The game is so easy that a guy have recorded videos when he is AFK-ing the game and still not dying once. He just moves his char from room to room and let his crewmen do the job. Hes playing X-box while leveling in STO. Check STO forum for the vids. Walk from a to b, wait till room is empty, repeat. Haha, omg...
Yup. I have done that in beta.
MMOs have now moved from solo-friendly to AFK-friendly.
I've done that too in OB. I wanted to reach lvl 11 so I could at least test a new ship. But I was so bored I couldn't bring myself to play.
Spent lvl 7 to 11 AFK in instances, hailing Sulu every hour or so.
lmao. just like mmo players. Complain to get auto-fire added, then bitch that the game is too easy....
True to an extent, but pleasing one group won't automatically please another group. Not all players want the same thing.
Also, the problem here really isn't that people complained there was no auto-fire...the problem is that complaining about auto-fire makes sense in the context of the game. The design is that without it you have to constantly click the same ability over and over and over. That's just silly, imho.
Besides auto-fire isn't really the issue here anyways. You can still have a challenging game with an auto-fire feature. The problem is that when they rebalanced the game after the initial 'easy mode' tweak in OB they should have made it so the game got progressively harder starting at about level 5. The way they have it now people are going to quit before they get to level 11 because they are going to assume the whole game is like the first 10 levels. They really do need to address this issue.
It really depends on the mission and your ship class and setup. If you were to put auto fire on and go get a sammich on, let's say briar patch, you would definitely not survive. On some missions you could do that, but the missions do generally get harder with difficulty as you advance.
Well then it sounds like the devs once again listened to the customers because having an auto-fire was something that people were saying in BETA that was needed.
The controls leave a lot to be desired. You end up with a LOT of gun emplacements in a higher tier ship and only two of them can be set to auto fire. As others have said - there is a ton of spacebar spamming. When I say I played space games with better controls 10 and 20 years ago, I am not exaggerating.
1 - Tab-targeting needs a range setting - when my weapons have a 10-km range, I don't want to be selecting enemies 2-30 km away.--Keymap "target closest enemy" Problem solved
2 - Info displays are lacking. It is too hard to judge an enemy's bearing and heading.--you can judge their shields and hull, and other info. UI in MMO can always use improvements, but I didn't find it hard to judge enemy. Pretty easy to see which way they are heading.
3 - There should be a seting to match a friendly ship's course and speed - well there is /follow, but that doesn't do the whole job. --Match target speed would be a welcome option, I just keymap speed controls. It does the job
All of these issues should be easily fixed, and I think at least some of them will be. I'd also like there to be more energy presets available.
If you think you can just autofire through space missions, my bet is you have not gotten very far at all. STO gets crazy hard at times in space. Some of the missions are really tough.
OP update.
I made another level yesterday. Lvl 14 now. Tried again in a patrol mission:
- Phaser MK2 front and MK2 back on autofire (for those who don't know, these are the weapons that come with the ship, nothing special). Patrol mission. Autofire wins again:
I just stop the ship at 10km and press spacebar (start combat) once on the first enemy and watch the fight. When the first ship dies, I tab to the next one. That's all that's needed. Ship's hull during the fight never went below 94%.
At level 14 the game is still so easy that autoattack alone wins most (if not all) fights.
I'll keep reporting as I gain more levels, but I don't think autoattack alone should win any fight on any game past level 2 or 3.
Science, and it's the same with Cruisers. Not sure if escorts can win on autofire since they have less shields, but they have more firepower so who knows.
Science, and it's the same with Cruisers. Not sure if escorts can win on autofire since they have less shields, but they have more firepower so who knows.
Holy cow, SCIENCE vessels can tank? They really need to change that as I was going to go Science for the challenge. Seems to me Science will be the FOTM since they can target subsystems,detect cloaked ships AND have strong shields.
1-11 is an intro basically, come back when your 45 and we'll listen....maybe.
I swear these sort of posts must come from a giant clipboard of MMO comments - I see them that often. Not that there isn't a matching one for critics of MMOs.
Why should anyone have to go to max level to find fun in a game?
