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SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Been playing champions for like 9 months, decided to try STO out.

What I'm playing:
Engineer commanding an Escort, generally running in full defense (cause anything else just melts). Lt. Commander (18) with level appropriate gear, although its almost all game drops.

Overall rating: Severely disappointed

Specific comments:

Ground Combat
-STO has the worst interface for controlling a party of characters i've ever seen, which since this is 2012 and not 1992 is saying something. Your away team members are mostly useless, unless you want to pause the game and then race like mad to hand out orders to everyone before your 45sec is up. Oh yeah, and its a shared clock for every combat, so you get maybe two uses of it in a mission.
-Character is too fragile. Seriously, you breath on them hard and they die. Even with level appropriate armor/shield with weapon-specific resist.
-Enemies are a lot more resilient than you are. All of them.
-Shooter mode is almost fun, until you realize that you need your left hand for both moving around and reaching buttons as far over as 10. Default hotkeys poorly laid out.

I'm sure there's some uber tank build out there which can actually take a few shots and live, but for the average player that's not a realistic expectation.

Space Combat
-Preferred down? Seriously? Its space. having a locked up-down axis is ridiculous.
-Default key layout extremely poorly laid out. You basically need both hands right on top of each other to play, or your left hand is highly overworked handling weapons and movement. And lets not get started on ctrl/alt + keys while trying to control movement at the same time. With the speed space combat happens at, hand space is really cramped and that crowding is the primary limiter of how much you can do.
-Only being able to target enemies currently visible (rather than anyone in range), for ships with 360 degree sensors, is really silly. Also creates a control nightmare where you need 2 hands for hotkeys and another hand for the mouse to sweep the area just in case the enemies drop quantum torpedoes so you can pick them off.
-No obvious way to key the 'fire at will' button, which means if you want to use that you need to use the mouse to hit it. Ug.
(Honestly, I'm not sure what the answer to the space control dilemma is, but one of two things has to happen - either the mouse needs to be able to totally take over movement, which i haven't figured out how to do yet, or the mouse needs to be made completely unnecessary in space combat so you can dedicate two hands to hotkeys.)
-Enemies are uniformly too tough. Even the weakest enemies take *forever* to fight, and strong enemies are literally 30 minute to an hour pound key fests - the sorts of thing that should be reserved for end-arc 'boss' fights. Playing on only advanced I find myself getting single-combo killed against some tougher enemies with regularity. (An enemy in a one person instance who takes an hour to kill that can kill you in one combo is really not fair nor balanced, since one TRIBBLE up and you have to start over.)

Oh yeah, and DCing 50 minutes into a 60 minute fight is really not fun when its just some random tough enemy at the end of an 'explore this system' mission.

And as far as i can tell playing DPS is impossible. There's no way you're going to DPS down these enemies before they kill you, you need to outlast *everything*, so tank feels like the only viable role.

Stats/Gear
-Many stats completely unintuitive in what they do. I seriously have no idea what half the gear i pick up even does. +3.8 Starship flow capacitors? No idea. Game needs a gear tutorial just to explain what stats effect.
-I could raise a similar complaint about skills, both for your character and duty officers. its not quite as bad, and there are explanations that help somewhat (although i still don't know what some skills do), but the system is still pretty opaque.
-Would help if the game had a detailed *manual* accessible through Help which laid out the mechanics *with specifics*. I don't mean the vague general garbage it has now. Stuff like 'This is the formula that controls shield strength', or '+x shield strength makes a shield last about 10% longer vs. level appropriate enemies' or something that communicated the *specific nature* and *value* of particular stats, skills, etc... Instead it feels like a blackbox, which makes it nearly impossible to make rational choices.

Mission Writing:
-Missions are ridiculously linear. While that (mostly) flies in Champions, because the superhero genre is pretty straightforward at heart, Star Trek is about interesting choices. Should be multiple routes to meeting any objective, and more focus on critical thinking and problem solving.
-Too much combat focus, not enough problem solving focus. Some war storylines are fine, but it feels like 90% of the game is a war storyline.
-Edit: Many missions give poor directions on where to go, and figuring out if you have other missions near you requires routinely rereading all your active mission descriptions to identify location (which not all of them have! - like mission System 037-T Patrol, whose full description is "Secure System"...)
-Edit: Would it be so hard to circle systems at which we have missions in a distinctive color, and/or highlight blocks in the galaxy map where we have active missions?

