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Battle at the Binary Stars - A bit underwhelming.

Map is really nice, cutscene was a nice recreating, but the fight as a whole was pretty underwhelming.

Everything is just cannon fodder and no ship, not even the sarcophagus, is a credible threat. My first run I just threw an Improved Gravity well and just vacuumed everything up, like shooting fish in a barrel. Even discarding the grav well spam, any FAWboat will just mop everything up. Except for the optional objectives I could probably solo the entire map myself.

I mean I get it for a "normal" map, but its kind of disappointing that there is no "Advanced" version unlike previous events.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q
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Comments

  • saedeithsaedeith Member Posts: 628 Arc User
    Yeah, it's pretty shallow on tactics. Kill stuff, kill stuff while saving shuttles, kill stuff. Collect reward.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    No advanced version? Probably testing the waters. As for the "threat level"...

    I haven't played it myself yet but I'm not gonna just brush off the NPCs because of one variable... Player Power Creep. If there's only a Normal level... most players are going to curbstomp it even without DPS builds. Get some decent crowd control and watch the fireworks.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • nightkennightken Member Posts: 2,824 Arc User
    I flew my d4x into the middle of the horde and didn't die, even though I raced ahead of everyone, I'm not normally one to say things are too easy, but that is too easy.

    if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
  • tunebreakertunebreaker Member Posts: 1,222 Arc User
    Something I don't understand at all... why do they keep making heavily timegated maps like this? I think I might just try to AFK it next time, MIA style.
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    Yeah, this event certainly needs harder difficulty options. I'd say the current difficulty is about what you'd expect if not 23rd century Starfleet fought against 23rd century Klingons but 25th century Starfleet.
    Something I don't understand at all... why do they keep making heavily timegated maps like this? I think I might just try to AFK it next time, MIA style.
    To ensure players don't earn too much in a too short amount of time. Particularly farmbot accoounts.
    And sometimes, perhaps, so that people actually read the mission briefing and know what they are supposed to do.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • tunebreakertunebreaker Member Posts: 1,222 Arc User
    To ensure players don't earn too much in a too short amount of time. Particularly farmbot accoounts.
    This part doesn't make any sense. If I actually wanted to farm something, i'd do faster missions. And the event has 20h timer, and the mission itself has 30min timer (right?).
    And sometimes, perhaps, so that people actually read the mission briefing and know what they are supposed to do.
    This has nothing to do with timegating.
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited November 2018
    To ensure players don't earn too much in a too short amount of time. Particularly farmbot accoounts.
    This part doesn't make any sense. If I actually wanted to farm something, i'd do faster missions. And the event has 20h timer, and the mission itself has 30min timer (right?).
    This tactic works if most missions are not time-gated. If most missions are time-gated, then the faster missions will be on cooldown and you have to do one of the time-gated missions.
    And sometimes, perhaps, so that people actually read the mission briefing and know what they are supposed to do.
    This has nothing to do with timegating.
    That 30 second wait time at the start of missions is certainly for the briefing.
    A fixed length before enemies stop spawning is of course not explained by the desire to have people read briefings.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • bossheisenbergbossheisenberg Member Posts: 603 Arc User
    I thought it was pretty unremarkable. It was bugged like crazy. Mission tutorial did not pop up until after the countdown was over and the battle had already started.

    Did they get some voicework for this or was that just samples from the show?
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited November 2018
    The time gate just kills it.. and it's totally pointless.

    I timed it, it takes approx 13 minutes to run the map, you cannot accelerate this either. Not bad if you're just doing 1 character/day but if you want the dilithium for more characters then it just becomes a real chore.

    I was really looking forward to this queue, and it's about the most disappointed I have been in a recent addition. Not just the awful time gate but lack of Advanced or Elite is a killer. This thing is a painfully easy shooting gallery, I don't even move.. I just park and shoot. No need to heal, no need to evade, just park and shoot.. it's fish in a barrel for 13 minutes.

    My other issue is that as a playable queue.. it just doesn't seem like the player has any real part in the events. I get it, it's a recap of a historic event, we can't change it, but still would have been nice to have more involvement.. the only thing you actually do other then shoot.. shoot.. shoot is pick up escape pods. In hindsight, replay of a historic event who's outcome can't change probably isn't the best idea for an event queue as the player has no actual part in the events.

    Overall, I am going to do it 1/day to get the unlock.. because I am a sucker for 'exclusive event items' and unlock them all.. but overall, this queue ranks just barely above Mirror Invasion which is terrible.

