Aside from the bugs with capping zones it was pretty good. The only other thing I thought was that it was not always very clear where the end zones were for Tug of War. Some of the locations (like the north one), it seemed to always be the first set of rings, but then others (the south one is one I noticed) it seemed to need you to take the asteroids a bit further, thus I had difficulty knowing how close a Tzenkethi ship was to delivering an asteroid, which affected decisions like when to use Evasive Maneuvers as a gap closer.
That said, I do like the bunch up mechanic. It's a cute mechanic for bringing the zone to a conclusion in what might otherwise be close. Enough back and forth and eventually you get a clump of rocks and one ship can push them all in at once. I'd say Tug of War is my favorite.
The battle zone seems rather chaotic, but then again it WAS a battle zone.
I couldn't tell the correct direction for the Tug of War and the Tzenkethi ships just seemed to hover over the asteroids.
On the boss section, our zone found 2 of the 3 mobs, but some of us were searching for the 3rd. We couldn't find him on the map.
Loved the asteroid/satellite towing mechanic; really made me feel like piloting a starship had more benefits than just pew-pew all the time, plus it provided a really funny distraction in the form of trying to tow a chunk of space rock while the Tzenkethi tried to tug-of-war it backwards. Also really appreciate the resistance boost/immunity when using Gravity Well, since it prevents any cluster melts from FAWs and cluster torpedo-ing.
However, the speed that the Tzenkethi retake parts of the battlezone is far too ridiculous at the moment. We'd take two, three sections in five minutes or less, but by that time the whole rest of the zone was retaken no matter how many people were left behind to defend. Insta-capping needs to be removed, make it more like the Terran battlezone where the ships have to sit for a bit instead to prevent the frustration. Also, I feel as though the zone could use some more direction; while it didn't take too long to pick up on the objectives for each individual activity, a lot of others were just shooting rather than towing or reactivating.
Other than that, I felt like the new battlezone was a great addition. Not quite straight-up rooty-tooty-point-n-shooty, but also not trying to dodge shots all the time while waiting for bars to fill. Some refinement will set it right.
Let me start off by saying I appreciate the fact that Cryptic does not have to give a reward for testing anything on the tribble server.
That being said, you advertised that the event that would make people eligible for the marks reward would take place from 3-5pm pst. I found out about the event at 2:57pst and began patching the tribble server. I finished and logged in to the tribble server at 4:28pst I arrived at the battlezone, which had been closed and made inaccessible by 4:32pst. This is a full 28 minutes BEFORE the advertised ending time of the testing event, yet I will not be eligible for the marks because you shut it down early.
This has myself and many others upset as we were more than willing to join the test, were well within the specified time frame, and yet were not given the the opportunity to participate. This is clearly unfair and lessens the likelihood of myself and these people attempting to participate in future testing events.
- As probably every other poster already said, the points reset to contested rather quickly.
- The Tzenkethi cheat at 'roid dragging. Their tractor beam 'only' stops when the ship gets destroyed while your own tractor beam gets interupted as soon as Ensign Placeholder sneezes on his station... on deck 29... in Spacedock.
In addition I am slightly annoyed that this 'playtest' was announced on redditfilth and not a peep was uttered in the 'official' forums.
Let me start off by saying I appreciate the fact that Cryptic does not have to give a reward for testing anything on the tribble server.
That being said, you advertised that the event that would make people eligible for the marks reward would take place from 3-5pm pst. I found out about the event at 2:57pst and began patching the tribble server. I finished and logged in to the tribble server at 4:28pst I arrived at the battlezone, which had been closed and made inaccessible by 4:32pst. This is a full 28 minutes BEFORE the advertised ending time of the testing event, yet I will not be eligible for the marks because you shut it down early.
This has myself and many others upset as we were more than willing to join the test, were well within the specified time frame, and yet were not given the the opportunity to participate. This is clearly unfair and lessens the likelihood of myself and these people attempting to participate in future testing events.
At least you found out about the test! I keep my eyes on Reddit and the forums as well as in game chat and didn't see squat about it at all!
