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How would you modify ISA and CCA to have them not be the joke of STO any more?
sophlogimo
Member Posts: 6,507 Arc User
How would you make ISA and CCA last long enough to be worth the rewards they currently offer?
My approach for ISA would be:
For CCA, my approach would be:
How would you make these queues interesting again? Or would you object to any changes? If so, why?
My approach for ISA would be:
- to increase the number of picket ships at the start to one tac cube, two reglar cubes, four spheres and eight probes. This is supposed to be an attempt to take over not only a starbase, but to establish a staging area for a large-scale invasion into Alliance space, and given the size of the Collective, a few more ships are hardly too much for such an attempt.
- Next, I would have the nanite spheres for both sides show up about 30 seconds after the fighting starts - obviously the Borg would call for reinforcements as soon as it becomes obvious that those five ships aren't ordinary Alliance vessels, but have special captains. The Borg will then continue to send in nanite spheres (plus escorts) to keep the gate alive until the gate is destroyed.
- In additon, the Nanite Transformers should be armed with plasma torpedos (into all arcs) and Torpedo Spread 3 and able to use a few active abilities like Feedback Pulse, Tractor Beam Repulsors, Brace For Impact, Hazard Emitters and Polarize Hull.
- After a set time period of 10 minutes (if the gate still lives by then), I'd let the end boss enter the system through the transwarp gate - but not a tactical cube, but an Unimatrix ship with two tac cubes, four regular cubes, eight spheres and sixteen probes as escort fleet.
- The optionals would have to be changed, of course: The first optional would be to destroy at least one nanite transformer before the main Borg force (the Unimatrix ship) arrives. The second optional would be to destroy the gate within five minutes after the Unimatrix ship arrives. Mission success would be to wipe the system of any Borg craft.
For CCA, my approach would be:
- The Tholians are obviously herding Crystalline entities into Alliance space. Wouldn't it make sense, then, that they heal and buff their beast? I'd give their ships healing and buffing to such an extent that they can, if not stopped, negate about 150 thousand points of damage per second. That way, destroying a significant part of the Tholian task force would be required. In addition, a second, larger Tholian task force would arrive 10 minutes after the mission begins.
- The Crystalline Entity would no longer go into absorption mode when it reaches 66 and 33 percent of its hull, but after a set amount of time of 60 seconds. The radiation blast would be changed: It would be one blast of 200,000 points of damage, followed by a subnucleonic carrier wave, followed by second blast of 200,000 points of damage per target. Tholians would, of course, be immune to it. Also, its hull resistances and hitpoints would have to be adjusted upwards, to make sure the entity survives at least long enough to spit out three blasts.
- The optional would be to defeat the entity before Tholian reinforcements arrive (ending the mission).
How would you make these queues interesting again? Or would you object to any changes? If so, why?
Remember, STO is nothing but a cosmetics game, where only the rule of cool matters. The game mechanics are intentionally out of balance, don't try to "optimize" anything, as it would just frustrate you.
Post edited by sophlogimo on
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That way it would return them to the frightening and imposing presence/threat they were in the show. That how I feel anyway
If you want ISA/CCA revamped then lobby Cryptic to make ISA/CCA Elite maps where you're ideas can be implemented and leave the Normal and Advanced alone
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
Current pve queues all over are just masses of spam mobs and the odd boss ship. But not really any challenge other than have x number of DPS to kill them in a set time. They need to focus more of a small number of tougher and more tactical enemies. Rathers than fight 20 probes have is fight one tac cube, but make it like Wolf 359 level of challenge.
Anything to make those two missions a bit more than just mindlessly spamming attacks would be cool though.
at the time in the story infected takes place, the alliance didn't exist yet; it was still federation space
this is WAAAAAAY too big of a force for advanced - the difficulty is, by cryptic's own definition, supposed to be challenging for captains who have their builds all sussed out and all their abilities working in sync with each other, but not yet fully upgraded everything on their ships to max, got all sorts of powerful personal/starship/rep traits, etc..
that would probably challenge even elite captains (i.e. those with fully golded mk 14 gear, maxed reps and potentially powerful spec/lockbox/promo starship traits and/or the more powerful genetic sequencers - and mind, i'm talking about elite, not ultra-elite; which would be those dealing above 100K DPS via whatever means)
i would have it 1 unimatrix (the regen probe launching variant), 2 tac cubes, 2 cubes, 4 spheres and 8 probes (4 regular, 4 regen)
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Or make the large shards actively hunt down the biggest current damage dealers or those running with weapons it's weak against.