If you want to hold players, the game has to be fun - right from the start.
Who said anything about max level?
1-11 IS an introduction, your in the basic ship, it's a prelude to when you can specialise in cruiser/science/escort.
You can't use a specialist ship until 11. Until then it is quite easy. The difficulty level was raised in beta and it was indeed more fun, but they dropped it, they must have their reasons, personally i have no idea what they were.
Try playing the game before commenting.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
1-11 is an intro basically, come back when your 45 and we'll listen....maybe.
I swear these sort of posts must come from a giant clipboard of MMO comments - I see them that often. Not that there isn't a matching one for critics of MMOs.
Why should anyone have to go to max level to find fun in a game?
If you want to hold players, the game has to be fun - right from the start.
Who said anything about max level?
1-11 IS an introduction, your in the basic ship, it's a prelude to when you can specialise in cruiser/science/escort.
You can't use a specialist ship until 11. Until then it is quite easy. The difficulty level was raised in beta and it was indeed more fun, but they dropped it, they must have their reasons, personally i have no idea what they were.
Try playing the game before commenting.
1-11 being an introduction doesn't mean it should be god mode. I believe god mode should be about maximum level 5. In any other game, yes, the first levels are easier, but you still need to push buttons and use your abilities. Not quite in STO. Also, STO is not like other MMOs, where you sneeze and you're already level 3. Here, 1-11 takes hours and hours.
Also, difficulty was not raised in beta, it was higher, much more fun. It was lowered halfway through open beta, just a couple of weeks ago, after about 3-4 months of getting feedback from testers, a feedback that was almost universally in agreement that space combat was great.
But in any case, even if 1-10 is god mode and 11+ is supposed to be normal, how come then that at 14 I can win all battles leaving my ship on autoattack and sitting back eating a sandwich, just pressing TAB to switch target after the previous one dies?
An update. I haven't played in 3 days, but my last level was 30, and the game was still way too easy. So easy in fact, that I found a way to make it more fun. I would team up with someone but each would do his missions alone. The instances would spawn as if for 2 players, but playing it solo actually made it a challenge. This only works for space combat though, as ground combat is always the same since there's always 5 combatants regardless of how many of them are players or NPCs.
I haven't played in 3 days, I am just half a level from the next ship tier, which in most situations would make a normal MMO player go crazy over it... but in STO there is no point. Fights will be even easier now, more pew pewing on the screen, more flashy lights, but no real difference underneath. A shame, a real shame.
I chuckle because, when I was level 5 and complained it was too easy, people told me to wait to level 11, as levels 1-10 were supposed to be easy. I disagreed, it shouldn't be so easy for so long, but I went on.
I then was level 11 and didn't notice a difference, they said 'wait until level 15, romulans will be different!', so I kept playing...
I then was level 15 and didn't notice a difference, they said 'wait until level 20, it will be harder then!', so I kept playing...
I then was level 21 and didn't notice a difference, they said 'wait until level 25, the hirogen will be different!', so I kept playing...
I'm now level 30, have been for 4 days (haven't played in last 3 days as I mentioned), I fought the klingons, the orions, the romulans, the hirogens, the gorns, the remans, and who knows what else... and it's still boringly easy. Granted, at 30 I fought the cardassians for the first time, and my hull actually went below 98%, I think it was down to 90% at one time... yawn.
Too easy is a matter of EXTREME personal opinion. I have played TONS of games and TONS of MMOs and this game is not too hard, not too easy.
I get killed sometimes in both ship and ground combat, it is just the right level in my opinion and I think they aimed for the mid point and that they achieved.
Owner/Admin of GodlessGamer.com - Gaming news and reviews for the godless.
Too easy is a matter of EXTREME personal opinion. I have played TONS of games and TONS of MMOs and this game is not too hard, not too easy.
I get killed sometimes in both ship and ground combat, it is just the right level in my opinion and I think they aimed for the mid point and that they achieved.
if your definition of midpoint is a 2 between 1 and 100, then yes, but this is way far from midpoint.
