You can currently have more then one front or back weapon on autofire. Put the weapons next to each other, then quickly right click the weapons back and forth and eventually you will get both weapons green and autofiring. I did this in my T2 escort ship because I am not paying to spam the space bar key for something as stupidly simple as fire all forward cannons/phasers when available.
I have no issue with hotkeying special abilities, directing power to shields manually, hitting spacebar to attack when an enemy comes into your weapon arc range, etc. However, spamming the spacebar is annoying, painful and only detracts from the game. There is nothing tactical about having to spam the spacebar to fire weapons every 2 seconds in this game.
I've been told you can get up to 3 autofiring front or back weapons this way, more if you lag out the game by taking as screenshot or something similar.
You can currently have more then one front or back weapon on autofire. Put the weapons next to each other, then quickly right click the weapons back and forth and eventually you will get both weapons green and autofiring. I did this in my T2 escort ship because I am not paying to spam the space bar key for something as stupidly simple as fire all forward cannons/phasers when available.
I have no issue with hotkeying special abilities, directing power to shields manually, hitting spacebar to attack when an enemy comes into your weapon arc range, etc. However, spamming the spacebar is annoying, painful and only detracts from the game. There is nothing tactical about having to spam the spacebar to fire weapons every 2 seconds in this game.
I've been told you can get up to 3 autofiring front or back weapons this way, more if you lag out the game by taking as screenshot or something similar.
~ Foulwin
Let's hope Cryptic does not "fix" that in a patch
Sector space, open skill window. The game tends to lag with the skill window open and you can set multiple weapons to autofire...
It's a nice workaround, and the game actually works fine, but does not fix the actual issue...
I'm not asking to make the game easier, I'm asking for the game to be more comfortable.
Difficulty =/= tediousness.
Making a game more tedious does not make it more difficult. Making a game less tedious does not make it any easier.
I play a chess quite a bit, I've played on all kind of boards. Having a chessboard with those little nicely painted statues, and detailed models looks really good, but sometimes the pieces are harder to tell apart. Playing with a regular $2 chessboard with the standard chess pieces is much better as they are easier to tell apart.
On both boards, the game has the same complexity and difficulty, it's just that playing on one is more bothersome than playing on another.
Ah, but using your example, let me counter with this:
People have the nicely painted statues (though they are very chipped I might add) but are asking for the $2 chessboard as a solution, instead of asking for a Tri-Dimensional Chess set. :P
I don't mind the $2 chessboard solution, as long as I get a Tri-Dimensional Chess set to go with it. ^^
Ah, but using your example, let me counter with this:
People have the nicely painted statues (though they are very chipped I might add) but are asking for the $2 chessboard as a solution, instead of asking for a Tri-Dimensional Chess set. :P
I don't mind the $2 chessboard solution, as long as I get a Tri-Dimensional Chess set to go with it. ^^
Interesting counter but I do not get it... Yeah, I want autofire to remove the tediousness, if what you are asking for is more complex energy weapon systems that do require some skill and timing to use (like torps and mines for example), then I'm with you 100% of the way... If I get it correctly...
Interesting counter but I do not get it... Yeah, I want autofire to remove the tediousness, if what you are asking for is more complex energy weapon systems that do require some skill and timing to use (like torps and mines for example), then I'm with you 100% of the way... If I get it correctly...
You do understand me correctly. I'm not asking for a super complex system. While STO's ship combat is far more rewarding (except for the somewhat short range) compared to EVE, it could be more fun than turning in circles and pressing space and an ability or two every minute. It's not going to be more fun if you turn in circles using an ability or two every minute, but without pressing space - just less tedious.
Have you played WoW? Tried the Rogue? If a Rogue's auto-attack are a ship's Beams and Torpedoes, his long cooldown dependant abilities are your BO and personal skills. What we're missing are the instant abilities that you use in every combat all the time, like Sinister Strike and Eviscerate. The turning is just another form of positioning, like the Rogue should try to be behind an enemy.
A better combat system could be for example as simple as making the Target subystem skills open for everyone, with a low CD (a few seconds). Your target's subsystem will high-light randomly and if you use the corresponding Targeting skill at the right time you will get a bonus effect like a critical hit or a subsystem shutdown or whatever. That's just an example, I'm sure there are lots of different ways to do it.
Basically just give me something to do more than just pressing one button and turning. I got tired of EVE because it's just targeting and pressing 1 button once then go AFK until the target is dead.