    I appreciate the time and the hard work that were put in to bring this queue to the players, it's just not to my particular taste.

    And before anyone asks.. no this isn't just a rip on Discovery.. I love Discovery! I just don't like this queue.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    Did they get some voicework for this or was that just samples from the show?

    Voice clips from the show.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • lordsteve1lordsteve1 Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    I found it a bit meh to be honest.

    The map looks AMAZING an is so beautiful to look at, i wish we could go there in "peacetime" to take some nice screenshots.

    But the combat was a pretty boring duck hunt against a zerg-rush of spam mobs. The cutscene was nice enough but it's just a time-gated shooting gallery and not really got the feel of the show version.
    I thought we'd maybe get only the 25 Klingon ships to go against and only our 8(?) friendly ships, and make everything much more challenging to be more of a real simulation of the battle.

    Remove the time-gating and perhaps you have a decent shooting gallery to play with, but the forced play length is just leaving a sour taste.
    SulMatuul.png
  • wideningxgyrewideningxgyre Member Posts: 710 Arc User
    I liked the gameplay and cut scenes. I agree that it's a bit long.

    But, at least the Shenzhou is not a suicidal lunatic like the Kobayashi Maru is (it doesn't seem like it takes any damage, the life bar in the mission tracker notwithstanding - it stayed at 100% the entire run).

    I think I would have preferred that there be fewer enemy ships that were bigger to give it a different flavor. Huge, easy to kill mobs seems more like Hur'q thing than Klingon.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    Playing Devil's Advocate for a minute here...

    Without the timegate it would be over in two seconds if you consider our overall power level. You said it yourself. Its a shooting gallery. With our power we'd finish the queue in maybe 2 minutes, and it would probably turn into the new Infected Parse Map because of the number of enemies. "How fast can you win?" "Lets measure our DPS!"

    This is supposed to be an event. Not a temporary replacement measuring stick.
    [/Devil'sAdvocate]

    Anyways... I did notice one thing. My Fleet Support was disabled, so the only pet ability I had access to was my Photo Fleet and Hur'q beacon. Doesn't really bother me that much I guess. Just an Observation.

    Definitely a good map for Crowd Control abilities. Maybe even some Tank builds drawing aggro off the Shenzhou. And before anyone throws the "DPS Pwns ALL" line... more enemies come in to replace the ones destroyed. So unless you can oneshot everything as fast as they can spawn, Shenzhou will take hits in the first phase.

    Also... I agree that the background of this STF is beautiful, and I wouldn't mind being able to take a screenshot or two.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • ussvaliant#6064 ussvaliant Member Posts: 1,006 Arc User
    "My spacebar won't Cryptic please think of my spacebar"

    Xmas round the corner maybe I can ask for a new keyboard after meshing spacebar doing this TFO :)

    maR4zDV.jpg

    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.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    Autofire your energy weapons?
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    Fairly standard fare, quicker than breach or mirror but not a quick and dirty like CC.

    One thing I've discovered is to avoid dropping a grav well within 20km of the sarcophagus. The 90k photon hits are just stupid when its a vanilla torp not spread HY or salvo.
  • alexraptorralexraptorr Member Posts: 1,192 Arc User
    To be honest I had hoped it would have been more of a No-Win Scenario type thing, where you would be rewarded for lasting as long as possible against increasing odds.
    "If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q
  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    I thought it was O K. I liked how it seemed very much like a simulation. But it seemed like we were winning. I mean just how many ships do those guys have?

    I played with my Jem and my level 40 Disco. The Jem is nothing special. Killed stuff ok but not crazy. The 40 Disco didn't kill very fast but also survived the battle just fine.

    I'll try my particle hound sometime and see if I can clear the field.
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    Something I don't understand at all... why do they keep making heavily timegated maps like this? I think I might just try to AFK it next time, MIA style.
    To pad play-time metrics.

    Players doing anything in the mission is not a measurable quantity, but the time they spend in it is. So that's what they're going for.
  • jrdobbsjr#3264 jrdobbsjr Member Posts: 431 Arc User
    > @sheldonlcooper said:
    > I thought it was O K. I liked how it seemed very much like a simulation. But it seemed like we were winning. I mean just how many ships do those guys have?
    >
    > I played with my Jem and my level 40 Disco. The Jem is nothing special. Killed stuff ok but not crazy. The 40 Disco didn't kill very fast but also survived the battle just fine.
    >
    > I'll try my particle hound sometime and see if I can clear the field.

