Borg Experience

posted on November 1st, 2009, 11:31 pm

Ok, I have played the mod, and it is like an ST Armada 3. Very good.

But one question troubles me:

Why the Borg do not have an experience system?

It takes them variety away...

(perhaps this has been discussed before but I haven't seen it)

Note that in Star Trek canon the collective gathers information and "learns" constantly (thus, adaption). Maybe a Borg universal experience counter that upgrades all ships at once?

Besides, cubes have been know to upgrade themselves with parts of other vessels ("Q who?" episode), and that could make that cubes that have seen more combat would be more proficient (old "tech assimilation beam" from A2).

For this not to be unbalanced, there would need to be some drawback or minimum rebalancing (because it has been balanced as no experience for the borg), but that can be fixed.

I think many users would like a borg experience system.

Share your thoughts on the matter.

Greetings to all the community and mod team

[move][shadow=green,left][glow=green,2,300]:assimilate: RESISTANCE IS FUTILE[/glow][/shadow] [/move]

posted on November 1st, 2009, 11:39 pm

Welcome to the site.

The Borg experience system has been suggested before, and shot down before (assuming I read the posts correctly). Partly for balance, partly because Borg don't become more experienced. Computer brains have their flaws...

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on November 2nd, 2009, 12:25 am

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on November 2nd, 2009, 12:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

In addition to what Tyler has stated, the Borg will be getting a wholly "different" "experience system". It will not be based on individual ships with their captain's experience being translated to greater fighting strength (drones do not individually learn - they share as a Collective), but instead it will be more about bringing out the adaption aspect of the Borg. Some of this will be seen in the next patch, as certain modules will offer specific skills in certain situations. Stay tuned, a patch is forthcoming

EDIT: forgot to mention, welcome to the forums!
EDIT2: just updated the FAQ's of the guide to reflect this.

posted on November 2nd, 2009, 12:51 am

because Borg don't become more experienced. Computer brains have their flaws...

Well... technically speaking, borg drone brains are still mostly organic , and theoretically from a in-universe perspective, the Collective gains the experience and knowledge of every individual they assimilate (even if that's not strictly "learning", in theory it should extend the collective efficiency over time as they battle).

Thank you for the welcome, I will watch for any update forthcoming.

[Phoenix]

posted on November 5th, 2009, 9:02 pm

Last edited by Phoenix on November 5th, 2009, 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

They assimilate, but they don't experience things. It's a subtle difference that was self admitted by Queenie herself. I suppose the prime example of this is with Species 8472. The Borg tried to assimilate; they failed. They tried to destroy; they failed. The Borg tried to assimilate; they failed. They tried to destroy; they failed. The Borg tried to assimilate; they failed. They tried to destroy; they failed.... well you get the picture.

Then Voyager came along and the crew quickly identified that the issue was that the Borg Nanoprobes were being detected and destroyed before they had a chance to assimilate. With no assimilation data, the Borg had no come back but it also showed their inability to think outside of the box. A simple medical scan would have revealed the problem but they lacked the foresight to do that.

So in the traditional sense, the Borg do not gain experience; they assimilate. I believe that was an actual Janeway quote. As such, a completely different system is needed for them, which has not been implemented yet because of the difficulty in making those kinds of modifications. (the original A2 has it's limits and assimilation was never really implemented that well from the offset)


EDIT - welcome to the forums by the way!

posted on November 7th, 2009, 2:31 pm

I still don't see why the Borg didn't draw 8472 out to hit an inferior species, and then if said species revealed a means of combatting them...assimilate it.  They have to have assimilated enough Romulans to pick up that kind of tactical decision.

posted on November 7th, 2009, 5:12 pm

The Borg aren't that devious, they're a very straight-foward Empire. They take the knowlage of assimilated people, not their nature.

posted on January 11th, 2010, 10:30 am

True, but I think had the Borg assimilated a way to combat the Species, they would have easily adapted to use it. In fact they wanted to assimilate from the voyager, but they threatened to destroy it shpuld they try it, thus somehow forcing them to cooperate.

Anyways, back to the borg adapting/experience, the new release has come and they still don't have anything like that 

Are there still plans to add some kind of system eventually?

posted on January 11th, 2010, 10:55 am

A good example of that is in the star trek novel, 'Vendetta'.  The borg assimilate a Ferengi, and use him as a 'Speaker'.  They 'assimilated 'the deal'...and their version of dealing went basically like this.

'We are Vastator of Borg.  We wish to...deal'
'Deal?!  I'm listening.'
'You will lower your shields.  In exchange, we will assimilate you.'

Obviously, they were BAD at dealing, even though they decided to attempt to utilize it.  It's their one -real- weakness.  They can adapt to anything except real change.  Something new, that is technological, or they already have some information on, they will adapt to.  Something completely new, however, is a serious problem for them.  Because they abandoned creativity long ago.

posted on January 11th, 2010, 2:18 pm

unfortunately, there is a catch, I watched somw voyager to catch up on my Borg. I gotta say, if there was a rankup system, one wee little Adaptor ranking up from destroying a ship would rank every borg thing up.

posted on January 17th, 2010, 10:22 pm

Intriguing concept. Maybe the rankup system for the Borg should be like that...

Think about it. Rather than individual ships gaining levels as they do now, the Borg could have an overall Avatar leveling system. You'd need MANY more levels with a much smaller difference between each level; lets say 50 levels.

You could get to Level 2 by killing 10 ships, level 3 by killing a further 20, level 4 by killing a further 30 and so on. At each level the Borg as a whole would gain VERY slight boosts (of the order of +1's and 2's or very weak specials) but since there are many levels, then eventually the slight boosts would add up to something significant. In a way this might also simulate the whole adaptation thing by making the Borg overall, a harder nut to crack, as the game goes on.

Of course that would probably require making 50 variants of each of their ships to be successful, which is rather a lot, unless you could find a way of making global changes to the avatar itself during the game.

posted on January 17th, 2010, 10:29 pm

Why not connecting the slots for "Collective Features" to a global Borg experience system? Either that by "leveling up" the higher tier features become available or to increase the maximum cap?

posted on January 17th, 2010, 11:22 pm

They assimilate, but they don't experience things.

I would love to experience Jeri Ryan.....though that was when I was younger and thought she was hot cause she has a nice rack!