experiments with assimilation

[deathincarn]

posted on February 26th, 2010, 4:30 am

Last edited by deathincarn on February 26th, 2010, 4:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

ok now everyone here knows that the borg holding beam is horribly underpowered, and we all know that the devs going are fix it up. but i thought i try an experiment last nite and see how effective i could get it....

i built a borg cube with:
2x tactical armor
1x regeneration
3x holding beam

also researched boarding parties...

now firstly the offensive rating of this vessel was horrible, i think it got 88. but the system rating was like 260 and i think the defense rating was like 280(or maybe it was 310, i cant remember) i think. so it would be horribly difficult to destroy.

anyways i went out with this and i could actually assimilate ships! although it still wasnt effective(DUH!)
but at least the cube could assimilate at least one ship of +- 150 crew before running out of special energy, and it would take +- 6sec to assimilate that ship. and another +-6sec before it regained enough special energy to assimilate another ship.

so yea i had to really go to extremes to try get assimilation somewhat effective.

just thought i share my results with everyone 

posted on February 26th, 2010, 4:55 am

Way to go!

  Yeah that Cube will nicely assimilate ships of low to medium crew size.  Only problem is that it's offensive value is less than stellar.

  Once you have the Beam through shields special from the Transmission matrix, even a single holding beam module will reduce the crew by a small enough amount to allow all nearby Borg ships to start boarding it while the beam holds it in place.

  Course by the time you've got a Cube, the enemy should be fielding enough ships to automatically destroy anything you assimilate .

posted on February 26th, 2010, 5:02 am

exactly lol, hence the need for that holding beam rework 

posted on February 26th, 2010, 5:14 am

i think with a cube like i stated above, if a enemy sends 30 ships at it, that cube should be able to assimilate at least half of those ships.

posted on February 26th, 2010, 5:57 am

Oh dude no way ...

30 ships?  Maybe if they're B'rels.

  Assimilation of smaller vessels usually happens faster than killing them.  Suddenly the firepower they represented gets turned on them and more hitpoints exist for the original owner to have to destroy.  Assimilation is a tough thing because capturing in general comes with pretty distinct flaws.

posted on February 26th, 2010, 6:03 am

well 30 ships with a crew of say 50. i dont think thats unreasonable considering that this cube is entirely assimilation focused and only has an attack value of 88. that cube relies on capturing other ships make up for it low offense value...

posted on February 26th, 2010, 11:02 am

I don't think the holding beam is underpowered. it allows to assimilate small vessels very effectively, and it also serves the purpose to pin a vessel down. nothing bad for the relatively slow larger Borg vessels

moved to strategy

posted on February 26th, 2010, 12:06 pm

i must disagree optec, i really had to go to extremes to with my cube to get holding beam effective, and even then i still dont think its thats effective. that cube i made had like 4400 special energy, and it took all that energy with 3x holding beam modules to assimilate ONE ship with like a crew of 100. thats really ineffective if u ask me.

posted on February 26th, 2010, 12:12 pm

in tng we saw a normal cube use holding beam for a long time easily.

i think that the holding beam should be more effective on smaller ships taking less energy, and get more effective as the game progresses as the borg adapt.

Here's an idea: change the assimilate avatar, make its offense a fair bit weaker, but make its assimilation abilites a similar amount stronger, that way assimilate can base some of its power from assimilation.

posted on February 26th, 2010, 1:15 pm

Well, I think the holding beam is nice as it is now, if it wouldnt take so much special energy. If you reduce the special energy costs for a holding be to 1/4 of it is right now, I think I would use it, if I'm borg. Up until now, I never really used the holding beam. I'd rather started to equip my assimilators with the "other one in blue", that was far more effective than the holding beam but even then, it took a loooong way to go.

What about this? The holding beam will halt a ship like the klingon combat tractor beam and while you hold it (Maybe you are even able to last that forever, if your system value is high enough) you beam over boarding parties with the transporter, use the boarding special ability and an modified version of the "blue one".

So, the holding beam will kill enemy troops like now, but will increase with effectivness the more slots you have. If you have 3 slots, you can engage 3 holding beams at once. Every holding beam might be able to assimilate an enemy vessel while the crew gets down by 12/second or something like that.

Always when an enemy cube get on one of my ship with its holding beam, I thought "LOL - waste your energy"
You have to fear that one, I think.

posted on February 26th, 2010, 1:33 pm

yea i think u right sheva, thats how id want holding beam be like, but also the more holding beams the less energy is required per holding beam

posted on February 26th, 2010, 4:42 pm

i must disagree optec, i really had to go to extremes to with my cube to get holding beam effective, and even then i still dont think its thats effective. that cube i made had like 4400 special energy, and it took all that energy with 3x holding beam modules to assimilate ONE ship with like a crew of 100. thats really ineffective if u ask me.

  Yet you DID assimilate a ship with a crew of 100.  That's pretty good.  Were you and other vessels also using the Borg special of beaming through the shields once a few crew members were gone?  If you expect a Borg Cube to be able to hold a ship as long as it takes to assimilate a Galaxy ... that's just crazy.


  The Holding Beam serves an interesting purpose: to pin a ship down and begin stripping it's crew while MORE SHIPS begin transporting through the shields.  It's not the sole job of the Holding Beam to assimilate the entire crew.

  And to Myles:  another case of Show vs. Reality.  This is a game and has to be balanced as such.  If we followed everything we saw in the shows to a T then DS9 would forbid us to have shields on anything but the Defiant .

posted on February 26th, 2010, 4:49 pm

Besides, everyone knows that the whole point of getting 3 holding beam modules is so that you can spam nanites.

If you want your holding beam to be useful, you have to use boarding, which will transport 75 drones at once with a cube.  You can easily assimilate larger ships without them being able to retreat when you have 4600+ in energy reserves.

posted on February 26th, 2010, 10:48 pm

... and remember that Holding Beam gives a nice bonus against special weapons 

On the whole I think it's been pretty well balanced now, especially in combination with other abilities.

posted on February 27th, 2010, 10:30 pm

And to Myles:  another case of Show vs. Reality.  This is a game and has to be balanced as such.  If we followed everything we saw in the shows to a T then DS9 would forbid us to have shields on anything but the Defiant .

thats why i suggested an equal reduction in offense, to balance it, your overall ability to kick arse would remain about the same, but you would actually have to assimilate to be effective. i'm not suggesting making the borg like they are in the show, that would be awful.