Star Trek Online Tactical Space Combat Guide

Star Trek Online Tactical Space Combat Guide by Khemaraa_Iron_Hand_KBF

Check Six! It means look behind you…

In every pilot ready room, in every nation on the planet where figher pilots ready for battle is a placard or a poster or writing on the wall that says “Check Six” because one of the great truths of combat is its not the enemy that you can see thats going to kill you.. Its the one you never saw!

In this game we fly starships. But the same principle applies. In most cases its not the target in front of you that your shooting at thats going to take you out, but the one thats flying up behind you that your assuming someone else is taking care of.

Fighter pilots call this “Target Fixation” and it kills more rookie combat pilots then any other single cause.

Take a hint from theses eagles of the air.. Keep your head moving… In STO there are many ways to do that… at lleast in a figurative sense!

1.Use Your Fine Mini Map.. Use the range adjustment on the map (the + and – icons) to adjust the range to show an area about 15km across.. this should allow you to see whats behind you and thier orientation to you…

2. Hit your M key once in a while. Its a larger view of the area around you and can give you a little better idea of where everything is in relationship to your ship. The M key will open.. and close the map view.

3. Rotate your view with your mouse every once in a while and visually check around you.

4 Zoom your “Point of View” out so you can SEE when something is shooting at you even if its out of your field of view! Don’t watch your shield display.. watch EVERYTHING! Do something about incoming damage before it pounds through your shields… unless of course you like hull tanking…

5 SLOW DOWN! half impulse is a good speed to fight at.. if you haave a mouse set the throttle slider to your mouse wheel so you can rapidly adjust your tactical speed. below 20% throttle your rate of turn reduces so watch going to slow against anything other then a stationary target. At lower speed the area you cover turning is less and that means your more likely to be able to keep your fire on target. Speed IS life.. but to much speed can get you killed just as fast as to little. Moderate your speed to you can manuver effectivly!

6. Watch your deflection from the target. Deflection is the varience from being pointed strait at your target. Aiming your ship head on at the target makes it easier for the target to HIT you. If you have good weapons accuracy then why stay on a zero deflection shot? Even dual canans have a 45% arc of fire.. while this is narrow its still 22.5 degrees to either side of strait ahead. Give the target a deflection shot and improve THIER chances of missing! Deflecton and vector change DO effect the ability to hit a target in STO.

7. Learn to disenguage! Leave the fight, repair/prepare and get back into the fight. Unless your on a timer your usually going to have time. Fight with your brains not your luck.

8. If your on a team support the team objective. I’ve seen more STF’s fail to achive optional objectives because some hot captain made assumptions about the rest of the team and went solo cowboy on another target instead of lending thier firepower to the group. When everyone focuses on one target at a time you will fine your will be able to kill five target faster focusing the fire then if five captains fire on five different targets!

9 ASSUME NOTHING! Assumption will get you or your team mates killed. It will also get you a bad rep with anyone paying attention. I’m one of those that pay attention. Don’t make my combat role any harder then it has to be please. I don’t have time to ream you out in the middle of a fight and note to you where your blowing it. And niether does anyone else.

10.COMMUNICATE! If your a 200 wpm typist thats wonderfull. Most of us ARE NOT. The game has in game chat.. VIVOX.. it works really quite well. If you dont have a microphone you can at least listen. Dont assume anyone has skype, team speak, or vent installed. But they dont have any choice with VIVOX.. It’s intgrated into and comes with the game. Take time to set it up and use it!

11. CONTROL THE FIGHT. Leave the photonic shockwave off. Remove the tricobalt and mount something alse for the fight. The skills and toys are wonderfull “IF” you use your brains when you use them. Tri Cobalt causes massive damage, stuns the target, and knocks the target back.. If you knock the target back OUT OF YOUR TEAM MATES FIRING ARCS I can promise you they will not be happy. Most player seem to use Tri Cobalt because of its big damage not consdieing its effect on thier team mates ability to keep fire on the target.

Photonic SHockwave and related skill/console effects. Great stuff for controlling the fight.. Saw someone use photonic shockwave today in Infected..Bounced an other wise healthy Nanite sphere CLOSER to the nanite transformer.. So much for that bonus loot.. DON”T USE IT JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE IT! Use the skills/tools/toys when they NEED to be used.. if you control the fight everybody wins. If you loose control of the fight, you might still win, but you also made your fight harder then it needed to be.
………………………………………….. ……………………

If your in a Pick Up Group STF fight communicate! Assume nothing about your team mates even if you know them. They could be having a bad day. They’re game could be off. You simply don’t know. Pay attention to what your doing, Pay attention to what they are doing. Fight efficiently. You might be geared to the teeth, and specced out perfectly. But are the other players with you? What if this is thier first STF?

I can hit STF in a brand spanking new Tier 5 ship with the default weapons and white quality console, and hold my own. But at this point I’ve fought over 1,000 STF space battles on all my characters between Holodeck and Tribble servers. Can you say the same?

When communicating to team mates keep the language clean. Potty mouthing your fellow players does not motivate them, or impress them. Usually quite the opposite. Don’t tell me how good you are. Show me the proof. Show me an earned title on your character that show me you know what your doing. If I’m in a STF and all the players have the silver star or medal of honor title then I’ll asume they know what thier doing. Any of the rest of the task force omega/Honor Guard/MACO titles aren’t as impressive. You might be a clutz with no brain but were teamed with a bunch of really good players that carried you. I don’t know. But Silver Star title says you’ve done 150 STF’s, and Medal of Honor says you’ve done 300.

Save cockyness for the ready room or the bar. There is no place for it during a mission. Ask any real world combat vet. Cockyness gets people killed.

Be Smart, Fight Smart, WIn Smart!

See you in Battle Captains.