Star Trek Online: Set Phasers to Fun - Part 04

 Quick tips for Brad;

1) Missions with unique titles (e.g. not "Patrol Sector X") usually are combination space/ground missions. 
2) You can only see the bridge and equip items out of combat.
3) You can spend your skill points to beef up your ship, and you can also spend officer skill points to lvl up Bridge Officer abilities (like Emergency Power to Shields). Doing this makes the game much more bearable. 
4) Don't go to another system alone if you're in a group; the # of enemies there will spawn based on whether you're in a group or not.

I never get tired of the Shatner-fied opening.... Awesome!

That was a little crazy, half of it was good crazy, the other was frustration crazy.

" @Lind_L_Taylor said:

" Yeah, I'm getting a bit annoyed at how MMOs feel the need to dumb it all down in the early levels.  They need to give the game players some credit that we can figure out how to scan something, not have a full blown "mission" based on scanning something. LOL.  These dummy missions are merely fluff & I hope they don't exist outside of the beta.  I was thinking of getting a lifetime subscription but the game looks like it might not hold my interest for 3 months let alone years & years.  I still have hope they will grow the game though & that the beta is just introductory fare to give you an idea of game play. "

But see, I can't call either of the missions I just referenced as part of the tutorial.  The game already taught me how to use interact nodes hours ago.  Perhaps the problem is with how they're done.  When I played WoW a lot, the "right click five objects to collect them" quests were my favorites because they require so little effort.  Here, I'm beaming down to a giant planet, which could be its own zone, have quests, have its own story, and yet all I'm doing is talking to some NPCs and then leaving.  There's another complaint.  Why can't I just beam down to any planet and check it out?  I like the idea of exploration in MMOs, and this universe would be ripe for it.  They have the galaxy set up, even, I just can't check all of it out. "

Anyone else noticed the Sirius Sector Black?

Brad needs to go back to the mission he left. It's one of the best low level missions in the game.

what a soft shelled sea biscuit

Haha, wow Ryan is an insufferable douchebag.

I caught a Mankrik's Wife joke in the Zone chat.

The skill upgrading system is overwhelming to me, but the game is a lot of fun.

I'm apparently awesome at this game since I had no trouble whit that mission and I did it alone untill I got to the planet, after that I had 2 guys whit me.
And I was also lvl 3 and done the missions in the same order, granted I did this 3 days ago, maby they changed shit
 
Also Brad, future not, use TAB to change targrted enemys and use E to pick up and scan shit. Saves you alot of time. And you can use Right-click and choose Equip if you have problems draging stuff to the boxes.

If i recall the missions correctly they cut it off JUST before an away mission.

Also, show off Sector 24 next time.

If you're looking for some shady Federation action, check out the season 6 Deep Space 9 episode "In the Pale Moonlight" one of the best episodes. Sisko and Garek basically punk the Romulans into joining the war against the Dominion.

Brad, 
 
Your torpedo arc is in front of you... don't fly through your targets.
 
Press F instead of clicking to interact with npcs/objects.
 
You can use the arrow keys to modulate your shields. They'll shift for a few seconds so you don't need to spam it that much. Pressing delete will balance your shields.
 
There's also a power transfer delay whenever you use full impulse or change power configs so keep that in mind. Low weapon power means crappy phaser damage.
 
Coordinate with your team and things will go much faster.
 
There's a fair amount of UI stuff could use a lot of work and the game doesn't clearly explain some pretty important concepts... but there's still fun to be had in STO.

" Oh god the equipping. I wanted to yell at my monitor. "

Oh, man, lol, that was pretty bad.
 
If you do more of these, just make sure everyone in your party is with you (you might have to use the chat box) when you're going into a mission. If they aren't going to be there then you shouldn't be in the party - missions scale with the number of people in your party, whether they're there or not.
 
The missions you get from Admiral Quinn are the best and most interesting and have the most ground stuff (which I really enjoy). It's a lot about having a good team, though. The game can be pretty great when you're in a team of people, coordinating stuff and doing the star trek thing. Solo, it drags a lot, for me.
 
Pro-tip: the "hail starfleet" button in the top-right, under the map (it looks like a data pad), lets you talk directly to most of the mission-givers. You can get new missions there and turn in completed ones, etc. If you like big space battles you might want to look for the Starbase 24 mission, it's a big fleet battle (like a raid, basically.)
 
I thought STO was a terrible, shitty excuse for a game for the first six hours or so, and then I started grouping up and things really started clicking. Once you hit Lieutenant 6 you get to start up a Klingon character, too, and I just did that and man it's awesome. And hard as hell.

this game ain't ready for release. it is really fun though and i love the direction its going in. if it release on the 2nd of Feb. like it's supposed to....idk. bad news. I won't be getting this for like 3 months though because of all the issues. there shouldn't be massive log-in issues during an open beta.

Can we have a big meet up in one of these quick looks?

