Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I have a noob question. Right now I am struggling with piloting the ship in combat as my left hand is busy mashing hotkeys for special attacks or buffs while my right hand is holding down the left and right mouse button to turn the ship in the direction I want. Its very cumbersome holding both mouse buttons and I was wondering if there's a better way?

I have a new favorite tactic in my escort:
Pummel with Rapid fire cannons (Mix of Phaser, Phaser-Quad and Heavy-Duty Tetrion)
Hit with a high yield torpedoes

If the target is still standing as you fly past:
Activate Dispersal Pattern Beta
Deploy quantum mines
Hold Target in place with Tractor beam until mines activate and obliterate them

That's my tactic too, except I don't use tractor beams. I just carefully time the release of my quantum mines.

I am doing it the otehr way around, I have been forever used to using WASD for steering and just click the powers I want... it is probably not the best way to play MMOs, but I get by like that and dont get a cramp in the hand...

Alternatively you could change the steering key bind to a single mouse button?

 

[LeadHead]

well servers down... damnit... wanted to hit Captain today lol

M

It's scheduled maintenance. Thursday is the typical day for it. Although if you've read the previous pages, you know there's been plenty more of it these last few weeks.

 

[Methos]

i was actually looking for a "fire all weapons" button to tie to the keyboard...

i know there's a hud one, but it's a click only, i can't tie it to the number pad for some reason... very annoying when i'm setting up phasers and torpedoes on the fore of the ship and want to open up everything i've got towards the enemy

i'm currently using 1,2,3 for my Fore weapons, and 4,5,6 for my aft... that way i'm just hammering the num pad with my three fingers while steering with the mouse lol

M

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

the Space button fires all available energy weapons... space+ctrl fires energy and kinetic like torpedos.

Usualy I just use space... hitting torps as soon as cooldown is down is something I gave up... I prefer to time it to hit the unshielded hull.
With the exception of the hargh'peng as the second explosion ignores shields.

 

[Methos]

ahh didn't know those two...

cheers, keep those in mind

i normally unload my entire front arsenal as i'm approaching, sort of get the first shot in and make it count... so it's normally a hargh'peng, and 2 duel phaser barrels... which does the job of getting their attention lol

M

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

ahh didn't know those two...

cheers, keep those in mind

i normally unload my entire front arsenal as i'm approaching, sort of get the first shot in and make it count... so it's normally a hargh'peng, and 2 duel phaser barrels... which does the job of getting their attention lol

M

Try obliterating at least one shield facing first and THEN hit them with the torp. Results are much better.
it can be a bit tricky, cause shields regenerate usually and even 1% of raised shields will migitate teh kinetic damage to around 10% of which only 10% bleedthrough damage gets through to the hull... or something like that...

NPCs cheat, their torps work obviously different for some reason.

 

[intrinsical]

i was actually looking for a "fire all weapons" button to tie to the keyboard...

i know there's a hud one, but it's a click only, i can't tie it to the number pad for some reason... very annoying when i'm setting up phasers and torpedoes on the fore of the ship and want to open up everything i've got towards the enemy

i'm currently using 1,2,3 for my Fore weapons, and 4,5,6 for my aft... that way i'm just hammering the num pad with my three fingers while steering with the mouse lol

M

I just learnt today that you can enable autofire by right clicking on the weapon's hotkey button (dull green border appears around the hotkey button, turns bright green when its actively auto-firing). So now, all my phaser cannons are automatically fire on my target the moment they are able to, leaving me to concentrate on launching photon torpedos and quantum mines.

 

[Methos]

yeah... i've seen that, i just use those to get their attention when i'm just coming into range, then when they turn i stick with the phaser volleys...

i'll test timing things and see how they go when the game's back up...

another thing the NPC's can do that we can't is target multiple ships at once... or is that something you can do later on in the game?

M

 

[Methos]

I just learnt today that you can enable autofire by right clicking on the weapon's hotkey button (dull green border appears around the hotkey button, turns bright green when its actively auto-firing). So now, all my phaser cannons are automatically fire on my target the moment they are able to, leaving me to concentrate on launching photon torpedos and quantum mines.

ohhh didn't know that... that'll certainly make things easier... have to try that

M

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

What you seen is probably the Fire at Will power. I run two copies of that power on my Souvereign, you may have noticed it. Randomly targets everything in range with rapid beam shots.
That is a power for tank though, as it draws a lot of aggro.
As a tac you are better of using Beam overload, which fires a single very high powered beam at a single target. Capable of dropping a shield at once, if you are not up against a battle cruiser or a dreadnaught at least.

And then, something i used to do in my cruiser (notso much these days dor soem reason) when I have enemies in my front and in my rear, I toggle targets and fire at 2 targets simultaneously as well....

Both Fire a Will and Beam Overload, as firing 7 or 8 beams at once for that matter, will drain your weapon energy significantly, esspecially BO, which means your DPS on each shot after that is lower, so give it a second to get back to full.

 

[intrinsical]

Try obliterating at least one shield facing first and THEN hit them with the torp. Results are much better.
it can be a bit tricky, cause shields regenerate usually and even 1% of raised shields will migitate teh kinetic damage to around 10% of which only 10% bleedthrough damage gets through to the hull... or something like that...

NPCs cheat, their torps work obviously different for some reason.

Right now, my frontal attack strategy is as follows:

> 10km
Turn on auto-firing on my two phaser cannons.

10km
Fire a single photon torpedo to help bring down their front shields.

5km
Order attack pattern alpha to boost damage
Order my tactical officer to fire a volley of 4-5 high yield torpedoes.
Divert more power to front shields if necessary.

4km
Release 5 quantum mines.
Engage evasive maneuvers to quickly zoom past and get away before the ship's explosion gets me.

So far, only dreadnought class ships and Borg cubes have been able to survive one round of my frontal assault. :P

 

[Methos]

hmm, have to try something like that...

haven't experimented with the mine things yet...

M

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Keep in mind that he is talking from an escort perspective... won't work on a cruiser for teh simple reason, that you can't run dual cannons of any kind.

 

[Methos]

yeah... i'll figure out my own tactics for when i get my new ship... 2 more levels to go to Captain lol

M

 

[intrinsical]

Yup, now I understand how the Defiant is able to slice through Dominion warships like butter.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

yeah... i'll figure out my own tactics for when i get my new ship... 2 more levels to go to Captain lol

M

In that case you are invited to create your KDF toon and participate in the Uniform Design contest.

 

[Methos]

ohh cool... thanks...

kdf toon?

already thinking of my next ship... thinking either the Envoy class cruiser... or possibly the Discovery class science... not sure yet...

M

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

ohh cool... thanks...

kdf toon?

already thinking of my next ship... thinking either the Envoy class cruiser... or possibly the Discovery class science... not sure yet...

M

When you reached level 25 you unlocked the ability to create a character of the other faction, the Klingon Defense Force (KDF).
You may have noticed the accolade that comes with it. Warrior of the Empire or something like that.


Please, do me a favor.... NEVER... NEVER EVER fly an Envoy class. Go Galaxy, MAYBE Celestial or if you have money to spend buy the Venture class from the C-Store.

Envoy is the most hideous ship in the game only rivaled by the Imperial class.

The game's lead ship designer himself has achknowledged it as a huge mistake!

if you pick the Envoy I may have to demote you to crewman second class!!!!

Kidding of course.

But seriously, if you want a galaxy variant, think about the Venture. It's an awesome sauce looking ship and comes with a special ability console you can continue to use on your Admiral level ship.

http://sto.buffed.de/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=6934&d=1318528824
http://www.stoarchive.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/screenshot_2011-09-09-20-03-43-e1315756972124.jpg

 

[Methos]

hmm thanks for the tip there

games back up now by the way

M

 

[Aeolusdallas]

I have a noob question. Right now I am struggling with piloting the ship in combat as my left hand is busy mashing hotkeys for special attacks or buffs while my right hand is holding down the left and right mouse button to turn the ship in the direction I want. Its very cumbersome holding both mouse buttons and I was wondering if there's a better way?

I have a new favorite tactic in my escort:
Pummel with Rapid fire cannons (Mix of Phaser, Phaser-Quad and Heavy-Duty Tetrion)
Hit with a high yield torpedoes

If the target is still standing as you fly past:
Activate Dispersal Pattern Beta
Deploy quantum mines
Hold Target in place with Tractor beam until mines activate and obliterate them

That's my tactic too, except I don't use tractor beams. I just carefully time the release of my quantum mines.

I am doing it the otehr way around, I have been forever used to using WASD for steering and just click the powers I want... it is probably not the best way to play MMOs, but I get by like that and dont get a cramp in the hand...

Alternatively you could change the steering key bind to a single mouse button?

That's how I do it too. People always say it's inefficient but I have been playing MMORPG's that way as long as there have been MMORPG's and I have never had any trouble competing.