Though I'm sad to say that this game got a lot of issues and space combat is probably the least of them. I bought a lifetime sub after the open beta because I have some faith in Cryptic and I really like Star Trek (and the Sci-fi genre in general... no f***ing elves and and dwarves), but I can't honestly say that right now it's a good game. It's an ok game with lots of bugs.
You do understand me correctly. I'm not asking for a super complex system. While STO's ship combat is far more rewarding (except for the somewhat short range) compared to EVE, it could be more fun than turning in circles and pressing space and an ability or two every minute. It's not going to be more fun if you turn in circles using an ability or two every minute, but without pressing space - just less tedious.
Have you played WoW? Tried the Rogue? If a Rogue's auto-attack are a ship's Beams and Torpedoes, his long cooldown dependant abilities are your BO and personal skills. What we're missing are the instant abilities that you use in every combat all the time, like Sinister Strike and Eviscerate. The turning is just another form of positioning, like the Rogue should try to be behind an enemy.
A better combat system could be for example as simple as making the Target subystem skills open for everyone, with a low CD (a few seconds). Your target's subsystem will high-light randomly and if you use the corresponding Targeting skill at the right time you will get a bonus effect like a critical hit or a subsystem shutdown or whatever. That's just an example, I'm sure there are lots of different ways to do it.
Basically just give me something to do more than just pressing one button and turning. I got tired of EVE because it's just targeting and pressing 1 button once then go AFK until the target is dead.
Though I'm sad to say that this game got a lot of issues and space combat is probably the least of them. I bought a lifetime sub after the open beta because I have some faith in Cryptic and I really like Star Trek (and the Sci-fi genre in general... no f***ing elves and and dwarves), but I can't honestly say that right now it's a good game. It's an ok game with lots of bugs.
That would be cool. I would not mind that at all if all weapons changed to something more interesting. Something that requires tactics, and skills to use, that would be cool. Unfortunately, it would require a whole revamp of the energy weapon system. Looking at the lack of revamp to the skill tree when they changed to a skill cap, with leaving ship specific skills, etc, then I do not have a lot of hope for such a change
For now, I would settle with autofire for energy weapons, as it fits the current energy weapon mechanics. but I agree that a more engaging weapon system, with more subsystem targeting as you say, or other mechanics would be awesome.
And I do hope they get to fix the game nice and all for the people that bought lifetimes. I did not buy it, but if they do fix up the game nicely, I will play it for a long time, happily paying $15 each month.
TC: Over the course of the development, did the space combat tend to pull one way or the other towards being more actiony, or more staid and strategic?
CZ: We probably wanted it staid and strategic. A little bit more positional. A little bit more like the shows. But when you say that out loud, people are like, "Well, that just sounds boring". So you want to make sure it's very engaging, so that while it's strategic and positional, you are constantly making decisions.
That's why they wont' add auto fire. It makes combat less "ENGAGING". :mad:
There is no imbalance caused by opening up auto fire options. Please don't limit the players in areas that are not needed. constantly having to hit the space bar while playing this game is ruining my "engagement". I've never been more irritated by a single game mechanic. Please listen to the players and change this.
Weak argument, this is what I posted to your same post on another thread:
In what world is pressing a button with no strategic value more "engaging"? From that same thing you quoted:
TC: Over the course of the development, did the space combat tend to pull one way or the other towards being more actiony, or more staid and strategic?
CZ: We probably wanted it staid and strategic. A little bit more positional. A little bit more like the shows. But when you say that out loud, people are like, "Well, that just sounds boring". So you want to make sure it's very engaging, so that while it's strategic and positional, you are constantly making decisions.
I want to decide whether to press the fire all beams button or not, but it's actually not a decision, it is completely necessary and braindead repetitive. So much so, that a macro can do it, and the game plays just fine. So thanks for that quote, it actually helps the pro-autofire argument.
Having no previous experience in WoW or any other MMO, save for Eve Online, I have perhaps a more unbiased look at this game, and to understand where improvements can be made. As I stated, the only MMO I've ever played prior to ST Online is Eve Online, and as both have space combat with drag & drop module fitting, and button press firing, there are a lot of parallels, and this alone can state why I believe that autofire is not just needed but required in order to have a seamless combat experience.
For starters, here's a breakdown between the two combat systems:
Eve Online:
- Autofire enabled on default, manual one-cycle option is available.
