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Auto activation of skills for PC?

I've played both the console and pc versions and to be honest I am somewhat annoyed at the PC version's lack of auto activation. I find it annoying having to split my focus between having fun and manually activating endless amounts of skills and abilities.. will they ever put this feature into the PC version? I think it's be a lot easier for people. especially new players
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  • keladorkelador Member Posts: 318 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    Google STO Keybind Application thats what most people use who want to use macro/keybinds, To be honest the auto execute on the console is handy as the console UI is a pain to use during combat but its also not the best thing in the world.. As timing your abilities is important and auto excute doesn't teach new players that.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    You can find a keybinder online by just doing a quick google search. The game also has a built in keybinding utility that you can read about here.
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  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    I wouldn't mind adding auto-activation. It seems rather elegant.
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    It supports key binds to manually activate abilities, but not to auto-activate abilities. The point of auto-activation is that you do not need to press any buttons. A in-game condition is met, and the ability is triggered.
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  • wendysue53wendysue53 Member Posts: 1,569 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    It's essentially there. You just have to set it up.
  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,461 Arc User
    I refuse to use macros as I like to decide when to trigger my abilities. It's bad enough people macro every ability to space bar already, yet people want to be even more lazy!? Another 'I win' request IMO. Console versions don't have keyboards to assist them, and for this particular game, I prefer the PC version as it's more to my liking.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    leemwatson wrote: »
    It's bad enough people macro every ability to space bar already, yet people want to be even more lazy!? Another 'I win' request IMO.

    People who preform the best in this game actually do the polar opposite of what you posted. Putting everything on the space bar and just pressing it over and over is far from the most efficient way to run your build. The key is knowing what goes on the macro and what should be done manually.

    Those who tell you it's nothing more then mashing space bar don't have any idea what they're talking about.
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  • wendysue53wendysue53 Member Posts: 1,569 Arc User
    Generally, I just use the auto-fire feature (Right mouse-click the icon) of the central weapons group, and then choose what I need when I need it after that.

    Sadly, you can get dependent on auto-fire and sit there like an idiot rubber ducky at a shooting gallery because you forgot to make sure auto-fire was ON! Yes... I've done this and thought something was wrong with my ship. :/
  • wendysue53wendysue53 Member Posts: 1,569 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    Those who tell you it's nothing more then mashing space bar don't have any idea what they're talking about.

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  • asuran14asuran14 Member Posts: 2,335 Arc User
    The only auto-fire/activation feature would be for ground weapons. It would be nice to have it function somewhat like the weapons in space with being able to right click on your weapon's main or secondary attack to make it auto-fire. I can see having the modules be manual activation, but the weapon firing for me would be nice to have the option to switch it to auto-fire (even if it were a feature of certain weapon types like the full-auto rifle.). This would mostly just free you up to focus on other things, as well as your module activation, since honestly firing your main weapon is not always something hugely important (if it does become that way you can switch back to manual-fire).
  • wendysue53wendysue53 Member Posts: 1,569 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    you can set your space weapons to auto-fire. (right mouse-click the icon to set the weapon)
    you have to choose target and 'fire' to start them, but it will continue from there.
    The icons will have a green outline once set.


    that's for the OP. It's not macro.
    Post edited by wendysue53 on
  • stee1maxstee1max Member Posts: 227 Arc User
    lol Wonder how people used to play before the console version got released and it was fine for them to manage all the abilities and such, but suddenly NOPE, I want aim assistance and hack activation. You have the greatest benefit at your advantage - manual control of your ship.
  • arionisaarionisa Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User
    Wow, I read all about keybinds, came really close to setting some up. Then I realized that if I used keybinds, space combat would literally become nothing more than steering my ship around. Weapons already auto fire, steering the ship (mostly) requires very little thought or effort, so deciding what skills/abilities to activate, and when, then actually activating them is the main game interaction during space combat. Take that away and there is basically nothing left for the player to do.

    And yet people are whining asking for all that to be automated. Why would anyone want to get rid of the only real game interaction they have during space combat ? Someone is actually annoyed that they have to actually interact with the game ?

