Tzenkethi Battlezone Feedback, post 10-Man Fleet Attempt

Today, my fleet attempted the Tzenkethi Battlezone as two 5-man teams. After being unable to complete it due to several issues, I will now outline the Feedback, after the preface.

Preface: DPS was no issue, 3 members in each team were high DPS players.

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Main Battlezone Issues

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1) Timers: Each part of the BZ had timers on them, which were more of a hindrance than they were of a help. The UI for the "King of the Hill" areas have wording that states if we capture 70& we get control, but it doesnt also state that time has to expire.

The major issue with the timers also compounds with other issues I'll get into later.

2) Spawn Sizes vs Player Sizes: When the number of players in a zone gets high enough, the spawns get out of control. For example, in "Tug of War", if the player count gets high enough, each formation that spawns will consist of 4+ Frigates, 4 Cruisers, 2 Battleships, and 1 Dreadnought.

3) Asteroid TB Disparity: As a byproduct of the spawn issues with "Tug of War", the asteroids become nearly impossible to control, as an asteroid can be grabbed by any NPC, which includes spawning groups of the size I earlier indicated.

4) Lack of Knowledge: There are players who do not understand how to fight the Tzenkethi. Since they are an enemy where most conventional tactics don't work, this can cause the Battlezone and by extension, Queues more difficult.

5) Control Difficulty: Once a zone is under allied control, it gets attacked by Tzenkethi quickly, with control loss occurring within 5 minutes. This is further Compunded by the Timers each zone has which leaves players in a bind.

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Possible Solutions

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1) Add a condition to each zone where if we meet the requirement, change the timer to 10-20 seconds so the zone can clean up quickly and the players can get to other zones faster.

2) Remove the Dreadnoughts from the Spawn groups, and perhaps reduce the size of the spawns.

3) In "Tug of War", only allow the Frigates and Cruisers the ability to Tractor asteroids.

4) For knowledge, release a blog detailing the various roles each Tzenkethi ship is, such as the Cruisers.

5) Add a 5 minute grace period for cleared zones before they fall under attack again.

Notes from Priority One 269 Interview

(NOTE: Al did not say alot, due to unreleased blogs/content, watch for future blogs)

AoY takes place in 2270, after TOS Season 3

"Future Proof" Story Arc continues in AoY, separate, but interconnected from the TOS Episodes

TOS Faction will have its own tutorial, starting experience, sector block

Episodes will have unique dialogue for TOS Characters

More Celebrities coming in future blogs

AoY has been in planning since Season 9.5

Race options for TOS will be limited to that Era (No Trills, Cardassians, Pakleds, etc)

TOS Captains are considered a "Minor Faction", just like how the romulans are

AoY is FEDERATION ONLY, NO KDF/RRF

TOS Ships will have an option for 4-Digit Registries, and the NX Class will be upgraded for 2-Digit Registries

Blog Release schedule is 2-3 blogs/week

Eventually the TOS players will be able to run with normal players

No new Fleet Holdings with AoY, but a new one is in the planning phase

The game is up to over 500 ships

The TOS-Era ships can only be used by TOS Captains, the 26th Century Ships (Enterprise-J Lineage) can be used by TOS and Federation Captains, and the 31st Century Ships (Timeship Lineage) are available to All Factions

If you have the TOS and 26th versions of a ship, you can use the TOS costume as an option

There are free versions of TOS ships for those who don't buy anything

You dont need ARC to buy the ship packs if you have STO downloaded from another source Pre-ARC

Temporal Recruit Event is Delta Recruit 2.0, bigger, better, longer objectives

Each Account will get a new Toon Slot for the Temporal Recruit

More Queues coming, Basic, Advanced and Elite versions of new queues, no Elite/Revamped versions of older queues at this time

Elite-Only queues like Korfez are very cost-inefficient

No Information about No Win Scenario's return (Al was very diplomatic about it, could be coming back since the term was coined in Kirk's era)

Alot of really big things coming relating to the 50th anniversary, less than half of planned content has been revealed

Working with the new TV Show Like Defiance Tried): Not at this time, perhaps in the future

Launch Date is almost set, will have formal announcement when it's 100% locked down

Shitty thanksgiving summary.

Here's a summary of my shitty thanksgiving.