When I was about 21 or 22, I actually thought it could be, like you said, just my personal opinion. So I did an experiment. I set my ship on autofire. I would engage the first enemy and park the ship, fully stopped, and just watched the fight. Consider not even all my weapons were firing since you can only autofire one weapon front and one back. I only pressed tab to switch targets. The ship won the battles by itself. If that's your definition of 'midpoint difficulty', just wow.
Too easy is a matter of EXTREME personal opinion. I have played TONS of games and TONS of MMOs and this game is not too hard, not too easy.
I get killed sometimes in both ship and ground combat, it is just the right level in my opinion and I think they aimed for the mid point and that they achieved.
if your definition of midpoint is a 2 between 1 and 100, then yes, but this is way far from midpoint.
When I was about 21 or 22, I actually thought it could be, like you said, just my personal opinion. So I did an experiment. I set my ship on autofire. I would engage the first enemy and park the ship, fully stopped, and just watched the fight. Consider not even all my weapons were firing since you can only autofire one weapon front and one back. I only pressed tab to switch targets. The ship won the battles by itself. If that's your definition of 'midpoint difficulty', just wow.
Personally, the idea of parking my ship and letting the battle play out seems extremely..... wrong, so I can understand how this frustrates you. I'm curious to know what your build is. Currently, I'm playing an Engineer on a T3 Science ship and I find myself constantly jockeying for position, popping cooldowns and watching every ship system intently. My shield are constantly falling and my hull is almost always in need of repair. And I love every second of it. Waiting for science team to be ready to get my shields back up or engineering team to get my hull back up. Trying to knock out my opponents weapons to give me some breathing room. Ect. So I would like to know your setup so that I can avoid it for future builds because I don't think I'd like the level of difficulty you are experiencing either.
As a side note: you can modify your own difficulty level somewhat by lowering your shield and weapon power levels manually. This is kinda cheap, but may make the game slightly more playable for you.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
if your definition of midpoint is a 2 between 1 and 100, then yes, but this is way far from midpoint. When I was about 21 or 22, I actually thought it could be, like you said, just my personal opinion. So I did an experiment. I set my ship on autofire. I would engage the first enemy and park the ship, fully stopped, and just watched the fight. Consider not even all my weapons were firing since you can only autofire one weapon front and one back. I only pressed tab to switch targets. The ship won the battles by itself. If that's your definition of 'midpoint difficulty', just wow.
Personally, the idea of parking my ship and letting the battle play out seems extremely..... wrong, so I can understand how this frustrates you. I'm curious to know what your build is. Currently, I'm playing an Engineer on a T3 Science ship and I find myself constantly jockeying for position, popping cooldowns and watching every ship system intently. My shield are constantly falling and my hull is almost always in need of repair. And I love every second of it. Waiting for science team to be ready to get my shields back up or engineering team to get my hull back up. Trying to knock out my opponents weapons to give me some breathing room. Ect. So I would like to know your setup so that I can avoid it for future builds because I don't think I'd like the level of difficulty you are experiencing either.
As a side note: you can modify your own difficulty level somewhat by lowering your shield and weapon power levels manually. This is kinda cheap, but may make the game slightly more playable for you.
I'm curious about the build myself. I'm LTC 6 and recently got creamed in a deep space encounter in Sirius. It was two extremes. I had mobs that were -11 and then some that went +20 and +30. A couple of shots and I was finished.
I haven't hit it yet, but there is a lot of complaining about the Crystalline Entity being too difficult..You get it down to 23 and then it regenerates its own health back to 100. It takes lots of ships to kill that thing. I'm curious how the OP did against that.
Too easy is a matter of EXTREME personal opinion. I have played TONS of games and TONS of MMOs and this game is not too hard, not too easy.
I get killed sometimes in both ship and ground combat, it is just the right level in my opinion and I think they aimed for the mid point and that they achieved.
if your definition of midpoint is a 2 between 1 and 100, then yes, but this is way far from midpoint.