Anyway I did play the battlezone just after Tribble was patched so I can offer some feedback for what it is worth.
As others have said the battlecrusiers I felt were a a little op in that I was hitting them with everything I had and was doing little to no damage on them which as you can imagine got a little frustrating, now if you are in a group that is okay - as it encourages teamwork - BUT it doesn't bode well for the longterm viability of the zone. As we have seen with the Undine zone sooner or later you will get to the point where everyone has their marks and whatnot and gone onto do other things. A new player coming along will have the prospect of having to try and either get a team together, or try to solo it in the hopes of getting some marks which as things stand with the battlecrusiers and the timings of each area to be completed means this will be next to impossible.
The tug-of-war was a good mission and quite fun, it took a little while to work out what I was supposed to do but as tool-tips and things are still being worked on and finalised is a nothing thing, I did however find that on different tug-of-war areas the finish point was a little different on each so I feel that would have to be standardised.
Apart from that everyone else has said everything that needs to be said, on a final thought the fact that someone is already suggesting a particular ship and build to be viable in the zone does not strike me as a good thing as it give the impression that others who either don't like to fly a certain ship or cannot afford to buy the ship or can grind for the ship will be excluded from a part of the game - and once that mind set takes hold that player will not stay around to play and support the game in other areas!
Ok, I think I found the major problem with the battlezone control map display ;p While upon completing an objective, the corresponding icon properly switches from orange to blue, the blue outline can appear for the wrong area.
For example the left array upon gaining control changes the bottom-right array outline to blue (while the outline for the proper area stays red), while that area could be under enemy control. The same applies to central-bottom_right and central-top_right. The third central station appears to be properly connected to its own area.
I like the new types of capture point. It was a little confusing that there seemed to be other random structures throughout the zone, but I got used to them fairly quickly. The enemies seem to be manageable most of the time (with a fairly boring, Very Rare MkXII set-up). A couple of things I wasn't too sure about:
On Tug of War; it isn't that clear where the finish lines are.
On Tug of War; while pushing an asteroid I appear to be taking damage. I assume this is deliberate but it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the briefing (nor is there a little icon above the toolbar). It might be less confusing if something was added here.
In general; all the particle/shield effects, the planetary rings and so on can make it very difficult to see which way the Tzenkethi ships are facing. This makes exploiting their weak front shields particularly difficult.
In Sector Space; the Battlezone is about as far away from anywhere useful as you can get. I hope we'll be getting some sort of transwarp destination nearby (maybe as part of the Lukari Reputation?).
spent an hour or so there, gotta say that the artwork and lighting was great.
the mechanics seemed a bit off, the colour of the zone map outline seemed to lag behind the status of the area.
as for the combat, found my hull getting smashed down to 30% almost instantly while my shields were relatively untouched (T6 sutherland with approx 35% all resistances), couldn't discern the source at the time.
usually my grav well III melts normal opponents quite nicely, the Tzenkethi ships seemed to treat it as a massage O.o
as for the boss fight, moving the satellites into position was a good touch.
i guess it'll be like the Badlands, you start off not knowing how the system works, then over time it makes more sense.
my problem with it is that it needs a bunch of people to work together to achieve success, so while it looks great i doubt it'll be a fun place to pug in, which is a shame.
I'm not elite, just have a middle marked level ship/build - but maybe its time for 2 battlezone levels as per queues... 1 Elites and 1 Normal -
I would jump for 40% of the marks compared to elite, if it ment I was having fun, and not just chasing a group of people who just go round and kill/clean up before your torpedo's have a chance to hit its mark - The mobs could be just as hard, but respawn rate of the zone markers are slowed - for example if elites was 8min respawns, then the normal would have 12.
That's not an issue with BZ Balance that you just described with the mass of people who kill before you get a chance. It's an issue with these people that have exceedingly broken "Builds" where spamming Beam Fire At Will III, Massive Crit Chance and Crit Severity (CrtDx4/CrtDx3Pen), and the Rom Embassy Console's Plasma Explosion can do anywhere between 2x to 10x more damage than anyone else. These people tend to use either AntiProton beams (thanks a lot Crafting Revamp, you brought so much good, but you also made Spamming AP beams so much more easy) or the more abusive Coalition Disruptor + Terran Rep Project Beam ones.
