An enormous number of discussions about Space combat & tactics involve RSP.
I think this is sad. It's not Star Trek.

I never use it - it's a gamey kludge.

The power seems absurd to me. The implications are untenable.
It's like a steal from the Mirror card in Magic: The Gathering back in the day. It's fantasy.

Reversing Shield Polarity was used for a few things in the various Trek series - breaking away from a Tractor Beams was one. Fooling alien entities was another. But turning incoming damage energy into shield energy? NEVER. It's not Star Trek.

Think about it - if this was possible (jn Star Trek physics), an enormous amount of effort would go into making shields or multi-layer shield systems that could do this all the time. Energy weapon combat would become impossible. Energy weapoins would become useless. Starfleet - everybody - would have to go back to using missiles. Follow the thinking through and you realise. It's silly.

Absorbing incoming energy is a monster or master villain (usually comic book) thing.
It's not Star Trek, and it doesn't belong in this game.

You are really saying THIS isn't Star Trek while not saying anything about the fact that the Federation does NOTHING but blowing up ships all day? ALL ships?

So you are suggesting to accept all failings because another exists? I think even the devs realize that is not acceptable to have the Feds killing everything insight(granted, its likly that only exists because they ran out of development time and not because they didntgrasp inappropritnss of it)...so what are they doing? They are fixing the short sight with the inclusion of diplomatic missions...so one could argue that the correction of that over-sight is justification to argue the fixing of the RSP issue...if in fact it is not supported by cannon.

I agree with the OP, this shouldnt not work for advanced energy weapons in use on our starships. Its just one more gamey, gimmicky and destabilizing piece of Harry Potter wizadry that has been more of a detractor and distraction than a benefit to STO.

I say purge it.

Ugh.. look, they designed this power cus it filled a spot in useful powers that was somewhat unique... they probably couldn't find a canon name that fit, so they picked one that sounded like it fit (despite that it doesn't fit the canon of how the show's used it).

So, they misnamed a power... this isn't a big deal... in terms of "problems" it's about as severe as how empty / odd the planet Riza is compared to the lore.

They could just rename it to shut you up I suppose.. but it hardly seems worth the effort... they didn't want to make up a name, so they just used one from the shows that sorta sounded like it fit.

And don't give me that crap about how absurd the power is.. it's a game... it's no more absurd than how "science team" magically restores shield power or hazard emitters repairs the hull... none of it makes "sense" (an oxymoron in a science fiction game) but it suits the gameplay, so that's why it is there.

Gameplay before lore.... if they didn't follow this tenant, you'd all be *****ing as to how they didn't make cool / useful powers (because they'd be shackled by only using what was ever used in the shows or movies).

Im also one of those, who refuse to use that skill. Its stupid, stacking is even more stupid...lets remove it

I like killing things, it soothes the savage warlike nature of my ape-like begininings and provides a cathardic release of my primal agressions and inherent mistrust of all things not human, besides the Federation has really big guns.:p

That's your call. Enjoy being a free kill in PvP.

Look, all this pointless *****ing about how this or that element of STO doesn't live up to canon is stupid. Canon Star Trek is a TV show, limited by real-world things like SFX budgets. It doesn't translate perfectly into a video game, especially a multiplayer, class-based MMO game where balance is of critical importance. This is the same reason I have an issue with people who complain about the Federation missions where you basically blow up everything in your path. News flash, folks; this is a combat game. I don't have any interest in playing a Star Trek game where most of my time is spent being diplomatic and clicking on dialogue boxes. For every die-hard Star Trek fan who wants to play the peaceful, diplomatic Federation role there are many players who want to blow things up. Cryptic made the right choice here.

The game you want to play - a game enslaved by the story and style of the original Star Trek TV shows - is not a game that would make money or be successful. Get over it.

I guarantee you that sometime during development the devs said to one another "well gee whiz, if you have a group of ships that focus fire there's no way in hell to keep their target from dying". That might be more 'realistic', in the sense that it's closer to canon, but it doesn't make for a fun video game. RSP exists to give players a short-term potent defense against focused fire. It fills a 100% necessary role. Removing it would create an incredibly stupid PvP experience. I do not agree that slavish adherence to Canon is a better design philosophy than working to create a game whose mechanics are fun and engaging.

RSP is absolutely a kludge; but it's a kludge that was specifically implemented to solve a game-breaking problem.

Incidentally, saying things like "if this was possible, then in Star Trek technology..." is absurd. STO space combat takes place at 10km or less, and you can find lots and lots of examples in the TV shows where they talk about weapons with ranges of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. 'Realism' takes a back seat to fun and engaging gameplay ALL OVER THE PLACE. Get over it.

Please. Nobody can agree on a set of things that IS Star Trek, not even the producers and writers of all the various shows, movies, and spinoffs. Star Trek is many different things to many different people. YOUR opinion is just that - your opinion. Who's to say what is Star Trek and what is not? RSP does belong in the game, because it solves a problem that requires a solution in order to have a game that's fun to play. If you don't like it, fine. Don't use it. Enjoy being a free kill. It's there for a good reason.

Reverse shield polarity allows for longer battles and plus it is a strategy on knowing when to use it. Plus, the cooldown for this abilities is a long time and players do not have to worry about others just stacking up on this abilities and only using that ability for engineer BOs. It is creative making these kind of abilities because allows for more ideas to come for the game.

Reverse shield polarity lasts for 15 seconds. Not like it last about a minute. This game is based on timing and figuring out when to use your abilities. This is based off timing. This ability is good for tanking and allowing your hull to be repaired if you have enough ability(s) to get it back up.

This is just my opinion about RSP.

So, STO does have RSP and i have used it. So its real, and that makes it not a game right? We watch ST on TV and see it happening, so thats real too i guess. Who are these mere peeps saying this is not how Star Trek is supose to be? Who r these peeps saying this is just a game? Never mind, i just thought of something. Death is reality in its real form and since we dont really die in this (game) it must be a game. Then lets let the OP and the contradicting peeps have and enjoy their opinions with out flaming. They too are Rear Admiral 5's playing the forums because they have done their dailies. lol