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Greetings, Captains! We’ve decided to make some changes to the Pilot Bridge Officer Abilities to bring them closer in effectiveness to some of our more popular Bridge Officer Abilities. Numerically, Pilot Specialization Bridge Officer Abilities are in a weak state. Most of them try to do cool things and fall short due to lack of raw power, and a couple need more intensive care. Help is on the way.
The design intent here is simple: raise the power level of Pilot BOFF Abilities such that they’re worth using alongside other more popular BOFF Abilities. Most Abilities got raw power in whatever area made them most special. Reroute Reserves to Weapons, Clean Getaway, and Deploy Countermeasures got more thorough rebuilds because they needed clearer jobs to do – situations where it’s obvious what the Ability can do for the Captain.
A couple of the changes are more experimental, in particular Reinforcements Squadron. We’re adding stat scaling to the fighters it calls as a special mechanic of the ability (details below). Watching how this interacts with gearing decisions will teach us a lot, and chart a course that could take us to more broadly supporting minionmancer playstyles in the future. Generally speaking, we expect these changes may need to shift slightly so they can settle comfortably.
Additionally, we’re making small tweaks to two Engineer Bridge Officer Abilities. Starship Shields are a core part of Trek and we feel they’re a bit squished by the elephantine cube in the room: the Borg are very good at what they do and it’s important they stay that way. Since they’re also severely warping the play space around the Shields mechanic, we’re giving Captains the tools they need to do some adaptation of their own. Emergency Power to Shields and Reverse Shield Polarity now grant conditional and unconditional immunity to Shield Drain during their respective effects.
These changes are currently slated to go live in an update this week on PC, and then hit Console when we've had some time to see how they work on PC, and address any issues that arise from feedback or otherwise.. More details are listed below. Take a look, theorycrafters, and let us know what you think of these changes. Remember, the best place to get your feedback seen is on our official forums.
Numbers provided are preliminary and may be changed before release!
Numbers provided are preliminary and may be changed before release!
Jonathan Herlache
Systems Designer
Star Trek Online