As for my opinions on the Battlezone, the points are good, with the Tug Of War being the most fun. But the Map updates so badly after capping that you have no idea what's going on (Likely a Tribble Bug), and the points seem to recapture without warning within about 5-10 minutes, which is about the same amount of time it takes to travel and cap another point in a normal MkXIV equipped ship (not a FaW Crit+PlasmaExplosion Abuser).
If you can't solve it logically, solve it like a moron.
51 + 1 Foundry Character Slots is NOT enough. Some of us love our characters. If I want to buy more character slots, why can't I? I couldn't experience the entire Delta Recruitment event without deleting a character.
The Iconians themselves can't time travel because their memories revert, but there is nothing to say an Iconian couldn't write everything she needed to do on a PADD, pin it to herself, travel back, read the PADD, do the tasks and return. Or just get one of her Non-Herald underlings to go back in time for her.
Oh yeah, I do Foundry missions for both KDFs and Feds. Just search KSTF (Short for Kinas Special Task Force, where Kinas is the name of the Admiral you will be serving under). The earlier ones are less story based and more combat based, while the later ones have a much heavier story element, but keep the large battles.
I agree at the moment the progression of the Battlezone is broken. Even if you captured a zone, it wouldnt register. Same with completing an instance. Once the timer was up, it didnt reset.
However, I know you devs are aware of that because you were in chat at the time.
I agree/disagree that the zones are recaptured too quickly. It could be toned down, but don't tone it down too much. I enjoyed being out flanked
The Tzenkethi. I think the dreanoughts and battleships could use a bit more hull health/resistance. Some of them melted too quickly. Interesting using the pilot specialization.
I quite enjoyed the asteroid towing, nice mechanic that one
Dreadnoughts always die fast because they only ever spawn with 3+ players on Foundry missions (probably same for Story), or I think 5+ players in a Battlezone, and as a result tend to get swarmed rather quickly. However, the Battleships seemed far less resilient than the Cruisers which hit me as a bit odd.
As for the recapping, I think it's less the recap time, it's the fact it happens instantly with no warning, and since it now takes at least 5 mins to cap a point due to a time-gate. Having them recap in somewhere between 5-10 mins seems a bit steep, especially since the common (but incorrect) wisdom is to attack points in groups ,even though solo or doubling up (as for some reason, just 2 people on a point doesn't actually increase enemy numbers much, if at all) on points is faster.
I will fully agree on the towing point, it's a nice mechanic.
If you can't solve it logically, solve it like a moron.
51 + 1 Foundry Character Slots is NOT enough. Some of us love our characters. If I want to buy more character slots, why can't I? I couldn't experience the entire Delta Recruitment event without deleting a character.
The Iconians themselves can't time travel because their memories revert, but there is nothing to say an Iconian couldn't write everything she needed to do on a PADD, pin it to herself, travel back, read the PADD, do the tasks and return. Or just get one of her Non-Herald underlings to go back in time for her.
Oh yeah, I do Foundry missions for both KDFs and Feds. Just search KSTF (Short for Kinas Special Task Force, where Kinas is the name of the Admiral you will be serving under). The earlier ones are less story based and more combat based, while the later ones have a much heavier story element, but keep the large battles.
I disagree with battleships needing a buff. I was soloing in an instance because no one was there and 5 battleships spawned right on top of my and I felt like I was shooting spitballs before my hull disintegrated into nothing in .25 seconds flat before my shields even flickered. Yet damage report said no significant damage reported. If anything if there is less than 5 people in the zone there should be only 1 battleship at a time. I am also flying the Oroboros with maxed weapons at Epic MK XIV, so there shouldn't be that much of an issue,
From all I have seen, new level 60 players will get slaughtered and that is something that shouldn't happen. The enemies should be based on how many players there are. Those numbers should be rechecked against fresh level 60 players instead of against players that already have maxed gear.
