Driver coil is now split between one possible option in the sci unlock track (that's the sector space aspect, and thankfully, you now only need 5 sci picks to get it) and the 3rd skill in the EPS tree (Full impulse aspect.)
Anyhoo.....I have no idea when I will have enough skills unlocked in the tree to even get to placing 5 in Science to unlock the "Driver Coil" choice. Unless I put ALL of my first 5 points into Shields.
Unfortunately, my Klingon is already doing extensive sector travel at the point I have only 1 skill point to allocate. I had to go from Qo'nos to Boreth for "Space Chase" then to Rura Penthe for "Manhunt" and back to Vor for "Friend or Foe". And that should be my 4th skill point.
Next mission is "The House always Wins" "Bringing Down the House" at the end of which dumps you outside Forcas system and take 5 hours to fly back to Qo'nos in your Tier 1 ship. That would be my 5th skill point. I could have the "Driver Coil" unlock open by that flight back....if I placed (or knew to place) all my points into Sci/shields.
I don't think THAT is what is intended.
So, when would that "unlock" choice for "Driver Coil" happen for me? I have no idea. I will keep playing missions until I get there, I suppose. On the old tree, Driver Coil is a Lieutenant skill...and should already be accessible.
NOTE: I believe the Romulans would have a similar problem at low level missions, also. And I believe they have longer flights to take than KDF does.
(Off topic: BTW...the highlight on the main map for "local area" does not work for a couple of these low level Klingon missions. It does show on the mini map but it is only a yellow arrow pointing in the general direction to go.
I was sitting there going: where the heck is Borath, Vor on this map? I switched over to the text list of systems to start auto pilot.
Thinking on it, I am not sure a new player would know about the text list of planets or "auto pilot" option, at all. And would, probably, be looking at the mini map and point their way the direction of the arrow? That kinda blows. But even if they knew they could see a larger map, nothing is on there.)
I love the KDF tutorial and low level missions.
Post edited by where2r1 on
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
apparently they did, because i don't remember any 'Unusually Strong' buffs on ships when i last went through the KDF tutorial
My regular play has been set at "Normal" the entire time I have played this game.
I don't know what to look for, as far as the "unusually strong" flag on enemy ships. I am sure no one has ever pointed it out to me, either. I am thinking: "Unusually Strong" buff flags must be something at Advanced???
Can someone post a pic of this? At least I will know what to look for.
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
I asked this before and if I got an answer I missed it (yes, it sounds like a newb question). For the new skill set in science that improves "outgoing shield heals", what does that mean? Healing other ships? That description might need some fine tuning for new players.
Since tactical consoles are separated into kinetic and energy types, why do we need more differentiation from separate torp and energy in this skill tree?
Coming back to burstdragon323 and the post on "low level KDF experience"
I could break it down, point by point...but it is not necessary and it would be too much.
So, after having just gone through "Space Chase" last night and doing the battle with Federation ships at the end, it basically came down to this:
I found most of it had to do with my MINDSET and HABITS I formed from playing Level 50-60 for a long while. I forgot the basics. And that "I" had to apply things "manually". I got myself killed once. But the light bulb turned on after that as things came back to me.
Besides "Distribute Shields" being manual, I had to keep track of things like: move power over to Engine before I use "Evasive Maneuvers", move power over to shields when I wanted shields to recover, move power over to "Auxiliary" when I wanted to use Ch'gren's "Engineering Team", ...etc...etc....
These things are mostly automatically applied or fully powered up on Level 60 characters, you don't have to think about moving power levels around to get it done. But I do have to think about it at low levels.
Once that realization happened....the space battles was all about fine tuning what I was doing. Figuring out what angle to hold my BOP's nose to keep those DHC firing...etc..
In the end, I was better off with Shield power at around 50%, even at a loss to my Weapons power. But the point was: I could last long enough to kill those Mirandas at the end. Picking them off one by one...hit "Evasive Maneuvers" and heal while out of range and going back in.
And it was fun.
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Alright, I've slept on this, so time for my review and suggestions.
Eng - Commander: Full Impulse Energy Shut. Modify instead to having a subsystem retain 25 power for transfer X subsystem power to another subsystem. Would help out with Aux -> whatever, and provide expansion of other engineering skills of transferring other subsystems such as Weap -> Shield or a piloting skill of Weap -> Eng plus some sort of other bonus down the road.
The final choice at the bottom for engineering seems lackluster, 3% bonus HP or 0.75% more damage resist. Recommend bumping to 5% HP / 2.5% DR choice. I haven't messed with any ultimate, but the Eng one appears to be the most lackluster of the three. Also, the +2 power to a subsystem choice is rather low as well. If it was 5, people might invest more.
Science - recommend moving Long range targeting to Tac tree and replace with something that adds to the debuffs currently missing from Control and Drain; namely damage, accuracy, damage resist, etc. Possibly change the ultimate from a straight 50% chance to crit to double the player's current crit rate, with a max of 50%.