- Has two types of weapons: missiles and turrets (of various flavors and sizes)
- Weapons can hit from any angle.
- Damage resistances between four different damage types (EM, Thermal, Kinetic, Explosive).
- Can fire at up to eight individual targets, depending on the targeting system and skills.
- Excluding ship limitations, the game engine allows a maximum of eight weapons.
- Large turrets can miss consistently against fast ships, and large missiles do little against them.
- Shields are deducted from a single bar.
- Armor and hull can be repaired using specific modules, and some ships even are designed for it.
- If your ship is lost, you're SOL save for insurance money. And, if your character dies, you lose XP.
Star Trek Online:
- Autofire disabled on default, only available on one forward and one rear slot.
- Has four types of weapons: torpedoes, beam, turret and mine (of various flavors and sizes)
- Weapons with angles noted have specific arcs they can aim with. Turrets do not have this limitation.
- Damage resistances between two different damage types (Energy, Kinetic).
- Can only shoot one ship at the time unless you use significant micromanagement or use an officer power.
- Excluding ship limitations, the game engine (from what I can tell) has no maximum.
- Turrets can miss sometimes against fighters, but generally most shots will land on target.
- Shields are deducted from four different bars, and recharge independently.
- There is no armor, and hull is auto-repaired slowly but surely.
- If your ship is lost, you respawn without penalty a short time later.
Alright, with this breakdown, I can explain why I prefer Eve's combat system in a way that hopefully devs can use to their advantage, rather than just stating "I want autofire". The first thing is that when I'm in combat in Eve Online, I'm too busy firing my weapons at specific targets (as sometimes I split my fire), sometimes I'm working on my drones to either order them to attack enemies or to retreat when damaged, to give commands to my fellow pilots, to type in communications, to use the game's fleet system to give requests out, and also doing emergency vectors out when hell breaks loose. There's also all the other non-weapon abilities that are also critical, such as disabling warp, slowing down enemy ships, or outright blocking their targeting completely.
With autofire in Eve Online, the only thing I need to worry about is selecting new targets, ammunition levels, and worrying about the strategic side of the battle, including ship positioning. And, considering that I run (and pay for) no less than three clients on the same machine, I don't have time to spam the firing buttons, because when you have three characters in the heat of battle, where a wrong move can cause that character to die, it's a godsend.
In Star Trek Online on the other hand, although it uses different weapons, different enemies, and has a shield system that I do enjoy, it breaks down to the same thing. The first thing is, is that this game cannot be 'dual booted' or 'tripple booted' like Eve can, because you can't jump between three screens to spam those buttons while also focusing on repositioning your ship to prevent yourself from being flanked. Keep in mind that this means less money for Cryptic because I was actually considering getting a second account like I did with Eve, but this limitation completely eliminates that possibility as it's impossible to co-ordinate.
Secondly, what comes to mind is how many times I mispress my keys while trying to fire WHILE trying to maneuver correctly. Most of the time, it's my autofiring weapons that do the most damage, and I tend to forget in the heat of battle to hit that fire key as soon as it regenerates. When you combine the excellent officer powers, it becomes a hinderance to fire weapons outside of the phasers. What I've had to do is link my phasers together, and throw my Quantums into the non-auto slots on my Saber so I can fire them while planning with the officer powers. I can barely handle this ship now. Once I get into even larger classes, I'll be spamming more than doing actual strategic maneuvers.
And on a final note, here's the three most important reasons why I think Cryptic should do this change:
1. Improved control for combat
2. Less network lag from the constant keypresses made by players; an autofire can be calculated server side instead of the individual presses by the player, and would reduce the amount of data transfer.
3. The ability to double or even tripple boot Star Trek Online, which would further improve Cryptic's bottom line.
Hope this helps.
EDIT - I wanted to add a side note to this; even if we do get full autofire for STO, I wouldn't be using it for ALL of my weapons. The feeling of hitting the fire buttons for the torpedo launchers, not to mention the strategic needs of keeping them unlinked, is why I would always keep my launchers unlinked. I would leave my phasers to the capable hands of my tactical officer via autofire (as it should be )
Yet another attempt to wake Cryptic up and provide us with the long needed auto-fire for ALL energy weapons.
I would force all devs who thought 1 fore and 1 aft at auto fire is enough to rapidly press space bar for 2 hours before going to bed every day.