As an edit: If the devs really want players to run these new battlezones/missions with better gear than what they already have, then maybe it should be time to implement some type of gear checker to see if the player meets the minimum gear requirement before playing. Sort of what DCUO does. In DCUO, if your character's gear rating doesn't meet the minimum requirement, then you have to either get a group to let you in or you have to get better gear.
Since that doesn't seem to be a viable option, then maybe base the enemy's numbers (Behind the scenes numbers, not the total amount of enemies.) on how many players there are in said zone and/or base the numbers on FRESH level 60 characters with white Mk XII gear. Not based on players with maxed out Epic MK XIV gear and with T7 ships. (Exaggeration, I know, But my point is there)
And for those players that are bragging that the enemies are too easy for you, crank up the difficulty and stop playing on normal and play on advanced or higher. Not everyone can get through the content as those with 100k dps. Majority of the players out there are casual, and some of us casuals are unable to afford the best gear the game has to offer.
Based on 'suddenly I have damage' posts and my own experiences, the Protomater blasts should either be off-center or have an effect much more different than the SFX spam our ships have. I was trying to figure out what shield effect or other buff I had on my Tribble char that I didn't have on Holodeck, then saw the hull HP drop and figured out that was the targeting reticle for the enemy protomater while I was sitting still. Off-center would probably work out best, as most player-based SFX spam is centered.
I cant give full feedback couse there wasnt to much players in the battlezone when i was testing,maybe 2-3 players but anyway it was easy for me to solo any capture point.Good thing is that you need bigger group to make 100% and players need to have some plan to do it properly.Tzenkethi are recapturing points quickly if not guarded.I hope rewards will be good enough to keep players attention for a long time :-)
I disagree with battleships needing a buff. I was soloing in an instance because no one was there and 5 battleships spawned right on top of my and I felt like I was shooting spitballs before my hull disintegrated into nothing in .25 seconds flat before my shields even flickered. Yet damage report said no significant damage reported. If anything if there is less than 5 people in the zone there should be only 1 battleship at a time. I am also flying the Oroboros with maxed weapons at Epic MK XIV, so there shouldn't be that much of an issue,
From all I have seen, new level 60 players will get slaughtered and that is something that shouldn't happen. The enemies should be based on how many players there are. Those numbers should be rechecked against fresh level 60 players instead of against players that already have maxed gear.
As an edit: If the devs really want players to run these new battlezones/missions with better gear than what they already have, then maybe it should be time to implement some type of gear checker to see if the player meets the minimum gear requirement before playing. Sort of what DCUO does. In DCUO, if your character's gear rating doesn't meet the minimum requirement, then you have to either get a group to let you in or you have to get better gear.
Since that doesn't seem to be a viable option, then maybe base the enemy's numbers (Behind the scenes numbers, not the total amount of enemies.) on how many players there are in said zone and/or base the numbers on FRESH level 60 characters with white Mk XII gear. Not based on players with maxed out Epic MK XIV gear and with T7 ships. (Exaggeration, I know, But my point is there)
And for those players that are bragging that the enemies are too easy for you, crank up the difficulty and stop playing on normal and play on advanced or higher. Not everyone can get through the content as those with 100k dps. Majority of the players out there are casual, and some of us casuals are unable to afford the best gear the game has to offer.
Ok.
First of all. Just like every other Battlezone in STO, enemy numbers are scaled with player number, so just one or 2 people on a point and it can spawn just 1 Battleship, 3 Frigates OR a Cruiser + Frigate. This is sometimes borked if people have recently abandoned the point, or are flying through it, as this can sometimes spawn an excessive number of enemies.
Two. You are struggling to kill them with Mk XIV EPIC?! Actually try shooting them from the front, that's how Tzenkethi are because they are "Smart Tanky". You will find shooting them from the front that they die pretty quickly. My tanky Galor was doing fine killing them, and no, it doesn't abuse crits for overpowered DPS.
Three. You wondered why you were dying alot? Raiders are the most fragile ship there is, they rely on mobility to stay alive, and Tzenkethi Battleships in particular decimate ships that don't move.
