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Star Trek Online

Season 9 Dev Blog #5

By LaughingTrendy | Tue 25 Mar 2014 12:00:00 PM PDT

 
Changes to Reputation Powers
 

Star Trek Online Season 9 STO MMORPG F2P Sci-Fi MMO Game Legacy of Romulus

AdjudicatorHawk here with an update on some upcoming changes to the powers granted by the Reputation system!  As we’ve expanded the Reputation system to include more and more content, we’ve created a number of cool powers for players to pick up.  However, each time we have made a new Reputation, we’ve had to constrain our powers due to the fact that the most dedicated players would have all of them active at any given time. 

Ultimately, it’s been clear that the system as it exists on live is not infinitely scalable – if we had 200 Reputation powers, the difference between a fresh max-level character and one who’d spent hundreds of hours at endgame would just be too large for them to play together.  However, we like the appeal of the Reputation system’s escalating power rewards – they feel good to earn and good to use.  The solution that lets us balance passive power creep and give even better rewards than before for Rep progression is very similar to the solution we used for Traits – let players earn power options, then pick and choose which of those powers they want to be using at any given time.  Due to this systemic similarity, we’re renaming Reputation powers to “Reputation Traits”.

With a system revamp like this, we also get to take a close look at which goals the original system was meeting, and which goals it wasn’t.  While Reputation Traits have been outstanding rewards for participating in content, they’ve also forced players to make semi-permanent build decisions without regard for what type of ship they’re flying or what group role they’re trying to play.  We want players to be able to use all of the powers they’ve earned, and we want to encourage experimentation and gaining a deeper understanding of how the game’s mechanics work. 

To that end, we’re changing how powers are selected – you can now change your selection of passive Reputation Traits for free, any time you’re out of combat.  All players will have four slots for passive Ground powers, four slots for passive Space powers, and four slots for Active powers.  As you progress through a given Reputation, you unlock two Reputation Trait choices each time you gain a tier in that Rep.  For example, if I reach Tier 1 of the Task Force Omega Reputation, I gain access to Omega Weapon Proficiency and Medical Nanites as power choices.  I can then slot both of these powers into Ground Passive slots, using up two of my four Ground Passives.  If I were to unlock Tier 5 in all current Reputations, I would have 16 options for Space and 16 options for Ground passive powers.

We recognize that this system revamp will cause some players to lose simultaneous access to powers they’ve earned, and it’s important to us that the powers you choose to slot feel impactful and worthy on their own, now that you can only use 4 passives at once in any given region.  To that end, we’ve made substantial improvements to a number of the Reputation passive powers.  We hope this will make the selection of your powers a set of interesting choices, and not just a single “best spec” that people copy from a guide.  What follows is a work-in-progress list of our buffs to Rep passives – please keep in mind, all of these are subject to change, following testing on Tribble.
 

Dyson Joint Command

Star Trek Online Season 9 STO MMORPG F2P Sci-Fi MMO Game Legacy of Romulus

  • Tier 1
    • Integrated Nanofibers: Doubled the bonus damage resistance offered by this power.
    • Deadly Aim: Increased the Critical Severity bonus from +10% to +20%.
  • Tier 2
    • Advanced Hull Reinforcement: Doubled the bonus damage resistance offered by this power.
    • Advanced Targeting Systems: Increased the Critical Severity bonus from +10% to +20%.
  • Tier 3
    • Active Armor Hardening: This power's tooltip was incorrect. It stated it offered between 0 and 75 damage resistance rating. It in fact only gave 0 to 50. This power's effect was boosted to match its tooltip. It now actually grants 0 to 75 damage resistance rating.
    • Vanquish: This power's damage resistance debuff that scales as the enemy's health decreases has been increased from 0-15 damage resistance debuff to 0-20 damage resistance debuff.
  • Tier 4
    • ​Active Hull Hardening: This power's tooltip was incorrect. It stated it offered between 0 and 75 damage resistance rating. It in fact only gave 0 to 50. This power's effect was boosted to match its tooltip. It now actually grants 0 to 75 damage resistance rating.
    • Tactical Advantage: This power's damage resistance debuff that scales as the enemy's health decreases has been increased from 0-15 damage resistance debuff to 0-20 damage resistance debuff.