And some of us do this more than 6 hours...... poor space bar
I agree. Trying to control a fleet escort manage your abilities keep your shields up and keep the guns rollin out damage is downright nerve wrecking. ESPECIALLY if you have to keep clicking abilities because they dont activate properly the first 2 times you clicked it. I could deal with that bug if I just had autofire.
im going to bump this because currently auto fire sucks, the constant clicking fire all button sucks. and the TRIBBLE my mouse moved so i havnt been firing anything for 2 minutes sucks even more. 2 autofires out of 5 weapons...hmm lets do the math...how many tactical officers does it take to fire all my weapons?
i dont know but how ever many it is i apprently dont have enough.
maybe one of these days cryptic with reply to one of the zillion threads on auto fire and give us a yay or nay or a hey were looking into this.
hit commander 6 today and i still havnt learned how to shoot more than one phaser at a time, how do the feds expect to ever win a war with options like that.
here i post a script for auto-fire, simple to install and easy to use. oh thx to Cryptic, if you got weapon in your skill bar they will flash when you not shoot.
Seriously, slowly I am starting to think Cryptic screwed up their source code so bad that they cant even put in auto fire. I still can put all my weapons to auto fire using the server lag, which means there are at least a few bugs with client-server communication.
I am pretty sure everyone at Cryptic knows there should be auto fire on all weapons, I mean you cant be that dumb and stay in the industry for long. They just don't succeed in getting rid of the bugs, is my guess.
You guys have poor micromanagement skills to complain about something as simple as pressing spacebar.
The only impetus is to reduce the likelihood of carpal tunnel and other wrist/hand problems.
Can't even press spacebar every 0.8 seconds and press Ctrl + 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 while maneuvering ?
Simple, sure it's simple. It is also mindless, tedious, pointless, (potentially) hurtful. boring. You forgot to add those descriptions there.
It's not that is complicated, or that we cannot do it. We currently can do it, Pressing space bar like a trained monkey is not difficult, it is simply tedious and does not add to a tactical game. There is no decision on when to press the space bar, we have to press it all the time. There is no timing for it, firing energy weapons is good all the time. So why do we have to press it constantly, for no other reason than "just because"?
Torpedoes and mines do have tactical value when fired manually, timing and positioning are very important for those, so those are all cool. But it is not the same for energy weapons. It is just a weapon that screams to be spammed, but we have no tools to spam it other than... press-a-button-endlessly. Bad mechanic is bad.
Seriously, slowly I am starting to think Cryptic screwed up their source code so bad that they cant even put in auto fire. I still can put all my weapons to auto fire using the server lag, which means there are at least a few bugs with client-server communication.
I am pretty sure everyone at Cryptic knows there should be auto fire on all weapons, I mean you cant be that dumb and stay in the industry for long. They just don't succeed in getting rid of the bugs, is my guess.
Yeah, that is the worst part. With that lag bug you can set multiple weapons to autofire and they work just fine. No extra programs, no extra nothing. Perfect functionality. So, that means they simply choose not to give more autofire to users. Personally, I think it is a bad choice, and somewhat insulting to not even give the community an answer.
You guys have poor micromanagement skills to complain about something as simple as pressing spacebar.
The only impetus is to reduce the likelihood of carpal tunnel and other wrist/hand problems.
Can't even press spacebar every 0.8 seconds and press Ctrl + 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 while maneuvering ?
It's not a matter of skill. It just simply detracts from the game.
Also, on a side note, computers have a limitation on how many keys can be pressed at a single time, and this occurs a whole lot on my end. This isn't a skill issue, it's common sense, and I'll tell you, it's a drag to keep pressing buttons to fire. I'd rather be focusing on strategy, and, as I wrote earlier, Eve Online doesn't have button mashing and is still challenging enough in combat as it is. I actually find Star Trek Online MORE difficult to fight in combat with (other than that you can't die in a permanent, impacting fashion).
cryptic made their costs back and got thier bonus for releasing early, now they just have to kill off the game so they can fire the developers. dont hold your breath on them doing anything willingly that would increase the player base.
The ability to set Fore and Aft weapons to autofire [i.e. convert them to toggles] is a QoL issue, pure and simple. It's maintenance gameplay, which is acceptable for abilities with longer cooldowns or for utility abilities.
If it's necessary for a player to decide whether or not to fire a given weapon based on power levels or other factors, autofire does not stop them from making that decision; the only effect autofire would have would be to place a less skilled/attentive player at a disadvantage in circumstances which require such an evaluation. I fail to see why anybody has a problem with this.