Four. If you are using White Mk XII at 60, you should be expecting to be massacred (If you are using white at any level, you really should think about getting better gear), Green Mk XII is hardly expensive. Most 60 content is balanced for Mk XIII + Mk XIV gear, although you can get along pretty well with Mk XII Purple (or better).
Five. The Damage Report on the respawn timer's menu has been broken for ages.
Six. The ONLY time a Tzenkethi did any lasting damage to me was the Battleship's depth charges, which I think bypassed shields and did significant hull damage if you didn't move out of the way. This is probably what killed your super fragile raider so quickly.
Seven. Gear checking is stupid. If you really want to take a Mk X White (Default for all T5 and up ships) ship in, you should be able to. You should also expect to well and truly destroyed if doing so. I personally fly a Mk XIV equipped NX class (T1 ship, complete with the Grappler) at Level 60 sometimes just for the challenge, and I know it's super fragile so I fly it as such and as a result, it can win most (some NPC ships, like D'deridexes are really annoying) engagements with an NPC first time.
Eight. T7 Does not, and hopefully will never, exist. However, you are probably refferring to the game-breaking Beam Fire At Will, CrtDx4/CrtDx3Pen, Plasma Explosion spammers who do anywhere from 2x to 10x more damage than any other build.
If you can't solve it logically, solve it like a moron.
51 + 1 Foundry Character Slots is NOT enough. Some of us love our characters. If I want to buy more character slots, why can't I? I couldn't experience the entire Delta Recruitment event without deleting a character.
The Iconians themselves can't time travel because their memories revert, but there is nothing to say an Iconian couldn't write everything she needed to do on a PADD, pin it to herself, travel back, read the PADD, do the tasks and return. Or just get one of her Non-Herald underlings to go back in time for her.
Oh yeah, I do Foundry missions for both KDFs and Feds. Just search KSTF (Short for Kinas Special Task Force, where Kinas is the name of the Admiral you will be serving under). The earlier ones are less story based and more combat based, while the later ones have a much heavier story element, but keep the large battles.
The Battlezone is definitely a nice addition to the game, its fun and engaging. Even though it would be nice when everything's fixed since this would be sooo annoying to be on Holodeck having them switch hands instantly without verification they switched.
I liked all the zones the Tug of War is fun, The King of the Hill is nice, the blockade portion is nice. The Dreadnoughts are very cool looking. =P
The Rising of the Delta is the best expansion ever, and people love it to death because it is a good day to die in the endless struggle for supremacy of your own conviction. (A spin off of the Delta Rising is the best expansion ever and all the players love it.)
The finish line doesn't seem to be clear (and may be different on different versions?),
If an enemy ship turns up at just the wrong time, the final stage of the Tug of War tells you to kill the remaining "(0)" ships (I had one left to kill, and finished the zone when I did so). I guess this means there is a slight delay between when the system checks for remaining ships and when it stops new ships spawning,
I'm still not clear what difference, if any, pushing out more asteroids makes. Is there supposed to be one?
So, I tried the Gon'cra System Battle Zone today for first time and then came here. I must agree with most of the comments regarding the time required to take a zone versus the time for the enemy to retake a zone. This zone seems to designed around fleet play and not pug play as the Undine Battlezone, and Voth Battlezone are. I tried playing the zone for sometime and with 8 random players in the zone there was no hope of taking it. I think a rebalance is needed to allow more time between when a recapture of the zone is taken or the time allotted or warning that a zone is being taken. Given the distance and time to take a zone it is quite hard to peel off and go defend a zone under attack in time. The zone must be pug friendly and assume the players in zone are not going to team, use a chat channel, or even speak the same language. I do expect the zone requires some sense of strategy but it has to be realistic to the nominal player and average amount of players in the zone over the course of 24hrs. If not, then players will become frustrated and not play in the zone at all. Currently it is not realistic to expect a player to just sit in a point after it has been taken to defend it especially given there aren’t normally enough players in the zone to allow this. The zone should be completed if you can stick it out an hour. I would recommend going back and looking at the player perspective used in the Undine Battlezone, and Voth Battlezone and applying it here, they are more playable as group zones than this one.
