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So are we actually getting a manual

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
So are we actually getting a manual or are we expected to try and figure out all the granular things in the game?

As an example Sharing settings. The manual http://www.startrekonline.com/manual

tells us jack squat as to what this does even though I think I've set this up for my LJ and facebook and yet it does nothing. What about chat settings? Etc. we need more then a guide to how to adjust your shields or change your weapons. And no the forums are NOT a legit means of learning the UI. Cheap yes. Legit no.
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Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    The printed manual that comes in the box is about the same as the online one. My gut is telling me our best bet to truely understand the nuts and bolts of this game will be a player made wiki.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Wiki is the way to go. The game box manual is slightly less detailed than the one on the website.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    well the collectors manual has pretty pictures and a nice hard cover.. Other than that its basically useless..


    if you have any questions.. ask in zone chat.. You might get an answere.. Or just post a question on the boards. Wiki might be good at a later date
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Manual... heh... that's a good one, they haven't even gotten the in-game tooltips making sense...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    A printed manual for an MMORPG is as pointless as "trying to teach a woman the value of a good forward defensive stroke"... :p

    They are usually outdated before they even ship and will most certainly become even more so with each patch or content addition.

    The very best place for hints and tip in amy MMORPG I've played for any length of time are the forums.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    A printed manual for an MMORPG is as pointless as "trying to teach a woman the value of a good forward defensive stroke"... :p

    They are usually outdated before they even ship and will most certainly become even more so with each patch or content addition.

    The very best place for hints and tip in amy MMORPG I've played for any length of time are the forums.

    Really? Not that I've seen. Since beta these forums have been nothing but OMG nerf this. nerf that, Devs give us this or that, or Im leaving. The old outdated manual doesn't hold much water either. Im sure the basic descriptions of skills ect hasn't changed that radically in the last month or so.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I got the CE with the deluxe Art of STO hardcover manual, but I'm curious about those who purchase the standard game. What was the manual like (if any) that came with the standard game?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    LOL! Thats like buying a Prima Guide for the game at release, thinking that it's not going to change one bit during patching and will last as long as you play the game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    bstiff wrote:
    Really? Not that I've seen. Since beta these forums have been nothing but OMG nerf this. nerf that, Devs give us this or that, or Im leaving. The old outdated manual doesn't hold much water either. Im sure the basic descriptions of skills ect hasn't changed that radically in the last month or so.
    Regardless, printed MMO manuals are pretty pointless. Three months after launch and they're not correct anymore.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Anyone know where I can find the emote commands, please?

    Also - I hate myself for asking this - is there a way of sitting in the captin's chair when in bridge view?!

    Ta.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    saint100 wrote: »
    Anyone know where I can find the emote commands, please?

    Also - I hate myself for asking this - is there a way of sitting in the captin's chair when in bridge view?!

    Ta.

    There's a little button to the right of the chat line, if you click on it it brings up a menu which includes a submenu for the emotes.

    To sit in the captain's chair, you have to go stand on it and then use the "sitchair" or "sitcaptain" emote.

    It's an TRIBBLE-backwards method but it's how Cryptic does this sort of thing.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    A printed manual for an MMORPG is as pointless as "trying to teach a woman the value of a good forward defensive stroke"... :p

    They are usually outdated before they even ship and will most certainly become even more so with each patch or content addition.

    The very best place for hints and tip in amy MMORPG I've played for any length of time are the forums.

    A valid point indeed but that doesn't excuse having a worthless manual online that should be easy to update. All MMO devs are generally lazy when it comes to providing their player base with detailed information on the mechanics of the game they are charging us for every month.

    There's nothing more off-putting that struggling to comprehend arcane games systems such as skills, crafting etc. It doesn;t allow you to plan ahead so you don't end up making mistakes and having to restart a character from scratch, get annoyed with the game and cancel because you realise your monthly subscription costs don't go towards sufficient, worthwhile documentation.

