Section 1: Captain Types

(A) Tactical Captain

(B) Engineering Captain

(C) Science Captain

Section 2: Ship Types

(A) Escort Class

(B) Cruiser Class

(C) Science Class

Section 3: Bridge Officers

(A) Tactical Bridge Officer

(B) Engineering Bridge Officer

(C) Science Bridge Officer

Concluding Notes

Welcome to the How to Balance STO slide presentation. This presentation as a whole is

a collection of many different ideas from myself, Ayupan, and others. The majority ofthe ideas have also been modified from intellectual insight and constructive feedbackfrom the community both in-game and on the forums.

As the game, Star Trek Online, currently stands there are many imbalances bothintended and unintended that need to be fixed. This presentation and all parts are inno way a fix-all conglomerate. However the idea behind these changes and additions isan expectation to be implemented as a whole. This expectation is measured by thecalculations, testing and analysis that are taken from all sides of the spectrum; unifiedto balance each other out.

Before getting started, please be for-warned that the changes and additions presentedin these slides can be lengthy, and a thorough read would be encouraged. I would alsoencourage you, as the reader, to take a step back after each section as well as at the veryend, and imagine what it would be like in game with the contents of this presentationimplemented. At the same time make sure to think deep and hard about all variablesyou can come up with, and their effects.

Thank you…..

Captain Abilities

General

Captain Abilities

General

Captain Abilities

General

Reduce the resist debuff @max rank by 30%

Add a new effect to debuff all healing on the

target by 30% @max rank. This will include heals

casted on the target by themself and others.

Excluded only by Miracle Worker.

Reduce the Crit severity buff @max rank by 40%.

Add a defense buff, increasing defense by 10%

@max rank, independent from training and fixed.

Ignores Soft-cap.

ABILITIES

Add a positive innate bonus to Tactical

Captains, gained while piloting a Star Ship; +5 to all energy weapon damage types (Ph/Dis/Tet/Pla/AP/Pol),

and +4% to Critical Chance for piloting any star ship. As

well +5% to defense when piloting any escort (Raptor/BoP)

Can equip Dual Heavy Cannons when piloting an escort

(or Raptor), BoP excluded.

Add a negative innate bonus when piloting any star ship;

-10% to shield capacity, -0.5 to EPS flow, and -10% to

Accuracy

GENERAL

Reduce cool down by 2 minutes. Add 5% for 5 seconds resist buff per rank of Starship Hull Repair. So at 9/9 Starship Hull Repair, the buff would be +45% Resist for 45 seconds. This is not an outrageous amount due to diminishing returns.

Add to the current buff, a fixed 5% shield penetration for all weapons, and 75% resist to all subsystem damage.

Add to the ability a lasting effect in the area stuck by this ability similar to a plasma grenade with a fixed 300 damage over 10 seconds, ticking every 2 seconds. At each tick add a 10% chance to cause Weapons Malfunction for 5 seconds.

ABILITIES

Add a positive innate bonus to engineering captains, when piloting a type of ship; +5 to all Starship Maintenance values when piloting any

ship type/class. In addition, add +5 to all Starship Efficiency values and reduce shield bleed through by 5% when piloting Cruiser class vessels (and Klingon Battlecruiser).

As a negative innate bonus to engineering captains when piloting any star ship; Cool downs take an additional 15% longer,

-15% Accuracy, and -20% Critical Severity.

GENERAL

Reduce the resist buff by ½ current. Increase duration by 15 seconds, and have it increase the aux of the caster and all friendly targets effected by 10. Add in a debuff to all enemy targets in the field, reducing their maximum impulse (not full impulse) speed by 30% and Accuracy by 10% @max rank

Have the ability on hit remove a single buff that has the least remaining duration, and have it block any new buffs from being applied on the target for the duration. This would include buffs from the SNB affected ship and any other ship that tried to buff that ship. Any buff used while under the affect will be blocked, and go on normal cool down increased by SNB. Both the cooldown debuff and the Buff block will be considered 1 debuff, have 1 icon, and be removed completely with any rank of Science Team. Remove this ability from Shared cool down, and reduce cool down of SNB by 30 seconds.