    It's like my AoY toon taking his T6 Connie to Caleb IV.......you can demolish scores of Klingon ships before the game kills you to force the cutscene. If it weren't a sim it would have been a catastrophic defeat the KDF would likely never recovered from.
  • where2r1where2r1 Member Posts: 6,054 Arc User
    Hmmmm....love Mirror Invasion. I should go check this one out. :smiley:
    "Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK

    “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
  • duncanidaho11duncanidaho11 Member Posts: 7,867 Arc User
    edited November 2018
    warpangel wrote: »
    Something I don't understand at all... why do they keep making heavily timegated maps like this? I think I might just try to AFK it next time, MIA style.
    To pad play-time metrics.

    Players doing anything in the mission is not a measurable quantity, but the time they spend in it is. So that's what they're going for.

    Or because player DPS generally outstretches NPC survivability to such a margin that if you simply have kill objectives the entire match can be more or less perfunctory. See. ISA, CCA, Argala. Time gates effectively calibrate how many enemies you face to actual performance. So, those on the side of "vaporize everything" can still have a round with some meat to it (through sheer volume of enemies) without putting a huge kill-objective requirement to roadblock lower level players.

    PS. Cryptic doesn't gain anything by "padding out their metrics" with respect to per-match playtime. If folks spend as much time overall with shorter matches then that's no objective problem for their bottom line, looking only at primary interactions. See. the long regime of RA/CCA/ISA grinding. That didn't kill STO, even if it killed variety in the TFO system. The issue comes from the game design angle. Ie. effectively non-existent gameplay resulting from players horrendously overshooting balance, finishing matches before they can even register, and trying to reconcile that against the full spread of STO's population (try to balance for the top end and you make the game unapproachable to the bottom and middle. Compromise: time gates. They act as a simple buffer.)

    PPS. incidentally word you're looking for is "parameter." A metric is a tool of measurement, not the data collected with it. I know these forums generally conflate the two but that doesn't mean we have to keep doing that.
    Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
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  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    Didn't notice the fleet support being disabled but did spot that delta squadron and the summon from the jem carrier console both were.

    Things like that being done should be in the info so players can tweak to compensate for the shenanigans beforehand, fleet support being slightly moot because on the captain that sometimes does have that trait they'd been blanked out yet again.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited November 2018
    rattler2 wrote: »
    This is supposed to be an event. Not a temporary replacement measuring stick.
    [/Devil'sAdvocate]

    Then it shouldn't be offered as a 'do this 14 times' thing with per character rewards (The Marks and Dilithium, I know the Beacon is account wide.) If this was just released as a standard TFO then it wouldn't be quite so bad.. heck, an Elite Version might have actually been fun.
    where2r1 wrote: »
    Hmmmm....love Mirror Invasion. I should go check this one out. :smiley:

    You should.. there are enough time gates and 'park and shoot' mechanics to make any fan of Mirror Invasion giddy with joy! :lol:
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • mikeblackwolfmikeblackwolf Member Posts: 64 Arc User
    The new TFO - Battle of the Binary Stars is one of the WORST events I have ever endured. Normally I'm happy to grind them but ran it four times and have make the choice of "no, I do not care I can make over 100 marks on a first run with bonus, Just gonna run it with the character for the 14 marks then sod it"
    Unskippable cutscenes kills the pacing after seeing it once. It sadly feels like Discovery is sitting crying saying "do you love me yet ?"
    "No Discovery, I don't"
  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    The first audio clip makes it feel like you walked in halfway, fine it you hadn't been sitting waiting for 30secs before it played.

    On a plus those audio grabs have come a way since the abominable" we have to talk" from the bootleg DS9 VHS. Presumably they're part of the bribe CBS handed over to get victory is loading overshadowed by disco's unskippable cutscenes.
  • darakossdarakoss Member Posts: 850 Arc User
    This mission was so mindlessly easy the briefing should just say "Hit spacebar." Very meh indeed.
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    original join date 2010

    Member: Team Trekyards. Visit Trekyards today!
  • kiralynkiralyn Member Posts: 1,576 Arc User
    It felt a bit silly to have my Europa/Nimitz replaced by a different DSC ship, but hey.... :#

    At the lower end of the player scale, the run I had didn't seem to have anyone running enemies over with a truck, and I blew up once (while rescuing pods). This is on my leveling DSC alt, who's lv51 at the moment.

    The cutscenes were interesting, but I can definitely see them getting tedious on the 3rd+ repeat.
  • drakethewhitedrakethewhite Member Posts: 1,240 Arc User
    Underwhelming is the description for it. So far all Disco content has been at best underwhelming, easily the worse this game has provided me to date.
This discussion has been closed.