Star Trek

Phasers can disintegrate a person with one shot if set to the highest setting.  Having one hit kills in any MMOG is usually detrimental since players become nearly invincible.  

Not allowing one hit kills subtracts from the realism of Star Trek.  It wouldn't seem like I was carrying a phaser if I had to hit something 20 times to kill it.  Yet I wouldn't want to kill something in one shot since the game would get boring fast.

Perhaps if enemies came at you in large numbers, the fast pace would be challenging.

How could the devs handle weapons in the spirit of Star Trek without sacrificing realism or gameplay?

pistols/rifle nono...of course you could have a sniper phaser rifle or something...or romulan disrupters..klingon batleth...mines like DS0 Siege of AR-somethin had....

have a skill system again like in SWG, for phasers, start only being able to fire the lowest stun setting, working your way upto the maximum setting..

Melee combat, Bat'leth, knifes, hand-to-hand (comes up alot!

It's an RPG. As long as the focus on the story is good enough to keep it enticing, 1 hit kills (on max) against NPC's would be fine.   Maybe a little mor resiliance to players, but keep the NPC's aim good. Strategy and story is what I want to see, not mindless killing for XP.

i agree with you killerhawk but maybe we could integrate a skill system like in starwars knigt of the old republic. So when we fire a phaser it has X% chance of hitting the target depending of you skill with that weapon.

Oh I hope not.  I want to aim with my own skill thank you very much

Maybe skill with a weapen effects how steady you hold it and how long the burst can be, but not auto aiming..I hate auto aiming.

i dont need auto aiming

To be honest, I think firing a hand weapon should be made as hard as possible.

Oh no...

Please tell me this game will be based on the character's skill not the player's skill.

I agree with infectedfeatures: KOTOR-style "to hit" seems most sensible with higher % for tactical personnel with firefighting skill.  Even though SW "blasters" were one-hit-kill weapons in the movies, I didn't feel that realism suffered in KOTOR when blasters were weakened for gameplay use, requiring several shots to kill.  

Killerhawk: I highly doubt, and sincerely hope (along with beermeal and others), that your time will be spent aiming with the mouse.  If you want to aim yourself, play a FPS like Elite Force.  RPGs are based on die rolls.

I know very few MMOs where the player actually shoots or attacks his opponent.  MMOs are not menat to be FPS or mass killathons.  Most MMOs tend to have a sort of Final Fantasy RPG cobat in which you choose what to attack and how to attack, but you do not actually do the killing.  

I personally am in favor of a skill based character system over a player system.  I think player skill is a facot in space combat.  I have no problem with players being able to fire weapons and fly their ships with their own skill in space.  It makes space combat fun and exciting.  

But when it comes to combat on the groud in order to avoid the random enviornemtn of a mass Killathon you cannot have single shot player controlled kills.  I system more devoted towards character skill is what I want.  Because after all the point of these games is for immesersion. You are supposed ot be your avatar in the game.  You should not contribute to the skills of your avatar.

I dont know ellessar Planet side is a point and shoot MMO and it is quite fun. It is not a killing fest because it is still role based on how much damage you deal do to you character skill mods but if you shoot next to a player you miss. Ulike SWG where you hit tab and start wacking away. I will player eather way thay make it and eihter will be fun for me but in combat Planet side has it right. I MUST SAY THE GAME SUCKED AFTER IT STARTED BECAUSE IT WAS SO OUT OF BALANCE BUT THAY BALANCED IT AND NOW IT IS PRETTY DARN FUN.. If STO is going to just be PvE then it wont really matter on the side of ballance. This accualy could be quite fun in this game. It might be a bit more realistic of a feel. it still is based on bulding your characters skill up but it has that realistic combat feel. You start the game and can't deal much damage because you are green but after you get out there and are a vet all the lazer bolts flying buy your head does not faze you 1 bit.  You know exactly where to shoot to deal the best damage.

See the problem I have with shoot your self games is that in this enviornemnt that would give little or no credit to the person who has been playing longer and worked on their character longer.  This would put all the game into the hands of the person good at video games and not the person who loyaly built a strong character.  There is something to be said for shoot youself.  DOn't get me wrong it has its place.  I don't feel that group combat though  in an MMO can be handled this way.  And SWG was more than hit attack and walk away.  If you were fighting anyone real or any hard creature you would die very quickly oif you did that.  SWG combat takes as mush effort and control as shoot yourslef.  It just refocuses your efforts on tactics.  You choose what attacks to make, when to heal yourslef, what weapons to use, you frelly move your avatar in combat.  You just don't actully push the button and the weapon fires.  The computer fires and calculates damage and a hit from your skills.  I like that myself.

I really am hoping for a Deus Ex style combat system where your accuracy increases as your skill level goes up.  But I dont expect it.

As for one shot kills, KEEP IT CANON!

Disruptors are described as having one setting in ST canon.  That is VERY PAINFUL DISINTEGRATION.  Keep it.

Phasers were, per Rodenberry's vision, handheld energy emitting tools which doubled as weapons.  Important to remember.  In spite of the horrible phase pistols of Enterprise.

So, devs need to balance the weapons.  Hopefully they will implement a units-of-charge system, calibrated per weapon.  Like this:
1)Klingon disruptor has one setting, therefore each discharge is one charge unit.  Each charge unit is capable of disintegrating the standard Klingon.
2)A phaser II (in TOS terms, the mid size pistol phaser) has variable settings from light stun (like a taser?) to disintegrate PLUS it can be set to overload.  So each setting would use more charge units than the previous one.  And overload would just release all REMAINING chrage units at once in an AOE detonation.

The trick here will be to set each charge unit according to the race/species that the weapon was designed by.  A phaser set on heavy stun will drop all but the most altered humans,  while that same phaser might have little or no effect on a rampaging Klingon, Jem'Hadar, or android.

Oh yeah, one more thing, IIRC I've seen hand pahsers used for heating rocks, cutting bulckheads, welding doors shut, and blacksmithing climbing spikes.  Here's to hoping they keep those aspects in the game.

I know this sounds complicated, but it's little details like this, which, if added in the right places, will add to the experience organically rather than explicitly.  If you actually have to develop  a sense of these equivalencies, a feel for the weapons of Trek then you'll start to have a much more genuine Trek experience.

BUt then, I also hope that the Klingon ships measure distances in kellicams.

You cannot keep it canno.  It makes no sense in any MMO for a weapon to kil in one shot.  Name me a weapon that is could not be considered one shot lethal in real life that is included in an MMO.  Blasters in SWG kill in one shot in star wars cannon, but do not in game.  A sword kills in one shot in reality but in games you are attaking for multiple hits.  A gun kills in one shot, an axe, a spear, etc.  Most weapons will kill a person in one shot if delivered corectly.  But one shot kills would destory the dynamic of the game.  How could you have PvP with one shot kills.  It would be over in a second.  When the extnet of your ground battles are maybee 50 players you cannot have one shot kills or else it ends in 30 seconds.  There is no fun in that.  It would also make PvE usless as so long sa you attack first you always win.  One shot kills will not be in the game.  I would put good money on it.  There will be people killed in one attack if there levels are vasty different, but in general you will not be able to frag things at or near your skill level with one shot.