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"No Captain" challenge
sophlogimo
Member Posts: 6,507 Arc User
So, i order to have a bit fun with STO again at the end of the year, I am going to do a new challenge: The "No Captain" challenge.
The rules are simple: No captain skills, captain powers, captain traits, specializations, reputations, or captain-exclusive kit powers are allowed (but I do allow kit powers that have boff poer equivalents). The captain basically isn't there in space, and scaled down a lot on ground for lack of spent skill points.
My hypothesis is that the lack of challenge in space combat especially is due to the inflation of captain powers. By taking them out of the equation, I hope to have a more difficult levelling experience.
I am not going to play all the story missions. My captain/non-captain, a Caitian named Trakas Rekarum, is commanding officer of the USS Heuss (a name I'll keep throughout the ships he'll gain), and has reached level 10 with a few system patrols, which was uneventful. Now in command of an Exeter-class cruiser, he'll start with the story line at Elite difficulty. Technically he's a tactical captain, but as he'll not use any powers that stem from the captain, that hardly matters.
I'll report what happens.
The rules are simple: No captain skills, captain powers, captain traits, specializations, reputations, or captain-exclusive kit powers are allowed (but I do allow kit powers that have boff poer equivalents). The captain basically isn't there in space, and scaled down a lot on ground for lack of spent skill points.
My hypothesis is that the lack of challenge in space combat especially is due to the inflation of captain powers. By taking them out of the equation, I hope to have a more difficult levelling experience.
I am not going to play all the story missions. My captain/non-captain, a Caitian named Trakas Rekarum, is commanding officer of the USS Heuss (a name I'll keep throughout the ships he'll gain), and has reached level 10 with a few system patrols, which was uneventful. Now in command of an Exeter-class cruiser, he'll start with the story line at Elite difficulty. Technically he's a tactical captain, but as he'll not use any powers that stem from the captain, that hardly matters.
I'll report what happens.
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Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
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ingame: @Felisean
yes you want to not use captain abilities. i told you how to not even use bridge officer abilities in addition, just ship specific stuff. i mean you will not even shoot the enemies by yourself only your frigate pets will
ingame: @Felisean
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On my countless PvE runs I get regularly team-mates who do DPS below 3K and with 0 idea what to do. They also somehow all emerge out of this game’s leveling process with end game cleared toons leading me to believe that challenges are not encountered in stories at all. It’s rather a question of the time it takes to get the leveling process done.
Granted you select elite difficulty but it’s not as if those few captain’s abilities would make any difference between an actual fail or success there. Other stuff like traits slots are also unlocked as levels go by not to mention specs no one has access to b4 lvl 50.
Perhaps elite PvE with actual fail conditions and DPS checks in form of hard timers would serve your endeavor better?
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Way back when, I'd use my T2 Constitution for End Game stuff because I was bored as heck. That was a fun challenge for a while. Makes you think outside the box for stragety because you're pratically flying half an end level ship.
Modules Removed and Replaced: Scarab Plating, Shield Pulse, and an Engineering Kit with +15 health regen and +7.5 kit readiness
She's keeping her current gear, but I won't upgrade it (or her boff's gear) any higher than current levels
Thanks for the challenge, this should liven things up beyond the usual copy/pasta levelling experience of new characters
PS She's currently out of uniform so as to be less conspicuous on a temporal mission
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
PS As she levels up to new ships, I'll be sticking with escorts, and will keep the gear at the same level as her current loadout. Gimping myself with empty weapon slots might be taking things a bit far
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Since there aren't very many things with hard fails and no such thing as dps checks in game right now, it seems what the OP wanted was a way to work within what the game gives us to increase challenge.
