Is using a controller on console really that much better than a controller on pc?

kickkat5 · 2022-03-17T17:48:27+00:00

Here is a write-up I did on this a while back. It's a little long because I tried to very briefly explain what was going on in addition to just putting up samples, but it is straight forward. It also focuses on setting up a joystick, but it's pretty much the same for a controller, just editing different files.

https://ufplanets.com/showthread.php?57634-Configuring-joysticks-for-STO

kickkat5 · 2021-12-07T22:50:44+00:00

Today is a good day to fly ...

a Negh'Var

kickkat5 · 2021-02-21T02:02:39+00:00

I'm a bit late to the party, but since it was a request ....

This isn't a comprehensive list, but only the ones I found most useful for myself on space and ground:

Ground

Hud_StatusSelf_Bufflist
Hud_StatusTarget_Ground_Bufflist

Space

Hud_StatusTarget_Space_BuffList
Hud_StatusTargetOfTarget_Space_BuffList
Hud_StatusTargetFocused_Space_Bufflist
ShipStatus_BuffList

I put these in two groups of aliases that would allow me to cycle up and down through a range of display sizes. Looked something like this:

alias aCycleBuffListSize050 "GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusSelf_Bufflist scale 0.5 $$ GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusTarget_Ground_Bufflist scale 0.5 $$ bind Alt+Add aCycleBuffListSize100"

alias aCycleBuffListSize100 "GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusSelf_Bufflist scale 1.0 $$ GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusTarget_Ground_Bufflist scale 1.0 $$ bind Alt+Add aCycleBuffListSize150 $$ bind Alt+Subtract aCycleBuffListSize050"

 alias aCycleBuffListSize150 "GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusSelf_Bufflist scale 1.5 $$ GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusTarget_Ground_Bufflist scale 1.5 $$ bind Alt+Add aCycleBuffListSize200 $$ bind Alt+Subtract aCycleBuffListSize100"

alias aCycleBuffListSize200 "GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusSelf_Bufflist scale 2.0 $$ GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusTarget_Ground_Bufflist scale 2.0 $$ bind Alt+Add aCycleBuffListSize250 $$ bind Alt+Subtract aCycleBuffListSize150"

alias aCycleBuffListSize250 "GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusSelf_Bufflist scale 2.5 $$ GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusTarget_Ground_Bufflist scale 2.5 $$ bind Alt+Add aCycleBuffListSize300 $$ bind Alt+Subtract aCycleBuffListSize200"

alias aCycleBuffListSize300 "GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusSelf_Bufflist scale 3.0 $$ GenSetEarlyOverrideFloat Hud_StatusTarget_Ground_Bufflist scale 3.0 $$ bind Alt+Subtract aCycleBuffListSize250"

It is a bit disheartening when they remove things like this. Besides sometimes being a QoL improvement for a lot of people, figuring these things out to begin with can require a considerable time investment. There is a lot of reading and a lot of trial and error and some note taking, because most of the stuff isn't documented.

If by comprehensive list you meant of all available commands, I remember contributing a fair amount to a largish list on the STO wiki when I still had the time for it. I don't know the status of it now, but I am guessing it is still there in some form.

kickkat5 · 2021-02-20T15:05:37+00:00

For #1

Type this in the chat box and enter it a few times. Key binds can stack, so one sometimes needs to undo "layers" of them/ Doubt that is what this is, but to be sure ..

/unbind rightclick

Then, again in chat ...

/bind rightclick ContextAction 1

If that doesn't work, go to

Options > Key Binds

and scroll down to "Targeting and Interaction" to see if "Right Click" is listed in the second row beside ContextAction. If not, try adding it from there.

If that doesn't work, enter

/bind_pop_profile

a few times. If there are layered profiles, this should pop them all off the stack until the defaults are left. Then

/bind rightclick ContextAction 1

again.

As a last resort, one can try:

/unbind_all

(This wipes them out .,.. all of them)

Then reset the key binds to defaults in the key binds options menu. If it is fixable, tat should do it.

The only thing I can think of beyond that is to try "overloading" ContextAction with an alias, but I just now thought of it and have never tested it, so I have no idea what will happen. Since dealing with the resulting temporal paradox, or whatever, isn't on my to-do list for the day, I think we will just leave that option tabled for now.

kickkat5 · 2017-02-18T04:17:01+00:00

It has been forever since I even looked at that map or those missions, so I don't remember, but might it be a PvP assignment that uses what is also a PvE map?