    For instance I'm confused as to how Skill Modifiers work. In the Character Status screen when you click on any of your skills or those of your officers, you get a largely vague description of what that skill does. If you press P to bring up the Avaiulable Abilities page, descriptions of all skills held by you and your officers shows a helpful list of Attributes that modify that skill. Why the hell is this info not in the description of the skill in the Character Status window, they are referring to the same damn thing.

    Also, my science officer has a Jam Targetting Sensors I skill. Modifiers that imrpove that skill are:

    • Starship Sensor Array
    • Starship Sensors
    • Starship Operations Training


    As far as I see you don't have the ability to train these sensor areas for your mofficers as they only show up on the screen for you main character (in this case under Starship Operations).

    So the question is do any points I put into these areas to raise Sensor Array, Sensors and Operations Training improve the Jam Targetting Sensors I skill of my officer or does this only apply if my main character is a Science Officer with the Jam Targetting Sensor I skill. My main character is Tactical so I don;t want to discover I'm wasting skills points by putting them into areas that do not apply.

    So Cryptic, stop being cheap and put some effort into the online manual that puts it somewhere in the ball-park of being actually useful.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Seefer wrote: »
    A valid point indeed but that doesn't excuse having a worthless manual online that should be easy to update. All MMO devs are generally lazy when it comes to providing their player base with detailed information on the mechanics of the game they are charging us for every month.

    There's nothing more off-putting that struggling to comprehend arcane games systems such as skills, crafting etc. It doesn;t allow you to plan ahead so you don't end up making mistakes and having to restart a character from scratch, get annoyed with the game and cancel because you realise your monthly subscription costs don't go towards sufficient, worthwhile documentation.

    For instance I'm confused as to how Skill Modifiers work. In the Character Status screen when you click on any of your skills or those of your officers, you get a largely vague description of what that skill does. If you press P to bring up the Avaiulable Abilities page, descriptions of all skills held by you and your officers shows a helpful list of Attributes that modify that skill. Why the hell is this info not in the description of the skill in the Character Status window, they are referring to the same damn thing.

    Also, my science officer has a Jam Targetting Sensors I skill. Modifiers that imrpove that skill are:

    • Starship Sensor Array
    • Starship Sensors
    • Starship Operations Training


    As far as I see you don't have the ability to train these sensor areas for your mofficers as they only show up on the screen for you main character (in this case under Starship Operations).

    So the question is do any points I put into these areas to raise Sensor Array, Sensors and Operations Training improve the Jam Targetting Sensors I skill of my officer or does this only apply if my main character is a Science Officer with the Jam Targetting Sensor I skill. My main character is Tactical so I don;t want to discover I'm wasting skills points by putting them into areas that do not apply.

    So Cryptic, stop being cheap and put some effort into the online manual that puts it somewhere in the ball-park of being actually useful.

    To reiterate: Sensor Array, Sensors and Operations Training improve the Jam Targetting Sensors I skill of my officer

    This is the core of how captain skills are actually useful. We get very, very few innate captain powers, half of which are shared across all captains and the other half are shared across all captains of the same profession line. Aside from the few captain skills that actually affect those powers, every captain skill provides a passive bonus to the use of a limited range of equipment or BO space powers.

    This design, coupled with BO seating limitations in each ship type, forms the core of specialization in STO and causes skillpoint total to decouple from general power level once you max out the skills relevant to a certain configuration aboard a Tier 5 ship. The minimum decoupling point (assuming you use items and gear that apply to skills of the minimum possible tier only) is still a bit beyond the skill cap, and many possible ship configurations would be much, much higher, so at this point every SP spent on diversification rather than aiming for a set target weakens your final abilities. Until they put respecs in, choose well.