Tac - combine the energy and projectile training into one tree, similar how kinetic and energy is for ground. New tree would be the one I suggested in science. Clarify that Targeting Expertise, Shield Pen, Hull Pen, Weapon Amp, and Weapon Expertise trees affect all weapons, or just energy. The choice selections of 1% bonus CritH or 5 CritD should change to 10-15 CritD.
The nanite reinforced circuity console that replaces the bio-function monitor is nice, though the name needs to be fixed in the R&D tab. I would have thought passive HP regen would be an Eng console, but whatever.
I didn't have too much trouble leveling and doing missions. It seemed easier with the new system in place. I haven't tested any end game content yet, so that might not hold out. I'm not sure how well the multiple stacks of KPref on the ground kits will turn out as well. I'm also not sure if it's a connectivity issue with Tribble, or the game itself, but having to log back in between maps is annoying. It doesn't happen 100% of the time, but close enough to it.
I asked this before and if I got an answer I missed it (yes, it sounds like a newb question). For the new skill set in science that improves "outgoing shield heals", what does that mean? Healing other ships? That description might need some fine tuning for new players.
I am thinking "outgoing shield heals" is equal to what "Shield Emitters" did in the old Skill Tree.
And I have written down in my notes that:
"Shield Emitters" (Science) is a bonus to shield rebuilding abilities: healing, regen".
So, it adds bonus to heals you "send out". It can go to either to yourself or to teams.
The other skill in the old tree: "Shield Systems" (Science), increased shield hit points, buffs up shield strength. And that would be internally for your own ship.
Whereas "Shield Performance" (Engineering) skill in the old tree was a straight bonus to Shield subsystem power levels. It would put your actual system power above what you had set in the power bar. For shields, anyways.
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
I wonder if the shield regeneration consoles (and in some cases the mechanic itself) can be improved so that it works better and is actually useful because right now it isn't.
apparently they did, because i don't remember any 'Unusually Strong' buffs on ships when i last went through the KDF tutorial
My regular play has been set at "Normal" the entire time I have played this game.
I don't know what to look for, as far as the "unusually strong" flag on enemy ships. I am sure no one has ever pointed it out to me, either. I am thinking: "Unusually Strong" buff flags must be something at Advanced???
Can someone post a pic of this? At least I will know what to look for.
There is sometimes a little upward facing arrow next to the portrait of the enemy ship when you have them targeted. That's the only usual indication that the enemy is stronger than normal for that level.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Since just about everything I was going to post about has been covered by other players, I will limit my feedback to how the revamp has affected the KDF experience where it counts the most: the tutorial, and the first few missions.
I got to my first skill point, which I stuck in: Projectile Weapon Training.
Which would be +50 "something" in my Torpedoes...that should upgrade my Torp.
I have collected rewards for finishing several of the Tutorial missions.
Was able to upgrade the Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannon to Mark 2 and
equip a Green Engineering Monotanium Alloy Mk2.
I am getting ready to go into "Space Chase".
(Why did I type "Space Race" there?)
I will tell you how it turns out on that last map.
But if you look at the Skill Tree....the first level of skills unlocked for space helps HULL, SHIELDS and WEAPONS. Though I do wish I still had access to "Driver Coils" because I am not looking forward to that flight out to Forcas 3.
(Oh lovely, they moved Borath system to the other side of the universe, too. )
One more thing: "Distribute Shields" very helpful at low levels keep that front shield up...there was a way to bind it to your space bar I can't bother to find it...I just stuck it on a button on the tray. Not many buttons to keep track of on the lower levels, anyways.
If you keep the Shield Icon on your UI visible, you just have to click in the middle of it to 'Distribute Shields' and it saves you a space on your tray.
It also works for each individual shield by clicking on the outer edges of the Icon.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
apparently they did, because i don't remember any 'Unusually Strong' buffs on ships when i last went through the KDF tutorial
My regular play has been set at "Normal" the entire time I have played this game.
I don't know what to look for, as far as the "unusually strong" flag on enemy ships. I am sure no one has ever pointed it out to me, either. I am thinking: "Unusually Strong" buff flags must be something at Advanced???
Can someone post a pic of this? At least I will know what to look for.
Sure.
There's also a weak version.
But those aren't the real problem. (Edit: after replaying Space Chase due to not completing it to reconfirm the later numbers, the first FF group also had the inflated 23k HP instead of the normal ~3k it had the first time.) I've noticed that quite a few Fed frigate mobs have really high HP on Tribble. The mob after that CBC have 23k each. At L45, the Mirror Frigates in Jabberwocky have ~110k each; 88k at L35. At L52, the mob in SB234 have ~164k each and ~268k at L60. The ones that "help" you in SB24 don't just die instantly when the Klingons focus them. And that's on Normal, Adv and Elite are not worth the extra effort for me.
