Had to totally re-type a post of mine since so many forum poster replies quickly without reading the content. So bear with me....

Currently and this is only an example, "Auxiliary Power to the structural integrity field III" and "Transfer Shield Strength III" and a few other abilities have become overpriced since patch.

Now, I can see that making sense considering it's new usefulness, but the problem here is that players already spent millions in energy credits just to get their RA5 spec just right. Now, they are asked to spend those millions again based on Cryptic admittance of balance mistake*. And that's IF the officer is even available to buy on the exchange.

I can understand the need for balance, and the reason to push forward for more balancing. But do not penalize a player who doesn't have the time to farm energy credits all over again just to get those rare abilities once more.

My suggestion was clear and precise, unlock the power store for 30 days so that players can acquire very rare abilities. My ship spec was already done and done, I barely got the time to play as much and invested quite a lot of farming energy credits to finish off speccing. And in all honesty, I am not the only player in this situation, most RA5 who doesn't have the time to post on forums follows the same problem. This ain't a rant, this is common business sense.


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*They admitted the game wasn't properly balance the moment that live patch went through with such drastic changes.

And now we shall duplicate the reply you were given in the other thread: you just got given a huge amount of extra merits from the accolade system going live.

And they are not going to break the economy just because you're poor and some other players aren't and that gives the richer players faster access to things than the poor players.

They are supposed to be rare. That makes them valuable. That they no longer suck just means they are closer to what they should be valued.

Well, that helps with respeccing a Captain, but not fixing certain BOs...

I think the issue here comes from the belief that there are any specific rare BO abilities that are absolutely mandatory in order to play at any kind of competitive level. The feeling that there is only one particular way to accomplish specific tasks appears to me to be the culprit. Cookie-cutter, FotM builds are often going to be a problem in any MMO. STO allows players to alter their playstyle much more freely than other games I have experienced, but there is still the feeling that there are only a very few ways to "do things right".

I think players need to continue to explore different avenues. Don't always rely on the level III version of BO abilities... even if they don't stack anymore...

Mandatory? No. Extremely valuable and important? Yes.

Aux to SIF 3 is the obvious example of an ability that is MUCH better than its lower rank counterparts, was wildly buffed in this patch, and is now the goto CDR ability for any Cruiser that wants to focus on healing. It is only accessible via randomly acquired bridge officers, which makes it extremely rare and therefore extremely expensive.

Balance should not be affected by random chance in this context. Players who want to play their ship as a healer have a right to expect that they will have access to the abilities required for that purpose without having to spend millions of credits or reroll multiple characters for a shot at getting the ability they need.

Cookie cutter builds are 'cookie-cutter' because, in most cases, they are better than the alternatives. Being different is not usually a good thing. I do not believe that you can create a better healing Cruiser build than mine if you don't include Aux to SIF 3 or Engineering Team 3; so while those abilities may now be considered 'cookie cutter' it is because they are clearly the best abilities for that purpose, not because people are mindless lemmings.

As this massage has already been posted once, I am closing this thread.

Q