Are their GM's in the beta?  And if so...are they called Q's?    

I really want this game.
 
The founders  called themselves changelings by the way. :)

I'm having issues with the missions in this game. I'm doing the Patrol missions Brad's been doing but after I wipe everyone out the game doesn't register that I've completed that system.

" Yeah, I'm getting a bit annoyed at how MMOs feel the need to dumb it all down in the early levels.  They need to give the game players some credit that we can figure out how to scan something, not have a full blown "mission" based on scanning something. LOL.  These dummy missions are merely fluff & I hope they don't exist outside of the beta.  I was thinking of getting a lifetime subscription but the game looks like it might not hold my interest for 3 months let alone years & years.  I still have hope they will grow the game though & that the beta is just introductory fare to give you an idea of game play. "

Fights are a million times easier without a group. They scale way too harshly. It's a pretty big problem with the game, honestly.

" IF you slowed down THEN you wouldn't have to turn as much since you'd be in position longer and THEN the turning ratio issue wouldn't be a problem. This ain't rocket science, what the fuck? "

It''s awesome how flustered Brad gets in some games, reminds me of my mum playing Desert Strike all those years ago!

I've been pressing the "Fire Everything!" button furiously for about an hour. I had no idea there was a auto fire button, my index finger thanks you.

I really like the game, so far, but there are tons of areas for improvement. I know it's still in beta, but before the game releases they really need to work with the autopilot feature in Sector Space, and improve speeds in Sector Space as well. Further, they really need to increase server capacities lol. Hours of "server is busy, try again" is rather frustrating. 

Sorry boys buy i enjoy my matrix online much more....   :(

Here's a breakdown on what is 90% of the chat in the Star Base.
 
"Where's Sulu?"
 
"Where's the Stateroom?"
 
There's a bug where if a group of players enters a zone and one or more drops out, the enemies that were added to balance the fight don't de-spawn.  There is also a bug where a group of ships will target the first player's ship in range, and nuke it without any type of aggro or taunt from other ships.  A workaround is to roll deep in a pack and not let one ship go too far ahead.
 
Also, so far I've seen about a 70/30 split of space/ground missions.

" @Ryax said:

" @FuzzYLemoN said:

" Ah, the third Endurance Run. Even though they refuse to admit it. :3 "

i don't think its an endurance run because they aren't trying to beat it in one sitting. "

Um, do you really think they played Persona 4 for 99 hours straight? o_O "

Mmmm... Space Rolos

Like all these other people are saying you need to drop the party if your going to solo some missions. You went into the Ambassador mission with a 4 person party, but only you were present at first. I did that mission and it auto-matched me with 2 other dudes doing that mission and things went fine.
 
One of the things I do not like about STO is that I appreciate the auto-party stuff, but when you go back to sector space after being auto-matched into a party, especially after finishing an episode, it should split the party. It is too confusing, especially for new players, that it keeps the party together. Most likely everyone is going to go their separate ways after the mission and then start trying to solo content that has been auto-matched for their previous party size.
 
Not to mention once you have been auto-matched into a party it doesn't auto-match you again. If it auto-matched you for your party, it should auto-match you again any time you enter the start of a new mission.

They don't read the quest and go "damn, i don't know where to go". 
 
Most of Star Trek Online requires you to both read the quest, make note of the sectors and galaxies and look at the galaxy map and figure out where you need to go.
 
They really should just leave the damn group and go alone for a while. It works greatly and avoid stupid mistakes like "omg, i joined a instance with 5 people and i can't solo it myself!"

MMO TIP: do not enter a quest area when you have like ten goddamn people in your party and attempt to solo it.
 
I mean come on guys, this ain't rocket science.

Oh god the equipping. I wanted to yell at my monitor.

You can't go wrong with a Brad and Ryan quick look combination.

" @Lind_L_Taylor said:

" With any luck there will be more ground in the main game that just hasn't been revealed yet.  Who knows. MMO games are kind of spastic on story lines...loads of text for quests & story info, semi-static faces to talk to, reading quests next to them, followed by shooting stuff. "

I would hope so.  I've done three full patrols (12 systems) and most of the missions were space-based.  In fact, let me tell you what two of the planetary missions involved:  1. Beaming down, talking to five NPCs, and leaving. 2. Beaming down, scanning four mysterious objects, and leaving.  Zero combat in either. "

Playing this beta makes me wish that Bioware would make a Star Trek single player RPG in style with the Kotor games.

I could care less how you wanna play Brad.  I'm just glad to have found myself laughing audibly throughout the video.  Definately thankful for the referencial back and forth between Ryan and Dave.  Kind of a shame that the game's turning into a grind but that's MMOs for ya.  Think what you will of me but after seeing all the series, I've found myself to be more of a Voyager fan, there I said it.  Keep up the great work and keep making me laugh dudes.

" I liked this better when Ryan wasn't a part of it, now I don't think I want to watch anymore. "