When I was about 21 or 22, I actually thought it could be, like you said, just my personal opinion. So I did an experiment. I set my ship on autofire. I would engage the first enemy and park the ship, fully stopped, and just watched the fight. Consider not even all my weapons were firing since you can only autofire one weapon front and one back. I only pressed tab to switch targets. The ship won the battles by itself. If that's your definition of 'midpoint difficulty', just wow.
Personally, the idea of parking my ship and letting the battle play out seems extremely..... wrong, so I can understand how this frustrates you. I'm curious to know what your build is. Currently, I'm playing an Engineer on a T3 Science ship and I find myself constantly jockeying for position, popping cooldowns and watching every ship system intently. My shield are constantly falling and my hull is almost always in need of repair. And I love every second of it. Waiting for science team to be ready to get my shields back up or engineering team to get my hull back up. Trying to knock out my opponents weapons to give me some breathing room. Ect. So I would like to know your setup so that I can avoid it for future builds because I don't think I'd like the level of difficulty you are experiencing either.
As a side note: you can modify your own difficulty level somewhat by lowering your shield and weapon power levels manually. This is kinda cheap, but may make the game slightly more playable for you.
When I did the experiment, I think it was a t2 science. Now I have a T3 science. I'm an engineer.
My current configuration (which changes periodically) is a dual plasma beam, plasma beam array and plasma torpedo front, 2 quantum mines in the aft. But really makes no difference. I could replace all weapons for phasers and torpedoes, result would be the same.
What I did for difficulty was try to find someone to group with (by sending /tells to random people) and then each doing his own missions, that way the missions pop enemies as if there were two people, but only for me. That way I actually had fun fights, but it's a pain to do random /tells trying to find someone willing to do it.
Stating that a game is 'way too easy' is an opinion dependent on the individual. Those that are new to MMOs or unable to multi-task may find it dificult. In my opinion it is too easy. As a Tac Off in a Sci Ship I rarely get hull damage below 75%. All I need to do is orientate my good shields to the enemy and hit Science Team or Emer Power to Shields if all my shields get too low. At Capt 5 this game is as easy as it was at Lt 5, both in space and on the ground. I was hoping for a game that would last me a while but this isn't it.
Get to 10km, apply scramble sensors from BO1 while always hitting spacebar, enemies will fight each other for 22 seconds, apply scramble sensors from BO2 while always hitting spacebar, when scramble sensors runs out, take damage for 8 seconds, start over. I could kill 3 dreadnoughts this way.
One strong enemy.
Get to 10km, apply viral matrix from BO1 while always hitting spacebar, enemy is unable to do anything for 12 seconds. When VM runs out apply viral matrix from BO2, rinse and repeats.
... I KNOW this is ridiculous, but there are plenty of setups that allow you to be virtually undefeatable, as I have yet to run across enemies that are immune to crowd control.
Oh yes, I work with 3xdual phaser beams in the front and cranked up phaser-skills. But it really doesn't matter as I am not taking any damage anyways.
Comments
Yup. I have done that in beta.
MMOs have now moved from solo-friendly to AFK-friendly.
I've done that too in OB. I wanted to reach lvl 11 so I could at least test a new ship. But I was so bored I couldn't bring myself to play.
Spent lvl 7 to 11 AFK in instances, hailing Sulu every hour or so.
True to an extent, but pleasing one group won't automatically please another group. Not all players want the same thing.
Also, the problem here really isn't that people complained there was no auto-fire...the problem is that complaining about auto-fire makes sense in the context of the game. The design is that without it you have to constantly click the same ability over and over and over. That's just silly, imho.
Besides auto-fire isn't really the issue here anyways. You can still have a challenging game with an auto-fire feature. The problem is that when they rebalanced the game after the initial 'easy mode' tweak in OB they should have made it so the game got progressively harder starting at about level 5. The way they have it now people are going to quit before they get to level 11 because they are going to assume the whole game is like the first 10 levels. They really do need to address this issue.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
Reporting after one more day of playing. Now level 13...
My ship's hull has yet to go below 98%. I'm afraid my LCD screen's pixels for the hull will burn out from being always lit.