Community Authored Missions
-Foundry doesn't seem to permit conditional objectives, forcing player-written missions to stick you on rails.
-Edit: Cannot search by location. (Serious wtf)

Duty Officers:
-Seriously the best part of the game. That's kind of a sad statement.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Well a few things, also coming from a new player:

    The first main thing is....it sounds as though you need to learn some of the tactics of the game, and yes they are there.
    For ground battles, I have to agree that some of the controls are a bit awkward. As for the NPC skills in your team, you realize you can control those buttons as well on your hot key bar, so pausing is not always needed (I never ever use it). Also hitting the right buffs/debuffs before heading into that oblivious group not noticing you will help as well. There have been times I have taken out a whole group of enemies within seconds of ambushing their little group by hitting the right debuffs/buffs and attacks. As for resiliency of your character, that depends on you really. Strafing so you can get those flank shots, using cover (yeah I know cover system is quite lacking but it has its uses) and making sure your NPC's are equipped with hypos and shield recharges will help you get through the fight easier. I can't stand shooter mode so I can't comment there.

    Escorts are meant to be squishy they are the DPS`ers, have a pleasant turn rate and can cannon the TRIBBLE out of cruisers while spinning circles around them. Using tactics to disable your enemy while painting them with cannon fire will be helpful (engineers and science officers are there for a reason right). The control scheme can be awkward, but I find mouse and keyboard to be the most effective, using the keyboard for flight controls and my mouse for skills. More advanced users will change their keybinds to something they prefer a bit more....since im not that advanced yet I still use the defaults which I can live with.

    Once you learn tactics in space, have put points into the skills that will enhance your powers, equipped your ship with equipment designed for your skill set and complemented it with a fitting bridge and duty officer crew, you should be spinning circles around your enemy with shileds to spare after the fight is over.

    As for gear and skills, they have a filter to help you plan. Firstly any equipment you pick up, right click it and go to info, it will tell you what it affects and how. If you are unclear how starship flow capacitors work then go into your skills and click them for more info, it will explain it and tell you which skills are effected by it. Filters found at the top of the skills page will help you decide which skills to focus on based on your ships load out (Boffs Doffs, weapons etc) so you are enhancing the things that work for you and not things you dont even use.

    The missions and stories you may enjoy more once you have a handle on your ship and tactics, since that seems to be your main issue right now....once you arent worrying over that you can take your time and enjoy the nostalgia of these episodes (any trek fan will be going oh yeah i remember that`during many missions)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    My only gripe, Shields are pitifully weak in space and ground. You can spam the shield keys all you want in this game and they still drop way to fast. Can you imagine how short the series would have been if the star ships shields dropped as quickly as they do here? The enterprise (all versions) would have spend 90% of it time being repaired in space dock every time they fought.

    750 day vet here.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Have you played for more than ten minutes? Not sure you have.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I've been playing for a little over a week and have been enjoying it, of course I also enjoyed Starfleet Command III so maybe I'm biased. I agree with Defendra though, shield strength seems chintzy. My fleet escort armed with two forward dual-heavy phaser cannons, a forward phaser beam array and a photon torpedo launcher couldn't even scratch the shields of a Cardassian Keldon class ship, but one hit from their phasers (knocked my facing shield from 100% to red). I'd like to buy my phasers from where they shop.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    defendra wrote:
    My only gripe, Shields are pitifully weak in space and ground. You can spam the shield keys all you want in this game and they still drop way to fast. Can you imagine how short the series would have been if the star ships shields dropped as quickly as they do here? The enterprise (all versions) would have spend 90% of it time being repaired in space dock every time they fought.

    Not having any problems keeping my shields up against anything in the game short of the Borg (and being that's kind of expected anyway). A lot will depend very heavily on skills and BOFF powers.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Heathen666 wrote: »
    Not having any problems keeping my shields up against anything in the game short of the Borg (and being that's kind of expected anyway). A lot will depend very heavily on skills and BOFF powers.

    I just do not feel that the shields should be a button mash fest. That in itself demonstrates how weak they are. Hull should have been the mash fest and that would be more true to episodes and cannon.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    defendra wrote:
    I just do not feel that the shields should be a button mash fest. That in itself demonstrates how weak they are. Hull should have been the mash fest and that would be more true to episodes and cannon.

