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The enemy unique abilities, thumb up or down?
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Member Posts: 456 Arc User
Every new enemy that get to the top has always had a unqiue ability to make them more distinct.
For an example; Nak'hul have their Distortion both on ground and space, while Voth had their immortal shield and the Undine had their speed and turn rate debuff on their Torpedos.
Now, to my question, does this make the gameplay more fun or more annoying?
For an example; Nak'hul have their Distortion both on ground and space, while Voth had their immortal shield and the Undine had their speed and turn rate debuff on their Torpedos.
Now, to my question, does this make the gameplay more fun or more annoying?
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But having something unique about an enemy group makes it more distinct and this I see as a positive goal.
I sometimes wish the abilities were a bit more subtle - the Na'Khul for example are very flashy and the reasoning behind them (something about timeline duplicatse) feels a bit too extreme to be a regular effect.
The Voth invulnerability shields might not be exactly subtle, but - if you assume that shields are everyday ship component, which you kinda have to for Trek - seem better integrated - it's just a special shield.
I wish some NPCs were better at using their abilities. Particular the Romulans are ridicilous here - they practically don't use their canon ignature ability at all. The only times NPCs cloak at all they also get to break all the rules (like Donatra's Scimitar) for it, and otherwise aren't particular clever about it, either. I'd love to see some Romulan Warbirds or Klingon Bird of Preys decloak when I enter combat witht hem and try to get into a flanking position. (One of the reason I found the Vaadwaur the most interesting to deal with so far in space was that they seemed to actually maneuver. Though they are more impressive on ground).
It is so annoying, however I know that they want you to be mindful and tactical over how you use your Bridge officer powers but its still very annoying.
I prefer the enemies has more of a offensive special ability then a defensive.
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This.
The problem is a severe lack of diversity among mobs. Most races get 1 or 2 abilities an the spam the TRIBBLE out of them like the Na'Khul and their "clones". It's gets very annoying very fast when absolutely every enemy on the map does that. Or as some other examples the Hirogen and their subnuke, the Heralds who spam like 5-6 EMP-probes at once and the list goes on.
The new terrans are pretty much a prime example how it's done right. A diverse fleet with a lot of different ship types and a ton of different abilities. Srsly they are the most entertaining enemy type. I understand that not every mob of the week can get to that level but as for diversety we're pretty much srcaping the bottom of the barrel for almost all enemy factions.
+1
Terran wins cause they have Science, Tactical and Engineering ships, so their powers differs from the careers.
Haven't they been changed a few times already?
I'd say my answer is: Both! Both more fun and more annoying. It's more engaging and more challenging to have to respond to new abilities and new strategies. But it can be annoying too. Like the Voth. Those shields get annoying. But then I have to admit to myself that yes, it is good to get me to change my powers, my strategies and my loadout to deal with the Voth in a way I don't have set up for other enemies. So while I may be annoyed I need to keep myself in check, suck it up and adjust. Because it's a game and that's kind of the point.
The !cool ability to hose your action bars up isn't much fun either.
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My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
But the Na'kuhl's distortions not only make no sense to me nor they any fun to fight against. At least with the Voth, I can just hit Evasive Maneuvers/EPtE and get around them.
"Let them eat static!"
Yeah targeting is always a bit weird in STO, especially while on the ground. There are missions where, when firing or activating abilities, the game will always auto-select the enemy that has no priority or should not be targeted at all (non-saboteurs in Starbase incursion, drones that aren't worker drones in IGA, drones that appear around the nodes in Khitomer ground are just a few examples). Even when you're turned towards and zoomed in on the priority target, it happens quite often that your character will just turn around and select something completely different to shoot at.
Anyway, on topic:
Unique abilities are good. Although I feel that players should in some cases be able to counter them. Have the Voth shield go down when using subnucleonic beam for example. If more enemies get unique abilities and different careers get different powers or different Boffs get abilities to counter them, it might make space combat less monotonous and increase the need for teamwork. It would also make things that aren't pure DPS or anti-damage resistance more valuable.
I would be more annoyed if the only difference between the races is merely superficial.
Remove the labels, remove the glowing shield, replace the "immune" text with fake damage floaters, and make the players figure out which one they're supposed to shoot the hard way (ie watching its HP go down or not). Then its fun.
For extra FUN, make the invincible one reflect or heal itself with incoming damage instead of just ignoring it.
I'm one of those, but for them to be like canon in space. That means not only having the ability to adapt to weapons, like they do on the ground, but also using that adaptation offensively as well, such as gaining shield pen and adapting to use weapons that are stronger against an enemy who is weak in a particular type.
But I harken thee, I can already hear the cries of people who can't beat them in 1 second flat. Too long have Cryptic pandered to those who say this game is 'too hard'....for christ's sake people, there is virtually no enemy that is challenging left!! Yes, an AI update would be fantastic, but if it's okay for players to be able to vape an enemy, then why can't NPC's have that ability. They tried to compensate by making NPC's HP rich, but people complained because it 'took too long' to beat them. I'm more satisfied with a battle that lasts more than 5 minutes, than a battle that is over in seconds.
So yes, give them more abilities for sure, just don't make them available for players and let's look at more ways for NPC's to counter DPS to give players more incentive to invest in other skills than beams, beams, beams....and whilst they're at it, let's knock back the absurd amount of Crit Hit %. It's way too high, heck anything more than 10% is too high. There's nothing critical about a hit that's critical every other shot!
The Vaadwaur maneuvering was a good idea and worked well to make them distinct because they'd actually use it in a way that made them seem semi intelligent when they'd run away then turn around to use other abilities, but unfortunately it was made way over the top since they're practically immune to holds and speed debuffs. It's all too common to have one ship locked in a Tractor Beam from my own ship, GW3, and 3 cloaking tractor mines and it still manages to fly away without using any sort of speed buff or hold breaking skill. I remember seeing it explained as "advanced tech given to them by the Iconians" yet the Heralds and even the Iconians themselves did not have the same hold immunity, TB/GW worked just fine on them.
For the Na'kuhl the distortions aren't as annoying to me as they seem like to most people because I have a tray full of AOEs to quickly get rid of them in space, and on the ground I have boffs with mines/grenades and Exo in my own tray. What annoys me about the Na'kuhl are the damn radiation clouds and the plasma wave that they spam the unholy TRIBBLE out of in space combat. The radiation clouds are just over the top when they drop your shields as fast as the Borg shield neutralizer and your hull nearly as fast, and having plasma waves chain fired at you by a half dozen NPCs one after another is almost as irritating.
And let's not forget all the enemies with OP torpedoes that do more damage than most of us could ever hope to do with them. One of the main points of shields is to block kinetic damage, right? But that's apparently not fair to enemies so they just get their torpedo damage massively buffed so it still hurts through shields.
Romulans: Tends to spam cloaking trac mines and heavy plasma torpedos.
Nausicans: Spams power drain and drain adds.
Cardassians: Shield drain and photonic fleet
Hirogen: Photonic fleet and Viral matrix
Vaadwaur: ASA (Annoying Space Artillery) and anchor mines/hold abilities by their scouts
Tholians: Spams fire at will and creative holding abilities
Borg: Shield drains. Lots of shield drains (oddly no viral matrix - oversight?)
Each of these have their own counters though, so depending on your build, one might be more annoying then the next. A fragile firepower focused escort might not like the tractor spam of the romulans, but have no problem overwhelming those bigger Borg. A resilient cruiser would shrug off Tholian beam spam, but would suffer from the Vaadwaur artillery spam due to lower speed and larger model.
The newest enemy, the Not-cools, live up to their name. The temporal distortions can waste non-instantaneous shots that are underway - such as destructable torpedos, or even normal torpedo volleys and cannon fire. They can also hamper charge up abilities. But the worst problem occurs on ground. If the distortion gets stuck somewhere hard to get to, then the caster is basically invulnerable and can charge through anything. I've had that happen a few times and it can be frustrating. I wager players will try and exploit this as well with the Nakuhl Operative shield which basically has a shorter version of this effect. Great for closing the distance, but absolute invulnerability while the effect is live? It is a bit much. I don't like it, since effects like that BEG to be exploited.
Ex-PWI player (Dawnglory): Ulsyr (BM 104/104/103)
Now on STO. More fun there.
Yeah. Heaven forbid an enemy actually tries to defend itself from incoming attacks.
They should just sit their and wait for you to shoot them like fish in a barrel.
I think the Borg NPC in this game are pretty much like canon. Adaption to weapons frequencies was only an issue during the wolf 359 incident so the early TNG time. They also had Picard assimilated back then.
A decade later during first contact Starfleet had the attacking Borg cube already severely damaged while Picard’s knowledge finished them off swiftly with the battle being over a minute later. Single undine ships one-shot entire borg fleets soon after.
When voyager had future tech equipped it was also able to smash entire cubes in the series finale.
STO timeline even puts us few years later so out-DPSing them with raw power while they have nothing but shield disables and massive hit point values to throw at use feels legit.
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Don't forget Subnucleonic Beam for the Hirogen. Viral Matrix isn't really unique to them as some others (namely Romulans) also use it, but I don't recall anyone else using SB.