It really depends on the mission and your ship class and setup. If you were to put auto fire on and go get a sammich on, let's say briar patch, you would definitely not survive. On some missions you could do that, but the missions do generally get harder with difficulty as you advance.
If you think you can just autofire through space missions, my bet is you have not gotten very far at all.
STO gets crazy hard at times in space. Some of the missions are really tough.
The controls leave a lot to be desired. You end up with a LOT of gun emplacements in a higher tier ship and only two of them can be set to auto fire. As others have said - there is a ton of spacebar spamming. When I say I played space games with better controls 10 and 20 years ago, I am not exaggerating.
1 - Tab-targeting needs a range setting - when my weapons have a 10-km range, I don't want to be selecting enemies 2-30 km away.--Keymap "target closest enemy" Problem solved
2 - Info displays are lacking. It is too hard to judge an enemy's bearing and heading.--you can judge their shields and hull, and other info. UI in MMO can always use improvements, but I didn't find it hard to judge enemy. Pretty easy to see which way they are heading.
3 - There should be a seting to match a friendly ship's course and speed - well there is /follow, but that doesn't do the whole job. --Match target speed would be a welcome option, I just keymap speed controls. It does the job
All of these issues should be easily fixed, and I think at least some of them will be. I'd also like there to be more energy presets available.
OP update.
I made another level yesterday. Lvl 14 now. Tried again in a patrol mission:
- Phaser MK2 front and MK2 back on autofire (for those who don't know, these are the weapons that come with the ship, nothing special). Patrol mission. Autofire wins again:
I just stop the ship at 10km and press spacebar (start combat) once on the first enemy and watch the fight. When the first ship dies, I tab to the next one. That's all that's needed. Ship's hull during the fight never went below 94%.
At level 14 the game is still so easy that autoattack alone wins most (if not all) fights.
I'll keep reporting as I gain more levels, but I don't think autoattack alone should win any fight on any game past level 2 or 3.
For those saying it is too easy or not, what ships are you flying? Escort , Cruiser or Science?
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Science, and it's the same with Cruisers. Not sure if escorts can win on autofire since they have less shields, but they have more firepower so who knows.
Holy cow, SCIENCE vessels can tank? They really need to change that as I was going to go Science for the challenge. Seems to me Science will be the FOTM since they can target subsystems,detect cloaked ships AND have strong shields.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
I swear these sort of posts must come from a giant clipboard of MMO comments - I see them that often. Not that there isn't a matching one for critics of MMOs.
Why should anyone have to go to max level to find fun in a game?
If you want to hold players, the game has to be fun - right from the start.
Who said anything about max level?
1-11 IS an introduction, your in the basic ship, it's a prelude to when you can specialise in cruiser/science/escort.
You can't use a specialist ship until 11. Until then it is quite easy. The difficulty level was raised in beta and it was indeed more fun, but they dropped it, they must have their reasons, personally i have no idea what they were.
Try playing the game before commenting.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
I swear these sort of posts must come from a giant clipboard of MMO comments - I see them that often. Not that there isn't a matching one for critics of MMOs.
Why should anyone have to go to max level to find fun in a game?
If you want to hold players, the game has to be fun - right from the start.
Who said anything about max level?
1-11 IS an introduction, your in the basic ship, it's a prelude to when you can specialise in cruiser/science/escort.
You can't use a specialist ship until 11. Until then it is quite easy. The difficulty level was raised in beta and it was indeed more fun, but they dropped it, they must have their reasons, personally i have no idea what they were.
Try playing the game before commenting.
1-11 being an introduction doesn't mean it should be god mode. I believe god mode should be about maximum level 5. In any other game, yes, the first levels are easier, but you still need to push buttons and use your abilities. Not quite in STO. Also, STO is not like other MMOs, where you sneeze and you're already level 3. Here, 1-11 takes hours and hours.
Also, difficulty was not raised in beta, it was higher, much more fun. It was lowered halfway through open beta, just a couple of weeks ago, after about 3-4 months of getting feedback from testers, a feedback that was almost universally in agreement that space combat was great.