    What do you mean by button mashing? I hit one skill when I see torps coming, my shields are fine. I hit another skill if im taking fire all on one side and my shields hold. If I want to be invincible for a bit i'll throw on a couple shield/tactical buffs and speed around popping ships until im left with the squad leader or a new squadron coming at me.
    I think its about more knowing when to use what skill and transferring the shields at the appropriate times. How many skills would be useless or ignored if they beefed up shields to a higher resilience?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Its always hard to compare games, especially CO and STO. I personally prefer STO because I don't like the cartoon/kiddie look of CO and the boring fetch missions.

    The only thing I agree with are the comments on Ground Combat. I prefer the pre-Season 5 combat before it received the revamp.

    Running 'full defense' you might want to try a Cruiser instead. Staying with an Escort you might want to consider DSP spec dealing max damage and popping them before they pop you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    jkstocbr wrote:
    Its always hard to compare games, especially CO and STO. I personally prefer STO because I don't like the cartoon/kiddie look of CO and the boring fetch missions.

    The only thing I agree with are the comments on Ground Combat. I prefer the pre-Season 5 combat before it received the revamp.

    Running 'full defense' you might want to try a Cruiser instead. Staying with an Escort you might want to consider DSP spec dealing max damage and popping them before they pop you.

    will running full power to weapons actually increase my damage output about 1000-fold? Cause otherwise I can't see it letting me pop anything before they pop me.
    cjytopher wrote:
    The first main thing is....it sounds as though you need to learn some of the tactics of the game, and yes they are there.
    For ground battles, I have to agree that some of the controls are a bit awkward. As for the NPC skills in your team, you realize you can control those buttons as well on your hot key bar, so pausing is not always needed (I never ever use it). Also hitting the right buffs/debuffs before heading into that oblivious group not noticing you will help as well. There have been times I have taken out a whole group of enemies within seconds of ambushing their little group by hitting the right debuffs/buffs and attacks. As for resiliency of your character, that depends on you really. Strafing so you can get those flank shots, using cover (yeah I know cover system is quite lacking but it has its uses) and making sure your NPC's are equipped with hypos and shield recharges will help you get through the fight easier. I can't stand shooter mode so I can't comment there.

    Its not even using skills, its basic stuff like positioning.

    If i don't issue position orders they do stupid stuff like get stuck behind terrain / my combat shield ability. Or they walk in front of me and spoil my shots. Why there isn't a 'everybody stop right where you are' command I have no idea (no, not set waypoints individually for each team member, one button that force stops everyone). Virtually every other real time control a team game has such a thing.

    The cover system also has serious issues. Crouching behind a piece of terrain doesn't actually let you fire over it, but it doesn't really hinder enemies from firing at you either. Similarly firing around corners.
    The control scheme can be awkward, but I find mouse and keyboard to be the most effective, using the keyboard for flight controls and my mouse for skills. More advanced users will change their keybinds to something they prefer a bit more....since im not that advanced yet I still use the defaults which I can live with.

    I absolutely hate hitting buttons with teh mouse. Takes too long to hit multiple things in succession. And you need the mouse to rotate your camera.

    Thus far I have not been able to find a satisfactory set of keybinds because of one of two things: (1) only being able to select as a target stuff on the screen with tab or hitting an attack (ie, won't automatically pick up targets you can't see) means you have to use the mouse. (Waiting to turn is unacceptable given you basically have to shoot down quantum and plasma torpedoes before they hit you). (2) there are too many essential keys for one hand. And I don't have 3 hands.

    The simplest solution would be to let tab pick up any target in sensor range, regardless of whether it was on your monitor or not.
    The missions and stories you may enjoy more once you have a handle on your ship and tactics, since that seems to be your main issue right now....once you arent worrying over that you can take your time and enjoy the nostalgia of these episodes (any trek fan will be going oh yeah i remember that`during many missions)

    Not having choices makes the missions pretty lame. The Trek I remember was about the *choices* the characters made (TNG/DS9).

    If all I wanted was a nostalgia trip, they're all available on DVD. I can watch the episodes.

    There are no meaningful choices in any of the missions i've done so far. That makes me sad.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Been playing champions for like 9 months, decided to try STO out.

    What I'm playing:
    Engineer commanding an Escort, generally running in full defense (cause anything else just melts). Lt. Commander (18) with level appropriate gear, although its almost all game drops.

    Overall rating: Severely disappointed

    The majority of the people on this forum will find ways to defend the game against the points you have put forward.

    Though there are some things that even I would point out which would make the game marginally better than the experience you have described, I still would agree with your overall conclusion.

