We are investigating an issue where some Gold Members may not have received their additional character slot -- details here.
UPDATE! We are also investigating reports of slow patching and are working on a resolution. For a better patch experience, please restart your launcher. It will pick up where it left off and should be faster to complete.
If you have purchased a Legacy or Starter Pack, please see this thread for instructions on how to claim your items in-game.
If you have additional questions, please read this FAQ.
As per a discussion on IRC, as well as the amount of people grieving with these mechanics, we discussed having a pre-requisite on using these skills.
Basically, they should only be usable if your ships hull strength is below a certain %, lets say 25% or below. This would prevent people using it in PvP and Fleet Actions to rack up a high score, it would also prevent people using the skills in Sol to kill new players.
It also fits nicely into canon as well, after all, why would you abandon your ship, or ram it into another one if its in perfect condition. :-)
How about simply not counting ramming speed on the scoreboard? Prevent the skill from either being triggered in a non-hostile situation or prevent it from damaging allies.
When you aren't in a cruiser, the hull strength drops so quickly that if we were forced to wait until a certain hull % it would mean death before getting to use it. That might make the skill useless to anyone that's not in a cruiser.
Due to the large amounts of abuse these two powers are getting, I'd like to suggest restricting them to a couple parameters.
First off, Ramming Speed is being used to force the player into combat in order to utilize Abandon Ship in areas that it shouldn't be used -- i.e. Sol's System Zone-In, where new players and returning players can both be killed by members of their own faction who are using this exploit.
Secondly, Abandon Ship is being abused in PVP situations where players are running headlong into a cluster of enemies and spamming Abandon Ship immediately, in order to deal the most amount of AOE Damage possible. The more health you have when you trigger Abandon Ship, the more damage you do, so you see people triggering it with near 100% Hull and shields.
Third, Ramming Speed is being used often and repeatedly not only in PVP but also in PVE situations to take advantage of the damage it deals (Crystalline Farming, for example) being able to take down large encounters in just about a minute.
My suggestion would be to restrict BOTH Ramming Speed and Abandon Ship to be only usable once your ship is down to a certain amount of life. Something along the lines of 25%.
On top of that, restrict the usage of Ramming Speed to only be used while in combat, as Abandon Ship is.
And further restrict the ability to spam one then the other immediately after by instituting a global cooldown between the two abilities. Something along the lines of 30 seconds. That way, when you're at 25% hull, you have to make a decision of either Ramming Speed or Abandon Ship, not both.
How about simply not counting ramming speed on the scoreboard? Prevent the skill from either being triggered in a non-hostile situation or prevent it from damaging allies.
When you aren't in a cruiser, the hull strength drops so quickly that if we were forced to wait until a certain hull % it would mean death before getting to use it. That might make the skill useless to anyone that's not in a cruiser.
As it is now, you can use ramming speed as a huge alpha strike, for example, a tactic I tried which worked too well on Romulan Warbirds :- Tykons rift or Target Shields, High Yield Quantums, Ramming Speed, Engineering Team (to repair damage), This attack basically knocked the targets shields down, then ramming speed pretty much killed the target after the quantums knocked the shields down fully and hurt the enemies hull. To me, thats far to overpowered and in all fairness, not what ramming speed should be about, ramming speed should be a last resort when you know you are going to die but have a chance to take the enemy out with you.
I aggree though, in PvP and Fleetactions, the damage to yourself should not count.
Thank you Suricata for getting this thread up. Anyone wishing to provide feedback about this exploitative behavior being experienced in PvP matches and/or Fleet Action Missions please utilize this thread.
Ramming Speed and Abandon Ship are the skills in question at this time.
Have you been personally griefed?
If you feel either should be changed (what are your suggestions?)
How often have you been or seen this type of griefing take place?
How frustrating or enjoyment damaging are these behaviors to you?
Please keep the discussion civil and friendly as I will be bringing attention of the powers team to this thread once we have an adaquate level of response.
Due to the large amounts of abuse these two powers are getting, I'd like to suggest restricting them to a couple parameters.
First off, Ramming Speed is being used to force the player into combat in order to utilize Abandon Ship in areas that it shouldn't be used -- i.e. Sol's System Zone-In, where new players and returning players can both be killed by members of their own faction who are using this exploit.
Secondly, Abandon Ship is being abused in PVP situations where players are running headlong into a cluster of enemies and spamming Abandon Ship immediately, in order to deal the most amount of AOE Damage possible. The more health you have when you trigger Abandon Ship, the more damage you do, so you see people triggering it with near 100% Hull and shields.
Third, Ramming Speed is being used often and repeatedly not only in PVP but also in PVE situations to take advantage of the damage it deals (Crystalline Farming, for example) being able to take down large encounters in just about a minute.
My suggestion would be to restrict BOTH Ramming Speed and Abandon Ship to be only usable once your ship is down to a certain amount of life. Something along the lines of 25%.
On top of that, restrict the usage of Ramming Speed to only be used while in combat, as Abandon Ship is.
And further restrict the ability to spam one then the other immediately after by instituting a global cooldown between the two abilities. Something along the lines of 30 seconds. That way, when you're at 25% hull, you have to make a decision of either Ramming Speed or Abandon Ship, not both.
I agree something needs to be done, but not sure what........
Linear Mode