But in any case, even if 1-10 is god mode and 11+ is supposed to be normal, how come then that at 14 I can win all battles leaving my ship on autoattack and sitting back eating a sandwich, just pressing TAB to switch target after the previous one dies?
An update. I haven't played in 3 days, but my last level was 30, and the game was still way too easy. So easy in fact, that I found a way to make it more fun. I would team up with someone but each would do his missions alone. The instances would spawn as if for 2 players, but playing it solo actually made it a challenge. This only works for space combat though, as ground combat is always the same since there's always 5 combatants regardless of how many of them are players or NPCs.
I haven't played in 3 days, I am just half a level from the next ship tier, which in most situations would make a normal MMO player go crazy over it... but in STO there is no point. Fights will be even easier now, more pew pewing on the screen, more flashy lights, but no real difference underneath. A shame, a real shame.
I chuckle because, when I was level 5 and complained it was too easy, people told me to wait to level 11, as levels 1-10 were supposed to be easy. I disagreed, it shouldn't be so easy for so long, but I went on.
I then was level 11 and didn't notice a difference, they said 'wait until level 15, romulans will be different!', so I kept playing...
I then was level 15 and didn't notice a difference, they said 'wait until level 20, it will be harder then!', so I kept playing...
I then was level 21 and didn't notice a difference, they said 'wait until level 25, the hirogen will be different!', so I kept playing...
I'm now level 30, have been for 4 days (haven't played in last 3 days as I mentioned), I fought the klingons, the orions, the romulans, the hirogens, the gorns, the remans, and who knows what else... and it's still boringly easy. Granted, at 30 I fought the cardassians for the first time, and my hull actually went below 98%, I think it was down to 90% at one time... yawn.
Too easy is a matter of EXTREME personal opinion. I have played TONS of games and TONS of MMOs and this game is not too hard, not too easy.
I get killed sometimes in both ship and ground combat, it is just the right level in my opinion and I think they aimed for the mid point and that they achieved.
Owner/Admin of GodlessGamer.com - Gaming news and reviews for the godless.
if your definition of midpoint is a 2 between 1 and 100, then yes, but this is way far from midpoint.
When I was about 21 or 22, I actually thought it could be, like you said, just my personal opinion. So I did an experiment. I set my ship on autofire. I would engage the first enemy and park the ship, fully stopped, and just watched the fight. Consider not even all my weapons were firing since you can only autofire one weapon front and one back. I only pressed tab to switch targets. The ship won the battles by itself. If that's your definition of 'midpoint difficulty', just wow.
if your definition of midpoint is a 2 between 1 and 100, then yes, but this is way far from midpoint.
When I was about 21 or 22, I actually thought it could be, like you said, just my personal opinion. So I did an experiment. I set my ship on autofire. I would engage the first enemy and park the ship, fully stopped, and just watched the fight. Consider not even all my weapons were firing since you can only autofire one weapon front and one back. I only pressed tab to switch targets. The ship won the battles by itself. If that's your definition of 'midpoint difficulty', just wow.
Personally, the idea of parking my ship and letting the battle play out seems extremely..... wrong, so I can understand how this frustrates you. I'm curious to know what your build is. Currently, I'm playing an Engineer on a T3 Science ship and I find myself constantly jockeying for position, popping cooldowns and watching every ship system intently. My shield are constantly falling and my hull is almost always in need of repair. And I love every second of it. Waiting for science team to be ready to get my shields back up or engineering team to get my hull back up. Trying to knock out my opponents weapons to give me some breathing room. Ect. So I would like to know your setup so that I can avoid it for future builds because I don't think I'd like the level of difficulty you are experiencing either.
As a side note: you can modify your own difficulty level somewhat by lowering your shield and weapon power levels manually. This is kinda cheap, but may make the game slightly more playable for you.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Personally, the idea of parking my ship and letting the battle play out seems extremely..... wrong, so I can understand how this frustrates you. I'm curious to know what your build is. Currently, I'm playing an Engineer on a T3 Science ship and I find myself constantly jockeying for position, popping cooldowns and watching every ship system intently. My shield are constantly falling and my hull is almost always in need of repair. And I love every second of it. Waiting for science team to be ready to get my shields back up or engineering team to get my hull back up. Trying to knock out my opponents weapons to give me some breathing room. Ect. So I would like to know your setup so that I can avoid it for future builds because I don't think I'd like the level of difficulty you are experiencing either.