Only thing I don't want autofiring in space are my torpedoes as those require some timing. Currently I'm using the rapid clicking bug to get around the one fore one aft restriction. Ground combat would really benefit from autofire, even if it was only the basic attack.
I got my new t4 escort the other night and put 3 DHC's and 1 torp up front, and 2 turrets in the aft. I was easily able to get both turrets on autofire, but I tired for over an hour to get all 3 DHC on auto, best I could do was getting 2 hooked up. I went to sol, turned my virus scanner on, had 5 u tubes streaming HD clips and still couldnt get all 3 to link up. I also tried it around DS9
Comments
I have no issue with hotkeying special abilities, directing power to shields manually, hitting spacebar to attack when an enemy comes into your weapon arc range, etc. However, spamming the spacebar is annoying, painful and only detracts from the game. There is nothing tactical about having to spam the spacebar to fire weapons every 2 seconds in this game.
I've been told you can get up to 3 autofiring front or back weapons this way, more if you lag out the game by taking as screenshot or something similar.
~ Foulwin
Let's hope Cryptic does not "fix" that in a patch
Sector space, open skill window. The game tends to lag with the skill window open and you can set multiple weapons to autofire...
It's a nice workaround, and the game actually works fine, but does not fix the actual issue...
Ah, but using your example, let me counter with this:
People have the nicely painted statues (though they are very chipped I might add) but are asking for the $2 chessboard as a solution, instead of asking for a Tri-Dimensional Chess set. :P
I don't mind the $2 chessboard solution, as long as I get a Tri-Dimensional Chess set to go with it. ^^
Interesting counter but I do not get it... Yeah, I want autofire to remove the tediousness, if what you are asking for is more complex energy weapon systems that do require some skill and timing to use (like torps and mines for example), then I'm with you 100% of the way... If I get it correctly...
You do understand me correctly. I'm not asking for a super complex system. While STO's ship combat is far more rewarding (except for the somewhat short range) compared to EVE, it could be more fun than turning in circles and pressing space and an ability or two every minute. It's not going to be more fun if you turn in circles using an ability or two every minute, but without pressing space - just less tedious.
Have you played WoW? Tried the Rogue? If a Rogue's auto-attack are a ship's Beams and Torpedoes, his long cooldown dependant abilities are your BO and personal skills. What we're missing are the instant abilities that you use in every combat all the time, like Sinister Strike and Eviscerate. The turning is just another form of positioning, like the Rogue should try to be behind an enemy.
A better combat system could be for example as simple as making the Target subystem skills open for everyone, with a low CD (a few seconds). Your target's subsystem will high-light randomly and if you use the corresponding Targeting skill at the right time you will get a bonus effect like a critical hit or a subsystem shutdown or whatever. That's just an example, I'm sure there are lots of different ways to do it.
Basically just give me something to do more than just pressing one button and turning. I got tired of EVE because it's just targeting and pressing 1 button once then go AFK until the target is dead.
Though I'm sad to say that this game got a lot of issues and space combat is probably the least of them. I bought a lifetime sub after the open beta because I have some faith in Cryptic and I really like Star Trek (and the Sci-fi genre in general... no f***ing elves and and dwarves), but I can't honestly say that right now it's a good game. It's an ok game with lots of bugs.
That would be cool. I would not mind that at all if all weapons changed to something more interesting. Something that requires tactics, and skills to use, that would be cool. Unfortunately, it would require a whole revamp of the energy weapon system. Looking at the lack of revamp to the skill tree when they changed to a skill cap, with leaving ship specific skills, etc, then I do not have a lot of hope for such a change
For now, I would settle with autofire for energy weapons, as it fits the current energy weapon mechanics. but I agree that a more engaging weapon system, with more subsystem targeting as you say, or other mechanics would be awesome.
And I do hope they get to fix the game nice and all for the people that bought lifetimes. I did not buy it, but if they do fix up the game nicely, I will play it for a long time, happily paying $15 each month.
That's why they wont' add auto fire. It makes combat less "ENGAGING". :mad:
http://fidgit.com/archives/2010/02/star_trek_online_producer_warn.php
Weak argument, this is what I posted to your same post on another thread:
In what world is pressing a button with no strategic value more "engaging"? From that same thing you quoted:
TC: Over the course of the development, did the space combat tend to pull one way or the other towards being more actiony, or more staid and strategic?