    I felt the same way 3-4weeks into playing this game... overall very dissappointing.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    will running full power to weapons actually increase my damage output about 1000-fold? Cause otherwise I can't see it letting me pop anything before they pop me.

    Sorry, it just clicked that you are refering to Power Levels - Doh! - my bad :o It was early here.I fly a Cruiser and have power levels to set to full damage, and when I have flown an Escort I set then to Full Defence. The escorts do take a lot more work to get your attack angle happening V's a cruiser where I just broadside them with phasers. It all comes down to what people are looking for I suppose. Maybe give cruisers a try, youmay enjoy it more.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I hope this comes across as friendly, because that isn't always obvious on the internet, but some of those problems do have actual solutions.

    The first is, you shouldn't be playing on Advanced Difficulty until you have enough experience. It assumes you know how to optimize reasonably well, and are used to the controls. I didn't switch to Advanced until I started my second character. (I am currently level 23 on Advanced, so I'm not far from you, and I get most of my gear from drops as well.)


    Specific comments:

    Ground Combat
    -STO has the worst interface for controlling a party of characters i've ever seen, which since this is 2012 and not 1992 is saying something. Your away team members are mostly useless, unless you want to pause the game and then race like mad to hand out orders to everyone before your 45sec is up. Oh yeah, and its a shared clock for every combat, so you get maybe two uses of it in a mission.
    -Character is too fragile. Seriously, you breath on them hard and they die. Even with level appropriate armor/shield with weapon-specific resist.
    -Enemies are a lot more resilient than you are. All of them.
    This is one of those Advanced difficulty things. None of those things are true on Normal, except the limits on the Pause, which you don't need so badly. There are a couple of tricks to help with control, like moving Boff powers to you power tray, but since I don't know what your specific problems are I can't say much more.

    I'm sure there's some uber tank build out there which can actually take a few shots and live, but for the average player that's not a realistic expectation.
    I'm currently playing a healing Science character, so I'm alright at surviving, but you're right, avoiding death on Advanced is a challenge. Of course that's why I switched to Advanced, but I can see how you'd find it annoying.

    -Preferred down? Seriously? Its space. having a locked up-down axis is ridiculous.

    Oddly, this is actually a demand from CBS. Ships in Star Trek almost always have the same vertical axis, and CBS thinks it looks bad if people spend time upside down to each other.

    -No obvious way to key the 'fire at will' button, which means if you want to use that you need to use the mouse to hit it. Ug.
    This does have a good solution, actually. The Space Bar defaults to fire all energy weapons. I usually use the Space bar for energy weapons and the "2" key for my torpedoes. If you want ALL weapons, you can use the built-in keybind functions, to switch it to ALL weapons.
    -Default key layout extremely poorly laid out. You basically need both hands right on top of each other to play, or your left hand is highly overworked handling weapons and movement. And lets not get started on ctrl/alt + keys while trying to control movement at the same time. With the speed space combat happens at, hand space is really cramped and that crowding is the primary limiter of how much you can do.
    Not knowing how your power tray is laid out, all I can say is I generally use one hand in the ASDF area, one hand alternating between the mouse and the numberpad on the right. At your level, there really shouldn't be too much to keep track of, though. If I knew your key layout I could compare to mine, maybe see what the difference was.

    -Only being able to target enemies currently visible (rather than anyone in range), for ships with 360 degree sensors, is really silly. Also creates a control nightmare where you need 2 hands for hotkeys and another hand for the mouse to sweep the area just in case the enemies drop quantum torpedoes so you can pick them off.
    This is a problem. Zooming out helps some, and if you have shields the torpedoes aren't much of a problem, but I do often need to use the mouse to acquire new targets when I finish my current one.

    (Honestly, I'm not sure what the answer to the space control dilemma is, but one of two things has to happen - either the mouse needs to be able to totally take over movement, which i haven't figured out how to do yet, or the mouse needs to be made completely unnecessary in space combat so you can dedicate two hands to hotkeys.)
    This is another one that has a solution. To steer with the mouse, hold down both buttons.


    -Enemies are uniformly too tough. Even the weakest enemies take *forever* to fight, and strong enemies are literally 30 minute to an hour pound key fests - the sorts of thing that should be reserved for end-arc 'boss' fights. Playing on only advanced I find myself getting single-combo killed against some tougher enemies with regularity. (An enemy in a one person instance who takes an hour to kill that can kill you in one combo is really not fair nor balanced, since one TRIBBLE up and you have to start over.)
    I agree with your statements about how difficult things should be. On normal, they are that difficult. Even on Advanced, I don't seem to take as long as you, but I have a bit more experience. I would be more than happy to discuss this, or meet up in game to demonstrate.

    And as far as i can tell playing DPS is impossible. There's no way you're going to DPS down these enemies before they kill you, you need to outlast *everything*, so tank feels like the only viable role.
    Okay, this I can tell you isn't true, especially on Normal.

    Stats/Gear
    Yeah, that stuff can be kind of a pain, though right clicking for Info helps some.

    Mission Writing:
    -Missions are ridiculously linear. While that (mostly) flies in Champions, because the superhero genre is pretty straightforward at heart, Star Trek is about interesting choices. Should be multiple routes to meeting any objective, and more focus on critical thinking and problem solving.
    -Too much combat focus, not enough problem solving focus. Some war storylines are fine, but it feels like 90% of the game is a war storyline.
    -Foundry doesn't seem to permit conditional objectives, forcing player-written missions to stick you on rails.
    I can't help there, unfortunately. The Featured Episodes tend to have better stories, but I've only found a few pure-diplomacy missions, and only a few with meaningful optional components.

    EDIT:
    I absolutely hate hitting buttons with teh mouse. Takes too long to hit multiple things in succession. And you need the mouse to rotate your camera.
    I agree, using the mouse to hit buttons is terrible, so I don't do it. Currently, I control my level 23 ship entirely with my left hand, aside from activating batteries, Brace For Impact and occasionally looking around with the mouse, which I do with my right hand.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    More advice:

    First off if advanced is too hard for you play normal difficulty. It is there for a reason ya know.

    Space
    1) Get the right defensive powers, E power to shields to use when the fight begins, tactical team to keep shield facings strong, hazard emitters to heal the hull. All sci/eng boff powers should be defensive in an escort for the most part, tac powers to kill things.
    2) Set weapon power to max, shield to 50.
    3) Use autofire if you don't want to spam your 'fire' key.
    4) If high yield torpedoes are giving you problems use boff powers to deal with them. Scatter volley es good for this in an escort.
    5) Play on normal until you have a basic grasp on the game, why on earth does everyone 'start' on advanced if they don't understand the basic game mechanics? This just confuses me.
    6) Make sure your weapons are dedicated to maximum firepower in a single arc. In escorts a good layout would be dual heavy cannons, torpedo launcher front, and turrets in the back giving you maximum firepower directly infront of you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Oddly, this is actually a demand from CBS. Ships in Star Trek almost always have the same vertical axis, and CBS thinks it looks bad if people spend time upside down to each other.

    This is silly.

    I mean, sure, ships meeting peacefully would assume the same orientation based on protocol. No problems with that.

    Ships meeting in combat will not. Even on the only series I'm familiar with where the ships in combat are routinely shown from outside the bridge (DS9). The Defiant does barrel rolls and loops *on camera*, stuff we can't do in game.

    TNG and i'm pretty sure TOS rarely involve any actual ship movement you can see for combat. Stationary ship starts firing at Enterprise, and we rarely see combat from outside the bridge viewscreen. Generally combat starts after failed diplomacy, so that they started in the same orientation makes sense.

    Given DS9 has a more militant focus than either of its preceeding series explains a lot of the differences, as does the improved technology used for creating the combat scenes.

    I'm not familiar enough with any of the more recent Trek series, although the two i'm aware of (Voyager, STE) are exploration focused and not war focused...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I got as far as your first complaints about shooter mode, and already see they are invalid.

    You don't need a hand to press the number keys, you should be using power offsets in shooter mode.
    You use the R and T keys to move through any abilities you have on your bar, and use your mouse buttons to activate them.

    For more details, see the Power Offset information at http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2512
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    This is silly

    *shrug* Being silly doesn't make it not true.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    You sound as though you've never played a video game before. I'm also fairly new (day of F2P's launch) and have not experienced any of these problems. In fact the only time I had a rough time playing a mission was during the early Drozana station ones, and most of that was by the mission's design.

    I frequently and comfortably swap between RPG and FPS mode when I play ground missions. During combat I prefer FPS mode as it allows me to more rapidly swap between targets, sustain autofire (by holding the button), and increase my mobility (as I only need to press 1 button at the most, zero if I toggle autorun (which is super easy to do if you pop in and out of FPS mode)).

    I am also an Engineering officer. What Bridge Officers do you bring with you? Are you investing in their skills? What Kits do you prefer to use? Do you consider positioning before combat, or prepare pulls? How much faith do you put into your Bridge Officers, and do you keep their equipment on par with your own?

    I prefer the Bunker Kits myself, and before most combats I drop a cover shield, take two steps back and drop my shield and medical turrets. This shields them from enemies during combat; after that just flag your officers in the general area and chances are they'll receive fringe healing and benefits for the duration of combat.

    Just like in every game ever, your Bridge Officers and yourself are not individuals, they/you are a team. You should structure yourself around a strategy and try to stick to it, and be willing to adapt when your strategy won't work. When I face foes that like to toss grenades (one of the few ways in which my turrets take damage), I'll swap to my secondary weapon (which is a sniper rifle) and try to eliminate those targets first, then after the grenades have been thrown set up my "bunker" during combat.

    While on the ground I bring 1 Tactical Officer, 1 Science Officer and 2 Engineering Officers with me. My Tactical Officer breaks snares on my team and utilizes grenades, my Science Officer is a "medic" and has healing abilities, one of my Engineering Officers is on "shield" duty and has abilities that patch up allies' shields, and the last officer, also Engineering, also places turrets. I have Duty Officers assigned to Ground Duty to make it more likely for additional turrets or support drones to be beamed in when I use these skills.

    It's a strategy that took me a little bit to fall into but it really is very hard for most npc's to crack through. STO, like most games, is very unforgiving to those unable to make use of strategy or who try to "be the man."

    As for the space stuff it seems as though you've simply failed to understand how some of your skills work. Engineering ships turn very slowly compared to Tactical vessels, so it shouldn't be a surprise that your shields on one side take a constant pounding. You should put some of your weapons (such as beams or turrets) on Autofire mode, which reduces the amount of "piano playing" you have to do. You can set them to autofire by right clicking on them (as indicated if you hover over them).

    I have an officer on "hull" duty, who is just an Engineering Officer set up to remove physical damage and buffs; an officer on "shield" duty, who is just a Science Officer set up to remove science debuffs and patch up shields, and the rest offensive in their respective roles. I've only lost two space battles during missions, and one of those was because I hadn't learned that I can target projectiles yet. If you're losing in space, make sure you're focusing fire on enemy torpedoes and projectiles sent your way. The Romulans love this tactic and are annoyingly good at it; invest one of your Tactical Officers in Torpedo: Spread I or II and limit your torpedo usage during those fights. When the salvos of 3-4 heavy torpedoes come your way, fire your own torpedoes back and you'll clear that mess before it can harm you.

    In terms of the controls, they are incredibly industry-standard. If you're not using a mouse, you should be. You only need 3-6 buttons to do well in ground combat, and those are available in both FPS and RPG mode. In RPG mode set them to 1-6 and you're set, but for FPS mode set them to 123 ctrl+123 and alt+123. You can cycle between three "skill bars" in FPS mode by tapping R -- whichever bar your first 3 slots are highlighted on are the ones your mouse corresponds with. 1 = left click 2 = right click 3 = mouse ball/middle click. If you're taking too much damage, feel free to juke behind a corner for 3 seconds like in Mass Effect and you'll recover. If you're having massive trouble, pick Tactical or Engineering officers with the Aggressive (or other similar) trait. That puts threat onto them if they're hitting foes -- after that just give them a weapon with a cone attack such as certain phasers or miniguns.

    In space it is actually very very much the same once you realize what's going on.

    This sounds like a post made by someone who went into the game expecting it to be mediocre and then proceeded to go out of their way to find problems. It is in no way as bad as you've made it out to be.

    tl;dr The next time you log into the game, please take some time to read through, study and learn what abilities/options are being presented to you. I don't think you're stupid, but I do think you've glossed over some of the concepts introduced to you early in the game. You'll enjoy yourself more if you explore the game's features better.

    Edit:

    The mouse can totally take over movement in space if you hold down the left and right buttons. You can tap R to instantly start/stop engines, or manually throttle them with Q and E. For all intents and purposes, you only need the mouse to move your ship, and your free hand then activates abilities and controls your throttle.

    Edit 2:

    I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed or that you haven't figured it out.

    "The simplest solution would be to let tab pick up any target in sensor range, regardless of whether it was on your monitor or not."