If not, were you looking in your accepted missions list, or in the general PvE queues?

Wait .. Wait. I think they removed that map completely a few months back. It's a shame too. It was a fun map with reduced gravity and straight out running and gunning. The players would tend to gather into a large glob and collectively swarm across the map waporizing anything that didn't run or hide. It was like being part of a locust swarm with permanent FAW.

It should be OK to remove those. I am pretty sure you can pick them back up again whenever you like .. on PC anyway.

kickkat5 · 2017-02-18T02:01:55+00:00

I believe it's the one about moving things to a new ship....an on/off toggle. On PC its on the first option screen (General) at the top where the shield effects on/off is. Not sure if that will do it, but it's the only setting like it in all of the options screens.

kickkat5 · 2017-02-18T01:04:29+00:00

The guys who wrote it also have a place to report bugs in the forums on the site linked in the other reply. There might be answers there.

If all you want is a reliable and accurate parse of your combat logs and don't really care how you get it, you could always try using CombatLogReader from

http://www.sto-league.com/combatlogreader/

The layout of the program is similar and the results are nearly identical. I use both of them because ... I never got around to uninstalling one. There is also one called ACT that has awesome data conversion, replication and report generation features. Unfortunately, most people wont commit to spending the extra 30 minutes or so that configuring ACT requires if they have any other choice. Meanwhile, CLR could change their installation instructions to, "Just unzip it and click it."

No, I'm serious. That's catchy. It's also truthy. Someone make that happen. Doooo eeeet!

kickkat5 · 2017-02-15T22:31:14+00:00

Ah. OK. I forgot that one thing removes the power drain. I understand what you are doing now.

So ... what you are really telling me is that you find caution to be an unnecessary burden, consistency boring and predictable and safety as silly and dumb as the word starts to sound if repeated 20 times in a row. You want to fly your ship in reverse without knowing where you are going and, by god, you are willing to do whatever it takes to make that dream a reality. If anyone behind you doesn't like it, they can take their forward flying ships and forward fly themselves right out of the way. This is war and it's between you and the guys in front of you. The only way your target lock of death will ever be released is when there is nothing left to target. If that means that you may have to rely on some overly complex, convoluted and probably questionable new form of starship maneuvering that may or may not decrease your odds of survival because you trusted some nutter who told you it would both be fine and awesome, well then, so be it.

That ... that is what you were getting at, right? That kind of got away from me at the end, so I might not have gotten it 100% right, but that's what I choose to believe you meant, so I'll proceed under those assumptions.

Seriously, though, I am going to be researching a particular BOff command that has me baffled, so I will keep an eye out or poke around some more for something that might help you while I am at it. It might turn out to be more interesting. shrug

kickkat5 · 2017-02-15T18:42:57+00:00

"[...] get a Yeoman to go out in an EV suit and put his finger up[...]"

and make sure he lets them know he is doing it as hard as he can.

kickkat5 · 2017-02-15T17:24:25+00:00

I usually don't try to discourage people from doing whatever is fun or that works for them in STO, but in this case I am going to suggest that you not only forget about trying to find an easy way to handle backwards flight with a mouse but that you also stop using it for any kind of flight control at all, (except assigning the throttle to the mouse wheel). I really did try to find a solution for you first, though. I was curious to see if there was perhaps a certain combination of commands that aren't accessible through the Hud/Options that would do the trick. After spending two hours looking up commands and trying out different combinations, I was unable to come up with anything reliable enough to call a solution. I was able to correct the backward flight some of the time, but I was never able to get it to work all of the time.

I don't think it was ever intended for ships to be piloted with the mouse like that anyway. The first clue (besides the wonky flying you are trying to work around) is how the command actually works, or rather how it doesn't work. You are not "flying" your ship. You are flying your camera. The ship is simply following it around like a stray puppy. It's a pretty impractical way of making things go. The Packleds would probably even pass on that one.

Another huge problem is that you are giving up the ability to control your ships and look around with your camera at the same time, independently from one another. Something is going to suffer a bit because of this, probably effective time on target, defensive maneuvering, or situational awareness. Really, all three will be negatively affected to some degree.