    Aren't you glad this is so well-documented that the choices are straightforward? :rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    A detailed printed manual may become outdated fast, but an online manual that expains some basic mechanics would be nice. They went to the trouble of creating tips at the loading screen; why's it so hard to slap those tips on a webpage?
    I had to stop playing because my entire thumb was red, raw and cramping up from hitting the spacebar. I did some searching on the forums and found out I can right-click a weapon to make it auto-fire.
    After years of development I think the devs lose sight of the little things that turn people off to a game. A no-frills "here's how this skill affects your character" and "you can hit this key so you don't have to hunt-and-peck with your mouse" manual would change a lot of peoples' first impressions of the game for the better.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Most of the time when playing, I just points in stuff not understanding what the numbers are about and hoping it'll be useful later on. Yeah...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I think that while an online manual is the optimal way to go, a printed manual should at the very least tell a player all the early game "how to"s that the in game narration and etc don't say. It's not THAT big of a deal and everything can be figured out in time, but with the manual they gave I think they should have given a bit more than they did.

    Still it's good that the wiki is there to help people.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    There's a lot of discussion of this thread of how worthless and outdated manuals are. Some of us like to read them even though they do become obsolete.

    The hardback manual in the Collector's Edition is nice. I think they did a good job address the issue of becoming obsolete. They just covered the core basics of the game - mostly stuff the does not change over time.

    Here's the question I want to know - and why I jumped on this thread in the first place. Was there a printed manual issued with the standard edition of the game?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Mischief wrote: »
    There's a lot of discussion of this thread of how worthless and outdated manuals are. Some of us like to read them even though they do become obsolete.

    The hardback manual in the Collector's Edition is nice. I think they did a good job address the issue of becoming obsolete. They just covered the core basics of the game - mostly stuff the does not change over time.

    Here's the question I want to know - and why I jumped on this thread in the first place. Was there a printed manual issued with the standard edition of the game?

    Not sure about the standard edition, but the Gold edition comes with a printed manual.

    Oh, and a Galaxy map that is already outdated :(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Guys need manuals?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    flowover wrote: »
    Guys need manuals?

    True geeks (of any gender) Read The Furnished Materials.

    And there's a nice Wiki out there already with over 1500 articles.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Col_Kernel wrote: »
    True geeks (of any gender) Read The Furnished Materials.

    And there's a nice Wiki out there already with over 1500 articles.

    Sorry, true geek here, with any software I prefer jumping in headfirst. Nothing beats actually clicking on things and reading them for myself, then, once I have a basic idea I can use the manual for reference (if needed).

    If you have to read the manual before you understand the software you purchased, it may be a little too advanced for you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Soupgoblin wrote: »
    Sorry, true geek here, with any software I prefer jumping in headfirst. Nothing beats actually clicking on things and reading them for myself, then, once I have a basic idea I can use the manual for reference (if needed).

    If you have to read the manual before you understand the software you purchased, it may be a little too advanced for you.


    What someone likes to read so they're too stupid to use a computer?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    bstiff wrote:
    What someone likes to read so they're too stupid to use a computer?



    Your words, not mine...


    I didn't realize their was a bridge nearby....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    No excuse for not having a complete, fully cross linked, online manual (I'd like a decent printed one too. If it gets outdated eventually thats ok.) Its funny how in a game like Star Trek where we're supposed to be in a technologically developed future, we're expected to learn basic aspects of the game through the medieval medium of word of mouth (Gutenberg where are you when we need you?). They could make the game more immersive by having it available in a "library computer" available while in the game. I know there are those out there who don't believe in manuals and prefer to "learn by doing", but I'M NOT ONE OF THEM, and I think even the "anti-readers" would appreciate a resource that would tell them exactly what powers are improved by what skills and how, for example.

    And thanks for mentioning the independent wiki...its all we have for the time being.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Col_Kernel wrote: »
    True geeks (of any gender) Read The Furnished Materials.

    And there's a nice Wiki out there already with over 1500 articles.

    I was just about to post a link to this, I like it.
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