Firstly, we're staying in a suite that I was lied to about by my mother. She claimed it had two bedrooms, but what it has is a bad room and a pull out bed from the couch. The bed is cratered in the middle. Great, right?

Turkey: since we're in a suite, we pre-ordered a turkey dinner from Safeway. When we arrived and picked it up, everything was cold. Apparently, "everyone knows" that everything has to be reheated, and that the turkey itself would take two hours. We ended getting thanksgiving room service and gave the dinner to my sister.

Pie: picked up from Safeway, mother didn't check the labels, even after I warned her. All pies have nut allergy warnings on them.

Snacks: she also picked up snacks for everyone, but she focused on my nephew, so out of all the snacks, I can only eat Oreos due to sunflower allergy warnings.

What do you all think? Am I enjoying my holiday?

New Traits on TRIBBLE

Subject to Change, Some traits combined due to minor differences such as name and what they affect.

**SPACE**

Beam/Cannon/Projectile Training: +5% Beam/Cannon/Projectile Damage

Bulkhead Tachnician: +10% Max Hull

Fleet Coordinator: +2% All Damage per Team Member (Self Included), up to 10%

<INSERT> Defense Specialist: +10 <INSERT> Damage Resist

Imposing Presence: +7.5% Outgoing Hull Healing, +25% Threat Generation

Innocuous: +7.5% Critical Severity, -25% Threat Generation

Operative: +1% Critical Chance, +2% Severity

Shield Frequency Analyst: +15% Outgoing Shield Healing

Shield Technician: +10% Max Shields

Thrill Seeker: +15% Flight and Full Impulse Speed

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**GROUND**

Rifle/Pistol/Assault Training: +5% Rifle/Pistol/Assault Weapon Damage

Field Technician: -10% Kit Recharge Time

Frustration with my current situation, and how it affects the game as a whole

April 21, 2015. Launch day of the 10th "Season" of Star Trek Online.

There were many things added, many things changed, and new content for players to enjoy, right?

WRONG.

When S10 went live, there was two significant issues with the game: One was significant enough that it caused a severe amount of latency in the gameserver, and the other is an issue with the FPS (Frames per Second) being sporadic, and usually running down to almost nothing.

The latency issue was tackled by the Dev Team quickly once it was discovered what was causing it, since it involved their new ships. 

The FPS issue still persists, because it is only affecting a small number of players, and despite the Dev Team's best efforts, it still persists, and has several players I know saying they are ready to leave the game altogether, and I can't blame them, as I feel the same.

As of posting this blog entry, I have lost the following in-game:

Reputation, 51 Days-I can't run any PvE content to acquire any marks due to the FPS problem, as group content is impossible with it in place.

Dilithium Ore, 8000 per day X 6 Characters=48000 X 51 Days= 2448000 ore. Same situation as Rep.

Fun-I can't enjoy the game with this issue in place.

If it weren't for my stubbornness about the game, I don't think I would have caught the attention of the game's Executive Producer in a chat channel belonging to the STO Reddit fleets.

I want to play this game. I really do. But my hope for the game wanes with each passing day, even moreso since there are forum threads about the issue with no Dev Replies asking for any information, and suggestions to Devs via social media seem to go ignored.

But I will try to hold out for myself, and those who cant speak for themselves.

Kaiser Sigma Technical Specifications

Height: 54 Feet (16 Meters)
Weight: 8 Metric Tons
Powerplant: Orgone Energy Reactor
Power Output: Theoretically Limitless

--Weapon Systems--

Kaiser Blaster
A long-ranged beam rifle, it may not be fired while the Kaiser Sigma moves in for close combat. It can fire short bursts, or extended Energy blasts.

Kaiser Sword
The rifle becomes a double-edged sword, where the edges of the weapon become solidified energy. This attack can also be used against a group of enemies in a line, if they are within close range of each other.

Kaiser Claw
The Kaiser's transformable shield becomes a large grappling claw powerful enough to crush enemies in its grasp.

Kaiser Cannon
This is a Wide Area of Effect weapon, a weapon capable of striking multiple non-adjacent targets, that has the same caliber as a starship's main weapons array. Two shoulder cannons mounted on the Kaiser, along with a third cannon, on its chest area, fires a wave of Energy at its targets.

Kaiser Blaster EX
The Kaiser extracts ambient energy from its surroundings, and brings out its rifle, trapping the enemy with a stream of energy, solidifying the enemy. The rifle is thrown up, the Kaiser opens the third cannon in its chest area and flies up, connecting the rifle to the cannon directly, and fires a destructive energy blast at the entrapped unit, resulting in a cataclysmic explosion

Kaiser Sword EX
The Kaiser extracts ambient energy from its surroundings, and pulls out its rifle. The barrel of the weapon opens, and a solid boardsword made of pure energy is produced, roughly 8 meters tall. The Kaiser dashes in, first delivering a horizontal slash, knocking the enemy far and away. The Kaiser then chases the enemy and finishes with a thunderous vertical slash, shattering the oversized energy blade. The barrel of the rifle retracts to its original position, and the enemy unit explodes, unable to withstand the force of the attack.

Kaiser Claw EX
The Kaiser's transformable arm becomes a large grappling claw. It extracts ambient energy from its surroundings, and dashes in for the attack. With the enemy in its grasp, the Kaiser throws the unit away, and creates solid energy-based copies of itself, which fly off and grapple the enemy. The clones then turn into a prison made of energy around the enemy, allowing the Kaiser to accelerate to great speeds and cut the prison and the enemy inside in half using a solid, claw coated in energy.

My entry for the BranFlakes Farewell Literary Challenge

Captain Zolaria was walking to the upper command levels of Earth Spacedock with her mind set on a mission. A fair woman aged around her early thirties, she always got looks for her Silver Hair, and even more looks for her pitch black retinas and her blood red Irises.

As Zolaria made her way towards the recently Retired Admiral Brandon "BranFlakes" Felczer's office, she was reminiscing on how they had never truly gotten along, and she had hoped that perhaps they could at least part on amicable terms before he departed to begin his long journey.

'For the most part, it looks the same as I remember', she realized. The only major differences was that the Admiral was putting several belongings into large storage boxes for transport to his special warp ship, which had been christened the Phoenix Mk II, in honor to the original ship that initiated Earth's First Contact.

'Here goes nothing.' she thought, knocking on the doorway.

He turned his head over to her, and was a bit suprised.

"Captain Zolaria.", he stated with a straight tone of voice.

"Admiral.", I replied, with an equally straight tone. "Permission to speak freely?"

After thinking it over for a second, he simply replied, "Granted."

'Here goes.' "Brandon, although our personalities have clashed in our careers in StarFleet, and we have had alot of arguments, which even lead to you having my ship pulled off of your division and reassigned to Sector Patrol, I just wanted to apologize for everything that happened, and wish you well on your journey into the great unknown with the Mk II." I offered my hand, hoping that he would take it.

Putting a model of his earlier posting, one of the newer Avenger-Class ships down, Brandon calmly walked over and took my hand, shaking it in a firm grip.

"Thank you Zolaria. Although we never got along, I hope to see you again sometime. I'll keep an eye out for the Tesadora Advent during my journey, maybe we can get together and have a game of fizzbin." After releasing my hand, he stepped back. "I gotta get back to this. This will be Captain McNesby's office tomorrow, after all."

With a small smile, I replied, "No problem. Safe journey, Brandon."

With all said and done, I returned to my ship, feeling a great weight lifted off of my shoulders.

THE NEXT DAY

After assembling the crew in the ship's large cargo bay, I had the main viewer there with Brandon's ship, being escorted out of the system by the Enterprise.

As it passed by, I turned to my Comm Officer. "K'Rona, open a channel to the Mk II."

K'Rona, the Half-Klingon Communications Officer typed in a few keys and replied, "Channel is open Captain."

With that, I tuned to the crew. "CREW! ATTENTION!"

With a loud, resounding snap, the crew instantly came to attention.

My next order was a simple one. "SALUTE!"

As we watched the Enterprise & Mk II leave orbit, we kept our salute.

When the ships had warped out, I called out "At Ease. Crew, remember that man. He stood toe to toe with the Klingons, the Borg, the True Way, the Voth, the Undine, and the Iconians. although he is gone, he will NEVER be forgotten." a pause, then "Dismissed."

As the crew filed out to begin the day, I continued to stare out at the stars, hoping that someday, our paths would cross again, and maybe, just maybe I could finally beat him at Fizzbin.