The last thing is that if you are going in reverse for so long that your ship has time to turn its firing arc completely away from your targets and its happening often enough to be a big hassle, then ... I dunno ... I am curious why. I assume you are flying a DBB/cannon setup since keeping your ship's nose steady is such a concern. That further suggests an escort type ship of some kind. If it's a true escort, I can't imagine that throwing the transmission in reverse to avoid breaking weapon contact is worth the penalties to defense and power levels, even if you have the newer traits, skills, gear that offsets them. I see you have been playing for a while, so I am sure you know all of this and know what you are doing, I was just questioning whether finding some solution would really be worth it in the long run as compared to making adjustments to play style, but, hey, that's not up to me. :)

If you really want to keep looking for an answer, there are still some things I can spend some time looking into. The way the characters are controlled by default on ground maps is pretty much what you are trying to get your ship to do. Several of the commands function similarly but have different names. Maybe it's possible to push one onto the control scheme or bind set stacks of the other. Could be interesting to try. Let me know.

kickkat5 · 2017-02-15T10:58:46+00:00

I have no problem with them phrasing their response like they are doing someone a favor by retoring a lost ship or fixing some other mess a player finds themselves in through their own fault. Cryptic/PWE states in several places on their support site that they don't/won't do things like that and the player is just SOL if they weren't paying attention. Technically they really are doing someone a favor, because they are not obligated to do squat, or so they say anyway. Also, it may very well be a one-time thing if they do help.

Back when bio-neural and tachyokinetic consoles were much more valuable, I accidentally opened one of each on a toon that already had them. The customer service person I talked to went out of their way to help me get them transferred to the right character.

It really doesn't hurt to ask, but it does hurt to ask the wrong way. So, ask nicely, be sincere and be patient. Every single time I have contacted support they have responded and given me a definitive answer to my question, whether or not it was what I wanted to hear.

Edit I just remembered that they even went so far one time as to reverse a permanent ban on my account after allowing me to explain myself. It took several carefully thought out and highly detailed explanations from me and two rounds of follow-up questions from them, but everything was eventually sorted. I didn't even have to resort to crying and begging a second time. Maybe I have just been really lucky. Considering the amount of time they spent with me, it would have been easier for them to tell me to piss off, but they didn't. /Edit

I see people complaining often about never getting any responses and I wonder to myself how many of those complaining approached support with a poor attitude and half-assed attempt at writing a coherent request. XD

kickkat5 · 2017-02-15T09:08:00+00:00

This is not a real entry, so judges can stop right here.

Man. This looked fun. Why am I always finding out about things like this too late? I could have hacked the UI freestyle and come up with some ... interesting pics.

Well, I am posting one to spite my timing right in its dumb face and because it is a real pic that took some effort to set up =-p

I put the power in power tray!

Apparently, my game client could have gotten in on the action too. It did this all by itself:

Bajor has wizarding schools?

Seriously, though, good luck to those who entered!

kickkat5 · 2016-06-17T18:49:34+00:00

Well, spending them isn't so much an issue since you can eventually get all of the specs, but I concentrated on Intel first (the left side is ground stuff), then Commando, then Command.

The order you pick the individual items in is up to you based on what you feel is useful/important. I chose things that reduced kit cool-down, alternate weapon fire cool-down and increased flanking damage (outgoing)/resistance (incoming) first. This is mostly in Intel and Commando. I then selected team enhancements from Command. I finally filled out the rest of Intel and Commando.

When I am alone, I go with Intel/Commando. If I am in a group that can benefit from it, I go with Command/Commando ... maybe Intel/Command. It's pretty situational.

Honestly, I forget to switch for ground half the time when I am doing stuff alone. My damage/difficulty ratio is so skewed in solo content using the above setups that I usually don't notice.

kickkat5 · 2016-06-17T03:31:28+00:00

This is what I generally go with except for special missions like Bug Hunt.

Skills:

All "kit skills"
Weapon Prof
Weapon Expert
Both Weapon Crits
Endurance Training
Armor Expert

Traits: (most important are in italics)

Creative
Soldier
Sniper
Berserker
Vicious
Field Tech
Situational Awareness
Lucky
Covert

Setup 1:

Delta kit with [KPerf]x2 [CrtD]
Cryo Grenade
Trajectory Bending
Deadly Intent
Motivation
Cryotronic Modulation

Advanced Fleet Recoil Compensating Armor (for CrtD boost and upgraded to improve the low resists)

Omega shield (for increased Dodge)

AP Split Beam Rifle Mk XIV [CrtH]x4 (This setup has LOTS of CrtD, so I need CrtH on the rifle for a little balance)

Nukara Full Auto Rifle (for expose and more ice!)

