I don't play as much as when this game first came out and it was all new and fresh and exciting, but I check back when it's updated to see what's going on and what changed. I'm waiting for enough content to be released so that I won't play for a few hours, finish it all and go back to waiting for more content.
I really like space combat. I'm sure a majority of the player base enjoys space combat. (I can't find the poll from a while back, but it was something like 59% of the players enjoyed space combat the most)
With that being said, I'm looking at these STF's, and they seem to all have an emphasis on -ground combat-. I don't understand why, ground combat is just a chore we do to get back to space combat. Why do we keep getting ground battles?
I'm reading other posts about swarms of borg on the ground, and it sounds cool. I want that in space. I want to get swarmed by ships in space, in epic space battles. I want an STF that is 10% ground, 90% space. Also, make these space battles more intense, and last longer than 1-2 minutes. (I realize difficulty slider is coming, so hopefully that does this)
Oh and make the loot better. There should be loot only obtainable from these STF's that is actually a significant upgrade, otherwise there's no point to rerun them more than once.
I take it you are only referring to the STFs then.
Those really need to be more balanced since a majority seems to take place on the ground...but maybe that is only because ground combat seems to last longer than space combat. Anyhow I was thinking if they were more set up like a 60/40 ratio,,,but I think they (devs) are able to accomplish more on the ground than in space which may be why the STFs are set up like this.
In regards to episode content, I actually enjoy the ground portions, though I wish they were more involving with some options (enter diplomacy content - and perhaps a submission too).
I've heard the loot is good purple gear, but nothing worth the effort of the STFs...again just what Ive heard. If that is the case, maybe they can bump up the stats slightly to make it better, or add something useful instead of a weapon like a kit or even a ship item (random drop). Either way I dont see them redoing the STFs but this might be good for future ones...
What about the people who don't like space combat? Not all of us fly escorts so whatever we point at doesn't die immediately. And if you're not an escort, then you do a little circle fight until the npc dies. There's practically no strategy at all in space battles. I think that's practically why there's no space STFs. Look how the Crystalline Entity turned out. Until they can fix something like that, I don't believe there should be an emphasis on space battles in STFs.
I like ground combat. So no, not less of it. More of it, please. More weapons, more kits, more abilities, more strategy (make NPCs stop shooting right though solid rocks, for example).
I'm a WoW, LOTRO, EQ2 player as well. And there is nothing "clone" about STO ground combat to other games. It's almost entirely different IMO. It's sleek and simple, it's fun, fast-faced, and sort of a happy median between the typical MMO combat genre and shooter - which is how away team combat looks in the movies and tv shows.
Tired of hearing about how the AI on BOFs is dumb......have you ever had a hunter in your group in WoW? THAT is dumb.
I'd like ground combat more too, if it wasn't just alot of standing around pushing 1 and 2 until stuff dies. Sometimes you need to heal, sometimes you need to throw down some special ability. Ultimately, to reference WoW like everyone else, we're all just hunters in the back spamming our guns until things die. The only way ground combat seems to be entertaining is when I go kung-fu on someone and just use fists.
Granted that space combat can get boring if you're doing the same stuff over and over (I'm science btw), but I think they should focus more on space combat, not ground. How about more abilities that the enemies use against us? More abilities that we can't have, so they can be wild and crazy and difficult to counter.
I realize that people enjoy ground combat as well, and if they revamped the ground combat to be more engaging and fun it'd be awesome. But as it is, I feel like they put alot of effort into space combat, neglected ground combat, then shipped the game.
If I want ground combat, there are alot of other MMO's that did it better, and are more fun when it comes to "ground". But the space combat in this game is fun, easy to understand, and draws people in deeper. Ideally i'd like to see them improve every area of the game, but until then they need to focus on space combat more since it's the primary driving force of the game.
Edit: http://www.startrekonline.com/survey_one_results
4% ground combat. 59% space combat. If they want to do another survey to update that'd be fine, but until then I don't think people have changed their minds much.
I like ground combat. So no, not less of it. More of it, please. More weapons, more kits, more abilities, more strategy (make NPCs stop shooting right though solid rocks, for example).
I don't have a problem with the mechanics of group combat but it is incredibly tedious and boring when having get through mounds of enemies, stand & shoot, abilty, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, ability shoot, shoot, shoot ect.
I'd like to see an even balance of space and ground combat. So, no, not less. However, the ground combat needs to be more engaging, everything from abilities to missions.
I think ground combat would be more interesting if they put in a real cover system and required you to be more evasive and tactical. Stand out in the open too long and take more than a couple of direct hits and your down. Would make Cover Shield a more interesting ability too as it could serve as a portable cover.
If you want and good idea of what I'm talking about check out a video of the smuggler class from SW:TOR. Imagine that but for every class in game.
I actually really enjoyed the ground combat more than ship combat when it was faster paced more akin to a shooter. I think it takes a bit to long now. Maybe tone the NPC's down a bit just have a bit more of them.
I was very impressed in the last part of beta doing PvP and the ground combat was about as fast paced and deadly as an FPS shooter. I wasn't even able to get my heals off to be used it was that deadly. That might have been a bit to much but maybe they should go for the middle ground between what we have and what we had.
I don't have a problem with the mechanics of group combat but it is incredibly tedious and boring when having get through mounds of enemies, stand & shoot, abilty, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, ability shoot, shoot, shoot ect.
I agree. I'd like ground combat to feel more involved.
Of course, I still don't get why five admirals would team up to do something, and bring no one else along. What's up with that?
I'd like more to do on the ground, period. I don't play EVE because I don't want to play being a spaceship. Seems that's what I'm doing 90% of the time here.
I like ground combat. So no, not less of it. More of it, please. More weapons, more kits, more abilities, more strategy (make NPCs stop shooting right though solid rocks, for example).
i like the ground combat stuff too. the only bug i see alot is like a beam will get "tethered" to you graphically and you'll run around for 30 minutes or so w/this beam stuck to you from where you killed like, the first badguy.
I actually like the ground combat as well.
Sure, more skills, actual cover, ect. would be great, and hopefully will be added.
I think when the difficulty slider is put in, it will help. When you actually have to flank, cover,melee ect. you'll enjoy it more.
I'm willing to bet the people who enjoy ground combat are already doing these, like myself.
I could see if you just stand there toe to toe with all the enemies, because that's all you HAVE to do to win not liking the combat system. Half Cryptic's fault for making the game too easy for "casual" players, half user fault for being the lowest common denominator.
I actually like the ground combat as well.
Sure, more skills, actual cover, ect. would be great, and hopefully will be added.
I think when the difficulty slider is put in, it will help. When you actually have to flank, cover,melee ect. you'll enjoy it more.
I'm willing to bet the people who enjoy ground combat are already doing these, like myself.
I could see if you just stand there toe to toe with all the enemies, because that's all you HAVE to do to win not liking the combat system. Half Cryptic's fault for making the game too easy for "casual" players, half user fault for being the lowest common denominator.
I'm fairly sure 99.9% of the fault is directly related to the actual ground combat being terrible. The skill/kit system is uninspired and boring, the controls are weak, the pacing is terrible, the combat is glitchy, and the AI is borderline TRIBBLE.
It then shares the same skill pool with space combat, which forces people to make choices to be good at something they dislike(ground combat) at the cost of something they like(space combat).
Combine all that with the fact that the only mildly interesting part of ground combat is developing your away team group... and then they completely remove that element end-game. Yep, its a pretty terrible system... and pretty much needs to be completely redesigned. You can definitely tell it was tacked on late in development.
I must point out that to "win" ground combat, all you need to do is randomly press buttons while focus firing your entire squad until whoever you are fighting dies. The need for "skills" does not exist. The best part is when you are in a room and you only aggro half of the enemy b/c the other half are 5 Meters too far away to realize that their friends are being killed. Yes, the AI is mentally-challenged, but so are your friends on these away missions.
But, luckily there are always 20 more way-too-easy to kill bad guys just down the hall. Ground combat just takes too long and once you've fought through one cluster of badguys, you've fought through all clusters of bad guys. It would probably be better if one/two shots killed the enemy (or you) as opposed to the need to fire about 6-10 times to kill anyone.
Ground Combat needs a real cover system, and much more definition in weapon range. A sniper rifle should have a much better range than a compression pistol, for example. Real snipering alone would be a major improvement.
Then, custom crafted kits. Let us buy empty kits and pick our skills - cross-career, that is. The way it is now, I know what to expect from an engineer; there are only so many skills he could have. In canon there are many officers with knowledge outside their regular assignment - Dr. Bashir is the 'Medic Kit', but he can also fix stuff to a point - a ensign level engineering skill. Dr. Crusher is also a 'Medic Kit' but has a bit command experience = ensign level tactical skill. Tom Paris would be, in space, a Tactical BO, but he has basic medical knowledge = ensign level sci skill.
With a system to craft own kits and mix these skills, every toon is less predictable, has more options and that could mix ground combat up a lot.
More skills. Totally more different, career-neutral skills. Different styles of martial arts - Vulcan, Andorian, Klingon - that can be used by sci and eng and not only tactical. Greater variation in the career-based skills. How many are there per career and level? 10 at most?
More racial specific abilities. So far, Vulcans have Nerve Pinch; Gorn have Bite, Letheans have Rapture and Orions have Seduce. Give each species an active trait, or even a selection of different ones. Additional to the 'career', make the 'species' count for something.
As the whole game seems to be around combat, if there was less ground combat all we would have is space combat and that would get boring, The ground combat might not be perfect but at least it varies things up a little
Comments
Those really need to be more balanced since a majority seems to take place on the ground...but maybe that is only because ground combat seems to last longer than space combat. Anyhow I was thinking if they were more set up like a 60/40 ratio,,,but I think they (devs) are able to accomplish more on the ground than in space which may be why the STFs are set up like this.
In regards to episode content, I actually enjoy the ground portions, though I wish they were more involving with some options (enter diplomacy content - and perhaps a submission too).
I've heard the loot is good purple gear, but nothing worth the effort of the STFs...again just what Ive heard. If that is the case, maybe they can bump up the stats slightly to make it better, or add something useful instead of a weapon like a kit or even a ship item (random drop). Either way I dont see them redoing the STFs but this might be good for future ones...
There...I said it.
I'm a WoW, LOTRO, EQ2 player as well. And there is nothing "clone" about STO ground combat to other games. It's almost entirely different IMO. It's sleek and simple, it's fun, fast-faced, and sort of a happy median between the typical MMO combat genre and shooter - which is how away team combat looks in the movies and tv shows.
Tired of hearing about how the AI on BOFs is dumb......have you ever had a hunter in your group in WoW? THAT is dumb.
Granted that space combat can get boring if you're doing the same stuff over and over (I'm science btw), but I think they should focus more on space combat, not ground. How about more abilities that the enemies use against us? More abilities that we can't have, so they can be wild and crazy and difficult to counter.
I realize that people enjoy ground combat as well, and if they revamped the ground combat to be more engaging and fun it'd be awesome. But as it is, I feel like they put alot of effort into space combat, neglected ground combat, then shipped the game.
If I want ground combat, there are alot of other MMO's that did it better, and are more fun when it comes to "ground". But the space combat in this game is fun, easy to understand, and draws people in deeper. Ideally i'd like to see them improve every area of the game, but until then they need to focus on space combat more since it's the primary driving force of the game.
Edit: http://www.startrekonline.com/survey_one_results
4% ground combat. 59% space combat. If they want to do another survey to update that'd be fine, but until then I don't think people have changed their minds much.
100% agreed.
Same here!
The last mission with the Borg was nicely done !
If you want and good idea of what I'm talking about check out a video of the smuggler class from SW:TOR. Imagine that but for every class in game.
I was very impressed in the last part of beta doing PvP and the ground combat was about as fast paced and deadly as an FPS shooter. I wasn't even able to get my heals off to be used it was that deadly. That might have been a bit to much but maybe they should go for the middle ground between what we have and what we had.
I agree. I'd like ground combat to feel more involved.
Of course, I still don't get why five admirals would team up to do something, and bring no one else along. What's up with that?
I'd like more to do on the ground, period. I don't play EVE because I don't want to play being a spaceship. Seems that's what I'm doing 90% of the time here.
i like the ground combat stuff too. the only bug i see alot is like a beam will get "tethered" to you graphically and you'll run around for 30 minutes or so w/this beam stuck to you from where you killed like, the first badguy.
Sure, more skills, actual cover, ect. would be great, and hopefully will be added.
I think when the difficulty slider is put in, it will help. When you actually have to flank, cover,melee ect. you'll enjoy it more.
I'm willing to bet the people who enjoy ground combat are already doing these, like myself.
I could see if you just stand there toe to toe with all the enemies, because that's all you HAVE to do to win not liking the combat system. Half Cryptic's fault for making the game too easy for "casual" players, half user fault for being the lowest common denominator.
I'm fairly sure 99.9% of the fault is directly related to the actual ground combat being terrible. The skill/kit system is uninspired and boring, the controls are weak, the pacing is terrible, the combat is glitchy, and the AI is borderline TRIBBLE.
It then shares the same skill pool with space combat, which forces people to make choices to be good at something they dislike(ground combat) at the cost of something they like(space combat).
Combine all that with the fact that the only mildly interesting part of ground combat is developing your away team group... and then they completely remove that element end-game. Yep, its a pretty terrible system... and pretty much needs to be completely redesigned. You can definitely tell it was tacked on late in development.
But, luckily there are always 20 more way-too-easy to kill bad guys just down the hall. Ground combat just takes too long and once you've fought through one cluster of badguys, you've fought through all clusters of bad guys. It would probably be better if one/two shots killed the enemy (or you) as opposed to the need to fire about 6-10 times to kill anyone.
Then, custom crafted kits. Let us buy empty kits and pick our skills - cross-career, that is. The way it is now, I know what to expect from an engineer; there are only so many skills he could have. In canon there are many officers with knowledge outside their regular assignment - Dr. Bashir is the 'Medic Kit', but he can also fix stuff to a point - a ensign level engineering skill. Dr. Crusher is also a 'Medic Kit' but has a bit command experience = ensign level tactical skill. Tom Paris would be, in space, a Tactical BO, but he has basic medical knowledge = ensign level sci skill.
With a system to craft own kits and mix these skills, every toon is less predictable, has more options and that could mix ground combat up a lot.
More skills. Totally more different, career-neutral skills. Different styles of martial arts - Vulcan, Andorian, Klingon - that can be used by sci and eng and not only tactical. Greater variation in the career-based skills. How many are there per career and level? 10 at most?
More racial specific abilities. So far, Vulcans have Nerve Pinch; Gorn have Bite, Letheans have Rapture and Orions have Seduce. Give each species an active trait, or even a selection of different ones. Additional to the 'career', make the 'species' count for something.