PotBS goes free to play this month, so why not check it out for yourself?

I have played PotBS, so I am familiar with how ship durability and crafting work. I like the idea of crafting ships. And if you can craft a ship, then you need to be able to "lose" it, at least temporarily. That way the economy can be driven. However, I do not like the idea that a ship could be permanently lost like it can in PotBS when durability reaches 0.

Instead I would prefer to see the ship being disabled or designated in a shipyard while durability is 0. Then a crafted consumable device that can add durability markers to a ship up to its maximum could be used so that the "disabled" ship can be used again.

I keep thinking about those retrofit ships. Yes, we got our first one for a token, but if we actually lost it, it would take 500 emblems to get it back. For some players, that would be akin to permanent. But if the ship were disabled, we could switch to an alternate, head to Memory Alpha, or the Klingon version, and craft (or purchase on the exchange) the durability consumable and add a tick mark to the durability counter on the ship, thus re-enabling it to be used.

On a further thought, I think the durability system should be optional. Sort of like an Advance or Elite version of PvP. Also, if a player chooses to use the durability system for that match, then they should only be able to play with other players who have also decided to use the durability system. This way a player who is not using the durability system cannot shoot a ship out from under a player, who is.

I bring all this up, because as has been stated before, STO is missing risk. Even when you play on Advance or Elite, there is now risk or fear of the consequences of loosing a battle. You just go back in or repair and return and you are as good as new. Adding durability in some form would add that risk, but I do not think that any player should face the permanent lose of a ship, by loosing a battle.

-Keppoch

Exactly... there's a lot more this game needs before it starts catering to the masochists. Even if their "idea" is tied to the difficulty slider, it would be unfortunate as there are plenty who enjoy a challenge without the frustration of this "permanent loss" thing people get off on. This is a game not a real life simulation of space combat.

This is a casual game or at least I see it as more casual then other MMOs that I have played. Maybe this is a move to make it more hardcore, but I think that it would alienate more of the user base. If a durability system is introduced, I think it should model the WoW system. Meaning that once an item reaches 0 durability it needs to be repaired. Repairing would cost credits. Players could NOT repair themselves. Currently in WoW general use of items even cause durability. Any time you take damage there is a chance you lose 1 durability. Death confers a lose of 10% durability. Though the death penalty is turned off for PVP, the general use durability is not.

An economy will still be created because resources are removed from the game. Players will require money to repair their ship thus they will use the exchange to make it.

Lets not leave out consoles. In the shows and movies you are always seeing duty stations being blown out. Say once you hit 50% durability on your ship hull, the likely hood of taking internal damage increases, consoles blow out, or become damaged reducing thier effectiveness by a percentage amount. Not gone for good, they can be repaired of course. Your BOFF's become more prone to injury, the more severe the injury the longer they will be out of commission.

Permanent Ship/Item loss is what caused me to quit EvE and I will leave STO in a heartbeat if those rules are ever implemented here.

IWhile I think that a deep crafting system would be a great thing for STO, there is no need to factor in "loss".

He may mean T6 ships can be permalost - these would be fleet starships. That's what I got out of "top tier ships."

The durability I was referring too, was how many times a ship could be lost before it was unusable. Say like having a durability of 5 mean you can lose the ship 5 times before it was disabled. This is different from the ship's hp value.

-keppoch

Or at the very least it needs to be optional, so that the ones like yourself who do not want to participate in it can opt out and not run the risk.

As mentioned before, the difficulty slider is a way to do this. Say let the loss system be on the Elite level, where normal does not have that risk.

-Keppoch

We do not need T6 ships. That would invalidate all of the T5 ships people currently use and in some cases paid C-points for. T5 needs to remain the top tier.

-Keppoch