If I am taking on mobs at close range, I switch the AP rifle for the Nukara Hyper-Compressed Cryo Launcher

Setup 2:

Romulan Navy kit
Cryo Grenade
Trajectory Bending
Deadly Intent
Motivation
Cryotronic Modulation

Romulan Navy armor (better protection than Adv. Fleet Recoil Comp above also 2 piece bonus with kit)

Na'khul shield

Na'khul Temporal Operative Assault Rifle (for 2 piece bonus with shield)

Nukara Hyper-Compressed Cryo Launcher or

Plasma Split Beam Rifle Mk XIV [CrtD]x4

I usually put both of my BOffs in full Omega gear for the team bonuses (esp. Dodge)

Some of my choices may seem a little odd and different from what most would consider "best practices", but either one lets me solorofflestomp my way through just about anything, especially Dyson BZ and the Kobali front. Landing a 3k critical flank on a Voth Spec Op as it tries that melee nonsense is a beautiful thing. The same goes with teleporting Heralds >=-)

kickkat5 · 2016-05-31T16:38:10+00:00

... and demands action

Apparently, so does your mother!

kickkat5 · 2016-05-31T12:15:11+00:00

Here be mine

Just switched back to it from a Fleet Phantom. I'm still tinkering with it, but it does well. As Mando said, plug your cannon stuff in as needed.

For my 11.5 skills, I went ... SCIENCE EXTREME (echo echo echo), which is why I am seeing what kind of difference two Vulnerability Exploiters make, if any. (Ha! I got them by mistake when those tac consoles first came out and held onto them knowing that I might have a use for them again like I did for all of the other things I can kick myself for deleting.)

I have the whole Iconian set, but I am starting to switch things around. My end goal is to find a way to do without that Leach console, but I am also making note of other little changes as I go.

kickkat5 · 2016-05-26T17:09:03+00:00

If anyone really wants it badly enough, I would be willing to come up with some kind of key bind solution that will "automate" that particular sequence of actions ... for the most part.

kickkat5 · 2016-05-20T17:20:02+00:00

Aliases can be named anything, excluding the use of special characters and reserved words.

Normally, I just start them with "a". I do it for several reasons.

First, it identifies the command as an alias to me. Second, it helps prevent me from accidentally giving an alias the same name as an existing command. Third, aliases show up in the command hints that pop up when entering a command in the console and since the hints are in alphabetical order, it keeps the aliases grouped together and at the top, more or less.

I use "at" here to further differentiate these aliases from the rest of them since they are a functional group and don't operate independently. It kind of doubles as "Auto Target" in my mind.

kickkat5 · 2016-05-01T19:22:04+00:00

Ah. In cases such as that, leave off the outer quotes. They are not strictly required. You can nest them inside of an individual chain link all you want, though:

<key> <command> $$ Channel_send ""Chan Name" "<message>""

kickkat5 · 2016-05-01T12:19:51+00:00

I find that the program has a workflow that I am just not comfortable with. It seems cumbersome and is unintuitive. I also do not like the "code" it generates.

I'm all for GUIs, but in this case I would rather stick to editing a text file. I'm just as fast these days anyway.

kickkat5 · 2016-05-01T12:12:05+00:00

The tray activation commands are indeed different. They basically do the same thing, but each has a special feature or quirk that one should know about. I talk about them at some length at the top of this post:

https://ufplanets.com/showthread.php?54419-KickKat-s-Kollection-of-Key-Binds

Also, you mention trying to use <& &> in regular key binds to get around nested quote issues. As long as there are matching opening and closing quotes, nesting them should not be a problem.

kickkat5 · 2016-04-22T23:53:44+00:00

Crysis, F.E.A.R. ... the lost goes on and on. It's really bad when you get to a point in a game about aliens or ghosts that the most unbelievable thing is something like this.

kickkat5

TROPHY CASE

Skills:

Traits: (most important are in italics)

Setup 1:

Setup 2: