> @starcruiser#3423 said:
> I hope STO would stop the insanity and do away with the timegates within the mission just like they revamped the Breach.
Sorry, can you explain that one to me? I played the hell out of Old!Breach (it was an awesome queue) but I missed the revamp. What did they change about it?
Removed the dreadnaught boss encounter, set one path along the outer hull, and allowed you to complete that section simply by reaching the breaching point (I think that's the key point here). Revamped Breach is what's used for the multi-week event queue (old breach I think remains as is for the permanent queue.)
Wait.. isn't all of the game play balanced around, nothing you do makes any real difference?
Assume recursive temporal anomalies to explain why we have to keep defending X or assaulting Y.
That or its a holodeck and command is forcing us to complete an encounter 14 or so times as disciplinary action for us failing (yet again) to submit a written report for our last assignment.
Command: "No torpedo unless you learn the value of due procedure. Did you learn the value of due procedure? Good, here's your torpedo and another assignment."
-Command hails the player after completion of their next mission-
Command, after a long weary sigh: "You...failed to submit a report again."
After 11 years in the U.S. Army I can relate to this. And thanks for the laughs.
As I was saying MI needs some TLC and cut back timegates within the mission that makes so darn boring IMO.
Counterpoint is probably a better implementation of the same idea. There's a performance based timegate (where the player has to balance responsibilities and are scored for performance) but it's relegated to a shorter mid-stage. It plays better because one scenario isn't being dragged out to the length of a full mission playthrough.
But...if you fix MI along these lines then what you end up with is a Counterpoint variant with or without an introductory stage (maybe not the best use of the opportunity). If they're redesigning the que then maybe the thing to do is go from the ground up and remove timegating altogether and run a multi-stage series of objectives (like the Iconian queue where we assault the dyson sphere). We do have defensive waves covered through Sompek and Kobayashi Maru now, so maybe a MU accompaniment to Breach would be a better fit now.
Stage 1: Close a set number of portals, reactivate relays
Stage 2: Defeat the mirror dreadnaught
(map transition to MU)
Stage 3: Assault the Mirror Universe back, escape
Just a thought.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I find the MU ships uncanny ability to never ever ever lose aggro much more irritating than their super DPS. Our fleet did some testing on a few runs with our Romulan ships. We would battle cloak and zip off to the opposite side of the map if we drew fire. The MU ships would still have us targeted, still follow us across the map while others continually pounded on them with fire. Never once did the MU ships switch targets to those who were shooting at them while chasing us.
That's some strange AI programming there.
Any ship that has lazy hangar pets gets the same thing occur.
Pets decide to stop for a coffee (brainfart can't apply as they obviously have no brains) , aggro mobs, die and those mobs then make a B line for the player who was never anywhere near them.
Over the star base and FAW/TS things to death that get near on my engie. I also spam TT1 and science team on the station and throw up hull heals on it which amazingly causes it to last longer. As for me I buff my shields with rotate shields frequencies, EPS with a MW when the tribble hits the fan. For the most part it can hold up decently in a full spam of mirror ships along with the star base.
One thing I do notice however is that ships approaching the star base tend to stop just outside 10KM and stay there till something shoots at them. At that point they move in firing but a lot of times there's about a dozen or so just waiting outside 10KM not firing or anything motionless. Guess that's a bug.
Some spawn linger at the rift stacking up with other spawns while others take a minute and move in and it doesn't seem to relate to the makeup of the group thats spawned in.
> @gypsydanger1 said: > sorry, but the mirror invasion event just... is annyoing only! > on normal difficulty, their torpedo spread 2 hits with 33-37k per torpedo and oneshots all carrier pets (frigates too) and everything else with less than 90k hull! > > the terran ships are totally overtuned and they literally swarm you from every direction, so that it is almost impossible, to close a rift - due to the super annyoing interruption game mechanic... > > i'm really glad when i get my 14th mark so that i have never queue for this again!
Honestly I've don'tt have my pets one shotted often in MI advanced and that never happens to my Elite Callistos, but those have an insane amount of Hull Points so even 50,000 damage from a Torpedo spread can't kill my Callistos from full hull points.
To be fair my KDF main has Scramble Fighters so that makes a huge difference.
Wait.. isn't all of the game play balanced around, nothing you do makes any real difference?
Assume recursive temporal anomalies to explain why we have to keep defending X or assaulting Y.
That or its a holodeck and command is forcing us to complete an encounter 14 or so times as disciplinary action for us failing (yet again) to submit a written report for our last assignment.
Command: "No torpedo unless you learn the value of due procedure. Did you learn the value of due procedure? Good, here's your torpedo and another assignment."