CZ: We probably wanted it staid and strategic. A little bit more positional. A little bit more like the shows. But when you say that out loud, people are like, "Well, that just sounds boring". So you want to make sure it's very engaging, so that while it's strategic and positional, you are constantly making decisions.
I want to decide whether to press the fire all beams button or not, but it's actually not a decision, it is completely necessary and braindead repetitive. So much so, that a macro can do it, and the game plays just fine. So thanks for that quote, it actually helps the pro-autofire argument.
For starters, here's a breakdown between the two combat systems:
Eve Online:
- Autofire enabled on default, manual one-cycle option is available.
- Has two types of weapons: missiles and turrets (of various flavors and sizes)
- Weapons can hit from any angle.
- Damage resistances between four different damage types (EM, Thermal, Kinetic, Explosive).
- Can fire at up to eight individual targets, depending on the targeting system and skills.
- Excluding ship limitations, the game engine allows a maximum of eight weapons.
- Large turrets can miss consistently against fast ships, and large missiles do little against them.
- Shields are deducted from a single bar.
- Armor and hull can be repaired using specific modules, and some ships even are designed for it.
- If your ship is lost, you're SOL save for insurance money. And, if your character dies, you lose XP.
Star Trek Online:
- Autofire disabled on default, only available on one forward and one rear slot.
- Has four types of weapons: torpedoes, beam, turret and mine (of various flavors and sizes)
- Weapons with angles noted have specific arcs they can aim with. Turrets do not have this limitation.
- Damage resistances between two different damage types (Energy, Kinetic).
- Can only shoot one ship at the time unless you use significant micromanagement or use an officer power.
- Excluding ship limitations, the game engine (from what I can tell) has no maximum.
- Turrets can miss sometimes against fighters, but generally most shots will land on target.
- Shields are deducted from four different bars, and recharge independently.
- There is no armor, and hull is auto-repaired slowly but surely.
- If your ship is lost, you respawn without penalty a short time later.
Alright, with this breakdown, I can explain why I prefer Eve's combat system in a way that hopefully devs can use to their advantage, rather than just stating "I want autofire". The first thing is that when I'm in combat in Eve Online, I'm too busy firing my weapons at specific targets (as sometimes I split my fire), sometimes I'm working on my drones to either order them to attack enemies or to retreat when damaged, to give commands to my fellow pilots, to type in communications, to use the game's fleet system to give requests out, and also doing emergency vectors out when hell breaks loose. There's also all the other non-weapon abilities that are also critical, such as disabling warp, slowing down enemy ships, or outright blocking their targeting completely.
With autofire in Eve Online, the only thing I need to worry about is selecting new targets, ammunition levels, and worrying about the strategic side of the battle, including ship positioning. And, considering that I run (and pay for) no less than three clients on the same machine, I don't have time to spam the firing buttons, because when you have three characters in the heat of battle, where a wrong move can cause that character to die, it's a godsend.
In Star Trek Online on the other hand, although it uses different weapons, different enemies, and has a shield system that I do enjoy, it breaks down to the same thing. The first thing is, is that this game cannot be 'dual booted' or 'tripple booted' like Eve can, because you can't jump between three screens to spam those buttons while also focusing on repositioning your ship to prevent yourself from being flanked. Keep in mind that this means less money for Cryptic because I was actually considering getting a second account like I did with Eve, but this limitation completely eliminates that possibility as it's impossible to co-ordinate.
Secondly, what comes to mind is how many times I mispress my keys while trying to fire WHILE trying to maneuver correctly. Most of the time, it's my autofiring weapons that do the most damage, and I tend to forget in the heat of battle to hit that fire key as soon as it regenerates. When you combine the excellent officer powers, it becomes a hinderance to fire weapons outside of the phasers. What I've had to do is link my phasers together, and throw my Quantums into the non-auto slots on my Saber so I can fire them while planning with the officer powers. I can barely handle this ship now. Once I get into even larger classes, I'll be spamming more than doing actual strategic maneuvers.
And on a final note, here's the three most important reasons why I think Cryptic should do this change:
1. Improved control for combat
2. Less network lag from the constant keypresses made by players; an autofire can be calculated server side instead of the individual presses by the player, and would reduce the amount of data transfer.
