Borg rankups

posted on November 30th, 2011, 3:32 pm

Hi folks,
while driving at home with my bike, I had an idea or two:

Borg-rankups can be researched at the transmission-matrix (this will increase the need for it, so you want to have it), but the rankup-technology wont consume slots. Instead, it will cost you ressources, like 750 dil and 750 tri.

After researched, borg-ships will be able to rank up like every other race can with the following characteristic:

- Passive rank up
Depending on the modules you have installed on your borg ship, those modules will get more efficient. This will mainly count for you passive abilities, like damage reduction, regeneration rate and likewise features.

- Active rank up
The active abilities will not be increased in power, but by behavior. For example the holding beam will not only be a little stronger (more crew assimilated while the energy consumption is decreased) it will also be able to hold over a longer range. On the first gold bar, the active ability might be morphed into another one. So the holding beam might be changed into another mode that will drain the energy of an enemy vessel and will deactivate its weapons. Depending on the chassis, you can fire more than one of those disabling-beams simultaneously.

- Synergy-rank up
This is a simple one: The overall stats of the vessel get increased by optimizing the ships infrastructure. The borg have learned to adapt to enemy weaponfire and defense-systems and will change the internals likewise.

All those rankups will be mixed together for every rank. The synergy-rankup will be present at every rankup, the active/passive rankup not every time or only if it gets veteran.

Some ideas for rankup-passives:
- tactical armor-plates MK II
Those plates are able to react in an active way against enemy weapon fire. While the damage-reduction is increased, those plates also show a large amount of resistance against special effects. Instead of taking damage directly, your special energy will be drained while taking damage from special weapons. This also counts for effect, like weapon-disabling effects.

- Holding-beam-module
While the tactical armor is able to convert the damage to a special energy loss, the holding-beam-modules are able to reflect incoming special attacks.

- Regen-module
The regen-module can be put together with other borg ships for a synergy-regeneration. Other borgships within dogfight-range will stack the bonus for an increased regen-process. This will only work while not under the fire of enemy weapons. Can also be used together with stations.

Thus so far...

Happy brainstorming

posted on November 30th, 2011, 3:41 pm

With the game the way it is atm i just don't see anyway to integrate borg rank ups without making them very OP, tbh i think we will just have to wait and see what the next patch brings before considering anything like. I think the devs are currently redoing parts of the borg.

The borg are already tanks and deal high damage increasing that dps with a rank up could completely break borg game play because as a borg player i notice i always have alot of res that can tbe spend straight away because of the CC issue which stops borg from just rolling over everything so upgrading with resources wouldn't be that much of a problem and then instead of borg rolling with lots of ships it could just be borg rolling with a few ranked up ships.

posted on November 30th, 2011, 4:31 pm

Yeah, valid point. Thats why I want to make some specials that are helpful but not OP. The raw-power would increase like any other rankup would do. The other reces have the advantage of numbers, cloak and many, many specials. One thing to make the borg stronger is not to just increase the stats but to reduce the advantage of the enemy. That wont make you better in killing everything off, but will you give a better resistance, so it is more like a raw-battle without specials in the end.

posted on November 30th, 2011, 9:42 pm

Borg rankups? Don't get this the wrong way, but this is heresy!

The borg do not accumulate experience, they assimilate it and adapt. One of the most often things you will hear on commentaries is: Prime sphere, regen sphere, dps sphere. These are adaptations of the sphere to varying situations. You can already build borg units strong and ripe and it simply isn't right for them to accumulate any kind of experience.

posted on November 30th, 2011, 10:16 pm

so beef going on your let them adapt, all borg ships would increase in defence with every shot taken (defence against that specific weapon) and increase in offence (against specific race shield and hulls with every shot fired:P)

not that that would work in a game or at least to hard to implement but that would the borg equivalent of the borg be:P

[MrXT]

posted on November 30th, 2011, 10:41 pm

Last edited by MrXT on November 30th, 2011, 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, valid point. Thats why I want to make some specials that are helpful but not OP. The raw-power would increase like any other rankup would do. The other reces have the advantage of numbers, cloak and many, many specials. One thing to make the borg stronger is not to just increase the stats but to reduce the advantage of the enemy. That wont make you better in killing everything off, but will you give a better resistance, so it is more like a raw-battle without specials in the end.

Yeah i suppose an introduction of adapted specials might be a good idea, any introduction of anything that you give borg as a result of killing other ships in the form of ranking or adapting is going to be difficult to balance so its probably why it hasn't yet been done.