-Command hails the player after completion of their next mission-
Command, after a long weary sigh: "You...failed to submit a report again."
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Wait.. isn't all of the game play balanced around, nothing you do makes any real difference?
Assume recursive temporal anomalies to explain why we have to keep defending X or assaulting Y.
That or its a holodeck and command is forcing us to complete an encounter 14 or so times as disciplinary action for us failing (yet again) to submit a written report for our last assignment.
Command: "No torpedo unless you learn the value of due procedure. Did you learn the value of due procedure? Good, here's your torpedo and another assignment."
-Command hails the player after completion of their next mission-
Command, after a long weary sigh: "You...failed to submit a report again."
(Seriously, do the guys over in the Blizzard MMO That Must Not Be Named have to deal with this nonsense, or is it just Cryptic?)
This is why we need something like a AI director, each run the scenario changes and that would reduce the mind numbing boredom from doing the same queue 14 times in a row daily.
Add some variance to it and it might end up something decent instead of the grind we have to do.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
The close rift mechanics is just too frustrating/buggy for me. So many times I’m closing a rift, it gets to 90% and the progress bar disappears. Restart it, and the progress bar disappears. Restart it again, ships show up. End of that try. This is with no royal ugly dudes within 20 clicks and not touching the keyboard.
Add that with the science ships 7 hour “Alert Condition Red” so you can’t go anywhere. It’s very frustrating (why is this twice as long on science ships as other ships?).
Also, the variable distance that you can start closing each rift/satellite. Either it’s a reasonable distance or you need to get close enough to give the rift/satellite a colonoscopy. And I really don’t want to get to know the rift/satellites that well. :-)
The other problem is the logic of mechanic itself. I find it had to believe all 4000 of my crewmen focused on closing a rift, when suddenly a field mouse far away in Cleveland lets go some flatulence, will stop whatever they are doing and go “I smell paprika” and ponder life in the universe(s) instead of closing the rift.
Anyway, love STO. But, just to maintain my sanity in the future, I will avoid STO content with the close rift mechanic. Besides, the old salt next door said he was embarrassed at some of the language coming out of my quarters. :-)
This is why we need something like a AI director, each run the scenario changes and that would reduce the mind numbing boredom from doing the same queue 14 times in a row daily.
Add some variance to it and it might end up something decent instead of the grind we have to do.
I've heard of this hell-spawned nightmare. It literally exists to TRIBBLE you over in ways you didn't know were possible. If we had one of those in STO, the rifts would start appearing at the minimum possible distance from Vauthil and the power stations... And then when it looks like you're getting things done anyways, the stations start to drift away from the Vauthil.
After this go-around, I won't be doing this event anymore either. I can hold my own pretty well against the MU ships, but what a tedious chore this is. Here's things I've noticed about the NPC ships. The escort ships seem to have a full set of beams AND cannons. Science ships have a way overpowered feedback loop, and can use an overpowered tachyon beam at ANY angle (not like my ship where I have to be FACING my target in order to use it). All of these ships seem to have commander bridge officer seating all across the board, and all of them are able to fire at you while OUTSIDE the 10km weapons range, if it means disrupting closing the portals. I was in a run earlier tonight in which the station was already taking damage WITHIN A MINUTE of starting, because the portals were already spawning command ships. I have literally watched a portal FORM, and spawn a command ship immediately. I'm only running this event because of the dilithium payout. But to be honest I can get a lot more in LESS time by going to the Dyson battlezone, which most of us know isn't working properly. So yeah..no more Mirror Event for me.
Personally I want it so sci captains can close rifts while under attack. Cause a lot of times I can only shut down rifts with science ships when friendlies are around to take the aggro.
Wish I could shut down rifts without having to rely on teams to be there.
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!
I think that rifts are opening too fast. I mean to many at a time and too close together. So when you try to close one, the ships from another nearby starts to attack you. So its almost impossible to close rifts if you are alone in that part of map. Other problem is, that if you wish to close the rift, you must be almost in the rift to close it. Same goes to power stations. When I try to initiate power to the station I must be very close to it almost as near as 1km. I have tried this mission with many ships, and it was always the same. As it was said in some of the posts, best solution would be, that you could continue closing the rift even if you are under attack.
Personally I want it so sci captains can close rifts while under attack. Cause a lot of times I can only shut down rifts with science ships when friendlies are around to take the aggro.
Wish I could shut down rifts without having to rely on teams to be there.
