And they took the cans of whoopass confiscated from the space NPCs and passed them out to the ground ones. And then Swordmasters and Ra'wiqs kept beating up the other ground mobs to steal theirs.

Space combat needs bumped up, even battleships are just speedbumps under my frikkin' light cruiser. Most of ground combat is fine except for a few NPCs that seem to have been infused with pre-nerf Gadroon DNA.

As for what I could parse from the OP... meh. Camera tracks targets just fine, too well when you're in aim mode. You can slap anything you want in 30 numerical hotkey slots and you can probably make custom binds to the other 7 bars. I haven't been arsed to learn how because I haven't yet needed to.

What else are you asking for?

"2.AWAY TEAM COMBAT! its annoying to have to tell your guys where to go after the rally point order has been given."

hm you should listen to the tutorial

left klick icon to aktivate...right click and all is fine...and they follow like before

...you should read more...before posting...like most of the users should

i guess i could clarify on that, but ill save that for a post ill do....ok....NOW


I was leading into maybe having an away team that functions like your team in maybe gears of war or something?

They are good, but not great. This game is being sold as Great though, not just good. you paid for this, but they give you that.

you make me laugh mr angry. im sure you bring this gift to everyone who sees that image.

I just don't get that either... they're not even challenging once you start utilizing expose/exploit mechanics. We had a whole thread on this topic yesterday. If anything, all ground game needs a tweak upwards in difficulty, and always has. It's received no TLC upwards or downwards for a long time.

There are a few NPCs that seem to fall out of Expose instantly. I've seen that happen sometimes with the NPC types I mentioned at around Lt 8 and up. Also some boss-ish NPCs (but not all). Some also have crazy shield regen rates (while other ground NPCs seem to never get shields back, which should also be changed) and it's most annoying when these two aspects overlap.

Short answer to OP:

It wasn't modeled after something that doesn't suck because that would have taken effort and an intelligent person at Cryptic, see? They already have this Fabulous (in their completely objective and not profit-based opinion) Cryptic Engine that they started using in City of Heroes then City of Villains, and then Champions Online, and now in Star Trek. The combat system is ALREADY DONE, savvy? Hahaha, no time spent on new combat mechanics = moneyz for Cryptic! Go play a free trial of Champions Online and try out a fight and you'll absolutely puke up your pancakes at how the combat in Star Trek is THE SAME with a Star Trek graphical skin.

Crpytic bigwig: "Don't worry Trekkies, Star Trek is safe in our hands because we have this Fabulous Cryptic Engine where we can rapidly create content through our pipeline!"

Who do you think he said that for - players? NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

That line is for the investors who need to know that the PR face is smiling and cooing sweet nothings at the sheep still waiting to be fleeced.

Cryptic, you of course have the power to disprove the above. But with text like "It’s built on the Cryptic Engine, a core technology that means our designers can focus less on a game’s nuts and bolts" ON YOUR OWN WWW.STARTREKONLINE.COM site, I have little hope that you "get it".

Through the end of OB I was running Level 24-28 ground missions (as a level 24 player), and while I did see these bugged NPC's, I still had no trouble with the missions. That said, I'm all for bugs that grief players being fixed... I just don't find the relatively "fun" PvE ground game at all challenging.

Me neither, they're just annoying.

Not as annoying as the sleep-through space combat is sometimes... I just did an Alpha Centauri Deep Space Encounter for kicks and stared down a +9 D'deridex in my light cruiser. Didn't die.

Did get 1-shotted by an HYT from behind (with full shields and hull) that I didn't see in time to intercept, tho. That was awesome.

The problem is that the game is trying to have action gameplay and look like action but it doesn't work well with MMO controls and doesn't really try to be action. I read that ground combat used to be faster, but they slowed it down. As best as I can figure, it had to be slowed in order to fit with the cumbersome nature of MMO controls. Instead, they could have changed the control scheme and thinking on powers, but I guess they're more afraid of the game not being like any other MMO than anything else.

Which is funny since Exteel is an MMO with action style ground combat, but it fashioned a proper control scheme that allows an extremely fast pace. The powers in both games work exactly the same, you click and a series of shots will be fired, depending on the weapon, there are even special powers. The main differences on Exteel's part are; camera movement is locked to mouse movement, it uses soft locks (you are only locked for as long as you have the enemy in your cross hairs), there's a left and right attack linked to the mouse buttons. The main difference on STO's side are the away teams and their powers.

The problem with away teams is where Exteel keeps things simple to fit fast gameplay, Star Trek Online bloats ground combat. Numerous officer powers have been added in order to keep it a traditional MMO, rather than more in line with Trek canon or the fast paced combat it had promised. I'm not asking for STO to be Exteel, but Instead of asking what fits Star Trek, Cryptic forced Star Trek into the MMO mold instead of coming up with something original. Bridge officers are just pet based power receptacles on the ground, and ship components in space.

The other problem with the squad combat is that the controlling the squad mates is cumbersome. Fiddly little keys need to be clicked on-screen to control the squad instead of in games such as Mass Effect and Freedom Fighters, where you just hit a key and they go where you're looking, or where they're needed. Mass Effect's system really wouldn't work with this game, since so much of it depends on frequent pausing to work really well. Freedom Fighters requires no pausing at all and you control up to twelve personnel with no difficulty using no more than three commands; defend, attack, follow. It's extremely simple, so it is highly effective.

The biggest problem with the away team squad is how the bridge officers can't take care of themselves, combined with the complicated control scheme. They can't path correctly; for some reason when in follow mode they tend to get stuck around corners, behind objects, and at the edges of doors. Yet, in way point mode they suddenly become pathing geniuses. They aren't smart enough to flank on their own. They aren't smart enough to spread out. They aren't smart enough to focus fire on my target. They aren't smart enough to heal me. Much of what they have to be ordered to do should come as automatic, and the controls are overly layered and should be redundant with proper AI.

When just walking or running, they should never fire first, unless fired on. If I target something, they should all target that target, and they should only commence firing once I fire. They should continue to always switch to my target unless in direct danger and fire as frequently as possible, both the primary and secondary modes. The bros with exploit powers need to be smart enough to switch automatically switch to any exposed targets and fire on them with their secondary. If fired on first, they should return fire. Healing powers, for armor should be reserved for me, unless a team mate is in imminent death. When laying mines, engineers should lay them several feet toward the enemy. An alternative to this is to make it so they can't use their special powers, and make the special powers yours to control through your power bar. This would take the least work to implement and would make using those powers far easier. Both that and the AI improvements should be done.

Then there are the enemies. I can't blame them for going after the leading officer, since rank and position is highly visible in Starfleet. Yet, at the same time I still think it's stupid that a good portion of the Klingons always make a beeline for my captain even when overwhelmingly ambushed from an opposite side. In effect, they're turning their back or side to the larger threat, which with the game mechanics means they're putting themselves in the most danger by facing me. I expect my enemies to be smart than that. I like that there is no aggro, except for that one power which labels you with a fake expose. Target selection should be based on the weakest target versus the target that has the most powers or most damage output. But, they should only be able to determine them once they're fired on or fire on someone, or once powers are used. Other than that, it's who is closest and who fired first.

Here is how I order my away team missions, I fire, and they seem to work fine. Anytime, I tell them to do something they act like WoW kiddies in barrens chat. In other words, just attack and let them do their stuff naturally.