Well said. CSE is one of those maps that has, at its heart, the most diverse amount of employable strategy, yet quite a few elites believe that RMMRL is the only one that guarantees success. Yesterday, I played three very different rounds of CSE that resulted in success with plenty of optional time to spare: One that I hosted employing the MRML strategy, which is my personal favorite. The second was the CSN strategy, which made life a bit tough for the Kanger, but we had lots of high-DPS guys who knew how to handle the situation. The third used the guide strategy, where you kill alll probes then kill the cubes simultaneously.

The first one was notable in that everyone made a bee-line toward the right cube instead of the middle one. I called an audible and switched back to the RMMRL, though not before the Kang took a little bit of shield damage from the left BoPs. The last two were memorable in that there were one or two people who questioned the strategies and tried to persuade the host to switch to their methods, but they were good sports, performed their duties precisely, and came away knowing that there are many ways to skin a cat.

So....I've been around the STF space block a bit. Beaten all, elite and normal, gotten objectives yada yada.

Till yesterday I never even tried grounds. So far out of 4 runs, 3 Kitomers and 1 infected, I've had to quit 2 due to suddenly half only a single teammate left.

Just now. First time in Infected ground (normal)- Mission loads with me states "Hi team...first time here...bare with me". I'm running a Sci toon with Medic kit- so I'm healing and such while shooting borg all over the place. It's goig ...decently....till 3 out of 5 get locked OUT of the first boss fight due to force field and ppl rushing. But we manage. By now the bonus is lost,...no biggy we're going. Get into what I assume is the last room....odd floating borg and shields to take down.

Then 1 team mate beams out after we kill all the borg.

Then we get 3 out of 4 shields down....and next thing I know there's only 2 of us left.

What's the point is quitting by then? I can ALMOST see if it you wanted the bonus objective...but 20 minutes after you lost them?

CS (Elite or Normal) is usually my first STF choice.

As per the last post, how player's deal with the Kang is a big issue in Cure Space (obviously) and it's always interesting to watch.

For example - played Cure on normal yesterday. The moment it commenced someone in a Vo'quv said:

"Hi - I've got the Kang".

I acknowledged this (was the only other player to do so) and promptly flew off to help deal with the generators etc, but made a point of keeping an eye on what the situation was with the Kang. (Doubt I am the only one who has experienced a player who says "I've got the Kang" but doesn't manage to do so).

Anyway - dealt with a few generator shperes and helped despatch a cube (emphasis 'helped' - my Bellerophon Retrofit isn't big on DPS). Swung around to see how the Kang was doing - it didn't look good from my view - four BOP's circling, with two more on the way, and whilst the Vo'quv seemed to be doing an adequate job of keeping them in check, I decided to assist and despatched one of the BOP's pestering the Kang, which was already weakened from fighting the Vo'quv, then intercepted the approaching ones and ran interference, popping gravity well on them and then despatching them by taking their shields out and finishing them off with torpedoes. Managed to despatch them before they reached firing range of the Kang.

To which "Reyan - I've got the Kang, help the others!" pops up in chat.

Though I wanted to say "you weren't doing a fantastic job of it a few minutes ago" I simply replied "Fair enough" and assisted despatching cube number two.

We made our way toward cube three, although I again took a peep at what was happening with the Kang, which was again being bothered by BOP's. Decideded to make my way over again, as the rest of the group didn't seem to be struggling to take out the Cubes and I considered myself more useful interfering with BOP's and Raptors.

Unfortunately before I managed to get within weapons range the 'optional failed' text appears. Now, to be fair, I'm not sure if it was the Kang's 'health' or the timer that caused this (though fairly sure it was the Kang's health) but eitherway, "Crap guys" appears on the chat screen.

So I reply "so lets just make sure we don't fail the entire mission". No reply, and we did manage to complete the mission, but still......

Tried it again.....god damn I'm tired of ppl quitting at the end of the freaking STF so that you just do NOT have the number of ppl need since Crypic though forcing 3 ppl to do the same thing was a fun idea.

There I was...

I didn't really figure I'd do any other STF's today. I need to ride out to the golf course and deliver an application.

But Nooooooo...

After getting my afternoon Doff missions together I 'accidentally' enter another CSN.

I come in, say 'Hi' as I always do.

I see three oddy's and an escort.

Now, every time I see an oddy I fear the worst because that's what usually comes from an oddy.

But there are three so I figure I'll be doing most of the work, maybe with some help from the escort.

Two of the oddys fly off to the Kang, the rest of us go to the first cube.

And what do I see? Nothing but rainbow, technicolor beams and skittles cannons.

I kill a BoP and a couple nodes and look back to the Kang.

It's swarmed.

Now, I really didn't want to be there in the first place so I just say 'Ahhh Heck with it' and and keep on with the nodes.

I finish the first cube with little less or no help from the other two.

I say 'Have any of you ever read the forums about setting up your ships?'