3. The ability to double or even tripple boot Star Trek Online, which would further improve Cryptic's bottom line.
Hope this helps.
EDIT - I wanted to add a side note to this; even if we do get full autofire for STO, I wouldn't be using it for ALL of my weapons. The feeling of hitting the fire buttons for the torpedo launchers, not to mention the strategic needs of keeping them unlinked, is why I would always keep my launchers unlinked. I would leave my phasers to the capable hands of my tactical officer via autofire (as it should be
I would force all devs who thought 1 fore and 1 aft at auto fire is enough to rapidly press space bar for 2 hours before going to bed every day.
And some of us do this more than 6 hours...... poor space bar
Signed.
i dont know but how ever many it is i apprently dont have enough.
maybe one of these days cryptic with reply to one of the zillion threads on auto fire and give us a yay or nay or a hey were looking into this.
hit commander 6 today and i still havnt learned how to shoot more than one phaser at a time, how do the feds expect to ever win a war with options like that.
Just one read of this thread and you would see we are right.
Watching Star Trek will never be the same again Knowning that behide Captain Picard Worf is mashing a space bar to fire he's weapons :rolleyes:
here i post a script for auto-fire, simple to install and easy to use. oh thx to Cryptic, if you got weapon in your skill bar they will flash when you not shoot.
The only impetus is to reduce the likelihood of carpal tunnel and other wrist/hand problems.
Can't even press spacebar every 0.8 seconds and press Ctrl + 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 while maneuvering ?
I am pretty sure everyone at Cryptic knows there should be auto fire on all weapons, I mean you cant be that dumb and stay in the industry for long. They just don't succeed in getting rid of the bugs, is my guess.
Simple, sure it's simple. It is also mindless, tedious, pointless, (potentially) hurtful. boring. You forgot to add those descriptions there.
It's not that is complicated, or that we cannot do it. We currently can do it, Pressing space bar like a trained monkey is not difficult, it is simply tedious and does not add to a tactical game. There is no decision on when to press the space bar, we have to press it all the time. There is no timing for it, firing energy weapons is good all the time. So why do we have to press it constantly, for no other reason than "just because"?
Torpedoes and mines do have tactical value when fired manually, timing and positioning are very important for those, so those are all cool. But it is not the same for energy weapons. It is just a weapon that screams to be spammed, but we have no tools to spam it other than... press-a-button-endlessly. Bad mechanic is bad.
Yeah, that is the worst part. With that lag bug you can set multiple weapons to autofire and they work just fine. No extra programs, no extra nothing. Perfect functionality. So, that means they simply choose not to give more autofire to users. Personally, I think it is a bad choice, and somewhat insulting to not even give the community an answer.
That will utterly and totally @#$!%@ suck if this is true.
It's not a matter of skill. It just simply detracts from the game.
Also, on a side note, computers have a limitation on how many keys can be pressed at a single time, and this occurs a whole lot on my end. This isn't a skill issue, it's common sense, and I'll tell you, it's a drag to keep pressing buttons to fire. I'd rather be focusing on strategy, and, as I wrote earlier, Eve Online doesn't have button mashing and is still challenging enough in combat as it is. I actually find Star Trek Online MORE difficult to fight in combat with (other than that you can't die in a permanent, impacting fashion).
it's working
Don't scare me bro! the day they fix that "bug" is the day they completely ruin the game for me...
The ability to set Fore and Aft weapons to autofire [i.e. convert them to toggles] is a QoL issue, pure and simple. It's maintenance gameplay, which is acceptable for abilities with longer cooldowns or for utility abilities.
If it's necessary for a player to decide whether or not to fire a given weapon based on power levels or other factors, autofire does not stop them from making that decision; the only effect autofire would have would be to place a less skilled/attentive player at a disadvantage in circumstances which require such an evaluation. I fail to see why anybody has a problem with this.
Only thing I don't want autofiring in space are my torpedoes as those require some timing. Currently I'm using the rapid clicking bug to get around the one fore one aft restriction. Ground combat would really benefit from autofire, even if it was only the basic attack.
I got my new t4 escort the other night and put 3 DHC's and 1 torp up front, and 2 turrets in the aft. I was easily able to get both turrets on autofire, but I tired for over an hour to get all 3 DHC on auto, best I could do was getting 2 hooked up. I went to sol, turned my virus scanner on, had 5 u tubes streaming HD clips and still couldnt get all 3 to link up. I also tried it around DS9