thats not the point, replace that number with anything but 1 and thats still a serious amount of unlimited drain.

UNLIMITED drain. the UNLIMITED being the key point i was trying to make.

stick 5 in the power slow, thats 5-60 power per tick. each tick is one second. within 2 seconds youre all but disabled via no power.

Sadly you do have a point. At first I thought what if EPS rate could work to counter act the drain but that would still end up as a binary system (drain either useless or OP) because of just how fast energy regenerates compared to how much there is. Just like with the generic Damage vs HP sustain is overly strong making the system impossible to correctly fix.

So yes there does need to be a cap on the drain. And really if you think about it ALL drains should have a cap. Right now drains are either overpowered (shutting down multiple subsystems) or hardly noticed (due to resists mitigating and the power regen speed). In addition there already are true disable abilities if that is your goal. Instead power drain should be a debuff as I believe it was originally intended.

So, allow flow capacitors to continue to boost drain amounts, that is fine. Allow subsystems to have a 'minimum energy level' they cannot be drained past based on the maximum energy that subsystem has and the power insulator skill level. Then drains may even be able to get a boost to be more effective as a debuff in both PvE and PvP. A simple example formula would look like this and could likely be improved upon:

(Max Power + Power Insulator Skill - 100) / (Max Power + Power Insulator Skill + 100) * Max Power = Min Power

Using that formula you would need at least 100 combined power and/or PI to avoid the subsystem from being shut down. If you had 100 skill in PI and 125 power in a subsystem your minimum amount would become 48. At 75 power and 100 PI it would be 20. At 50 power and 100 PI it would be 10.

Power drain could still be very effective as a target going down to 48 weapons / 20 shield / 10 engine / 10 aux would be debuffed pretty heavily. But the target would have options, an EPTX power and/or battery wouldn't give a full restore but it would help. Then even in PvE they could remove the quasi immunities that some NPCs have to power drains as well, a win win.

If we just gave it to the feds none of this would be an issue.

Lol... make the issue worse so it's not an issue?

It might address the issue of the FvK queues or it might kill folks bothering to queue at all...

the latter. I would stop playing sto if feds got these before they were fixed. They're unfun.

True... 5 siphon carriers on each team would lock down the match completely...and indefinately...

There is a reason FvK queues are so dead atm. Siphon drones are making the game unplayable.

I wouldn't say FvK queues are dead tbh. I queue like 80% only for FvK and I get in matches pretty easily (EU evenings). What is true however, that majority of FvK games are simply "unfun". Partially because the incompetence or afk of my pug mates, partially because of all the trash klingons produce in space - including siphon drones.

I kinda miss the old times, Klingons flying mostly BoPs, moaning about the fed ball and such.

Ah yes, the awesome fed ball when people would yell at the Feds for sticking together... And scatter volley was king... And before the rise of extend shields... Good times indeed.

"Who wants to be bait for the Klingons? Well protect ya we swear!"

Well, when I do get a FvK arena started....

...if I'm F, half of my team warps out after being siphoned.
...if I'm K, Half of the fed team warp out because one of my teammates is a siph'er

True, Siphon Drones would suddenly be.... alright.
Which would be fine with me if we get some TB using pets too.

Then some other aspect of the game would take center stage as being OP, out of balance, etc. There is a 50%/50% chance its KDF related or a " My Cruiser sucks..." complaint.

Frankly, I'm just ready for the fixes to start rolling in AND making sense towards balance.