I spent a couple hours in there yesterday and got a couple accolades. I found it to be a nice approach to the battle-zone mechanic.
It was fun throughout the entire time which was six hours. Sadly during that span of time, the dreads were only released once due the nature of the beast design wise. Moreover throughout that time many players came and subsequently left after 30 minutes or so because we could not progress and maintain it. This is largely due to the fact the retake time is incredibly fast. You pretty much need to maintain a standing guard of two or three ships at each holding point which sucks when the dreads comes as the time limit is very short for that as well... It is why I left as I only got to attack one dread and I was not about to spend another six hours trying to release them again. It is simply not worth it.
I recommend tripling or quadrupling the respawn time for the hold points. It is simply highly unlikely for PUG action to be successful and will ultimately leave many people a bad taste in their mouth and taint them on coming back. With that said, it is great for a group of say 25 fleet players or better yet as an armada action!!
Furthermore, I would remove the timer on the dreads. Once released, let them run free!!! Spreading death and destruction wherever and whenever until defeated!!!!! Instead, I would have the dreads spawn a new support fleet of say three (3) groups, of five (5) ships, every give (5) minutes, at different arcs for each dread alive. That would be sweet...
Post edited by aspartan1 on
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
Comments
That said, I do like the bunch up mechanic. It's a cute mechanic for bringing the zone to a conclusion in what might otherwise be close. Enough back and forth and eventually you get a clump of rocks and one ship can push them all in at once. I'd say Tug of War is my favorite.
I couldn't tell the correct direction for the Tug of War and the Tzenkethi ships just seemed to hover over the asteroids.
On the boss section, our zone found 2 of the 3 mobs, but some of us were searching for the 3rd. We couldn't find him on the map.
However, the speed that the Tzenkethi retake parts of the battlezone is far too ridiculous at the moment. We'd take two, three sections in five minutes or less, but by that time the whole rest of the zone was retaken no matter how many people were left behind to defend. Insta-capping needs to be removed, make it more like the Terran battlezone where the ships have to sit for a bit instead to prevent the frustration. Also, I feel as though the zone could use some more direction; while it didn't take too long to pick up on the objectives for each individual activity, a lot of others were just shooting rather than towing or reactivating.
Other than that, I felt like the new battlezone was a great addition. Not quite straight-up rooty-tooty-point-n-shooty, but also not trying to dodge shots all the time while waiting for bars to fill. Some refinement will set it right.
That being said, you advertised that the event that would make people eligible for the marks reward would take place from 3-5pm pst. I found out about the event at 2:57pst and began patching the tribble server. I finished and logged in to the tribble server at 4:28pst I arrived at the battlezone, which had been closed and made inaccessible by 4:32pst. This is a full 28 minutes BEFORE the advertised ending time of the testing event, yet I will not be eligible for the marks because you shut it down early.
This has myself and many others upset as we were more than willing to join the test, were well within the specified time frame, and yet were not given the the opportunity to participate. This is clearly unfair and lessens the likelihood of myself and these people attempting to participate in future testing events.
- As probably every other poster already said, the points reset to contested rather quickly.
- The Tzenkethi cheat at 'roid dragging. Their tractor beam 'only' stops when the ship gets destroyed while your own tractor beam gets interupted as soon as Ensign Placeholder sneezes on his station... on deck 29... in Spacedock.
In addition I am slightly annoyed that this 'playtest' was announced on redditfilth and not a peep was uttered in the 'official' forums.
At least you found out about the test! I keep my eyes on Reddit and the forums as well as in game chat and didn't see squat about it at all!
Anyway I did play the battlezone just after Tribble was patched so I can offer some feedback for what it is worth.
As others have said the battlecrusiers I felt were a a little op in that I was hitting them with everything I had and was doing little to no damage on them which as you can imagine got a little frustrating, now if you are in a group that is okay - as it encourages teamwork - BUT it doesn't bode well for the longterm viability of the zone. As we have seen with the Undine zone sooner or later you will get to the point where everyone has their marks and whatnot and gone onto do other things. A new player coming along will have the prospect of having to try and either get a team together, or try to solo it in the hopes of getting some marks which as things stand with the battlecrusiers and the timings of each area to be completed means this will be next to impossible.