As a side note: you can modify your own difficulty level somewhat by lowering your shield and weapon power levels manually. This is kinda cheap, but may make the game slightly more playable for you.
I'm curious about the build myself. I'm LTC 6 and recently got creamed in a deep space encounter in Sirius. It was two extremes. I had mobs that were -11 and then some that went +20 and +30. A couple of shots and I was finished.
I haven't hit it yet, but there is a lot of complaining about the Crystalline Entity being too difficult..You get it down to 23 and then it regenerates its own health back to 100. It takes lots of ships to kill that thing. I'm curious how the OP did against that.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
if your definition of midpoint is a 2 between 1 and 100, then yes, but this is way far from midpoint.
When I was about 21 or 22, I actually thought it could be, like you said, just my personal opinion. So I did an experiment. I set my ship on autofire. I would engage the first enemy and park the ship, fully stopped, and just watched the fight. Consider not even all my weapons were firing since you can only autofire one weapon front and one back. I only pressed tab to switch targets. The ship won the battles by itself. If that's your definition of 'midpoint difficulty', just wow.
Personally, the idea of parking my ship and letting the battle play out seems extremely..... wrong, so I can understand how this frustrates you. I'm curious to know what your build is. Currently, I'm playing an Engineer on a T3 Science ship and I find myself constantly jockeying for position, popping cooldowns and watching every ship system intently. My shield are constantly falling and my hull is almost always in need of repair. And I love every second of it. Waiting for science team to be ready to get my shields back up or engineering team to get my hull back up. Trying to knock out my opponents weapons to give me some breathing room. Ect. So I would like to know your setup so that I can avoid it for future builds because I don't think I'd like the level of difficulty you are experiencing either.
As a side note: you can modify your own difficulty level somewhat by lowering your shield and weapon power levels manually. This is kinda cheap, but may make the game slightly more playable for you.
When I did the experiment, I think it was a t2 science. Now I have a T3 science. I'm an engineer.
My current configuration (which changes periodically) is a dual plasma beam, plasma beam array and plasma torpedo front, 2 quantum mines in the aft. But really makes no difference. I could replace all weapons for phasers and torpedoes, result would be the same.
What I did for difficulty was try to find someone to group with (by sending /tells to random people) and then each doing his own missions, that way the missions pop enemies as if there were two people, but only for me. That way I actually had fun fights, but it's a pain to do random /tells trying to find someone willing to do it.
Stating that a game is 'way too easy' is an opinion dependent on the individual. Those that are new to MMOs or unable to multi-task may find it dificult. In my opinion it is too easy. As a Tac Off in a Sci Ship I rarely get hull damage below 75%. All I need to do is orientate my good shields to the enemy and hit Science Team or Emer Power to Shields if all my shields get too low. At Capt 5 this game is as easy as it was at Lt 5, both in space and on the ground. I was hoping for a game that would last me a while but this isn't it.
PvE in a science/science setup at Captain 9.
More than 1 enemy.
Get to 10km, apply scramble sensors from BO1 while always hitting spacebar, enemies will fight each other for 22 seconds, apply scramble sensors from BO2 while always hitting spacebar, when scramble sensors runs out, take damage for 8 seconds, start over. I could kill 3 dreadnoughts this way.
One strong enemy.
Get to 10km, apply viral matrix from BO1 while always hitting spacebar, enemy is unable to do anything for 12 seconds. When VM runs out apply viral matrix from BO2, rinse and repeats.
... I KNOW this is ridiculous, but there are plenty of setups that allow you to be virtually undefeatable, as I have yet to run across enemies that are immune to crowd control.
Oh yes, I work with 3xdual phaser beams in the front and cranked up phaser-skills. But it really doesn't matter as I am not taking any damage anyways.
M
You can cook?