Cryptic Studios' latest installment of Ask Cryptic on the Star Trek Online website neatly puts to rest one of my biggest worries about the game - how space combat is handled. I've spent far too many years battling starships both in video game and miniatures game form to have the experience reduced to a simple point and click affair.
Players will definitely be given full control. A large portion of starship combat in Star Trek Online is tactical – maneuvering your ship into position so you protect your vital systems as you attack your opponent's weakest side. You need to be “in control” of your ship in order for that to work well and be fun.
Exactly! Nice to see Cryptic understands where their prospective players are coming from. The latest update also goes over the skill-based melee combat, even mentioning a certain Vulcan maneuver that is sure to have fans of the pointy-eared logic-addicts grabbing ineffectually at collarbones for days to come. Ask Cryptic (October 27, 2008) [Star Trek Online via Eurogamer]