    ... have you even opened your Options menu? I mean, it's one thing to have a complaint, but it's another thing entirely when that complaint has already been within your grasp and an option that you've always had the ability to "correct." I really hate to say this but it is getting harder and harder to take you as an experienced computer user. I guess that's because you're (I assume) a boy and boys don't read instruction manuals.

    PROTIP: Check out the "Controls" tab of your Options menu.

    I implore you, for your own sanity, to sit down and LEARN any game you play in the future before you play it. All of these complaints you have are simple menu options or misunderstanding concepts introduced to you through early game play. I really feel bad for being so mean but if it's going to help you learn and grow then you need to hear it. Don't be bad -- read! Explore your menus!

    >obligatory "And now you know!" "And knowing is half the battle!" "GI JOE!" comment
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I don't know what the OP is doing wrong if anything i find the ground combat to easy has been since day 1.

    Also why would you run an escort if your and engineer ...try runnnig a cruiser. Escorts are more suited to Tac as the can produce more dps...cruisers on the other hand are designed for engineers.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    gmacd wrote: »
    Also why would you run an escort if your and engineer ...try runnnig a cruiser. Escorts are more suited to Tac as the can produce more dps...cruisers on the other hand are designed for engineers.

    Tacs do great in Cruisers and Science Ships.

    Science officers do great in cruisers and escorts.

    Consequently, Engineers can run effectively in Escorts.

    The only trouble that was ever there for these "hybrid" takes on ship choice was that way back in the day you couldn't train the third tier on some key bridge officer powers. But these days you can get them trained by friends or even strangers so you can fill out an escort with the proper BOFF powers, and then you're flying a DPS machine with the ENGI innate powers to add defense and you've got an effective combo.

    You put an engineer in an MVAM and it's game on.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    -Enemies are uniformly too tough. Even the weakest enemies take *forever* to fight, and strong enemies are literally 30 minute to an hour pound key fests - the sorts of thing that should be reserved for end-arc 'boss' fights. Playing on only advanced I find myself getting single-combo killed against some tougher enemies with regularity. (An enemy in a one person instance who takes an hour to kill that can kill you in one combo is really not fair nor balanced, since one TRIBBLE up and you have to start over.)

    And as far as i can tell playing DPS is impossible. There's no way you're going to DPS down these enemies before they kill you, you need to outlast *everything*, so tank feels like the only viable role.

    Just wanted to chime in here. I'm a new player. Rolled tact. with an escort and spend 90% of my time with full power to weapons and engines. I play on Elite difficulty only. I've never had any trouble killing enemies or staying alive. The longest fight I had took place in the tutorial mission, and lasted maybe a few minutes.

    Just wanted to point out that you might be exagurating a bit or doing something wrong. :p
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Kerithlan, i think you've totally misunderstood my major complaint about ground. Its that there's no AI controls for your BOffs. No key to make everyone stop in place. No key to make them take pre-arranged formations around you. I would have thought stuff like this is standard in realtime games where you control a team, and i'm pretty sure i've seen it in multiple places.

    Instead to reach that same result you have to pause the game and set individual waypoints for each team member. That's so 1990s. Heck, i think you have to actually click the 'set waypoint' icon next to their portraits. (If that was hotkeyable it *might* be possible to order them without pausing, although it would be micro hell, especially since it doesn't let you set a waypoint if a character is in the way of where you're clicking).

    ---
    Key layout for ground is a different complaint, and I'll be honest, I don't like changing which effects my mouse keys control. It doesn't feel natural to me. But i can just not bother with FPS mode and the layout works fine.

    ----
    Space:
    Being directed at how to control movement with the mouse (seriously, where is this documented in game?) and extensive rebinding of keys has solved most of my space problems. It doesn't change the fact that the default key layout is really bad. When your defense of the default key layout is 'you can change it', that's not really a defense. IMO, a poorly designed default interface should reflect negatively on a game.

    Vaguely related, what's with the game totally rearranging your hotkey slots every time you get a new ship? Needing to rebind the entire control set every 10 levels is ridiculous. I mean, i understand it needs to find a slot for a new attack power (well, 'needs'), but does it really need to rearrange my 2nd row too? Its annoying to find a set of bindings you like only to need to reinvent the wheel when you get a new ship.
    kerithlan wrote:
    tl;dr The next time you log into the game, please take some time to read through, study and learn what abilities/options are being presented to you. I don't think you're stupid, but I do think you've glossed over some of the concepts introduced to you early in the game. You'll enjoy yourself more if you explore the game's features better.