ABILITIES

Add a positive innate bonus to science captains when piloting a star ship; +5 to Aux power level, and +10 to Star Ship

Deflectors, Emitters, and Sensors, as well as +10% to shield capacity when piloting any type/class star ship; Additionally add +10 to Astrometrics, Photonic Theory, and Spatial Anomaly values in addition to a 10% buff to all ability cool down speeds when piloting a Science class star ship (and Klingon Carrier).

Add a negative innate bonus to science captains when piloting any star ship; -5 to weapon power levels, -4% to critical chance,

and -5% to shield resists.

GENERAL

So we have just completed section 1, on Captain types. In this section we have covered captain ability changes, and the addition of innate bonuses (positive and negative).

All of these changes are represented values at the max rank of the ability, and it is expected that each lower rank would be adjusted as well accordingly.

I believe these changes and additions will balance out the game on the captain side of the spectrum, and differentiate the captain types more fluidly which will bring about more diversity and very interesting builds based on bonuses both positive a negative.

Just think, only Tactical Captains in Federation Escorts or Klingon Raptors will be able to equip Dual Heavy Cannons. At the same time any captain type in any Escort, Raptor, or BoP will be able to equip Dual Cannons.

Keep these changes in your head and lets move onto Section 2…..

Innate changes

General

Innate changes

General

Innate changes

General

In addition to current innate bonuses for Escorts as a positive; +10% to defense soft-cap (increasing it from 65%

to 75%). As well as an additional +3 impulse to it’s speed modifier, and +20% to hull resists ignoring diminishing return calculation.

As a negative innate bonus I would like to see the following added; -5% to Accuracy. I would also like to see

maximum hull health reduced by 25%. As well as a -30% to Critical Severity.

INNATE CHANGES

In relation to the previous changes, I

would also like to see all escorts reduced

in overall size by 20%. I believe this will

bring greater feel to the immersive ability

other space games bring to the field that

STO is lacking. It will also bring further

validation to the reasoning of Escorts

being hard to hit.

GENERAL

In addition to current positive innate bonuses on Cruiser star ships;

+5% to shield resists, +10 to all Projectile weapon

damage type (Pho/Quan/Trans/Plas/Chron/Tri). As

well as +25% crew resistance, and +10 to Hull Repair

value.

As a negative innate bonus for Cruiser star ships;

-5% to Accuracy, -2% to critical chance, -15%

Defense

INNATE CHANGES

Increase the size of all cruisers by 10%. This will make the game feel and look more immersive, and make cruisers as well as other ships have a more distinct look. This will also bring it more in line that cruisers are slow and easy to hit when compared to other 2 ship types.

GENERAL

In addition to the current positive innate bonuses on Science star ships; +10 to Deflector Dish, Sensor Array, and Tractor

Beam. As well as +5% Accuracy and +20% critical

severity.

As a negative innate bonus on Science star

ships;

-10% to Defense, -0.5 to EPS flow, -10 to all Energy

Weapon damage type values (Phas /Dis /Tet /Plas /AP/ Pol)

INNATE CHANGES

I think the size relation for current science vessels in game is just where it should be. I believe with the changes to the other ships it will make science ships right in the middle size wise, with more distinct differences on both ends of the spectrum.

GENERAL

So we have just completed Section 2, on Ship Types. In this section we covered additional innate bonuses to each ship class, both positive and negative.

With this section and the section before it, an interesting development will occur. As each combination of captain type and ship type are valid in their own distinct way, this adds variety and far more possibilities which increase gaming pleasure.

This also adds more individuality to each player and how they can balance their build around such bonuses.

Please keep all of the changes in the previous sections in mind, as I now show you some examples of these captain and ship type combinations…..