    Sorry, I just don't get it.
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  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    We don't need no console hax here

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  • groomofweirdgroomofweird Member Posts: 1,045 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    I found the auto activation options to be somewhat limited in terms of choice on the console version. I remember wishing I could manually set the auto activate parameters.
    On pc it would be a nice feature if it were more detailed.
    I've considered using keybinds, but honestly I'm put off by the fact I use several different loadouts and ships on each character, resulting in different tray configurations and I dont know how this would work with keybinding.
    That said I know my performance would increase considerably as I seem to spend a large portion of time clicking buffs, costly time.
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  • nikeixnikeix Member Posts: 3,972 Arc User
    I tend to think of the system as "standing orders" and really look forward to having it on PC. Sorry, but mashing lots of extra buttons in a capital ship simulator that you're always going to press under circumstance X doesn't make play more skillful or more engaging. I have crew for a reason - make it so.
  • tempus64tempus64 Member Posts: 806 Arc User
    I've considered using keybinds, but honestly I'm put off by the fact I use several different loadouts and ships on each character, resulting in different tray configurations and I dont know how this would work with keybinding.
    That said I know my performance would increase considerably as I seem to spend a large portion of time clicking buffs, costly time.

    You don't use the visible tray for your keybinds. For example, I have row 10 for my space bar, row 9 for G and row 8 for C. I dup row 10 and 9 except that row 10 has attack stuff in it as well. Row 9 is to keep the cycle going without down time. So then you just load up those rows with the skills you want even if they're dup'd between rows. I use the same keybind file on pretty much every toon, it's just what skills I put in those rows that changes. And no, it's not just button mashing. I use this primarily for cycling type things like tac team, EPTW, EPTS etc. It allows you to focus in battle on the skills you actually use to kill things.
  • meimeitoomeimeitoo Member Posts: 12,594 Arc User
    I wouldn't mind adding auto-activation. It seems rather elegant.
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    It supports key binds to manually activate abilities, but not to auto-activate abilities. The point of auto-activation is that you do not need to press any buttons. A in-game condition is met, and the ability is triggered.


    But so long as said auto-activation has a will of its own, and starts ruining my timing, it's a BAD idea.

    Either that, or the auto-activation's timing is perfect... after which everyone does >400K.
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  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    I use binds for things that I know I want to continually fire in a battle. Things like Tac Team, and Emergency Powers.

    I keep everything else on 'manual' control because I'm a control freak. I don't always want other powers to fire the second they're available, sometimes you have 1 enemy left and another group coming, you don't want to put everything on cool down just to take down a single foe or something you can kill easily without restarting your cool down cycle.

    Of course, I still won't buy a car with an automatic transmission because I don't like the idea of the car deciding when to shift, so maybe that's just me being me.
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  • alcyoneserenealcyoneserene Member Posts: 2,414 Arc User
    Not having console, I don't know how it's like there, but on PC I use the game's build in function after manually writing up the keybinds file for trays activation, then place tray 4 as weapons buffs (tac teams, attack patterns, EP2W, DEM) tray 5 for quick heals when getting damaged a lot, and as for everything else I toggle manually as needed because that requires some strategy and coordination that an automated system wouldn't know how to do since it can't anticipate every second of one's piloting decisions and those of their team mates.
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  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    kelador wrote: »
    Google STO Keybind Application thats what most people use who want to use macro/keybinds, To be honest the auto execute on the console is handy as the console UI is a pain to use during combat but its also not the best thing in the world.. As timing your abilities is important and auto excute doesn't teach new players that.
    Timing your abilities is only important if you're looking to get on some third-party DPS epeen list.

    The game itself is easy, mostly auto-win and all the popular content can be utterly curbstomped in no time flat just by binding everything to spacebar.
    nikeix wrote: »
    I tend to think of the system as "standing orders" and really look forward to having it on PC. Sorry, but mashing lots of extra buttons in a capital ship simulator that you're always going to press under circumstance X doesn't make play more skillful or more engaging. I have crew for a reason - make it so.
    My thoughts exactly.

    Our bridge officers shouldn't need to be reminded every 15 seconds to keep using an ability. That's ridiculous.
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    I wouldn't mind adding auto-activation. It seems rather elegant.
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    It supports key binds to manually activate abilities, but not to auto-activate abilities. The point of auto-activation is that you do not need to press any buttons. A in-game condition is met, and the ability is triggered.


    But so long as said auto-activation has a will of its own, and starts ruining my timing, it's a BAD idea.

    Either that, or the auto-activation's timing is perfect... after which everyone does >400K.
    If auto-activation starts ruining your timing, you're free to not use it. I for one don't give a flying f about timing so I say auto-activation is a GOOD idea.
  • meimeitoomeimeitoo Member Posts: 12,594 Arc User
    warpangel wrote: »
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    I wouldn't mind adding auto-activation. It seems rather elegant.
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    It supports key binds to manually activate abilities, but not to auto-activate abilities. The point of auto-activation is that you do not need to press any buttons. A in-game condition is met, and the ability is triggered.