The tug-of-war was a good mission and quite fun, it took a little while to work out what I was supposed to do but as tool-tips and things are still being worked on and finalised is a nothing thing, I did however find that on different tug-of-war areas the finish point was a little different on each so I feel that would have to be standardised.
Apart from that everyone else has said everything that needs to be said, on a final thought the fact that someone is already suggesting a particular ship and build to be viable in the zone does not strike me as a good thing as it give the impression that others who either don't like to fly a certain ship or cannot afford to buy the ship or can grind for the ship will be excluded from a part of the game - and once that mind set takes hold that player will not stay around to play and support the game in other areas!
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For example the left array upon gaining control changes the bottom-right array outline to blue (while the outline for the proper area stays red), while that area could be under enemy control. The same applies to central-bottom_right and central-top_right. The third central station appears to be properly connected to its own area.
the mechanics seemed a bit off, the colour of the zone map outline seemed to lag behind the status of the area.
as for the combat, found my hull getting smashed down to 30% almost instantly while my shields were relatively untouched (T6 sutherland with approx 35% all resistances), couldn't discern the source at the time.
usually my grav well III melts normal opponents quite nicely, the Tzenkethi ships seemed to treat it as a massage O.o
as for the boss fight, moving the satellites into position was a good touch.
i guess it'll be like the Badlands, you start off not knowing how the system works, then over time it makes more sense.
my problem with it is that it needs a bunch of people to work together to achieve success, so while it looks great i doubt it'll be a fun place to pug in, which is a shame.
That's not an issue with BZ Balance that you just described with the mass of people who kill before you get a chance. It's an issue with these people that have exceedingly broken "Builds" where spamming Beam Fire At Will III, Massive Crit Chance and Crit Severity (CrtDx4/CrtDx3Pen), and the Rom Embassy Console's Plasma Explosion can do anywhere between 2x to 10x more damage than anyone else. These people tend to use either AntiProton beams (thanks a lot Crafting Revamp, you brought so much good, but you also made Spamming AP beams so much more easy) or the more abusive Coalition Disruptor + Terran Rep Project Beam ones.
As for my opinions on the Battlezone, the points are good, with the Tug Of War being the most fun. But the Map updates so badly after capping that you have no idea what's going on (Likely a Tribble Bug), and the points seem to recapture without warning within about 5-10 minutes, which is about the same amount of time it takes to travel and cap another point in a normal MkXIV equipped ship (not a FaW Crit+PlasmaExplosion Abuser).
Dreadnoughts always die fast because they only ever spawn with 3+ players on Foundry missions (probably same for Story), or I think 5+ players in a Battlezone, and as a result tend to get swarmed rather quickly. However, the Battleships seemed far less resilient than the Cruisers which hit me as a bit odd.
As for the recapping, I think it's less the recap time, it's the fact it happens instantly with no warning, and since it now takes at least 5 mins to cap a point due to a time-gate. Having them recap in somewhere between 5-10 mins seems a bit steep, especially since the common (but incorrect) wisdom is to attack points in groups ,even though solo or doubling up (as for some reason, just 2 people on a point doesn't actually increase enemy numbers much, if at all) on points is faster.
I will fully agree on the towing point, it's a nice mechanic.
From all I have seen, new level 60 players will get slaughtered and that is something that shouldn't happen. The enemies should be based on how many players there are. Those numbers should be rechecked against fresh level 60 players instead of against players that already have maxed gear.
As an edit: If the devs really want players to run these new battlezones/missions with better gear than what they already have, then maybe it should be time to implement some type of gear checker to see if the player meets the minimum gear requirement before playing. Sort of what DCUO does. In DCUO, if your character's gear rating doesn't meet the minimum requirement, then you have to either get a group to let you in or you have to get better gear.