FINAL NOTES

Tac/Escort (or Raptor/BoP) additional innate total; +5 to all energy weapon damage types

+4% to Critical Chance

+5% to defense

Can Equip Dual Heavy Cannons (BoP excluded)

+10% defense soft-cap Increase

+3 to Impulse speed

+20% to hull resists

-10% to shield capacity

-0.5 to EPS flow

-15% to Accuracy

-30% to Critical Severity

-25% maximum Hull health

RA and TIER 5 EXAMPLES

Eng/Cruiser (or Battlecruiser) additional innate total; +5 to all Starship Maintenance values

+5 to all Starship Efficiency values 5% reduction in Shield Bleed-Through

+5% to shield resists

+10 to all Projectile weapon damage type

+25% crew resistance +10 to Hull Repair -20% to Accuracy

-15% Defense

15% Increase to ability cool down length -20% Critical Severity

RA and TIER 5 EXAMPLES

Sci/Sci (or Carrier) additional innate total; +5 to Aux power level

+10 to Star Ship Deflectors, Emitters, and Sensors

+10 to Astrometrics, Photonic Theory, and Spatial Anomaly

10% buff to all ability cool down speeds

+10 to Deflector Dish, Sensor Array, and Tractor Beam

+5% Accuracy

+20% critical severity

+10% to shield capacity -5 to weapon power levels

-4% to critical chance

-5% to shield resists

-10% to Defense

-0.5 to EPS flow -10 to all Energy Weapon damage type values

RA and TIER 5 EXAMPLES

Ability Changes

Ability Changes

Ability Changes

Remove Tac Team from the shared global cooldown.

Have Tac Team also buff specific energy weapon damage values. @Rank 1; +5 to Anti-Proton and Polaron

@Rank 2; +5 to Tetryon and Plasma

@Rank 3; +5 to Disruptor and Phasers

; Add an accuracy debuff to CSV;

@Rank 1; -10% Accuracy for 5 seconds on target(s) @Rank 2; -10% Accuracy for 10 seconds on target(s) @Rank 3; -10% Accuracy for 15 seconds on target(s) Cost; -10 additional weapon power level on casting ship

ABILITY CHANGES

;

Add an immunity buff to the target, duration 10 seconds, to prevent stacking;

Remove Sensor Array stat and skill from effecting Drain amount

Add Beam Weapons stat and skill to affect drain.

ABILITY CHANGES

; Reduce damage debuff by ½ @maximum value

Increase the damage from the D.o.T, by 50%

Make Aceton field an AoE effect like Scramble Sensors with a more related color scheme.

Have Tactical Team remove Aceton Field completely.

; Increase the damage of EWP by 50%, and

increase the duration by 5 seconds.

ABILITY CHANGES

; Add shield subsystem damage immunity for

the duration of EPTS.

; Remove all buffing effects from DEM

Add a shield penetration buff as if it just increases targets bleed-through. At Ranks 1-3 the pen would be 5%/8%/10% fixed. Relevant skill allocation would increase duration, with a max duration of 15 seconds. Increase cool down by 10 seconds.

ABILITY CHANGES

; Increase the Diameter of GW by 3 km

Increase the pulling effect by 10%

; Add a 10% fixed chance per tick of TR to disable all team

abilities for 5 seconds fixed.

; Have the pull effect increase greater as the rank of TB

increases.

Have the damage increase depending on the targets impulse setting

; Fix the Bug, make sure the ability works and counter works

Have VM disable engines for the longest period of duration, and the other two subsystem for the rest of the duration.

ABILITY CHANGES

So we have just completed Section 3, on Bridge officers and their abilities. In this section I tried to cover all the underpowered abilities that needed the most attention.

I believe with those abilities changed in those ways, they will not only increase their effectiveness but also increase the amount of scenarios where they could be viable.

Only a few slides left to go, I would like to thank your for hanging in there, and taking the time….

FINAL NOTES

Now I will go over explaining some of the details in all the sections. For instance you see the captain ability changes in section 1, well most of these were done in a fashion to give them more specialty, while keeping them balanced.

For instance, one thing this MMO is missing that all others have is some sort of debuff to healing, and I think FoMM fit perfectly in that area.

As we all know Miracle Worker and Nadeon Inversion both needed a boost, I think I balanced it out by adding some more effectiveness to both abilities while not going over-the-top.