Use temp HP powers. Pilot spec has an easy to get skill for enhancing Attack Patterns, combine that with EptS(which most ships have anyways) and you're nearly immune to being interrupted for long enough to close a rift.
As for whether to use Alpha, Beta, Lambda, or Omega? The main thing to look at is recharge time. Base cooldown for Lambda is 30s, Beta 30s, Delta 45s, and Omega 60s. So the best options are Beta and Lambda, but Lambda is a PILOT skill so you can only use it if you have a pilot seat.
Lambda is the best for this since the effect of the attack pattern is to reduce the perception of enemies shooting at you and sometimes confuse them into shooting each other. Beta is an offensive skill that really does nothing if you don't attack.
Imagine how fun Tetris would be if it made you wait one minute before doing anything instead of starting immediately, spawned a new piece every few seconds instead of waiting for each piece to settle, cleared all pieces from the board every time it filled up instead of causing a game over, spawned pieces for exactly 11 minutes and then waited for you to clear one line instead of lasting as long as you could maintain the board, and then gave you a game over with a score of about 120.
I wouldn't play a Tetris game like that unless it gave me some extrinsic reward, and then I would probably just wait out the timer while occasionally poking at the pieces.
It's my least favorite event. In "The Breach" you can build a fast ship to get to the entrance point sooner. And your dps matters in the subcore and core room. In "Mirror Invasion" none of this matters. No matter how good your team is, how many rifts you close, the phase always ends when the timer runs out. It's very frustrating.
One simple measure could greatly improve this queue. Set a 20 rift objective. As soon as 20 rifts are closed the final phase is triggered. It would increase participation and decrease the number of players who are AFKing the event.
Thanks for this post. It good read, good idea. Please expand it to all curtailment of player performances in PvE content Cryptic.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
my problem with mirror: everythign dies so ez in front of me still i have to wair 15min 4 the boss to appear... the bonus marks i get in those 15min invested r so NOT worth the time
It's my least favorite event. In "The Breach" you can build a fast ship to get to the entrance point sooner. And your dps matters in the subcore and core room. In "Mirror Invasion" none of this matters. No matter how good your team is, how many rifts you close, the phase always ends when the timer runs out. It's very frustrating.
One simple measure could greatly improve this queue. Set a 20 rift objective. As soon as 20 rifts are closed the final phase is triggered. It would increase participation and decrease the number of players who are AFKing the event.
Thanks for this post. It good read, good idea. Please expand it to all curtailment of player performances in PvE content Cryptic.
I'm sure somewhere there's someone trying to find a way to dps down a timegate and when they do all the meta addicts will mainline it during every MI.
I like it that ships coming out of a 'traumatic' event like exiting a Trans-dimensional Portal have perfect sensor readings that can pick and target ships while still inside
I like it that Danube Runabouts can produce enough firepower to break my concentration.
There are so many other things that I like about the capabilities of MU ships.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Attacks interrupting map interacts is a pure game mechanic, just like attacks disabling full impulse. They exist to achive some game-mechanical goal, such as preventing players from ignoring the enemies.
There is absolutely no point in wondering after a nonexistent in-character explanation.
Comments
YES I was talking the weekend breach event...The original version takes much longer than the revamped version.
As I was saying MI needs some TLC and cut back timegates within the mission that makes so darn boring IMO.
After 11 years in the U.S. Army I can relate to this. And thanks for the laughs.
Counterpoint is probably a better implementation of the same idea. There's a performance based timegate (where the player has to balance responsibilities and are scored for performance) but it's relegated to a shorter mid-stage. It plays better because one scenario isn't being dragged out to the length of a full mission playthrough.
But...if you fix MI along these lines then what you end up with is a Counterpoint variant with or without an introductory stage (maybe not the best use of the opportunity). If they're redesigning the que then maybe the thing to do is go from the ground up and remove timegating altogether and run a multi-stage series of objectives (like the Iconian queue where we assault the dyson sphere). We do have defensive waves covered through Sompek and Kobayashi Maru now, so maybe a MU accompaniment to Breach would be a better fit now.
Stage 1: Close a set number of portals, reactivate relays
Stage 2: Defeat the mirror dreadnaught
(map transition to MU)
Stage 3: Assault the Mirror Universe back, escape
Just a thought.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Any ship that has lazy hangar pets gets the same thing occur.
Pets decide to stop for a coffee (brainfart can't apply as they obviously have no brains) , aggro mobs, die and those mobs then make a B line for the player who was never anywhere near them.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Martok_Tactical_Battlecruiser_(T6)
Over the star base and FAW/TS things to death that get near on my engie. I also spam TT1 and science team on the station and throw up hull heals on it which amazingly causes it to last longer. As for me I buff my shields with rotate shields frequencies, EPS with a MW when the tribble hits the fan. For the most part it can hold up decently in a full spam of mirror ships along with the star base.
