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Ground Vs Space
onetontoad
Member Posts: 70 Arc User
I enjoy space combat but achually enjoy ground more,much more challenging and not as forgiving when your team get wasted in certain circumsatances.Flying around in space pushing spacebar with some other skills now and then gets rather dull sometime...My question to the people who dont like ground is what exactly do you dislike about it?
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That being said, I also enjoy ground a lot more. The maps are bigger, which means you spend more time instead of completing everything in a minute or two, and you also see other people instead of their ships. (Relative) position is also more important, as is team work in many cases.
Having more restrictions because there's only 5 kit module slots instead of 11 console slots and 6-8 weapon slots makes things also a bit more challenging.
I must add though... ground is becoming much less fun with all the power creep that has been added in the last few months. Shield ignoring weapons, OP guns like the Boolean assault one and always critting shield ignoring kit modules are slowly causing problems. We're seeing the same situation developing as in space: tacs who can tank and practically solo a mission, sci's with ridiculously overpowered kit modules (flash freeze bomb for example) and engineers who are not just good at tanking, but practically invincible.
Some balance is needed here too, although I'd say that the diminishing presence of it is less of a problem than in space. Until now, that is.
My biggest complaint about ground missions is actually the other players in Undine Infiltration Elite. Half the time I played it last year (when the mission finally popped) ended in failure.
The failures were not due to the lack of DPS. The failures were due to the other players did not know how to determine if the suspects you need to interrogate were Undine or not. They either lack reading comprehension since the clues the players should read will actually let them know where or not the person is lying to you. Or they simply did not bother trying to read the clues at all.
In other words, the failures were due to absolute stupidity.
I must admit that I've never played that mission yet so I would probably fail it too - although I always play on normal the first time.
The lack of understanding - or refusal to pay attention rather - is also a problem in space though. I've been in instances where people wouldn't wait until we closed the errant rifts in Undine Assault, I've been in instances where people would free a Scimitar literally seconds before the second optional timer activated (despite asking them to wait) and so on.
And yesterday I played a Gravity Kills mission where three people never flew away from the Jupiter. Leaving me as the only person trying to capture Hawking particles (at least the last guy was attacking the enemies near the installations and drawing aggro so that I had my full impulse available most of the time, but still)
I don't think you'll ever escape that, you'd have to avoid both space and ground content if you don't want to encounter clueless players.
I see it in Khitomer ground, I see people charging in in Defend Rhiho station (where being careful and walking slowly makes a lot more sense) but I also see it in missions like Infected space. I guess most people are here to relax and just shoot stuff, which is quite understandable I might add.
If RPG mode had significantly more direct attack skills (even if it's just unlocking all the different alt-fire attacks for every weapon), so that I could get an actual rotation going like in WoW, or if shooter mode played more like Gears of War, I would enjoy it a lot more. As it is though, I personally hate almost everything about it. Space is the only reason I still play.
But isn't it the same in space? If you disable shooter mode, it looks exactly the same as in space where you're observing things from a distance.
Headshot is implemented, check the Commando tree
More fire options sounds like a nice idea. Although for me, it is exactly the restrictions (and, as a result of that, the importance of career) that makes ground more interesting.
Still finding the dynamics of ground combat more interesting though, don't think that will ever change
Yeah, when I play a new STFs I always start with normal (though the one exception was Miner Instabilities Advanced) since the secondary objectives are not mandatory.
Another complaint is with Brotherhood of the Sword Elite... I chalk that up to noobs not able to queue up for Normal or Advanced since they always seem to be empty. However, they seem to ignore instructions we veteran players give where they should not activate the Iconian device until after the secondary objectives have been completed. I have to admit though, so far since last Saturday I have had an extremely good run in BotSE. Out of 40 BotSE missions I have played (10 captains, 1 run per captain per day for 4 days), only one failed and that was because of a bug.
I have not tried Gravity Kills yet. I typically wait a week for a patch to fix issues. Besides, during this time of the year I kinda focus on farming Omega Traces. I'll watch a few videos of Gravity Kills by the time I get to playing it next week.
Space is far more interesting though, have to maneuver your ship to keep your optimal firing arc, while keeping an eye on your health, redistributing shields, and watching your ability cooldowns
...but the one thing that would really bring it all together - zone pause - is in my opinion improperly implemented; it should be usable entirely at will (Tyranny is a recent RPG that does it well), instead of having to wait and build up a limited stock of it (something the game doesn't even bother explaining). Because between this functionality and the notes above about abilities, ground combat in a mission can be approached in a manner reminiscent of not only games like Tyranny, but even the old-school Rainbow Six titles. For reference, I will use as example the initial encounter with the Breen in 'Emancipation', consisting of four basic troops (H'ren) and a medic (H'ren bioengineer). As it is, I can pause, 'plan' (in this case, mark the medic and two of the troopers for stasis), and then 'execute' by unpausing and having that play out...
Free tip: the expose/exploit mechanic is your friend; it's why you'd ideally have one weapon with an exposing alt-fire (burst-fire rifles and PWAs come to mind; some abilities also can cause it) and one with an exploiting alt-fire (HDR, sniper, split-beam). Exposed targets (marked with the gold 'bullseye') take significantly more damage from exploiting attacks. This logic is also why you might want to give your bridge officers the burst-fire rifles - so they can create those openings for you. Related tip: hitting G (default) will select the closest exposed target and switch to your exploiting weapon as needed (if you have it equipped).
As for 'rotations'... if you're referring to things optimally used in sequence, they do exist, starting with simple but effective combinations like using electrogravitic or endothermic induction fields to set groups up for, say, a plasma grenade. If you opted for the tactical track, you'd need to get the appropriate manuals so your science officer(s) can use the fields... which ties back into my point above about being able to say when officers can or can't use their abilities.
I'm aware of, and fully utilize, the expose mechanics. They do absolutely nothing to make RPG mode less boring. As for my use of the word rotation, I was referring to how in WoW, on my Death Knight, combat goes something like this: Remorseless Winter, Howling Blast, Obliterate x2, Frost Strike until out of Runic Power, Howling Blast on proc, and Sindragosa's Fury on cooldown, repeat.
I do enjoy a good ground romp, but often the game flow feels 'off' somehow. Not saying it's not fun. It is!
(I'm leaving out the whole Pve team-drop share system. Ugh.)
2. Same scenario, only the enemy will totally ignore my away team standing right on top of them and only react when I actually reach a certain spot, at which time they all starting shooting at me. Of course the fact that my away team also stands there doing absolutely nothing with the enemy right in their face until after the enemy starts shooting at me is quite annoying also.
3. Enemies that will run right through a hail of fire to a predetermined spot and then turn back to join the fight. While I do get that they were probably programmed that way just to add the element of flanking damage to the fight, it is a totally unnatural reaction. :::Disclaimer: I will admit, I actually do that myself at times. I will run right through the middle of a an enemy group, my away team stops and engages them as soon as they start shooting me, most of the enemy will then face my away team and return fire, allowing me to then hit them with flanking damage from the rear. It is still NOT a natural reaction as in a true combat situation trying that just means you die first, but it works for the mechanics of this game.
4. A really big one. The fact that, other than in BZs, the enemy is always the exact same. They will always appear in the exact same location, exact same numbers and have basically the exact same reactions. This makes subsequent mission plays less and less exciting. First play through, you reach a certain spot (open a door, talk to an NPC etc) and suddenly enemies appear and start attacking. Second play through, you position your away team so that the enemy will be flanked as they appear, drop turrets, plant mines etc and then trigger the encounter. By the third, fourth, fifth or so play through it has become a yawn fest.
Why would I use all those letters when I have 12 buttons at my thumb on my MMO mouse
I really, truly do not like anything about how ground is designed in STO, in both RPG and shooter modes.
Space only, I avoid ground with the exception of story missions. I play Insurgency, Battlefields and some other FPS, which are way better than any STO ground.