    But so long as said auto-activation has a will of its own, and starts ruining my timing, it's a BAD idea.

    Either that, or the auto-activation's timing is perfect... after which everyone does >400K.

    If auto-activation starts ruining your timing, you're free to not use it. I for one don't give a flying f about timing so I say auto-activation is a GOOD idea.


    Auto-activation, as persuasively argued by others, is horribad, really. Tl;dr: I don't want to pop my APA just for a single small target. Getting it right would require an enormous amount of A.I. (more than is currently possible even, I think). Will I use my GW on the first few ships, or on the second group?! Trivial decisions for a human, but guaranteed to be almost impossible to get right with a game's A.I. And by the time it could be done properly, the A.I. might as well just finish the entire mission for you, as, equally guaranteed, the fun would have been sucked out of the game entirely. As well as all challenge.

    Then there's the 'other' timing, of course, where you need to be careful not to activate 'expensive' abilities (in seconds) that will lock out your firing cycle. That's why I only do 78K, on a good day, and a skilled pilot does > 400K in ISA. So, yeah, either auto-activation would get this right too, in which case everyone suddenly does in the hundreds of K DPS, causing an exponential power creep, or it simply blindly activates abilities, thus constantly messing up this crucial timing aspect of the game, and thus be useless.
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  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    warpangel wrote: »
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    I wouldn't mind adding auto-activation. It seems rather elegant.
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    It supports key binds to manually activate abilities, but not to auto-activate abilities. The point of auto-activation is that you do not need to press any buttons. A in-game condition is met, and the ability is triggered.


    But so long as said auto-activation has a will of its own, and starts ruining my timing, it's a BAD idea.

    Either that, or the auto-activation's timing is perfect... after which everyone does >400K.

    If auto-activation starts ruining your timing, you're free to not use it. I for one don't give a flying f about timing so I say auto-activation is a GOOD idea.


    Auto-activation, as persuasively argued by others, is horribad, really. Tl;dr: I don't want to pop my APA just for a single small target. Getting it right would require an enormous amount of A.I. (more than is currently possible even, I think). Will I use my GW on the first few ships, or on the second group?! Trivial decisions for a human, but guaranteed to be almost impossible to get right with a game's A.I. And by the time it could be done properly, the A.I. might as well just finish the entire mission for you, as, equally guaranteed, the fun would have been sucked out of the game entirely. As well as all challenge.

    Then there's the 'other' timing, of course, where you need to be careful not to activate 'expensive' abilities (in seconds) that will lock out your firing cycle. That's why I only do 78K, on a good day, and a skilled pilot does > 400K in ISA. So, yeah, either auto-activation would get this right too, in which case everyone suddenly does in the hundreds of K DPS, causing an exponential power creep, or it simply blindly activates abilities, thus constantly messing up this crucial timing aspect of the game, and thus be useless.

    Yeah, the only thing I would even consider using it for is heals, and even then it's not always a good idea. For example, say I have it set so when my shields hit 50% I use science team, if I'm fighting borg and have been hit by shield neutralizer or whatever it's called I definitely do NOT want to heal at 50%, I want to wait until the debuff expires and THEN use my shield heals.
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  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,461 Arc User
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    warpangel wrote: »
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    I wouldn't mind adding auto-activation. It seems rather elegant.
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    It supports key binds to manually activate abilities, but not to auto-activate abilities. The point of auto-activation is that you do not need to press any buttons. A in-game condition is met, and the ability is triggered.


    But so long as said auto-activation has a will of its own, and starts ruining my timing, it's a BAD idea.

    Either that, or the auto-activation's timing is perfect... after which everyone does >400K.

    If auto-activation starts ruining your timing, you're free to not use it. I for one don't give a flying f about timing so I say auto-activation is a GOOD idea.


    Auto-activation, as persuasively argued by others, is horribad, really. Tl;dr: I don't want to pop my APA just for a single small target. Getting it right would require an enormous amount of A.I. (more than is currently possible even, I think). Will I use my GW on the first few ships, or on the second group?! Trivial decisions for a human, but guaranteed to be almost impossible to get right with a game's A.I. And by the time it could be done properly, the A.I. might as well just finish the entire mission for you, as, equally guaranteed, the fun would have been sucked out of the game entirely. As well as all challenge.

    Then there's the 'other' timing, of course, where you need to be careful not to activate 'expensive' abilities (in seconds) that will lock out your firing cycle. That's why I only do 78K, on a good day, and a skilled pilot does > 400K in ISA. So, yeah, either auto-activation would get this right too, in which case everyone suddenly does in the hundreds of K DPS, causing an exponential power creep, or it simply blindly activates abilities, thus constantly messing up this crucial timing aspect of the game, and thus be useless.

