(The title is because a while ago I had another post called Multitasking. Something to do with singing. This isn't really a sequel.)

A quick comment about the intensity of activity in STO, compared to a couple of other games.

In WoW I sometimes run two clients at once. I need to run a key-broadcasting application and keep the action bars minimal, losing a lot of potential power and flexibility, but with a little help and compromise I can successfully run two combat characters, probably at around 80% effectiveness on the first one and 40-60% on the other if I pick the right classes.
In EVE I routinely run two clients at once. I don't need any third-party applications, there's much less compromise in fittings and I can get full effectiveness out of the first character and upwards of 75% on the second.

In STO I run one client, and the space combat taxes me. There's just so much to do:
  1. I keep my strongest shield facing toward the enemy when I can. When there are multiple enemies I need to show them the best combination of facings.
  2. Ideally I also face my best weapons toward the enemy I wish to fight. Sometimes this is a secondary concern; sometimes it's a compromise.
  3. I have a set of buttons to redistribute shield power among the facings.
  4. I watch the shield and hull status of each teammate, to work out who to heal next. It's not whack-a-mole though: I need to understand the fight thoroughly because besides knowing who will be damaged next (which is the fun part of healing in any other game) I need to guess which shield facing will be hit; if it's a strong one that person is in less danger after all. This is a system with little or no threat management: in space all healing is raid-healing.
  5. I watch cooldowns. They're long, and you need to make sure the right things are used at the right time. Each shield restore power applies a damage reduction buff so having them off cooldown and unused is a waste, but having them unavailable at the wrong time is fatal. Some of them are shared: Science Team and Engineering Team have individual cooldowns and also share the 'crew' system cooldown, so I can't restore someone's hull now if I expect to need to restore shields in the next 25 or so seconds.
  6. I like to shoot down heavy torpedoes (you can't target the regular ones). As a support ship I feel that prevention is better than cure, especially against the ones that cause the DoT I can't heal. (I could learn to heal the DoT, but I only have so many ability slots available)
  7. On top of that, when in public space combat I do my best to make sure I sling party invitations to everyone I can see. If I can't get the other people in my instance into my group then I have to click on them to see their shield/hull. Not easy when they like to surround themselves with mines, or when they're using evasive manoeuvres.

It's just loads of fun. Stick to stuff of the right level and every combat is as exciting as those against-the-odds-victory battles that come around once in a blue moon in WoW or EVE, and the lenient death penalty actually helps that by not penalising me for taking on the hard stuff (unlike EVE, especially).

If you're playing it and interested in meeting up, drop me a line. I'm currently in the upper half of Leftenant Commander, with a couple of friends waiting at Commander for me.