Since that doesn't seem to be a viable option, then maybe base the enemy's numbers (Behind the scenes numbers, not the total amount of enemies.) on how many players there are in said zone and/or base the numbers on FRESH level 60 characters with white Mk XII gear. Not based on players with maxed out Epic MK XIV gear and with T7 ships. (Exaggeration, I know, But my point is there)
And for those players that are bragging that the enemies are too easy for you, crank up the difficulty and stop playing on normal and play on advanced or higher. Not everyone can get through the content as those with 100k dps. Majority of the players out there are casual, and some of us casuals are unable to afford the best gear the game has to offer.
I cant give full feedback couse there wasnt to much players in the battlezone when i was testing,maybe 2-3 players but anyway it was easy for me to solo any capture point.Good thing is that you need bigger group to make 100% and players need to have some plan to do it properly.Tzenkethi are recapturing points quickly if not guarded.I hope rewards will be good enough to keep players attention for a long time :-)
Ok.
First of all. Just like every other Battlezone in STO, enemy numbers are scaled with player number, so just one or 2 people on a point and it can spawn just 1 Battleship, 3 Frigates OR a Cruiser + Frigate. This is sometimes borked if people have recently abandoned the point, or are flying through it, as this can sometimes spawn an excessive number of enemies.
Two. You are struggling to kill them with Mk XIV EPIC?! Actually try shooting them from the front, that's how Tzenkethi are because they are "Smart Tanky". You will find shooting them from the front that they die pretty quickly. My tanky Galor was doing fine killing them, and no, it doesn't abuse crits for overpowered DPS.
Three. You wondered why you were dying alot? Raiders are the most fragile ship there is, they rely on mobility to stay alive, and Tzenkethi Battleships in particular decimate ships that don't move.
Four. If you are using White Mk XII at 60, you should be expecting to be massacred (If you are using white at any level, you really should think about getting better gear), Green Mk XII is hardly expensive. Most 60 content is balanced for Mk XIII + Mk XIV gear, although you can get along pretty well with Mk XII Purple (or better).
Five. The Damage Report on the respawn timer's menu has been broken for ages.
Six. The ONLY time a Tzenkethi did any lasting damage to me was the Battleship's depth charges, which I think bypassed shields and did significant hull damage if you didn't move out of the way. This is probably what killed your super fragile raider so quickly.
Seven. Gear checking is stupid. If you really want to take a Mk X White (Default for all T5 and up ships) ship in, you should be able to. You should also expect to well and truly destroyed if doing so. I personally fly a Mk XIV equipped NX class (T1 ship, complete with the Grappler) at Level 60 sometimes just for the challenge, and I know it's super fragile so I fly it as such and as a result, it can win most (some NPC ships, like D'deridexes are really annoying) engagements with an NPC first time.
Eight. T7 Does not, and hopefully will never, exist. However, you are probably refferring to the game-breaking Beam Fire At Will, CrtDx4/CrtDx3Pen, Plasma Explosion spammers who do anywhere from 2x to 10x more damage than any other build.
I liked all the zones the Tug of War is fun, The King of the Hill is nice, the blockade portion is nice. The Dreadnoughts are very cool looking. =P
It was fun throughout the entire time which was six hours. Sadly during that span of time, the dreads were only released once due the nature of the beast design wise. Moreover throughout that time many players came and subsequently left after 30 minutes or so because we could not progress and maintain it. This is largely due to the fact the retake time is incredibly fast. You pretty much need to maintain a standing guard of two or three ships at each holding point which sucks when the dreads comes as the time limit is very short for that as well... It is why I left as I only got to attack one dread and I was not about to spend another six hours trying to release them again. It is simply not worth it.
I recommend tripling or quadrupling the respawn time for the hold points. It is simply highly unlikely for PUG action to be successful and will ultimately leave many people a bad taste in their mouth and taint them on coming back. With that said, it is great for a group of say 25 fleet players or better yet as an armada action!!
Furthermore, I would remove the timer on the dreads. Once released, let them run free!!! Spreading death and destruction wherever and whenever until defeated!!!!! Instead, I would have the dreads spawn a new support fleet of say three (3) groups, of five (5) ships, every give (5) minutes, at different arcs for each dread alive. That would be sweet...
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
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