No responce.

So I fly over to the second cube, all the others have gone to the Kang.

I type 'Have any of you ever read the forums at all?'

No responce.

I kill a couple ships and the nodes then the cube.

I type 'Can any of you read?'

The optional goes boom.

Someone says 'Stupid noobes!'

I type 'Really? Technicolor Rainbow beams and Skittles cannons and you're calling people noobes?'

No responce.

I zip over to the third cube and it gets dispatched pretty quick.

Now for the carrier.

It wasn't much different than most but two guys were now going hard at it about everyone being noobes.

I type again ' 'Really? Technicolor Rainbow beams and Skittles cannons and you're calling people noobes?'

Someone says 'I have every energy type and that's the best way to do it.'

I say 'Really? You might want to read the forums about that.'

He say's '*%$# the forums. I've been doing this since February and I don't need the forums. My ship is the best one here.' (I cut out all the cuss words)

I say 'Let's go tard, One on One.'

No responce.

He gathers his loot and leaves.

I send a private challange.

No responce.

So goes my day and I'm off to the Golf Course.

Nothing is worse when people accuse you of things you didn't do. I have had it happen to me and it drives me crazy.

The line, "The Kang doesn't need you to protect it" is hilarious. Usually if the Kang get's in any kind of trouble it's already to late. That player needs to have those words burned into his character bio so others know his level of ineptitude.

Most of these missions I have run over 50 times and people still impart their knowledge on me showing me how little I know. Than there are people like the one mentioned above who have run it a couple of times and think they are an expert.

At least someone manned up and apologized. I can't say I have ever seen that type of behavior in STOl. :p

There I was....

Am I a glutton for punishment or what.

I mean, I could be halfway to St George right now on my bike.

I could be in Sturgis checking out the hot chicks.

But Noooooo....

I choose to set here playing this silly game.

Somewhere along to line today I decided I needed to replace two of my heavy cannons with regular duals.

So I needed a couple prototypes.

I cue up an ISE.

Now Cryptic, in their infinate wisdom, changed the hud. So now when I go into space I get one of two displays. The original with the fire buttons or the new one without the fire buttons.

I get into the PuG and see I have the hud without buttons.

Lucky for me I have my mouse set up to fire but I prefer the buttons on the hud.

I See that the Pug is three oddys and a Galaxy.

Now the Galaxy is the only other ship in the fleet that is comparativily as bad as an oddy.

I say 'Hi' like I usually do.

So everyone is firing away with technicolor rainbow beams. All is going relativily well.

The first set of nodes and generator die properly with a minimum number of spheres spawning.

All is going relitivily well.

But I see that the spheres and nanites are not dying.

So I type my usual 'Please take your weapons off stun.'

I get too close to the gate and get killed.

I respawn.

Now I have the Hud with buttons. Yippee...

So I return to the group and join the kill.

I see the Galaxy and an oddy go boom.

Great.

The Spears are finished before the other two get back.

It took an unusually long time to finish the Spheres and I didn't figure we could finish the optional on time.

So....

We all head off to side two,

The Cube dies and I turn to knock down a node.

Three oddys are behind me shooting the nodes and a Galaxy on the other side working on a node.

Boom, the oddys killed both nodes they where working on early.

I kill mine immediatly and try to shoot the one the Gslasxy was working at.

The Galaxy's node is still at 80% so I'm firing away at it.

The three oddys are shooting the generator.

I say 'There's still a node alive.'

They just keep shooting the generator.

The node finally dies but i get killed.

I heal and respawn and head back to the Generator.

Now I have no fire buttons again.

There are sphears and nanites all over.

I start working on them and watch two oddys die.

Now my mouse locks up.

I;me leaving a slowww ugly mouse trail and have a ton of lag in the buttons.

I get killed.

75 seconds later I respawn.

Now I have buttons,

I fly back, mouse still lagging but I can click on the hud fire butons..

We finish the gate and are working on the cube.

I die.

Forever later I respawn, No hud buttons.

The oddys all get killed so I try to set 9.5 K out from the cube and keep firing.

It doesn't work and my mouse is so bad I can't do much with my heals.

I get killed.

I come back about a month later and the Cube had actually healled a little.

I have hud firnig buttons again.

I see the Galaxy and two oddys die.

Finally after about three weeks of shooting the cube dies.

Everybody says GG.

YEA RIGHT!!!

Plus, NO PROTOTYPE!

Oh Well...

You know if you tap esc twice it usually switches whatever space skillbar version that pops up to the other?

No I didn't know that. Thank you. It may help. The biggest problems was the sudden mouse lag. If I can get out of town today I'll go get a wired gaming mouse. The temp here is still in the 30's and I have to ride the bike. It's 100 miles any direction to the nearest store that carries mice.

Don't know about mouse-lag, but the lag experienced whenever someone farts out any type of gas cloud is terrible.