# Is Star Trek Online typical of MMO's or is it just uniquely bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 21, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832 "2014-12-21T17:44:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832/1 "2014-12-21T17:44:44Z")
I don’t play a lot of video games. (The last one I really got into was Tetris.) But I’m a big _Trek_ fan and people have been telling me to play STO so I downloaded the free version and checked it out. After spending far too long tweaking my character’s face and hair (his name is Lt. Chester Jawline) I started playing. I don’t get it. It seems like the interface is very poorly designed and not thought out. Both ground and space combat seem to have very complex rules, yet so far every battle is won by my very subtle “click on the bad guy until he blows up” tactic. I’m not sure but it seems like it’s impossible to die, so what’s the point of all the combat rules? The icons and stuff on the battle control are small and incomprehensible, and I can’t find any resources for how they work, or why my torpoedoes only fire one out of every ten times I try them. The main problem seems to be that NPCs keep trying to give me useful battle tips in the middle of a battle (“press these nine buttons to route auxiliary power to the shields!”) while I’m squinting to try and make sense of the controls (which don’t work) and by the time I notice somebody is talking to me the little info box has disappeared, so I haven’t actually learned how to make my ship do stuff. The navigation controls are likewise very unintuitive, and I can’t figure out how to make the perspective view change when turning my ship, so I am never really clear on where I’m going. Anyway, are these valid complaints, or am I just not cool enough to dig this scene, man? Also, I can’t figure out what the online component of this is; so far I haven’t interacted with any other players and there don’t appear to be any opportunities to do so. ETA: Oops, wrong forum. Reported. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832/2 "2014-12-21T17:50:34Z")
It is not a very typical MMO, no. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832/3 "2014-12-21T18:01:17Z")
From what I’ve heard of it, the combat is actually relatively complex for an MMO. What you’re seeing is that in order to suck you in and get you to cough up the monthly fee, they’ve made the demo area combat super easy. At least, I think that’s the case, I haven’t played the game myself, but it isn’t hard to make a game hard in other areas. Most MMOs, the way combat works is, you have a “rotation”. You have these little icons that represent your character’s abilities to hurt stuff, and you order them in an optimal order, then mash the keyboard keys 1-9. Usually, most enemies you “fight” by clicking on the enemy, then pressing 1, 2, 3, then back to 1, etc. Star Trek Online has the same principle, but there’s more buttons than a typical MMO to represent more things that can be done with your ship. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832/4 "2014-12-21T18:10:03Z")
Oh yeah, that reminds me, it seems like the game would be a lot easier if there were good keyboard shortcuts for stuff; too much relies on point-and-clicking. I’m sure there _are_ shortcuts but I just don’t know about them yet. I’ll look for a reference somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832/5 "2014-12-22T16:53:24Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Oh yeah, that reminds me, it seems like the game would be a lot easier if there were good keyboard shortcuts for stuff; too much relies on point-and-clicking. I’m sure there _are_ shortcuts but I just don’t know about them yet. I’ll look for a reference somewhere. I tried the game a couple years ago and just gave it up in frustration. Like you, I found many of the control buttons to be just too damned small to differentiate, and I honestly prefer keyboard control over point-and-click. I got fed up with space combat too, because almost every encounter wanted to send a host of small, fighter-like craft at me (something rare-to-nonexistent in _Trek_), while my own ship had an abysmal turn rate and no phaser turrets, so I could only shoot in one direction (forward), but couldn’t turn fast enough to point myself at those fast-moving little fighters … ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832/6 "2014-12-22T17:00:54Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I’m not sure but it seems like it’s impossible to die, so what’s the point of all the combat rules? What color is your shirt? ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-star-trek-online-typical-of-mmos-or-is-it-just-uniquely-bad/707832/7 "2014-12-22T18:24:19Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > The icons and stuff on the battle control are small and incomprehensible, and I can’t find any resources for how they work, or why my torpoedoes only fire one out of every ten times I try them. Torps have narrow firing arcs. Could it be that? They also tend to have like a twenty second cool down, iirc. > [@](#): > > The navigation controls are likewise very unintuitive, and I can’t figure out how to make the perspective view change when turning my ship, so I am never really clear on where I’m going. You can play around with the camera settings. I prefer to use “chase” mode with my camera. > [@](#): > > Anyway, are these valid complaints, or am I just not cool enough to dig this scene, man? Also, I can’t figure out what the online component of this is; so far I haven’t interacted with any other players and there don’t appear to be any opportunities to do so. You’re not going to get to group up in the tutorial area, I think.