* * *
As for the revamp itself, I find it slows the game down for new chars quite a bit. At the early levels, a char is stuck at warp 5.slow until the first promotion at minimum and cannot put points into damage or survivability until post tutorial. Mid-level, OTOH, seems much easier now and the low admiral levels even more so (with one exception so far; at L50, a couple of builds that should be able to solo RA Unimatrices (have they been buffed perhaps?) with little problem on Holo struggle to survive (the aux bug may have a little to help with it) and keep it at half hull on Tribble, even with better equip). Like noted earlier in the thread, I can match builds on Holo, with the changes even giving me a little more power, damage, and shields than on Holo, and still have points left over to put in (the) new stuff.
As for the ultimates, I find their effects, at least the tac and eng ones, underwhelming at best, especially now with the "proper" cooldowns. Unless the tac one wasn't fully implemented before the last patch, I noticed no change whatsoever. The eng one puts out a nice light show but the magnitude of the damage done is seriously lacking at that much investment and I barely noticed the damage reduction. I didn't test the sci one because that's too much investment for something I'm not comfortably equipped to take advantage of. I'll give them another try once copying is reenabled.
Post edited by s2racing on
Free jkname!
Can we get some more (canon) KDF outfits, an assortment of respectable skirts/dresses, a long jacket (and more clothes in general) that does plain white well, melee weapon and Mk 15 drops, a T6 Nova, and account-wide lockbox/lobi/promo ships & consoles? Oh, and...
I must admit, after going through the tutorial, I couldn't bring myself up to level my character and took the Drozana Route. What I noticed however after the tutorial that I somehow had a lot of points and didn't really notice when I got them. Not sure if I missed/ignored some prompts, or if the were really only given out after the tutorial was complete.
UI
Aside from the "barebones" nature of the UI right now, it didn't feel as error-prone as I expected to select a lot of skill points.
Builds
On Holodeck, I often play Science Characters focusing on Science Vessels, so this is what I replicated first. I didn't have any problems replicating the builds I use, though I did make a few different choices then on Tribble - some skills look too good. I was surprised how little I invested in Engineering, though, I didn't get very far in that track. The important parts there were to get power buffs and a bit of a healing and shield buff. I wonder if the engineering tree needs something with more "oomph"? But then, this is just one build...
I leveled initially only to level 50, because I figured that way the enemies would be scaled to my level and my gear, where as going to level 60 would also require upgrading my gear (or at least my weapons) to Mark XIV, and I couldn't see myself going through that process, even with all the helpers on Tribble.
Combat Experience
I then took a more or less typical Tier 5 Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit into combat (no Upgrade, no Fleet Version), and I am afraid at that point I got stuck with a combination of having gotten used to all kinds of neat starship traits, and the bugged auxilliary power settings.
For example, the usual Red Alert encounter against the Borg in a Science Vessel for me works like this on Holodeck:
I find the nearest Sphere/Probe group, drop a Gravity Well, and fire a torpedo spread with Quantum Phase Torpedoes, followed by a Neutronic Torpedo. From there, the combat continues with the usual torpedo spreads when ready. Occassionally I might also have other science attack powers available, on Tribble I didn't. The combat takes at best a minute normally, without any serious chance of damage (if I regularly cycle my heals and tactical teams).
On Tribble it took a lot longer, and I took a lot of damage and had to work to stay alive. I still beat them, but I was unexpectedly ineffective. I blame this mostly on the Aux bug for now, but when character copying is reenabled and the bug is fixed, I'll know more, because then I'll have the usual toys.
Still, it seems Escort don't appear to do too badly - we were two people in the instance at the end, my science vessel and someone in the Romulan Veteran ship, and we still beat up the Unimatrix (with a few deaths).
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
In regards to how the skills feel like while leveling up:
To me i get the feeling that there are too many defensive skills stacked at the start of the Science and Engi trees, while the useful utility skills are found further down.
For both Sci and Engi i feel like i'm picking between Defensive Option #1and #2 for too long as I'm leveling. Additionally all that extra defense is not needed at lower levels. survival doesn't become a priority till about level 30 or so.
some of the utility skills can be useful at lower levels but are unavailable. if they are injected into the lower ranks they might actually help newer players learn about the game mechanics earlier.
My recommendation would be to spread the defensive skills up through the ranks while at the same time spreading the utility skills down through the ranks.
So at each rank of a career path (in sci and engi) the players will have a choice of putting points into either a utility skill or a defensive skill.
For Example:
At Lieutenant Engineering, players get the EPS skill and Hull Restoration to choose between.
At Lt. Commander Engineering, players get Impulse Expertise and Hull Capacity to choose between.
In regards to how the skills feel like while leveling up:
Thanks!! I'd been hoping to get more feedback on this subject during this first week, but didn't wanna force the issue too much.
Your feedback is interesting, and we'll take it into consideration. It's an interesting point of view.
i'm slow kidding, it just takes some time to "digest" the information.
just want to add a little to what i already wrote down:
at Lt level, there is a choice between 4 defense skills and 2 tac skills
at Ltc level, theere are still 4 defense skills and 2 tac skills.
my suggestion would have 2 defense skills, 2 utility skills, and 2 tac skills at every rank.
it won't make a difference if you are respeccing a level 50+ toon, but could make skills interesting for those leveling... and could potentially prevent someone spending too much on defense and running out of points to spend on things they want/like further down the skill system.