 

Nukara Strikeforce

Star Trek Online Season 9 STO MMORPG F2P Sci-Fi MMO Game Legacy of Romulus

  • Tier 1
    • Indomitable: Increased hit point bonus from +7.5% to 10%
    • Identify Vulnerability: Increased shield penetration from 5% to 10%
  • Tier 2
    • Fortified Hull: Increased hit point bonus from +5% to 7.5%
    • ​Enhanced Shield Penetration: Increased shield penetration from 2.5% to 5%
  • Tier 3
    • Emergency Fix: Increased heal over time effectiveness by 50%
    • Cryo Immobilizer Module: Increased damage over time by 33% and Root strength slightly
  • Tier 4
    • Auxilliary Power Configuration - Defense: This power no longer provides boosts to skills based on Auxiliary power level. Instead, it directly gives +Max Hull HP, +Max Shield HP, Kinetic Damage Resistance and Energy Damage Resistance based on Auxiliary power level. Additionally, it has been improved to provide a greater bonus per point of Auxiliary power.
    • Auxilliary Power Configuration - Offense: This power no longer provides boosts to skills based on Auxiliary power level. Instead, it directly grants a bonus to all damage based on Auxiliary power level. In addition, this damage bonus will provide a larger bonus to damage than the previous one did and it will also provide a small Accuracy buff that scales with Aux power.

 

New Romulus

Star Trek Online Season 9 STO MMORPG F2P Sci-Fi MMO Game Legacy of Romulus

  • Tier 1
    • Lethality: Increased critical hit chance bonus from 3 to 5%.
    • Enhanced Personal Shields: This power no longer grants Personal Shields Skill, instead it boosts your base Max Shield HP by 10%. The end result is a slightly larger boost to max shield HP than before.
  • Tier 2
    • Precision: Increased critical hit chance bonus from 3 to 5%.
    • Enhanced Shield Systems: This power no longer grants Starship Shield Systems Skill, instead it boosts your base Max Shield HP by 10%. The end result is a slightly larger boost to max shield HP than before.
  • Romulan Tier 3 and 4 Abilities:
    • Removed all "Chance on Crit" and replaced this functionality with an "On Next Crit" temporary effect. These effects are all consumed by applying their associated effects to self or foe, and will automatically refresh 20 seconds later.
      • This change was a purposeful move away from the idea of "chance-on-chance" and an attempt to normalize the opportunity that a player has of benefiting from this Reputation ability, should they choose to use it.
    • The "Placate" effect of the Romulan Tier 4 Space ability has been replaced with "Weapons Offline"
      • Base duration of this effect has been increased from 2sec to 4sec
      • This debuff is now cleansed by Engineering Team instead of Science Team
         


Task Force Omega

Star Trek Online Season 9 STO MMORPG F2P Sci-Fi MMO Game Legacy of Romulus

  • Tier 1
    • Medical Nanites: Doubled the amount of self-regeneration provided by this power. In addition this power now provides double its new regeneration bonus outside of combat.
    • Omega Weapon Proficiency: This power no longer gives a bonus to Weapon Proficiency skill. Instead, it provides a direct bonus to damage. It now grants a larger bonus to damage than before.
  • Tier 2
    • Hull-Repairing Nanites: Doubled the amount of hull regeneration provided by this power. In addition this power now provides double its regeneration bonus outside of combat.
    • Omega Weapon Training: This power no longer gives a bonus to Starship Weapons skill. Instead, it provides a direct bonus to damage. It now grants a larger bonus to damage than before.
  • Tier 3
    • Replaced the "Rotating Weapon Frequency" power with "Omega Graviton Pulse Module". This new power causes all of your ground weapon attacks to have a 5% chance to deal additional kinetic damage with 100% shield penetration. This damage is doubled against Borg.
    • Regenerative Shield Augmentation: Significantly improved this power's regeneration rate.
  • Tier 4
    • Omega Graviton Amplifier: Updated this proc's description to explain that it has a chance to be triggered with each weapon attack instead of once per cycle like other procs. This is merely a text change, this power has always worked like this. In addition, this proc's damage is doubled against the Borg.
    • Superior Shield Repair: Significantly increased the amount of shield regeneration per 6 seconds.

 

Again, please keep in mind, all of these are subject to change, following testing on Tribble.

See you online, Captains!

Jeff "AdjudicatorHawk" Hamilton
Systems Designer
Star Trek Online

 

Season 9 Dev News Blog Index

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