Server Update 1/19: Episode 4 - 7 Rebalance

Posted: 19 January 2017 03:41 PM Hello Captains! With today’s server build, we have made balance changes to Episodes 4 - 7 Away Team missions. This rebalance included lowering the difficulty across the board, auditing the traits required to unlock certain challenge nodes and making the trait bonuses easier to satisfy. Below are some additional details regarding these changes, which we hope all players will enjoy. Why did we lower the difficulty of Episodes 4 - 7?

When we originally released Episodes 4 - 7 we had hoped to provide enough content to reward players for levelling and equipping their favorite crew members. Unfortunately we created an extreme ramp in difficulty around Episode 4. We recently had an opportunity to revisit our assumptions on how players were experiencing the episode content and found that only a small percentage of players were able to complete these episodes on even ‘normal’ difficulty. That’s not what we intended, so we took the time to rebalance the content. Our goal is for most players to complete Normal difficulty in time, while Elite and Epic remain the challenging difficulties they were intended to be. What were our goals with lowering the difficulty of Episodes 4 - 7?

Players should be able to experience the story of Star Trek Timelines with a reasonable investment of effort. Elite and Epic difficulties should remain aspirational and should reward players for the time they spent mastering those Away Team missions. Furthermore, we wanted to take the opportunity to ease the restrictions built on extremely rare traits. We have been too restrictive in the past, and hopefully this pass allows more crew to reasonably pass locked challenge nodes. How did we rebalance Episodes 4 - 7?

When rebalancing these episodes, we made many changes to the difficulty and content of the missions. Here are some of the ways the missions were changed

—Episodes 4 - 7 on NORMAL difficulty should be beatable by a player using appropriately levelled and equipped UNCOMMON and RARE crew.

—Episodes 4 - 7 of ELITE and EPIC difficulty still require specific, powerful, and fused Super Rare or Legendary crew.

—Many Trait Locks were changed to more common Traits (Episodes 4 - 7).

—Increased the number of Traits that give bonuses for some missions (Episodes 4 - 7). What is the future for Episode balance?

Currently we’re hard at work on improving the rewards for Episodes 4 - 7 elite and epic content. This could mean increasing drop rates of rare components; increasing drop locations for equipment that has few drop locations; or other changes. The current rewards for late-game elite and epic missions do not feel as rewarding as the effort required to master those missions.

We are also keeping a close eye on Ship battles; if these become the new difficulty bottleneck we will evaluate reducing their difficulty as well. Lastly, we hope to release future episodes that continue the story of Star Trek Timelines!



Summary of Balance Changes in 1.7.0:

Lowered the difficulty of Away Team missions in Episodes 4 - 7

—Includes Normal, Elite and Epic Difficulties

—Normal difficulty should now be beatable by a group of well equipped and leveled Uncommon or Rare crew Audited Trait Bonuses and Trait Locks for Away Team missions in Episodes 4 - 7

—Many Trait Locks changed to more common Traits

—Increased the number of Traits that give bonuses for some missions LLAP

Michael Woods, Game Designer Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 03:47 PM Thank you for posting these notes. They were helpful. Maybe consider sending these before the update goes out? So people aren’t coming in the forums freaking out and wondering what is going on? Especially when an event is about to start? Signature Andorian women are far more aggressive than Earth females. She made a… an overture. I had a choice - charge her with assaulting a superior or… mate with her.

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Posted: 19 January 2017 03:51 PM Thanks for the post. We were wondering what had happened. Signature [F2P] Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 03:52 PM This is a good direction indeed. Thank you so much for the notes. Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 03:53 PM Shran the Destroyer - 19 January 2017 03:47 PM Maybe consider sending these before the update goes out? So people aren’t coming in the forums freaking out and wondering what is going on? Especially when an event is about to start? You’re absolutely correct. We made a mistake and these notes did not make it into the update announcement. Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 03:56 PM A comprehensive list of the changes would be nice. Otherwise, off to the easter egg hunt we go. Or, at least, which locked nodes were changed, what they were changed to, and if anyone had “Rich” added to their traits because at the moment I think it’s not present on any crew, but is a bonus for a node (and other such trait bonus/requirement changes). Signature My crew spreadsheet

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Posted: 19 January 2017 03:57 PM Great news! I would also love to see a rebalancing of at least the Epic missions for the Monday through Friday Cadet Challenges. Considering with maxed crew there are still Rare rewards that are unattainable - mostly on the very last mission. Signature Wherever you go, there you are! Second Star to the Right - Member

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Posted: 19 January 2017 04:00 PM Thanks for the updates. Are you going to rebalance the chroniton cost of these missions as well? The costs seem out of whack now. Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 04:01 PM DB Woods - 19 January 2017 03:53 PM Shran the Destroyer - 19 January 2017 03:47 PM Maybe consider sending these before the update goes out? So people aren’t coming in the forums freaking out and wondering what is going on? Especially when an event is about to start? You’re absolutely correct. We made a mistake and these notes did not make it into the update announcement. WOW, huge change to Ishka Issues, Ferengi is no longer required, instead gambler! And only 440 skill check on Epic! Warping for 3* Polyalloys here I come! Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 04:56 PM Thx very much for the changes! Nice to see that things are moving in a good direction after all. Just a follow up question, are you going to fix the cadet challenges as well? All 3 challenges have a broken node which is impossible to clear with the existing crew. This could easily be fixed by adding a trait to these 3 nodes which one of the current crew members have. Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 05:28 PM DB Woods & Team,

Thanks! :D This change is really exciting. I was able to clear mission 7 on normal before, but the last few missions were definitely mostly luck! Lucking into the right crew and then good rolls b/c I had to fail some nodes. Now I’ll be able to clear Elite and even Epic on many of these missions, which is super exciting. Whereas before, w/o 5/5 crew many (especially in ep7) were outright impossible. Definitely puts a good bit of excitement back into playing the away team missions… I think this weekend I’ll take some time to sort out which ones provide the rewards I need most and start cranking away on crit-ing nodes! Awesome change! P.S. Unless ship missions were made tougher, I doubt the previous difficulty will become a bottleneck. Even a low level 5* ship could clear these through Epic (which is not hard to obtain through Dabo + patience). Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 05:45 PM Captain Durf - 19 January 2017 04:00 PM Thanks for the updates. Are you going to rebalance the chroniton cost of these missions as well? The costs seem out of whack now. Before, also, but even more now. Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 07:00 PM Jim Raynor - 19 January 2017 04:56 PM Thx very much for the changes! Nice to see that things are moving in a good direction after all. Just a follow up question, are you going to fix the cadet challenges as well? All 3 challenges have a broken node which is impossible to clear with the existing crew. This could easily be fixed by adding a trait to these 3 nodes which one of the current crew members have. This, but PLEASE don’t limit it to just one crew member who’s capable of clearing the node. That would still leave it a near snipe hunt to find the single crew member able to complete the mission. Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 07:48 PM Well done, thanks for doing it. Profile

Posted: 19 January 2017 08:44 PM I’m just now getting online after a crazy busy day. This is *SO APPRECIATED* by not just me, and those whom have already commented, but others that will play this game in the future. You did a great job by not just fixing one or two, but the whole thing! I spent part of my afternoon, and 3000 chrons, 3 staring every mission in the game. I found no issues other than some rough patches of bad RNG. I got my rewards and can currently say that I have completed every mission in the game at every difficulty, save for 3 reward nodes on cadets. This wasn’t possible three days ago, even with a crew crazy better than mine. Believe me, I tried. I agree some of the drops/rewards should be re balanced to reflect the higher achievement. Sad that i’ll miss out on those, but I’m happy to report to the masses that this was a successful effort on DB’s part. Bravo. Profile