In regards to how the skills feel like while leveling up:
Thanks!! I'd been hoping to get more feedback on this subject during this first week, but didn't wanna force the issue too much.
Your feedback is interesting, and we'll take it into consideration. It's an interesting point of view.
i'm slow kidding, it just takes some time to "digest" the information.
just want to add a little to what i already wrote down:
at Lt level, there is a choice between 4 defense skills and 2 tac skills
at Ltc level, theere are still 4 defense skills and 2 tac skills.
my suggestion would have 2 defense skills, 2 utility skills, and 2 tac skills at every rank.
it won't make a difference if you are respeccing a level 50+ toon, but could make skills interesting for those leveling... and could potentially prevent someone spending too much on defense and running out of points to spend on things they want/like further down the skill system.
I've noticed that quite a few Fed frigate mobs have really high HP on Tribble. The mob after that CBC have 23k each. At L45, the Mirror Frigates in Jabberwocky have ~110k each.
I'm just picking up on this feedback. While not Skill Revamp related, it might be a symptom of some of the large-scale changes that were made to facilitate it.
So, I'd like additional information if anyone has it.
- Does the statement above "after that CBC" refer to the KDF Tutorial, still? There's a Frigate in there with >20k HPs?!
- Has anyone else experienced what this poster is referring to?
- Is this happening anywhere else in the game?
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Since just about everything I was going to post about has been covered by other players, I will limit my feedback to how the revamp has affected the KDF experience where it counts the most: the tutorial, and the first few missions.
I got to my first skill point, which I stuck in: Projectile Weapon Training.
Which would be +50 "something" in my Torpedoes...that should upgrade my Torp.
I have collected rewards for finishing several of the Tutorial missions.
Was able to upgrade the Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannon to Mark 2 and
equip a Green Engineering Monotanium Alloy Mk2.
I am getting ready to go into "Space Chase".
(Why did I type "Space Race" there?)
I will tell you how it turns out on that last map.
But if you look at the Skill Tree....the first level of skills unlocked for space helps HULL, SHIELDS and WEAPONS. Though I do wish I still had access to "Driver Coils" because I am not looking forward to that flight out to Forcas 3.
(Oh lovely, they moved Borath system to the other side of the universe, too. )
One more thing: "Distribute Shields" very helpful at low levels keep that front shield up...there was a way to bind it to your space bar I can't bother to find it...I just stuck it on a button on the tray. Not many buttons to keep track of on the lower levels, anyways.
If you keep the Shield Icon on your UI visible, you just have to click in the middle of it to 'Distribute Shields' and it saves you a space on your tray.
It also works for each individual shield by clicking on the outer edges of the Icon.
You can also use arrow keys to distribute to a specific facing.
I've noticed that quite a few Fed frigate mobs have really high HP on Tribble. The mob after that CBC have 23k each. At L45, the Mirror Frigates in Jabberwocky have ~110k each.
I'm just picking up on this feedback. While not Skill Revamp related, it might be a symptom of some of the large-scale changes that were made to facilitate it.
So, I'd like additional information if anyone has it.
- Does the statement above "after that CBC" refer to the KDF Tutorial, still? There's a Frigate in there with >20k HPs?!
- Has anyone else experienced what this poster is referring to?
- Is this happening anywhere else in the game?
The map where these ships in question is the last map in "Space Chase", which is not the tutorial itself, but in the first mission arc where you only have a basic, unpowered Bird of Prey.
So, I'd like additional information if anyone has it.
- Does the statement above "after that CBC" refer to the KDF Tutorial, still? There's a Frigate in there with >20k HPs?!
I don't know if the mission Space Chase is actually considered part of the tutorial (it is listed in the Episodes list, albeit unrepeatable, and isn't prefaced with [Tutorial]) but in the tutorial proper, they had the normal HP. It was only after the CBC kill the first time that the 23k FFs started spawning.
- Is this happening anywhere else in the game?
I've only noticed it with Fed and Mirror Fed FFs, no other ships so far. Obviously, I've not (yet) fought every ship in the game to test, but I'm slowly working on it. At L11, the ones in Second Star have ~32k HP and at 16, the ones in KYEC (skipped it at first, don't really care for it or Second Star) have 41k.
* * *
As for skill distribution, yeah, on Holo, the defensive options aren't all concentrated in the early levels like they are on Tribble. Also, a lack of early utility skills make it really not worth slotting stuff like Tachyon Beam and Tractors until at least Cdr rank.
Post edited by s2racing on
Free jkname!
Can we get some more (canon) KDF outfits, an assortment of respectable skirts/dresses, a long jacket (and more clothes in general) that does plain white well, melee weapon and Mk 15 drops, a T6 Nova, and account-wide lockbox/lobi/promo ships & consoles? Oh, and...
In regards to how the skills feel like while leveling up:
Thanks!! I'd been hoping to get more feedback on this subject during this first week, but didn't wanna force the issue too much.