Plus, those 2 things you suggest don't seem like they'd do much to increase any given player's level of challenge, they seem more like a recycling of the old argument about "people who don't meet a (read: my) standard of readiness should be barred from content where there's a risk they might impact player (read: my) experience/performance"
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Has Cryptic made any adjustments to elite PvE recently? Just asking cuz last time I checked most elite space maps offer pretty blunt conditions where you need to remove a fixed amount of hit points in a fixed timeframe or the mission quiet simply fails. Herald Sphere, Counterpoint, Viscous Cycle, Gateway to Greathor, Borg Disconected, Hive Space…
That is why I use the term DPS check. On ground we have them as well. Granted, they are less blunt there and even offer workarounds to some degree but in the end if the team does not kick in by removing critters reliably the missions fails.
I would even go so far as to claim that those DPS checks with fails pose one of the major obstacles why this content simply gets ignored by major parts of the player base while mirror AFK with 10 minutes of 0 effort and 5 minutes of active play with certain auto win are a huge success. Same counts for most advanced maps, especially ISA and CCA, where underperforming players get a laughable easy conditions offered when beeing carried by others. But that is another discussion.
As for the OP I greatly admire his quest for challenge. I just wanted to point out that if he likes to verify his premise he should include the hardest content available in it. With stuff like sompek or maru currently unavailable this would be elite PvE.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Sounds fair! If you get there I can offer to run e.g. HSE with you if you like and could try to bring a team where peeps either deactivate most captain’s attributes or make useless selections of those where the game does not allow deactivation.
Disabling the tac ultimate is not an issue however I don’t see my teams reskilling their chars for an empty skill tree just for this. We could however attempt that map as an incomplete team to try to compensate. I estimate the threshold for the DPS check there to be at roughly 30k per player. We confirmed that just yesterday as we tended to it with only 3 players dishing out 150k in sum and getting it done with just 1m to spear on the timer. So in short, if you’re “no captain” toon brings 30k and the rest of the team manufactures not more than 120k we should turn that map into a challenge for the team were everybody relies on you as teammate to do your part. I have confidence that you can.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Before you left peeps parsed you with well above 40k so I have no worries that it is worth a shot. You certainly can handle yourself in PvE. And even if we lose that’s not a problem as it will make winning the next time all the more worthwhile.
STO is a very claustrophobic game for those who try to become good and what you trying to do here is a cool way to deal with that. If I can support it somehow I shall try.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
If the aim of this challenge is about increasing the challenge of levelling the character, then I don't see how the DPS output really matters
I suppose there is the 'I wonder what such a build parses at' curiousity, but surely if the goal is to make the game more of a challenge (rather than the DPS goal of vaping and melting one's way through HP sponges as fast as is humanly possible
I guess a more germaine question for this no-captain challenge, is; What is the threshold (and this may very per build and per level) at which a ship's gear and output goes from 'adequate to deal with content', and moving into 'melting the target' territory? Having completed The Ultimate Klingon with absolute ease, Past Imperfect caused the ship to blow once on each engagement, but upon respawning, the target pertty much melted, so I don't think I'm anywhere near hitting the performance wall for the heavy escort
*BrokenQuoteTags
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Sure thing, my curiosity in it is if such a character would work in endgame. I suspect the leveling process itself to just take longer with 0 captain skills but without any “real” obstacles which can’t actually be overcome. Could be I’m wrong and it has been quite a while since I leveled a toon myself but recall on more than one occasion to arrive at lvl 50+ despite forgetting to tend much to traits, skill points or even good gear. I recall arriving there it was just a question of time you know.
The DPS figures I just used to abstract certain mandatories you encounter game sided when the leveling process is done.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
But with regards how a character works at endgame, having recently started to take on Deepspace Encounters, with characters who are at Level 60, with a variety of builds (none are in any way intentionally MegaAwesomeDPS builds) I have noticed a very interesting range of performance levels. All my Level 60s can solo the Encounter (makes for a nice little grind without having to worry about any real objective) sometimes, I'll encounter lower-rank build who can't really keep up (in which case, I leave them to their own personal kills, and also don't hit CannonRapidFireII to melt my own kills, and then need to go after more) and sometimes, I'll encounter a higher DPS build which will vape things before I can even get a shot off. It's swings and roundabouts
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Oh if u have multiple alts I think you can really experience best how the game plays like with and without the captains stuff. The game surely gets a lot harder.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1