One thing I do notice however is that ships approaching the star base tend to stop just outside 10KM and stay there till something shoots at them. At that point they move in firing but a lot of times there's about a dozen or so just waiting outside 10KM not firing or anything motionless. Guess that's a bug.
Some spawn linger at the rift stacking up with other spawns while others take a minute and move in and it doesn't seem to relate to the makeup of the group thats spawned in.
> sorry, but the mirror invasion event just... is annyoing only!
> on normal difficulty, their torpedo spread 2 hits with 33-37k per torpedo and oneshots all carrier pets (frigates too) and everything else with less than 90k hull!
>
> the terran ships are totally overtuned and they literally swarm you from every direction, so that it is almost impossible, to close a rift - due to the super annyoing interruption game mechanic...
>
> i'm really glad when i get my 14th mark so that i have never queue for this again!
Honestly I've don'tt have my pets one shotted often in MI advanced and that never happens to my Elite Callistos, but those have an insane amount of Hull Points so even 50,000 damage from a Torpedo spread can't kill my Callistos from full hull points.
To be fair my KDF main has Scramble Fighters so that makes a huge difference.
HAHAH I LOVE THAT SHIP!! But all of the current T6 Rom Sci will also battle cloak.
Rouge Sto Wiki Editor.
Yeah, that's the same silliness that got us T'Ket continuing the war privately and then never showing up. Simpler explanation: it's a frakkin' game and in-universe each mission only happens once.
Edit: self-censoring.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
This is why we need something like a AI director, each run the scenario changes and that would reduce the mind numbing boredom from doing the same queue 14 times in a row daily.
Add some variance to it and it might end up something decent instead of the grind we have to do.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Science Ship Captain here.
The close rift mechanics is just too frustrating/buggy for me. So many times I’m closing a rift, it gets to 90% and the progress bar disappears. Restart it, and the progress bar disappears. Restart it again, ships show up. End of that try. This is with no royal ugly dudes within 20 clicks and not touching the keyboard.
Add that with the science ships 7 hour “Alert Condition Red” so you can’t go anywhere. It’s very frustrating (why is this twice as long on science ships as other ships?).
Also, the variable distance that you can start closing each rift/satellite. Either it’s a reasonable distance or you need to get close enough to give the rift/satellite a colonoscopy. And I really don’t want to get to know the rift/satellites that well. :-)
The other problem is the logic of mechanic itself. I find it had to believe all 4000 of my crewmen focused on closing a rift, when suddenly a field mouse far away in Cleveland lets go some flatulence, will stop whatever they are doing and go “I smell paprika” and ponder life in the universe(s) instead of closing the rift.
Anyway, love STO. But, just to maintain my sanity in the future, I will avoid STO content with the close rift mechanic. Besides, the old salt next door said he was embarrassed at some of the language coming out of my quarters. :-)
My character Tsin'xing
Wish I could shut down rifts without having to rely on teams to be there.
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
As for whether to use Alpha, Beta, Lambda, or Omega? The main thing to look at is recharge time. Base cooldown for Lambda is 30s, Beta 30s, Delta 45s, and Omega 60s. So the best options are Beta and Lambda, but Lambda is a PILOT skill so you can only use it if you have a pilot seat.
Lambda is the best for this since the effect of the attack pattern is to reduce the perception of enemies shooting at you and sometimes confuse them into shooting each other. Beta is an offensive skill that really does nothing if you don't attack.
My character Tsin'xing
I wouldn't play a Tetris game like that unless it gave me some extrinsic reward, and then I would probably just wait out the timer while occasionally poking at the pieces.
Thanks for this post. It good read, good idea. Please expand it to all curtailment of player performances in PvE content Cryptic.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
my problem with mirror: everythign dies so ez in front of me still i have to wair 15min 4 the boss to appear... the bonus marks i get in those 15min invested r so NOT worth the time
so mirror afk (with pore mates) it is
doing rl stuff, then kill boss
nice rerward
we didnt have a CCA in 1 year or so....
I'm sure somewhere there's someone trying to find a way to dps down a timegate and when they do all the meta addicts will mainline it during every MI.
I like it that Danube Runabouts can produce enough firepower to break my concentration.
There are so many other things that I like about the capabilities of MU ships.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
There is absolutely no point in wondering after a nonexistent in-character explanation.
It's been 2 years and that event is retired... working on adding a 10 min time gate before it comes back.