Your feedback is interesting, and we'll take it into consideration. It's an interesting point of view.
Hey Bort, just wanted to say that I really don't have the drive to level a character the slow way on Tribble right now, but I just rolled a new character on Holodeck about a month and a half ago and I can back up sarcasmdetector's claims about a lot of defense not being needed at the early levels. New players might over spend in defense instead of learning good habits (like distributing their shields, or running abilities that add some resistances) the way things are set up now if they're having trouble surviving.
In the old system, I usually maxed attack patterns, the weapon skills, and put a few pips into the defensive stuff, only putting in more if I needed to pad out to get to the next rank. I usually don't max my defensive skills until I've got all of the offense/utility skills I want, so level 40ish.
So yeah, spreading out the defense and letting us get some utility abilities earlier would be nice. I'm personally thinking putting Control or Drain Expertise down a rank, since the starter Science boffs come with Tachyon Beams or Tractor Beams.
I concur with the previous posters, science has very specific skills that boost it and it would make more sense if they unlocked one at a time so players could grasp each aspect of science rather than having it all piled on near the end. This may lead to confusion which science already has a great deal of for newer players.
In reference to the dual choices for the pips at the bottom of the skill trees in ( where x points are spent in x tree), can we have it changed similary to the ultimate modification unlocks, as in all of the choices are open on the first pip, but once you choose one out of the 8 options per line, it blocks it out on the next tier?
It would still limit you to choices, but also give more customization options that make you feel less like you're picking up something useless (such as stealth vs hangar damage). Personally I wouldn't want hangar damage later in the line, because then I couldn't pick it up on my sci running a sci carrier, but at a low level or if I ran an escort or something fed side, both would be useless to start with, but energy crit or severity would be a choice open to me and also relevant at low levels. I think that is pretty win-win for players and still limits things on the dev side.
As long as you are redoing the Skill Tree, can you add a Toggle Option to Disable Ships rather than to Destroy them? Klingons killing everything is fine, but it is less acceptable for the Federation.
Perhaps you could include a Skill Branch where one option boosts Disable Damage and the other set gives a bonus to Destroy Damage?
Some Abilities and Weapon Types could be worked around it, too. For example, Beam Overload could benefit from Destroy whereas Surgical Strikes would work better for Disabling. Plasma Torpedoes: Destroy, and Chronitons: Disable.
In reference to the dual choices for the pips at the bottom of the skill trees in ( where x points are spent in x tree), can we have it changed similary to the ultimate modification unlocks, as in all of the choices are open on the first pip, but once you choose one out of the 8 options per line, it blocks it out on the next tier?
It would still limit you to choices, but also give more customization options that make you feel less like you're picking up something useless (such as stealth vs hangar damage). Personally I wouldn't want hangar damage later in the line, because then I couldn't pick it up on my sci running a sci carrier, but at a low level or if I ran an escort or something fed side, both would be useless to start with, but energy crit or severity would be a choice open to me and also relevant at low levels. I think that is pretty win-win for players and still limits things on the dev side.
In reference to the dual choices for the pips at the bottom of the skill trees in ( where x points are spent in x tree), can we have it changed similarly to the ultimate modification unlocks, as in all of the choices are open on the first pip, but once you choose one out of the 8 options per line, it blocks it out on the next tier?
And we're right back to people picking both energy damage bonuses and none of the projectile damage bonuses.
Cherry picking the 4 out of any of the 8 in a path isn't much different from the 90 skills all being squashed into one tier so you can grab the exact 46 out 90 you want with complete disregard to their relative impact... Its one of those things that sounds great, fits perfectly with player self-interest, and is probably an utterly terrible idea for the game's overall health.
Yes. There are constraints. Work within them. That's where the finesse is.
If you keep the Shield Icon on your UI visible, you just have to click in the middle of it to 'Distribute Shields' and it saves you a space on your tray.
It also works for each individual shield by clicking on the outer edges of the Icon.
You can also use arrow keys to distribute to a specific facing.
Oh Thanks for that tip.
I am not a very good video game player, I thought it would be better to have everything in one place for me, hence heavy use of my tray. BUT...I shall try this, since space is becoming scarce...even with the vertical tray enabled. Everything has a button to activate these days.
I guess, I could turn on the UI for BOFFs, but that just splits everything everywhere...
I like to group things together by what they effect...for hull, for speed, for shields...etc.
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Comments
Re: Damage, you might want to look here: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1212332/aux-scaling-bug-2-23
SCM - Hive (S) - [02:31] DMG(DPS) - @jarvisandalfred: 30.62M(204.66K) - Fed Sci
Tacs are overrated.
Game's best wiki
Build questions? Look here!
Thanks, I forgot to check those on both ends, both were deactivated and numbers have been edited.
Anyhoo.....I have no idea when I will have enough skills unlocked in the tree to even get to placing 5 in Science to unlock the "Driver Coil" choice. Unless I put ALL of my first 5 points into Shields.