    Please direct me to a detailed manual available in the game that actually explains anything. Oh wait...
    Edit:

    The mouse can totally take over movement in space if you hold down the left and right buttons. You can tap R to instantly start/stop engines, or manually throttle them with Q and E. For all intents and purposes, you only need the mouse to move your ship, and your free hand then activates abilities and controls your throttle.

    Yes, someone pointed that out, that was very useful (and no where explained that I could find).
    Edit 2:

    I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed or that you haven't figured it out.

    "The simplest solution would be to let tab pick up any target in sensor range, regardless of whether it was on your monitor or not."

    ... have you even opened your Options menu? I mean, it's one thing to have a complaint, but it's another thing entirely when that complaint has already been within your grasp and an option that you've always had the ability to "correct." I really hate to say this but it is getting harder and harder to take you as an experienced computer user. I guess that's because you're (I assume) a boy and boys don't read instruction manuals.

    See, I would have expected setting tab to 'target nearest' would have included that functionality automatically. Being behind you doesn't stop a ship from being the nearest target. It doesn't, however, which is rather disingenious.
    PROTIP: Check out the "Controls" tab of your Options menu.

    I implore you, for your own sanity, to sit down and LEARN any game you play in the future before you play it. All of these complaints you have are simple menu options or misunderstanding concepts introduced to you through early game play. I really feel bad for being so mean but if it's going to help you learn and grow then you need to hear it. Don't be bad -- read! Explore your menus!

    Just because its possible to set up an arbitrary set of keybinds doesn't make the default controls not bad.

    In general, given the number of options on the keybinds tab alone (which is where i spent most of my time looking), the fact that the game lacks a real manual makes it unsurprising that its easy to miss options, not understand how things work, or not realize certain types of control (eg, steering with the mouse, which is totally undocumented afaik) are possible at all.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    superchum wrote: »
    Tacs do great in Cruisers and Science Ships.

    Science officers do great in cruisers and escorts.

    Consequently, Engineers can run effectively in Escorts.

    The only trouble that was ever there for these "hybrid" takes on ship choice was that way back in the day you couldn't train the third tier on some key bridge officer powers. But these days you can get them trained by friends or even strangers so you can fill out an escort with the proper BOFF powers, and then you're flying a DPS machine with the ENGI innate powers to add defense and you've got an effective combo.

    You put an engineer in an MVAM and it's game on.

    The current issue with hybrid's is that you can not use the ship to it's full potential. This is because of the Console and Boff slots that do not match the captains skills, gaining no bonuses from the captain itself.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    "Please direct me to a detailed manual available in the game that actually explains anything. Oh wait..."

    Aside from the first 5 missions of the game, the multiple quests prefixed by [Tutorial], and the introductory quests that accompany the introduction of each feature as you learn them, you can also press the little ? button on your compass to access the Library Computer, which further explains features of the game. Beyond that each ability is explained in detail by tapping the P key and scrolling through them and you should always take the time to sit down and explore your game options whenever you begin a new game -- that's just common sense to be honest.

    Most of these tips regarding movement and control are stated in the Library Computer (of which you're reminded that you can visit whenever you want to after saving the Azura).

    Oh wait...

    You didn't pay attention early in the game, assumed that it would be like every other game you've played, and are now being snarky about it when you're being given help. It's bewildering.

    Regarding your Bridge Officers on the ground, you didn't directly answer my question regarding how much trust you put into them or how well you're equipping them, which is in all honesty 90% of your problem. You're trying to have complete control over them rather than giving them good skills, giving them good gear and trusting them to do their job. Laissez-faire.

    Edit:

    Your comments regarding the default controls on the ground aren't really relevant as it's clear you aren't fully familiar with the default controls. You're trying to ride a bicycle with one pedal and a gear missing every third tooth and you're not even aware of it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Please direct me to a detailed manual available in the game that actually explains anything. Oh wait...

    Yes, I agree the game needs a better manual. But with most MMO's they are designed to learn as you go because there is so much to learn, and its easy to get swamped. Also content/mechanics change on MMO's over time. I think STO partialy succeeds in doing this, I certainly didn't feel lost learning the game mechanics.

    You don't need to know every little detail about the game when you start anyway. Its also quite common that most games do not have a manual. These days you don't even get a Box, just a DVD case or a digital download.
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