enemys+....
cant play game his way so tries to change it to his way
Change Surgical Strikes 3 to lt.com too, and of course SS1 to ensign and SS2 to lt.
Also Attack Pattern Omega 1 could be lt and APO 2 lt.com like APB is, there's no real reason not to do that.
That 225 arc or even 250 on cannons would be interesting, but make a turret/cannon hybrid weapon with the same arc than cannons so you can have a little more punch from the back if you want to broadside things.
And then just nerf everything because someone doesn't like that someone else has a ship that destroys things faster than his ship.
After that make a new STF that has even more small, medium and big flying stuff that will use abilities that makes playing almost impossible because you can't really see anything and then we'll be happy campers.
Galavant!
"Use Temporal Skills to NERF EVERYTHING before it happened!" -Unknown source.
Just from a Star Trek story logic perspective, BFAW was only ever shown, in any way, as something that a large ship with a plethora of beam arrays ever did. You didn't see the Defiant shooting beams all over the place. You didn't even see Voyager doing that.
A proper balancing would involve:
1) limiting BFAW to cruisers -- making that their primary DPS ability
2) limiting CSV and CRF to Escorts/Raiders -- making that their primary DPS ability
3) limiting GW and other major damage dealing Sci magic abilities to Science ships -- making that their primary DPS ability
4) that leaves TS and THY as an ability available to all types of ship, allowing a variety of torp builds -- balance Torpedo builds against the other three styles.
Do all that, and make it approximately equal chances, in terms of the possible DPS output.
But that would take a whole heck of a lot of work.
That's the way it should be.
I'd probably use Beam Overload more often if it were more like the Pulse Compression Wave from DS9, where the next firing cycle of all beams gets a significant damage increase.
Nerfing single abilities in isolation is not the answer. What realistically needs to happen is a complete overhaul of all the abilities, and how they interact, and compare with each other.
Unfortunately, this would be such a mammoth undertaking, that they may as well scrap all the abilities we have now and start again from scratch. That will never happen.
Ultimately, I agree with a few of the people in this thread... don't nerf BFAW! Make other things comparable! Give players alternatives.
FAW works fine, and is actually in one of the least bugged states it has ever been right now. Instead, buff Beam Overload, Surgical Strikes (it used to perform fine...), Reroute Reserves to Weapons and especially Target Subystem.
I agree with that the abilities we have access to overall could use a rework and re-balancing form the ground up, which is just a mammoth undertaking, though if such a undertaking could make the game more enjoyable for players an give them more diversity it is well worth the time an resources to undertake.
You can't just buff other abilities up to par with a over preforming ability, most of all ones that give a buff to damage output or critical severity or the power you have available for weapons, and then expect that will balance it out as it won't the buff to such abilities will just push the over-performing ability further ahead. You need to buff yes the weaker abilities, but then also nerf the over performing ability/s as well to bring them inline with each other. Also if you do not nerf the over-performing ability you will get a fact that enemies need to be bloated with even more resistances, shield/hull hp, and even stronger attacks to keep an interesting to some extent, and by just buffing you will push that bloat much higher as everything is performing at the degree of the over-performing ability compared to setting he par lower thru a buffing an nerfing set up of alterations.
Targeting sub-systems has alot has issues, and should be looked at. I personally wish that it would as it says knock off-line certain sub-systems for a duration, but would also leave a debuff on the target from the attack wit the severity of the debuff being based on if it was normal hit or critical hit. I could see things like a damage output reduction or accuracy reduction on weapons for targeting weapon systems, a shield hardness reduction or penetration bonus on shields from the shield system targeting, and for Aux just a overall reduction on hull/shield healing or exotic damage reduction.
I have said this before, I'll say it again. The chief concern with Fire At Will right now is that everyone uses it. It's the 'best' ability and is therefore the 'go to.'
Lets ask ourselves why this is? Why does everyone FAW everything? Does everyone hate the idea of Cannons?
There is one reason only.. lack of alternatives.
You can go Cannons, who's mechanics are horribly flawed and make them require far more effort for less payoff (in most cases.)
Even if you're a Beam Captain, what's your alternative? Beam Overload? Again.. odd mechanics, most people don't use it. Surgical Strikes? Sure.. that one is not bad but of course there is what.. 3 ships that can even use it? Hardly a mass solution.
Nerfing abilities does not cause diversity.. it never has and it never will. When you take the best ability and reduce it's effectiveness, it has one of two effects. Either it still remains the best ability even after the nerf and everyone sticks with it while setting the forums on fire. Or the nerfed ability moves below the 2nd best option and the 2nd best becomes the new 'Meta' and the problem persists.
The way you create diversity is creating desirable alternatives. You overhaul Cannons to make them competitive. You look at introducing other Beam Skills or improving things like Overload or Surigical Strikes to make them viable alternatives to Fire At Will. When you give people options, they'll try different things. Back when Aux2Bat was the big thing everyone wanted it nerfed. Cryptic instead did the smart thing, and introduced alternatives. They put in the Nukara traits that made people want high Aux, they put in traits and other mechanics that people could use as alternatives and people naturally moved away from A2B. Meanwhile, those who enjoyed it were able to stick with it and didn't have to change if they didn't want to.
Nerfing Fire At Will is a reactionary, short sided solution that lacks imagination and won't fix the problem. You want to really fix the problem? Give people alternatives.. give them other effective abilities and people will naturally migrate away from Fire At Will.
Just say no to nerfs.
Amen, this player gets it.
It amazes me that people ask for nerfs instead of alternatives, how about asking for some diversity instead, trust me it makes the game a whole lot more fun for everyone.
The problem right now is that you have 2 alternatives, you fight using a caliber 50 machine gun against your enemy or you use a stick against all, machine gun vs stick. machine gun? stick? machine gun? stick?
Seek and ye shall find. Ask and ye shall receive. Rabboni
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" (Benjamin Franklin).
Most unexpectedly, this turned into a flame-fest! Closed it goes!. /sigh What flamefestery is this? pwlaughingtrendy
I know how to solve the problem. Let's just nerf everything and give everyone a Red Rider BB gun. You'll shoot your eye out but have fun doing it.
More seriously I'd like to see weapons combos work better. Almost all the ships had both laser/phasers/canons and torpedos. Every build in this game is "one weapon only and $diety forbid you do anything else or you aren't UBAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"
Sure OP, they can nerf beam fire at will. They just can’t do it without demotivating the 95% of the community which use it and invested quiet some time and resources to arrange their builds around it.
Curious if the 5% creative sci captains and religious torpedo maniacs in game who don’t rely on FAW are strong enough to carry matches and ensure fun play for the others while another million Dil or two is in order for everybody to rearrange.
The number of running PvE matches is not even half the value of what it is has been 14 months ago. I think the nerf you ask for would ensure another cut in half within the next 14. If at all cuz by the time peeps will have lost confidence in this game entirely.
Been there, done that, doing it again later, & with bugs. Oh, and it's 15% THANKYOUVERYMUCH
Beam Fire at Will and Torpedo Spread when used together should get a huge damage bonus. It is of course the ultimate combo.
That right there IS Star Trek Baby !!!!
That is THE definitive Star Trek combo and should be the most devastating attack in the game PERIOD.
Wouldn't the definitive Star Trek combo involve rerouting something through the space magic, err, deflector dish?
No.
That would be the post-Roddenberry, "Holy TRIBBLE use the tetrionic/chronotonic/plasmonic/tachyonic/ocillating/nano/grind-orrific/ magic/C-Store cha-ching machine."
Faction energy weapon and projectile is the definitive Star Trek combo.
I'm a Star Trek fan though, so I admit to bias.
"I don't use beams, and they are so good, so I want them less good for the people that use and depend on them, and until then I'll just stomp my feet because ONE ability happens to be good, because nothing in this game should ever be good or desirable ever. We should all just be miserable!"
Beam overload should be a duration effect much like Fire at will.
For 10 secodns, every shot fired willl be a BO, which means a guranteed crit (though at a lower magnitude than currently).
It will be a good single target power and mesh well with some pet builds for added fun. Pets using this obviously benefit as well.
+ it looks absolutely cool, for reference use the singularity overcharge with beam arrays , it looks very nice.
Cannon's
Get rid of the damage drop off. (and with that i mean equalize it with beams). That alone would fix half the issues.
Beams are superior due to their easy to use nature. They hit instantly and require little positioning and function at all ranges.
Bring cannons up to that usability. It woudl do them very good, visually, to have faster moving "projectiles" and near instant hit like beams have.
curiously, the vaadwaur beam arrays are exactly how i wish cannons would present themselves, minus the long projectile trail.
Not completely sure how much the cannons need to be changed on a base level as they are quite good on a escort or other high turn rate ships, and which can close with the target to minimize the drop off distance. Though i will agree the travel time on the projectiles needs to be increased even if just to reduce the disparity caused by beams having instant hit basically damage.
I personally would love to see some mechanic added to full cruisers and carriers that can use/slot cannons, which would make using cannons more effective an minimize the issue of their low turn rate has on using dual/dual heavy cannons though with a draw back. Like how i so would have loved it if the new fed carrier had a siege like mechanic it could deploy that would sacrifice mobility/turn-rate for increasing the range an damage drop off of cannons. To me these changes would make using cannons on the cruisers that can slot them more viable an option, while giving a suitable trade off to not make either choice completely better than the rest. To me alot of times when i think of some huge vessel like carriers that are not normally seen in the thick of the fighting, i think of them being on the edges with long range cannons an intelligence coming from their fighters/frigates/shuttles or other vessels in the thick of combat relaying info for them to bombard with their long range weapons.
Siege mode: in this mode the carrier/cruiser diverts power from their engines to their weapon system, as well as to their shield systems. Which would than reduce their mobility yet also would empower their cannons an beam banks giving them higher range an either rates of fire or reducing the damage drop off from range, and also give their shields a boost to their hardness/resistance.
While in this siege mode the carrier or cruiser would have their turn rate reduced to either extremely low degree or to zero, while also have their speed reduced by 60% during the duration they spend in this mode.
Than their weapons would gain the fallowing buffs based on which weapon system they are using; Cannons would gain a increased firing arc going from 45 degrees to 75 for dual heavy, while dual cannons/dual beam banks would go up to 120 degrees from 90 degrees, but single cannons as beam arrays.
Now also beam arrays as well as dual beam banks would gain an improved rate of fire While in this mode. Where as the cannons would gain a buff to their range, as well as having the damage drop off from range reduced to either very low amounts or completely negated.
Are cannons canon? Has and ship other than the AT Constitution used them? Do the broken beams of the TOS films count as cannons or beams? Why do the NX cannons fire beams? Why did the Kelvin's cannons fire beams? Why were all the prior mentioned phaser red and not orange? Do any of these questions have anything to do with BFaW?
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though. JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Are cannons canon? Has and ship other than the AT Constitution used them? Do the broken beams of the TOS films count as cannons or beams? Why do the NX cannons fire beams? Why did the Kelvin's cannons fire beams? Why were all the prior mentioned phaser red and not orange? Do any of these questions have anything to do with BFaW?
@artan42 : I found the "cannon" thing funny in STO from the very first moment. What the Defiant used were "pulse phasers" and from what I piece tohether those are basically very short "beam" bursts, sacrificing the superior targeting of continous beams for... what exactly? I think they are just more compact or something? The TMP-era red phasers are type-8s, which are still shuttle mounted weaponry in TNG and I think the "attack fighters" also used those (but DS9 confused a lot of VFX, sadly). NX cannons firing beams - no idea. I give up on anything ENT, to me none of it makes sense. For example, they develop the phaser, yet in "The Cage" laser weaponry is still in use (it doesn't matter that there are RL reasons for that, it was said in canon and shown).
Regardin soem general statements in here, the notion of "never nerf anything" dooms a game to be stagnant and promote power creep, it is literally the unhealthiest of choices.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
Are cannons canon? Has and ship other than the AT Constitution used them? Do the broken beams of the TOS films count as cannons or beams? Why do the NX cannons fire beams? Why did the Kelvin's cannons fire beams? Why were all the prior mentioned phaser red and not orange? Do any of these questions have anything to do with BFaW?
Honestly it is more of a issue in that cannons would be less true to form of what cannons should be, as both cannons an arrays/banks are still beam based. I see it more of a difference in the power of the energy discharge in that pulse-beams/cannons are more based on firing a volley of condensed beam-pulses that might have a higher discharge density per pulse than a full on beam, but the beam arrays/banks have a higher energy focus as the blast is focused into a single sustained burst. It could also be that by increasing the energy discharge levels it would have burned out the relays supplying the power, and so using a pulse-firing sequence allowed the stress on the relays from firing them to be dissipated over several pulse instead of/compared to a constant stream.
It could also just be that it is designation of power, like an array is the basic armament classification, banks are above those, than cannons, and lances being the highest an highest discharge weapons. Each could use a beam type attack an just that the strength of the discharged energy determine the classification, though normally that is more of a Mark type thing. The color could just be the system used for generating the beam, the power of the beam, and what was used for discharging the beam, as with evolution of technology could result in changes. There is also the fact these weapons might have been developed by difference races or technology from other races, and so the end result is different , but this is all guess work.
Comments
Wel it depends on how you look at it. If you buff just the abilities in effectiveness (ie damage) than to keep the content challenging and interesting without adding too many mechanics then you need to buff the damage and/or the hp/shields of the enemies to compensate for the increased in damage output. The other side of the coin you will need to reduce the hp/damage of your enemies if you nerf things into balance to make up for the loss of damage output. Its basically power creep as you will see each ability slowly get buffed in a somewhat sterile environment, yet then a combo or circumstance will arise that makes it or another ability/weapon the best thus needing again to buff the lower performing abilities/weapons up to the new par again. Byt using both a buffing an nerfing route you bring things inline at a lower point, while not nerfing/buffing something into the point of being completely useless or op, which help to also keep the power-creep minimized an needing less buffs/nerfs to content an enemies to balance things out.
That'd trigger a buffing of NPCs that'd make DR look like a good season.
I never said anything like that. I said that the enemies have been adjusted to the current average player power level, which is correct. At no point did I say you need to max everything out to be competitive. By no means do I feel that 100k DPS is required for anything in this game, that would be silly. I'm talking about average players, the people pulling 5-10k. You're talking about an elite minority. For the average player, nerfing BFAW would be a devastating blow if enemies weren't altered in kind. The players that have everything maxed out and pull insane DPS are not the majority.
There will always be players like the top guys in the DPS league that can roll through any content uncontested. Adjusting the game to meet their standards is a flawed ideal at best. You don't adjust the power level of a game according to it's highest performing minority, you adjust to the average.
It's insulting to imply that because someone has a different view then yours that it automatically means they lack understanding. Just because someone differs with your opinion does mean they don't know what they're talking about or that they lack understanding. You can state your opinions without being insulting or without putting things in all caps or implying that someone doesn't understand the argument.
Reduce the ranks of the cannon skills, rank 3 should be a lt.com. The hard change will be trying to make aoe skills only effective during a aoe encounter. Then by making them like that, the skills should not share timers though only one should be able to be activated at any given time.
A system that i also think needs to be updated is shield distribution, why do I have to either use tact team or continually have to tell my BOFFS to redistribute my shields, it's like i have to summon security officers to make sure they do there job at gun point...
Also Attack Pattern Omega 1 could be lt and APO 2 lt.com like APB is, there's no real reason not to do that.
That 225 arc or even 250 on cannons would be interesting, but make a turret/cannon hybrid weapon with the same arc than cannons so you can have a little more punch from the back if you want to broadside things.
And then just nerf everything because someone doesn't like that someone else has a ship that destroys things faster than his ship.
After that make a new STF that has even more small, medium and big flying stuff that will use abilities that makes playing almost impossible because you can't really see anything and then we'll be happy campers.
"Use Temporal Skills to NERF EVERYTHING before it happened!" -Unknown source.
Not that something doesn't need doing, but one of the best examples of BFAW in the series is from Voyager itself: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_eYlitrcW00
I'd probably use Beam Overload more often if it were more like the Pulse Compression Wave from DS9, where the next firing cycle of all beams gets a significant damage increase.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Unfortunately, this would be such a mammoth undertaking, that they may as well scrap all the abilities we have now and start again from scratch. That will never happen.
Ultimately, I agree with a few of the people in this thread... don't nerf BFAW! Make other things comparable! Give players alternatives.
You can't just buff other abilities up to par with a over preforming ability, most of all ones that give a buff to damage output or critical severity or the power you have available for weapons, and then expect that will balance it out as it won't the buff to such abilities will just push the over-performing ability further ahead. You need to buff yes the weaker abilities, but then also nerf the over performing ability/s as well to bring them inline with each other. Also if you do not nerf the over-performing ability you will get a fact that enemies need to be bloated with even more resistances, shield/hull hp, and even stronger attacks to keep an interesting to some extent, and by just buffing you will push that bloat much higher as everything is performing at the degree of the over-performing ability compared to setting he par lower thru a buffing an nerfing set up of alterations.
Targeting sub-systems has alot has issues, and should be looked at. I personally wish that it would as it says knock off-line certain sub-systems for a duration, but would also leave a debuff on the target from the attack wit the severity of the debuff being based on if it was normal hit or critical hit. I could see things like a damage output reduction or accuracy reduction on weapons for targeting weapon systems, a shield hardness reduction or penetration bonus on shields from the shield system targeting, and for Aux just a overall reduction on hull/shield healing or exotic damage reduction.
Amen, this player gets it.
It amazes me that people ask for nerfs instead of alternatives, how about asking for some diversity instead, trust me it makes the game a whole lot more fun for everyone.
Most unexpectedly, this turned into a flame-fest! Closed it goes!. /sigh What flamefestery is this? pwlaughingtrendy
That's the solution I prefer, in addition to boosting basic torpedoes and Beam:Overload.
More seriously I'd like to see weapons combos work better. Almost all the ships had both laser/phasers/canons and torpedos. Every build in this game is "one weapon only and $diety forbid you do anything else or you aren't UBAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"
Agreed 100%, this would be my only change (for now) and then go from there after the devs have had time to assess this change.
That right there IS Star Trek Baby !!!!
That is THE definitive Star Trek combo and should be the most devastating attack in the game PERIOD.
Wouldn't the definitive Star Trek combo involve rerouting something through the space magic, err, deflector dish?
Then nerfed again. Seriously, did you all not play this game the last few months when hybrid TS3+BFAW3 was the ultimate DPS machine?
Or just bandwagoning with BFAW haters for the sake of hating because BFAW complainers dont know how to play the other weapons platforms?
Wouldn't that be the BFAW complainer complainers that don't know how to play the other weapon platforms?
Other platforms require you to *gasp* *shock* *horror* turn your ship!
Been there, done that, doing it again later, & with bugs. Oh, and it's 15% THANKYOUVERYMUCH
Fleet Defiant Kinetic Heavy Fire Support | Fleet Manticore Kinetic Strike Ship | Tactical Command Kinetic Siege Refit | Fleet Defiant Quantum Phase Escort | Fleet Valiant Kinetic Heavy Fire Support
Turning the Galaxy-X into a Torpedo Dreadnought & torpedo tutorial, with written torpedo guide.
"A good weapon and a great strategy will win you many battles." - Marshall
I knew using Kinetics would be playing the game on hard mode, but what I didn't realize was how bad the deck is stacked against Kinetics.
No.
That would be the post-Roddenberry, "Holy TRIBBLE use the tetrionic/chronotonic/plasmonic/tachyonic/ocillating/nano/grind-orrific/ magic/C-Store cha-ching machine."
Faction energy weapon and projectile is the definitive Star Trek combo.
I'm a Star Trek fan though, so I admit to bias.
This made me chuckle!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Beam overload should be a duration effect much like Fire at will.
For 10 secodns, every shot fired willl be a BO, which means a guranteed crit (though at a lower magnitude than currently).
It will be a good single target power and mesh well with some pet builds for added fun. Pets using this obviously benefit as well.
+ it looks absolutely cool, for reference use the singularity overcharge with beam arrays , it looks very nice.
Cannon's
Get rid of the damage drop off. (and with that i mean equalize it with beams). That alone would fix half the issues.
Beams are superior due to their easy to use nature. They hit instantly and require little positioning and function at all ranges.
Bring cannons up to that usability. It woudl do them very good, visually, to have faster moving "projectiles" and near instant hit like beams have.
curiously, the vaadwaur beam arrays are exactly how i wish cannons would present themselves, minus the long projectile trail.
I personally would love to see some mechanic added to full cruisers and carriers that can use/slot cannons, which would make using cannons more effective an minimize the issue of their low turn rate has on using dual/dual heavy cannons though with a draw back. Like how i so would have loved it if the new fed carrier had a siege like mechanic it could deploy that would sacrifice mobility/turn-rate for increasing the range an damage drop off of cannons. To me these changes would make using cannons on the cruisers that can slot them more viable an option, while giving a suitable trade off to not make either choice completely better than the rest. To me alot of times when i think of some huge vessel like carriers that are not normally seen in the thick of the fighting, i think of them being on the edges with long range cannons an intelligence coming from their fighters/frigates/shuttles or other vessels in the thick of combat relaying info for them to bombard with their long range weapons.
Siege mode: in this mode the carrier/cruiser diverts power from their engines to their weapon system, as well as to their shield systems. Which would than reduce their mobility yet also would empower their cannons an beam banks giving them higher range an either rates of fire or reducing the damage drop off from range, and also give their shields a boost to their hardness/resistance.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
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@artan42 : I found the "cannon" thing funny in STO from the very first moment. What the Defiant used were "pulse phasers" and from what I piece tohether those are basically very short "beam" bursts, sacrificing the superior targeting of continous beams for... what exactly? I think they are just more compact or something? The TMP-era red phasers are type-8s, which are still shuttle mounted weaponry in TNG and I think the "attack fighters" also used those (but DS9 confused a lot of VFX, sadly). NX cannons firing beams - no idea. I give up on anything ENT, to me none of it makes sense. For example, they develop the phaser, yet in "The Cage" laser weaponry is still in use (it doesn't matter that there are RL reasons for that, it was said in canon and shown).
Regardin soem general statements in here, the notion of "never nerf anything" dooms a game to be stagnant and promote power creep, it is literally the unhealthiest of choices.
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Honestly it is more of a issue in that cannons would be less true to form of what cannons should be, as both cannons an arrays/banks are still beam based. I see it more of a difference in the power of the energy discharge in that pulse-beams/cannons are more based on firing a volley of condensed beam-pulses that might have a higher discharge density per pulse than a full on beam, but the beam arrays/banks have a higher energy focus as the blast is focused into a single sustained burst. It could also be that by increasing the energy discharge levels it would have burned out the relays supplying the power, and so using a pulse-firing sequence allowed the stress on the relays from firing them to be dissipated over several pulse instead of/compared to a constant stream.
It could also just be that it is designation of power, like an array is the basic armament classification, banks are above those, than cannons, and lances being the highest an highest discharge weapons. Each could use a beam type attack an just that the strength of the discharged energy determine the classification, though normally that is more of a Mark type thing. The color could just be the system used for generating the beam, the power of the beam, and what was used for discharging the beam, as with evolution of technology could result in changes. There is also the fact these weapons might have been developed by difference races or technology from other races, and so the end result is different , but this is all guess work.