Unfortunately, my Klingon is already doing extensive sector travel at the point I have only 1 skill point to allocate. I had to go from Qo'nos to Boreth for "Space Chase" then to Rura Penthe for "Manhunt" and back to Vor for "Friend or Foe". And that should be my 4th skill point.
Next mission is "The House always Wins" "Bringing Down the House" at the end of which dumps you outside Forcas system and take 5 hours to fly back to Qo'nos in your Tier 1 ship. That would be my 5th skill point. I could have the "Driver Coil" unlock open by that flight back....if I placed (or knew to place) all my points into Sci/shields.
I don't think THAT is what is intended.
So, when would that "unlock" choice for "Driver Coil" happen for me? I have no idea. I will keep playing missions until I get there, I suppose. On the old tree, Driver Coil is a Lieutenant skill...and should already be accessible.
NOTE: I believe the Romulans would have a similar problem at low level missions, also. And I believe they have longer flights to take than KDF does.
(Off topic: BTW...the highlight on the main map for "local area" does not work for a couple of these low level Klingon missions. It does show on the mini map but it is only a yellow arrow pointing in the general direction to go.
I was sitting there going: where the heck is Borath, Vor on this map? I switched over to the text list of systems to start auto pilot.
Thinking on it, I am not sure a new player would know about the text list of planets or "auto pilot" option, at all. And would, probably, be looking at the mini map and point their way the direction of the arrow? That kinda blows. But even if they knew they could see a larger map, nothing is on there.)
I love the KDF tutorial and low level missions.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
My regular play has been set at "Normal" the entire time I have played this game.
I don't know what to look for, as far as the "unusually strong" flag on enemy ships. I am sure no one has ever pointed it out to me, either. I am thinking: "Unusually Strong" buff flags must be something at Advanced???
Can someone post a pic of this? At least I will know what to look for.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
I could break it down, point by point...but it is not necessary and it would be too much.
So, after having just gone through "Space Chase" last night and doing the battle with Federation ships at the end, it basically came down to this:
I found most of it had to do with my MINDSET and HABITS I formed from playing Level 50-60 for a long while. I forgot the basics. And that "I" had to apply things "manually". I got myself killed once. But the light bulb turned on after that as things came back to me.
Besides "Distribute Shields" being manual, I had to keep track of things like: move power over to Engine before I use "Evasive Maneuvers", move power over to shields when I wanted shields to recover, move power over to "Auxiliary" when I wanted to use Ch'gren's "Engineering Team", ...etc...etc....
These things are mostly automatically applied or fully powered up on Level 60 characters, you don't have to think about moving power levels around to get it done. But I do have to think about it at low levels.
Once that realization happened....the space battles was all about fine tuning what I was doing. Figuring out what angle to hold my BOP's nose to keep those DHC firing...etc..
In the end, I was better off with Shield power at around 50%, even at a loss to my Weapons power. But the point was: I could last long enough to kill those Mirandas at the end. Picking them off one by one...hit "Evasive Maneuvers" and heal while out of range and going back in.
And it was fun.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Eng - Commander: Full Impulse Energy Shut. Modify instead to having a subsystem retain 25 power for transfer X subsystem power to another subsystem. Would help out with Aux -> whatever, and provide expansion of other engineering skills of transferring other subsystems such as Weap -> Shield or a piloting skill of Weap -> Eng plus some sort of other bonus down the road.
The final choice at the bottom for engineering seems lackluster, 3% bonus HP or 0.75% more damage resist. Recommend bumping to 5% HP / 2.5% DR choice. I haven't messed with any ultimate, but the Eng one appears to be the most lackluster of the three. Also, the +2 power to a subsystem choice is rather low as well. If it was 5, people might invest more.
Science - recommend moving Long range targeting to Tac tree and replace with something that adds to the debuffs currently missing from Control and Drain; namely damage, accuracy, damage resist, etc. Possibly change the ultimate from a straight 50% chance to crit to double the player's current crit rate, with a max of 50%.
Tac - combine the energy and projectile training into one tree, similar how kinetic and energy is for ground. New tree would be the one I suggested in science. Clarify that Targeting Expertise, Shield Pen, Hull Pen, Weapon Amp, and Weapon Expertise trees affect all weapons, or just energy. The choice selections of 1% bonus CritH or 5 CritD should change to 10-15 CritD.
The nanite reinforced circuity console that replaces the bio-function monitor is nice, though the name needs to be fixed in the R&D tab. I would have thought passive HP regen would be an Eng console, but whatever.
I didn't have too much trouble leveling and doing missions. It seemed easier with the new system in place. I haven't tested any end game content yet, so that might not hold out. I'm not sure how well the multiple stacks of KPref on the ground kits will turn out as well. I'm also not sure if it's a connectivity issue with Tribble, or the game itself, but having to log back in between maps is annoying. It doesn't happen 100% of the time, but close enough to it.
I am thinking "outgoing shield heals" is equal to what "Shield Emitters" did in the old Skill Tree.
And I have written down in my notes that:
"Shield Emitters" (Science) is a bonus to shield rebuilding abilities: healing, regen".