As for the science captain abilities, I think Dampening field would have more use as not only a buff to friendly targets but a debuff to enemy targets, which not only adds some strategic value to the ability it also can cause interesting effects when scramble sensors could be considered a counter.

Continued; As you also witnessed in Section 1, there were innate bonuses added to each captain type, which there isn’t really any innate for captains, only ships.

I believe with the innate bonuses being added to captain types as well, each having their own unique proficiency (Positive Innate), balanced out by a unique deficiency (Negative Innate) it adds distinctiveness to that captain class.

The Innate bonuses also add more individuality and interesting build options when, in game, it is possible to fly any ship type no matter what captain type you are.

I also designed the captain innate bonuses around the additional ship innate bonuses in Section 2, and vise versa. That way all combinations are equally balanced whilst sustaining the variety. This will not necessarily solve the “cookie-cutter issue”, but it will certainly add more “cookie-cutter” options that are viable instead of just a few that almost everyone uses.

Continued; As you see in Section 2, not only did I add the innate bonuses more thoroughly explained in the previous slide but increases or decreased to the ships sizes.

As for the innate bonuses both Positive and Negative, they were balanced around each other and vise versa with the captain bonuses. I also tried to add more of a design element that was advertised for each captain type and ship class that we have yet to see in game. It also, as well adds more of a “canon” feel.

As an example, you can see in a lot of the sections I am trying to increase the viability of Defense, which is the % modifier attached to speed, and can be compared to “Dodge” in other games. Escorts are supposed to be very proficient at “Dodging” or “Defense”, and the % modifier is the only symbol in game of what you would see in the shows, as the ship rolls, dodges fire, pendulum swings what ever.

Well by increasing the viability of defense, to a point where it can be the main survivability tool for Escorts and a secondary or tertiary tool for the other ship types, it also ends up being a buff to the abilities that would counter defense, or rather speed. To name a few, Tractor Beam, BTSE, GW, and don’t forget the Dampening Field change.

Continued; You can also see the maximum hull health reduction to escorts, as well as the hull resist buff. This is because escorts should have the lowest hull health in game, as they have the smallest hulls. At the same time because of armor, they should not have the lowest hull resists, if anything a decent amount. Both of these changes also balance out any possibility of making defense too powerful because there are a plethora of resist debuffs in game.

There are also negative defense innate bonuses to Cruisers and Science Vessels, these values are to further the gap, more or less create a gap, between the defense possible for Escorts and the defense possible for the other two ship types. Currently even the other two ship types have to sacrifice quite a bit of other power levels, they can achieve defense at soft-cap which shouldn’t be possible due to their size and maneuverability standards.

Lastly, in Section 3, you see changes to Bridge Officer abilities. These changes are mainly for widely known underpowered abilities, as well as a few broken abilities. Most of the changes in this section to the broken abilities, were compromised in the discussion so they still kept their viability and weren’t made completely situational.

As an example, you see the changes for Tactical Team, or Tac Team, and how at different ranks it would buff a completely different set of Energy Weapon damage types. I made it this way to better balance it out against the current Skill Tree. Where because of decisions made by Cryptic or lack there of, imbalances were made toward the viability of more skill point expensive damage types. This way, the players who spent more skill points on say Anti-Proton, only need Rank 1 of the ability to buff it, where as people who spent the least amount of skill points on say Phasers, require wasting a higher slot for Rank 3 of Tac Team.

As you are sitting there, trying to digest everything you read, remember to use your imagination, when considering how many variables come into play in PVP, the sky is the limit.

As a smart community, and a paying community, we expect to see our investment grow. The majority of players do not even read the forums so they will probably not see this. However many of these ideas and changes to my own ideas were from a large in-game discussion, so I’m sure if you pass this along there will be a lot of players pleased to see familiar ideas.

I would also like to take this time to thank the Developers for creating such a game with so much potential. At the same time remember, we are paying customers, and you do expect us to dish out more cash than most games, so please try harder to be effective in making changes and additions inspired by the community.

Thank you for Reading. The following is Credits and feel free to PM me on the forums or in game @Ayupan.

LOL?