Maybe give borg ships a special like cutting beam when they reach a certain rank and or devastating attack as a reward for killing a certain amount of ships perhaps this could be the form of borg ranking or adaptation in the form of more efficient killing.

Maybe the assimilators could get increased auto assimilation capabilitys as a result of a assimilating, so 1 ship assimilated = assimilation rank up so +1 crew assimlated per second but also limit that because if it got to high it would be very OP.

posted on December 1st, 2011, 5:17 am

Actually, I know it doesn't match canon perfectly (well, canon was designed to make for a good story, we need something to make a good game) but I think borg rankups would be just fine if their bonuses went ONLY into offense and system.

Of course, the larger ships would gain lower percentages than the other races since a they're so much easier to keep alive.  Perhaps they could even gain additional multi-targeting on their weapons to let them deal extra damage without making them impossible to get away from.

The only thing that really can't be allowed to rank up is their survivability, since that's already their extreme factor.

[Beef]

posted on December 1st, 2011, 9:11 am

Last edited by Beef on December 1st, 2011, 10:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

I say replace the ranks with the power of their specials - The more prime sphere gets fired at the more energy it drains, the more kills the beam sphere makes the greater beam compensations it has.

Instead of the modules giving a direct bonus, let it have a smaller bonus and have it grow with time to the apropriate situations as described above!

If that would cost too much programming then just link it to the experience, but instead of silver and gold lines just boost the specials down to the maximum power these modules provide.

Some say that the borg are overpowered, this would definetely plug that hole since the bonuses won't start at full power.

Why is that different from his proposition? Well the modules won't get more powerful but the traits of the ship will get enhanced.

posted on December 1st, 2011, 11:57 am

Well, I think that for example the borg-spheres can be sniped out pretty well. Take a fleet of small ships and if you have your critical mass, the borg cant to anything against it. So the ships MUST be strong.

If you fight with 12 klingon ships against a sphere, you lose one ship for tzhe klingons and one sphere. If you fight 10 klingons against 10 dominions, then its a tie where both fleets must take the tail.

Borg are good against a small amount of ships, but late game they are clearly outnumbered. Even a dounbled defense wont protect them. I remember fighting with 9 spheres against 20 multi-disruptor-rommies and lost everything and the rommies nothing. Even with regen active.

I think rankups are valid and yes, I support the idea posted by Beef.

posted on December 1st, 2011, 12:04 pm

I like the idea of multitargeting as they rank up as the vessel becomes more efficent in fighting multple enemies. And as such increasing system value too. 

posted on December 1st, 2011, 12:37 pm

The idea of Borg rankup has been suggested and rejected many times so far, and the Devs have stated that the Borg will not have standard rankup. However, there will be a different system in place instead. We don't know what that system is, but as the Borg are first on the list for a major rework, including many new and innovative features, I suggest we wait and see what they are first.

posted on December 1st, 2011, 1:11 pm

I was not proposing "rankup", I was proposing that the borg "adapt". No change in ship values only in trait efficiency - beam compensation, regen, tactical armor etc...

posted on December 1st, 2011, 1:52 pm

I was not proposing "rankup", I was proposing that the borg "adapt". No change in ship values only in trait efficiency - beam compensation, regen, tactical armor etc...

Same difference. Increasing trait efficiency is equal or possibly stronger than adding values to the stats.
As the Borg are now, such a "rank up" would utterly destroy any race facing the Borg simply because any Borg vessel can take a lot of punishment and will have its trait efficiency increased very rapidly.

There is a complete redo for the Borg scheduled and perhaps a "rank up" as you propose can fit, but as the situation currently stands it would destroy balans. If it were implemented at this time i would not be surprised if a community boycott of the Borg was implemented (similar to the time when the K'vort were massively OP).

For the moment you've made your proposal and perhaps , although doubtful, it will have a place in the Borg after their redo.

posted on December 1st, 2011, 2:01 pm

if we would give the borg the same rank up system the other races have, we'd have to make their initial vessels a lot weaker. borg vessels/configurations already have stats that can be considered 'ranked up'. borg vessels are quite powerful from the beginning, that is their race advantage. but yea, the borg won't get ship ranks. we've other ideas that will highlight their assimilation/adaption abilities.

posted on December 1st, 2011, 3:23 pm

DOCa, i am proposing that their initial perks be weaker and develop in time. I am not saying that (for example) beam compensation should start at 63% (-ish), that should be the final value after the vessel had "fully apapted". Let it start at maybe 20% and then rise...