So, it adds bonus to heals you "send out". It can go to either to yourself or to teams.
The other skill in the old tree: "Shield Systems" (Science), increased shield hit points, buffs up shield strength. And that would be internally for your own ship.
Whereas "Shield Performance" (Engineering) skill in the old tree was a straight bonus to Shield subsystem power levels. It would put your actual system power above what you had set in the power bar. For shields, anyways.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
There is sometimes a little upward facing arrow next to the portrait of the enemy ship when you have them targeted. That's the only usual indication that the enemy is stronger than normal for that level.
If you keep the Shield Icon on your UI visible, you just have to click in the middle of it to 'Distribute Shields' and it saves you a space on your tray.
It also works for each individual shield by clicking on the outer edges of the Icon.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Sure.
There's also a weak version.
But those aren't the real problem. (Edit: after replaying Space Chase due to not completing it to reconfirm the later numbers, the first FF group also had the inflated 23k HP instead of the normal ~3k it had the first time.) I've noticed that quite a few Fed frigate mobs have really high HP on Tribble. The mob after that CBC have 23k each. At L45, the Mirror Frigates in Jabberwocky have ~110k each; 88k at L35. At L52, the mob in SB234 have ~164k each and ~268k at L60. The ones that "help" you in SB24 don't just die instantly when the Klingons focus them. And that's on Normal, Adv and Elite are not worth the extra effort for me.
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As for the revamp itself, I find it slows the game down for new chars quite a bit. At the early levels, a char is stuck at warp 5.slow until the first promotion at minimum and cannot put points into damage or survivability until post tutorial. Mid-level, OTOH, seems much easier now and the low admiral levels even more so (with one exception so far; at L50, a couple of builds that should be able to solo RA Unimatrices (have they been buffed perhaps?) with little problem on Holo struggle to survive (the aux bug may have a little to help with it) and keep it at half hull on Tribble, even with better equip). Like noted earlier in the thread, I can match builds on Holo, with the changes even giving me a little more power, damage, and shields than on Holo, and still have points left over to put in (the) new stuff.
As for the ultimates, I find their effects, at least the tac and eng ones, underwhelming at best, especially now with the "proper" cooldowns. Unless the tac one wasn't fully implemented before the last patch, I noticed no change whatsoever. The eng one puts out a nice light show but the magnitude of the damage done is seriously lacking at that much investment and I barely noticed the damage reduction. I didn't test the sci one because that's too much investment for something I'm not comfortably equipped to take advantage of. I'll give them another try once copying is reenabled.
Can we get some more (canon) KDF outfits, an assortment of respectable skirts/dresses, a long jacket (and more clothes in general) that does plain white well, melee weapon and Mk 15 drops, a T6 Nova, and account-wide lockbox/lobi/promo ships & consoles? Oh, and...
UI
Aside from the "barebones" nature of the UI right now, it didn't feel as error-prone as I expected to select a lot of skill points.
Builds
On Holodeck, I often play Science Characters focusing on Science Vessels, so this is what I replicated first. I didn't have any problems replicating the builds I use, though I did make a few different choices then on Tribble - some skills look too good. I was surprised how little I invested in Engineering, though, I didn't get very far in that track. The important parts there were to get power buffs and a bit of a healing and shield buff. I wonder if the engineering tree needs something with more "oomph"? But then, this is just one build...
I leveled initially only to level 50, because I figured that way the enemies would be scaled to my level and my gear, where as going to level 60 would also require upgrading my gear (or at least my weapons) to Mark XIV, and I couldn't see myself going through that process, even with all the helpers on Tribble.
Combat Experience
I then took a more or less typical Tier 5 Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit into combat (no Upgrade, no Fleet Version), and I am afraid at that point I got stuck with a combination of having gotten used to all kinds of neat starship traits, and the bugged auxilliary power settings.
For example, the usual Red Alert encounter against the Borg in a Science Vessel for me works like this on Holodeck:
I find the nearest Sphere/Probe group, drop a Gravity Well, and fire a torpedo spread with Quantum Phase Torpedoes, followed by a Neutronic Torpedo. From there, the combat continues with the usual torpedo spreads when ready. Occassionally I might also have other science attack powers available, on Tribble I didn't. The combat takes at best a minute normally, without any serious chance of damage (if I regularly cycle my heals and tactical teams).
On Tribble it took a lot longer, and I took a lot of damage and had to work to stay alive. I still beat them, but I was unexpectedly ineffective. I blame this mostly on the Aux bug for now, but when character copying is reenabled and the bug is fixed, I'll know more, because then I'll have the usual toys.
Still, it seems Escort don't appear to do too badly - we were two people in the instance at the end, my science vessel and someone in the Romulan Veteran ship, and we still beat up the Unimatrix (with a few deaths).
In regards to how the skills feel like while leveling up:
To me i get the feeling that there are too many defensive skills stacked at the start of the Science and Engi trees, while the useful utility skills are found further down.