    Oooooooh! Equating DPS to actual skill is re-heally bad! Anyone can copy/paste builds. I'd shudder to think if Starfleet actually had a 'league' of DPS in actuality! Lol. At the end of the day, if players are more concerned about other people's DPS, or whether they are Space-Bar-Spamming, then they're not having fun! I don't even have weapons on auto. As I stack Beams and Torps, there are times I don't want to waste a Spread on 1 enemy. I prefer the more tactical and more skilled timing approach.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • adamkafeiadamkafei Member Posts: 6,539 Arc User
    It might be nice to have something akin to the weapon auto-fire that exists to be made for boff skills, in my case mostly to save on UI lag on my macros that run every 500 milliseconds (which I found to be about the optimal balance between 'auto' ability triggers, manual ability triggers and UI lag) then again of course, the reason I don't use the existing auto-fire system is that it doesn't have the option to activate when I select a target, I either have to hit the fire button each time I select a new target or allow it to fire endlessly which means the game auto-acquires targets which robs me of control over battles, which in turn is even less fun than STO normally is.
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  • eldritchxeldritchx Member Posts: 120 Arc User
    It's actually possible to build for auto activation, picking skills and traits that have close to 100% uptime as possible, and leaving skills that have long downtimes to manual activation. CSV with Withering Barrage and 100% uptime on Tactical Initiative is an example.
  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    Cryptic put in weapon auto-fire. Never sure why they didn't just copy that programming to other actions. Seems a no-brainer.
    Sometimes I think I play STO just to have something to complain about on the forums.
  • meimeitoomeimeitoo Member Posts: 12,594 Arc User
    eldritchx wrote: »
    It's actually possible to build for auto activation, picking skills and traits that have close to 100% uptime as possible, and leaving skills that have long downtimes to manual activation. CSV with Withering Barrage and 100% uptime on Tactical Initiative is an example.


    "100% uptime on Tactical Initiative," how do you manage that?! AHOD helps, of course, but I don't see how you'd get to 100% uptime on it. Enlighten me, please! :)
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  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    warpangel wrote: »
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    I wouldn't mind adding auto-activation. It seems rather elegant.
    The PC version supports Key Binds to auto activate abilities.

    It supports key binds to manually activate abilities, but not to auto-activate abilities. The point of auto-activation is that you do not need to press any buttons. A in-game condition is met, and the ability is triggered.


    But so long as said auto-activation has a will of its own, and starts ruining my timing, it's a BAD idea.

    Either that, or the auto-activation's timing is perfect... after which everyone does >400K.

    If auto-activation starts ruining your timing, you're free to not use it. I for one don't give a flying f about timing so I say auto-activation is a GOOD idea.


    Auto-activation, as persuasively argued by others, is horribad, really. Tl;dr: I don't want to pop my APA just for a single small target. Getting it right would require an enormous amount of A.I. (more than is currently possible even, I think). Will I use my GW on the first few ships, or on the second group?! Trivial decisions for a human, but guaranteed to be almost impossible to get right with a game's A.I. And by the time it could be done properly, the A.I. might as well just finish the entire mission for you, as, equally guaranteed, the fun would have been sucked out of the game entirely. As well as all challenge.

    Then there's the 'other' timing, of course, where you need to be careful not to activate 'expensive' abilities (in seconds) that will lock out your firing cycle. That's why I only do 78K, on a good day, and a skilled pilot does > 400K in ISA. So, yeah, either auto-activation would get this right too, in which case everyone suddenly does in the hundreds of K DPS, causing an exponential power creep, or it simply blindly activates abilities, thus constantly messing up this crucial timing aspect of the game, and thus be useless.

    To quote myself since you apparently didn't read what you quoted yourself:
    you're free to not use it.
    I have APA on the spacebar, as well as most other buffs.

    The game is too easy to care.

    Of course, the real fun in auto-activation would be customizing the activation conditions. But really just being able to have stuff "always on" without having to tap spacebar would be a good start.

    Because the game is too easy to care.
  • meimeitoomeimeitoo Member Posts: 12,594 Arc User
    warpangel wrote: »
    you're free to not use it.


    If the sole argument pro auto-activation is that you can disable it, then I'd say you're making a bad case in favor of it. :)
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  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    warpangel wrote: »
    you're free to not use it.


    If the sole argument pro auto-activation is that you can disable it, then I'd say you're making a bad case in favor of it. :)
    If the sole argument con auto-activation is that you don't want to use it, then I'd say you're making abad case against it. :)
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