A new update is set to arrive soon in Star Trek Online. It will bring changes to the intelligence specialization, including the Intel Ship Mechanic and the Intel Bridge Officer Abilities.
The new update drops on March 17 but is limited to the PC version. No date has yet been given when it will reach the console version, though it's usually a month or two after the PC update.
Talking about this new update, Star Trek Online Senior Systems Designer Jeremy “BorticusCryptic” Randall revealed that since they first introduced the Captain Specializations, they have obtained a better understanding of these features along with their impact on gameplay. He added that the team made sure not to implement major re-works that would change the core functionality of any existing abilities. The focus was mainly on increasing the ease of use, feeling of usefulness, and impact on gameplay.
Penetrating Scan
What changes are coming? One is for the Intel Ship Mechanic which now takes six stacks of Penetrating Scan to cause Vulnerability on any rank of a ship, instead of varying by rank. According to Randall, the common player feedback was to move the stacks of “Penetrating Scan” to being self-targeted. However, Randall said the team didn't go for this since, among others, it removes the multiplayer aspect of being able to build stacks more quickly with multiple players scanning.
Intel Bridge Officer Abilities
For Intel Bridge Officer, eight of its abilities have undergone updates. The ability "Evade Target Lock," for example, has these changes:
- Base Duration of Disable/Untargetable increased from 1/2/3 to 2/3/4. Now scales with Control Expertise.
- The duration of the Disable is now subject to Control Resistances of the affected foe.
- Replaced Accuracy penalty with a Damage penalty.
- Affected Foes now suffer reduced damage against the user of this ability, instead of just missing them more frequently.
- Their damage output against other targets is unaffected.
- Durations of all ranks are now normalized at 20 seconds.
Randall shared that when it comes to accuracy debuffs, it's a mechanic difficult to feel or even verify effectiveness. Instead, what the team did was to incorporate a damage penalty to maintain the feel of the design while at the same time getting a more verifiable impact. After that, adding in skill interactions was obvious.
Check out all the upcoming changes here.
Star Trek Online is available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