For both Sci and Engi i feel like i'm picking between Defensive Option #1and #2 for too long as I'm leveling. Additionally all that extra defense is not needed at lower levels. survival doesn't become a priority till about level 30 or so.
some of the utility skills can be useful at lower levels but are unavailable. if they are injected into the lower ranks they might actually help newer players learn about the game mechanics earlier.
My recommendation would be to spread the defensive skills up through the ranks while at the same time spreading the utility skills down through the ranks.
So at each rank of a career path (in sci and engi) the players will have a choice of putting points into either a utility skill or a defensive skill.
For Example:
At Lieutenant Engineering, players get the EPS skill and Hull Restoration to choose between.
At Lt. Commander Engineering, players get Impulse Expertise and Hull Capacity to choose between.
Thanks!! I'd been hoping to get more feedback on this subject during this first week, but didn't wanna force the issue too much.
Your feedback is interesting, and we'll take it into consideration. It's an interesting point of view.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
i'm slow
just want to add a little to what i already wrote down:
at Lt level, there is a choice between 4 defense skills and 2 tac skills
at Ltc level, theere are still 4 defense skills and 2 tac skills.
my suggestion would have 2 defense skills, 2 utility skills, and 2 tac skills at every rank.
it won't make a difference if you are respeccing a level 50+ toon, but could make skills interesting for those leveling... and could potentially prevent someone spending too much on defense and running out of points to spend on things they want/like further down the skill system.
+1
I'm just picking up on this feedback. While not Skill Revamp related, it might be a symptom of some of the large-scale changes that were made to facilitate it.
So, I'd like additional information if anyone has it.
- Does the statement above "after that CBC" refer to the KDF Tutorial, still? There's a Frigate in there with >20k HPs?!
- Has anyone else experienced what this poster is referring to?
- Is this happening anywhere else in the game?
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
My character Tsin'xing
The map where these ships in question is the last map in "Space Chase", which is not the tutorial itself, but in the first mission arc where you only have a basic, unpowered Bird of Prey.
See my previous post for more info on these souped up ships.
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/comment/12862312/#Comment_12862312
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As for skill distribution, yeah, on Holo, the defensive options aren't all concentrated in the early levels like they are on Tribble. Also, a lack of early utility skills make it really not worth slotting stuff like Tachyon Beam and Tractors until at least Cdr rank.
Can we get some more (canon) KDF outfits, an assortment of respectable skirts/dresses, a long jacket (and more clothes in general) that does plain white well, melee weapon and Mk 15 drops, a T6 Nova, and account-wide lockbox/lobi/promo ships & consoles? Oh, and...
Hey Bort, just wanted to say that I really don't have the drive to level a character the slow way on Tribble right now, but I just rolled a new character on Holodeck about a month and a half ago and I can back up sarcasmdetector's claims about a lot of defense not being needed at the early levels. New players might over spend in defense instead of learning good habits (like distributing their shields, or running abilities that add some resistances) the way things are set up now if they're having trouble surviving.
In the old system, I usually maxed attack patterns, the weapon skills, and put a few pips into the defensive stuff, only putting in more if I needed to pad out to get to the next rank. I usually don't max my defensive skills until I've got all of the offense/utility skills I want, so level 40ish.
So yeah, spreading out the defense and letting us get some utility abilities earlier would be nice. I'm personally thinking putting Control or Drain Expertise down a rank, since the starter Science boffs come with Tachyon Beams or Tractor Beams.
It would still limit you to choices, but also give more customization options that make you feel less like you're picking up something useless (such as stealth vs hangar damage). Personally I wouldn't want hangar damage later in the line, because then I couldn't pick it up on my sci running a sci carrier, but at a low level or if I ran an escort or something fed side, both would be useless to start with, but energy crit or severity would be a choice open to me and also relevant at low levels. I think that is pretty win-win for players and still limits things on the dev side.
Perhaps you could include a Skill Branch where one option boosts Disable Damage and the other set gives a bonus to Destroy Damage?
Some Abilities and Weapon Types could be worked around it, too. For example, Beam Overload could benefit from Destroy whereas Surgical Strikes would work better for Disabling. Plasma Torpedoes: Destroy, and Chronitons: Disable.
+1
And we're right back to people picking both energy damage bonuses and none of the projectile damage bonuses.
Cherry picking the 4 out of any of the 8 in a path isn't much different from the 90 skills all being squashed into one tier so you can grab the exact 46 out 90 you want with complete disregard to their relative impact... Its one of those things that sounds great, fits perfectly with player self-interest, and is probably an utterly terrible idea for the game's overall health.
Yes. There are constraints. Work within them. That's where the finesse is.
Oh Thanks for that tip.
I am not a very good video game player, I thought it would be better to have everything in one place for me, hence heavy use of my tray. BUT...I shall try this, since space is becoming scarce...even with the vertical tray enabled. Everything has a button to activate these days.
I guess, I could turn on the UI for BOFFs, but that just splits everything everywhere...
I like to group things together by what they effect...for hull, for speed, for shields...etc.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin