I'd imagine that's because a lot of people run them in private groups to avoid these sorts of issues. Personally I prefer PuGs over pre made teams, it adds a little variety to the same few STFs but I can see why some people don't want to have to baby sit people through them, even for someone who prefers PuGs it gets really annoying at tiems to have to tell people the same thing repeatedly, even more so when you recognise the person as someone you've helped before.
The post above yours however is correct and really helps for STFs; just having one person you trust can make a terrible group bearable. I usually run with one or two other fleet members, on both Normal and Elite and I can't explain the difference it makes knowing that at least one person is paying attention.

The current PUG system is Russian Roulette at its finest. I've had plenty of runs where we clear the primary and the optional with 8 or more minutes left on the clock, with little to no communication between the team members.

The flip side of the coin, I've PUG'd groups where several of us are constantly telling someone to stop blowing up things that result in a diarrhea-like torrent of nanite ships raining upon the rest of us.

The latter seems to be happening with increasing frequency these days. The double reward days seem to be the best days to get a good PUG, but any other day of the week...well, there might as well be five bullets in that revolver.

Do what I've done. Find a group of in-game friends, or even ones you know in real life who are in the game, create your own fleet, and play that way. I usually run STF's with at least two other people I know and we run through them faster than they can cool down. Do we always get the optional? No, but the overall experience is far more pleasant.

I don't mind PUGs as a rule, since I enjoy watching the changing dynamics from teaming with different players. I'd prefer, however, if we could have about a minute to review strategy, roles, and tactics before getting thrown into a timed event with a bunch of strangers.

Hello,

Please remember that joining a queue is completely optional; I personally have experienced a few minor issues when playing STF missions via the queues but no longer do because I joined the EliteSTF global chat channel allowing me to chat with other experienced STF players who are more often than not willing to help players who are new to STFs or just simply discuss tactics with any other user.

The channel is moderated so you wont find people spamming, flaming/trolling or generally going of topic, but I'm not saying it's definitely the channel for you or that you have to join it; it's just my personal favourite.

It's also important to note that STF missions were never originally designed by the content developer who created them to be PUG friendly; these missions were originally created for players who regularly play together, who know each others play styles and in general to encourage team work between players.

For future reference you can find a full list of the most useful global chat channels in game via this link below.

http://www.stowiki.org/Global_Channel_Directory

Cheers,

Alecto

Excellent. Already did my first one in this channel.

Cure Elite... We lost... :-(

Just barely though. It was still fun.

they should just get rid of the leaving penalty. If you get some drooler in your group you shouldnt be forced to play with some mongloid playing a elite with chat disabled.

The penalty is not the problem. The cooldown to be able to do it again is the problem.

Even without the penalty your still stuck for most of the entire hour.

Besides that if they did take out the penalty it would encourage griefers to just quit a group that is serious about finishing.

Its a double edged sword.

I run most STF's with a 2 friends who i've been playing with since release, but occasionally take along a random who wants too do the STF's and cant find a group...
Sometime we have a great time, we teach and learn the player all we know and they love it, and sometimes we seems too be have cursed ourselfs with a type of -i-know-it-all-your-team-is-just-for-me-as-cannon-fodder-i-play-solo who refuses too work together, even talk etc..

But in general i refuse too go PuG's i enjoy STo mostly with 2 RL friends who i play exclusively with..

For these things to work really, really well, you need voice comms running. I finally got my golden engineering butt back into a cruiser backing up my escort buddies. It makes it a lot easier when I hear one of them start mashing the keyboard with frantic cries of "oh? OH CRAP!" and I just casually target them and send an Engineering Team their way without breaking stride. Same for hazard emitters, EPS transfer, or any number of buffs/heals. Not to mention popping off FAW to take out the heavy plasma torpedoes of instant death or at least warn them to brace.

For a massively multiplayer game, there's a serious lack of communication amongst the players in a team. I get that people want their privacy, but if you're willing to voice chat with a group, please do it! It makes a big difference!