Also why the Tholians aren't a proper optional objective is weird. They serve no purpose there but can be a big hindrance to the main mission.
Also, due to increased total HP on map, we'd likely see those few uber-DPSers we have reaching 1m DPS. While I think that such situation would be hilarious, I'm at loss how some of the previous posters would be in agreement.
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.
ISA: Add 3 non-skippable 45 second videos into the mission, one at the beginning, one when destroy the first nanite generator, one when you destroy the last one.
CCA: Add 3 non-skippable 45 second videos to the mission, one at the beginning, one when you bring the CE to 66 %, and one when you bring it to 33 %.
Mustrum "Must come up with more time gates "Ridcully
I like some of the ideas mentioned before.
Infected Space:
1) Equip the Nanite Generators with a "Nanite Deconstruction Beam" attack, that is basically a Structural Integrity Collapse but that deals more damage the longer you fire. Once the generators are under attack, spawn regular probes.
2) Each Generator must first be disrupted, which is an interact that runs faster with Science Vessels. The generator uses it deconstruction beam on whoever is duing the disruption. The interact is broken by activating abilities or firing weapons, but not by taking damage.
3) Equip the Nanite Converter with a Nanite Deconstruction Cloud, which is basically an AoE version of NCB that also grants a lot of resistance to the converter, with a 10 km radius. The cloud however can be dispersed with another interact (which again, is faster for science vessels).
4) When the first converter ges destroyed, switch things up - spawn some additional enemies that add to the chaos. (Not neccessarily Nanite Spheres.)
5) When the second Nanite Converter is destroyed, spawn more ships then now, the Tactical Cube could have 2 sheres and a few regeneration probes assisting it. (I would not go up to B'Gers.)
Crystalline Entity:
At the 66 % and 33 % marks, the Tholians try to help the entity more actively and spawn one of their dreadnaughts. The Dreadnaught creates a tholian web that protects the entity, making it temporarily immune to damage. It replenishs the web (not the entity) constantly, so you have to take the net-generating tholians ships out first. When the net is removed, the CE can release a powerful energy burst, that is more powerful the longer the net existed.
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with easy or short missions existing. The problem is the disproportionately high rewards that draw most of the playerbase to spam them instead of content more appropriate for their capabilities.
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
... how could anyone possibly get any kind of enjoyment from something that's finished so quickly?
How could anyone possibly get any kind of enjoyment from something that's finished so slowly?
(I actually do enjoy slower queues every now and then, just showing how ridiculous the question is.)
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.
I get the desire for fast instances, but these two in particular go far beyond that, they are basically over before they even begin, there is literally nothing to even enjoy it's over so quick, it really just feels like "click engage, get free marks", is that what your after, free marks?
I would actually leave ISA alone.
I would change CCA. Poor thing
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
As I said earlier:
For borg, I'd look at giving them a Borg version of FBP, and the cubes I would give permanent pre-nerf FAW. I'd also give them OP levels of in-combat hull regeneration, and I'd look into giving them a space version of the adaptation mechanic.
Not everyone enjoys a Grethor timegated type of match, i like missions where my ships build and the builds and skill of the team i play with determines the speed of the map, not artificial timers that prolong the mission.
So yes to Elite versions of ISA/CCA. A big warp factor 10 NO to changing ISA/CCA normal and advanced.
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
Please just tell me, what is fun about an instance that only lasts 30-60 seconds?
You must be the person who is watching Olympic games and yelling at your TV screen: "Dammit! Why must they sprint so fast! Couldn't Usain Bolt take his time and run his 100m in 2 minutes?"
It all boils down to different preferences. Some people like to take their time, enjoy the ship weapons shooting etc. Others want to do their best and try how fast they can go and/or how efficiently can they grind their marks/dil/whatever.
Why makes your preffered playstyle (fine, not using the word "fun") better than ussvaliant's?
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.