[TM] Subsystem Disable times (Poll)

posted on May 12th, 2017, 1:24 pm

It's that time again! I have started working on Tryptic's Mod and am making good progress. I've started with the Federation this time, with further reworks to their Support ships to make them easier to use and more relevant to the fleet. While working on this, I've taken a look at subsystem disable effects and decided they need some attention.

System Value and You

System value increases a few things:
-Special Energy amount (all ships take 3 minutes to recharge their special energy)
-Subsystem Hitpoints
-Resistance to Subsystem Disabling and Special Weapon damage

Let's take a look at an example: the Plasma Bolt ability. Plasma Bolt says on the tin that it disables Weapons for 10 seconds, but in fact it does not. Against a Brel, which has 5 System value, it might disable weapons for 9.8 seconds. Against a Leahval with 18 System, it might last 9 seconds, and against an Assimilator with 75 System it will only last 5 seconds. Currently, against a Cube with 200+ System and Holding Beam modules, the Plasma Bolt will not disable weapons at all.

This is an interesting idea, but I feel like it is too much. Special Weapons in Fleet Ops are made significantly weaker because of these reductions, and it also gives large ships (especially Borg) a big advantage over small ships. You choose to get things like Plasma Bolt specifically to deal with Borg Cubes and Assimilators, but it does almost nothing against them.

So! I am planning to rework all of these abilities in the next version of Tryptic's Mod. I am looking at three different options right now, and would like to hear you guys' opinions:


Option 1: Take away the bonus

In this option, a 10-second weapon disable will work for 10 seconds on every ship. This makes them considerably stronger vs large ships and the Borg. It also makes all Special Weapons like Metaphasic Disruptor or Tricobalt Torpedo deal up to twice as much damage to those ships as they do currently. Note that certain Borg modules would still add resistance, but it would max out around 40-55% reduction depending on how I balance it


Option 2: Nerf the bonus

This option lets System value make a difference still, but a smaller one. In this option, I put the resistance bonus on a Logarithmic scale, capped at around 30%. This would result in a resistance profile something like this:

5 System - 5% resistance
15 System - 10% resistance
25 System - 15% resistance
50 System - 26% resistance
200 System - 29% resistance

I would also nerf Borg subsystem bonuses so that the maximum resistance that any ship can get does not go over 50%.


Option 3: Nerf the bonus and change the threshold

This option keeps the strongest bonus for having high System value, but buffs Special Weapons across the board. I would use a Logarithmic scale like in Option 2, but set the starting threshold around 15 System. That means that ships with less than 15 System value actually take MORE damage than what is listed in the weapon's tooltip, like so:

Plasma Bolt, "10-second" disable
0 System - 12 seconds
5 System - 11.2 seconds
10 System - 10.5 seconds
15 System - 10 seconds
20 System - 9.5 seconds
25 System - 8.6 seconds
50 System - 8 seconds
200 System - 7.1 seconds

Well, not exactly like that, but you get the idea. This setup makes Special Weapons stronger across the board, especially against small ships. It also gives the Romulans a slight edge since all of their ships will resist Special abilities more than other races.

What do you guys think? I'm still in the planning stages so ideas are welcome

posted on May 16th, 2017, 12:20 am

I think I prefer that any displayed durations act as the base, and any calculated resistance reduces it., otherwise I think it hurts small ships far more.

I take it ships that have passives that directly affects such things (eg the Remore) will be considered seperately?

posted on May 20th, 2017, 8:27 am

I take it ships that have passives that directly affects such things (eg the Remore) will be considered seperately?

They certainly will be. As it stands, the majority of ships that resist special abilities are Borg vessels with Regen and Holding Beam modules, some high-ranked Warbirds and some high-ranked federation vessels.

In the case of the Borg Holding beam, it's tricky because 20% for one module seems fair, but a 60% reduction for 3 modules would make an Assimiliation Cube extremely hard to disable (including the 10% for regen, it could hit 70%). So I am thinking for the Borg I will give them a logarithmic tiered system, something like this:

1 Module: 20%
2 Modules: 32%
3 Modules: 39%
4 Modules: 44%

Each Holding Beam module counts, but only the 1st Regen module does. So a Sphere can max out at 32% reduction, while a Cube or Pyramid can obtain 44%

I should also mention that in base Fleet Ops, the System Value resistance not only reduces damage/duration of special abilities, it also adds a chance that the ability will fail entirely. In TM I plan to remove the fail chance. I will also be removing the miss chance from torpedo-based abilities: if a player takes the time to use the ability, I don't believe he should be punished by having it do nothing 10% of the time.