If I can go solo, I don't have to set aside 2+ hours to finish it... I can finish half of it and come back and finish it at a later time if I want. Thats what I really want to be able to do, do the STFs at my own pace. I am a casual player and there are a lot of casual players out there. If I have to do the STF on advanced or Elite to get the borg gear, then fine... as long as I can solo it. Doing 2+ hours solo on an STF should merit some awesome borg gear

However, teaming should obviously make things easier.

The plan at this point, according to Gozer:

Normal - minimum of Three people, much easier, fewer quality loot drops

Advanced - somewhere between Normal and Elite (hasn't been given any details)

Elite - a tad harder than what we have currently.

In this particular configuration, I have no problem with Normal getting Borg Sets and the currency to get Borg gear. However, if you want to fully solo endgame content, with that a viable option, with difficulty scaled to soloing, thereby making it nothing more than a regular episode that you can /faceroll through like everything else in STO, you shouldn't get that stuff since you aren't actually working for them.

I fail to see how soloing an STF means I am not actually working for the rewards. If I am soloing an STF, that means I will be taking on an even harder challenge than when I team up with people. I could quite possibly fail due to how hard it might be.

We can definitely use a 3man version of STFs. I'd use LOTRO as an example of how this can be done well. 6 man raids (normal max in LOTRO) are done well and there are many of them, but they are time consuming and usually complicated, whiile the slightly less numerous 3 man quests are more tightly focused. The idea is that you don't always have time or the ability to find a full group for something so they make it possible to do it with a pug of three.

Ideally I'd actually suggest separate STFs for 3 player teams and 5, but that likely isn't something that can be done quickly, so I fully support the idea of having normal be 3 man, advanced and elite 5 man. As for less drops - of course, less people to divide them between.

Anyway, as for the OP of 10 man teams for certain things, it would certainly make cap and hold a bit easier. I'd even go so far as to say PvP maps should auto-team you with the rest of your side in the match.

Again, if you want to try to solo it on Normal with how Gozer has suggested, I have no problem. However, most people that want to solo them think they should be no harder than Stranded in Space. Those are the people that I was referring to.

Its hard enough to get a team of 5 together, to play an STF, let alone getting a team of 10 together

i think the stf revamp should be like this

normal mode - 3 players
advanced mode - 5 players
elite mode 10 players


what you all think

Try

normal mode - 6 players
advanced mode - 8 players
elite mode 10 players

But that's just my opinion.

Yeah, nice idea, but I'm going to have say no. Part of the point in making the current version elite is to make is more accessible. By requiring even more people for normal mode that will have the opposite effect, even for fleets that have plenty of people on at any given time.

A counter proposal

nomral - 4
advanced -5
elite - ?

PvP and something else entirely new - 10

An STF that can be done solo seems counter-intuitive to the design, and even the name of the mission. Applying the difficulty slider will make them much more accessable to groups without optimal gear, or inexperienced/PuG groups.

But fundamentally the time vs. reward balance needs to be addressed. People need a reason to go do STF's. Now people only run them once per character to get their Borg items, or maybe rerun them to help a friend, then never go back. Before all the extra dailies were in the game, running Infected was a viable way to pick up extra emblems. Now there are quicker and easier ways to get emblems, and the RA version of the mission no longer completes for the VA turn-in. Fleets piled back into the STF missions when the Borg gear went live, but have largely abandoned them again, and PuGs for the most part end up failing due to team members dropping out, or lack of strategy/coordination.

The difficulty slider would give PuGs a better chance at getting through, but I wouldn't expect people to hang around and keep doing them as STF's are seen more as a chore than as enjoyable content now.