Originally (closed beta), they didn't glow at all unless you talked to NPCs and asked the right questions. And there was no scan function which told you where to look for the "closest intractable object." Additionally, you had to be within 1-2 meters for the glow effect to happen.
It was tedious.
It was annoying.
(More so when there were optical occlusion errors and objects would be invisible.)
And it was for a PATROL mission which was intended to have you complete all phases in 1-1.5 hours at most. Not an "episode." These were meant to be like the Enterprise scanning gas content in the neutral zone before First Contact. Short, simple, and meant to give you more XP and loot before you continued the main stories... they just weren't short. Or enjoyable.
Of course, at this time, combat patrols had 7 to 12 groups in them. More if it was "scan X stations" as each station would be defended, and there would be additional groups off to the side to lead you wrong directions. Additionally, there were no way points marked on the map. Or large circles saying where the enemies could be found.
And these were very, very, repetitive fights.
So, changes were made based on beta feed back. Excellent changes, some mentioned above:
The tricorder scan, which saves you from running around 45 minutes on a deserted planet looking for ONE fracking caccoon which you somehow missed... which looks identical to the other ones. And you couldn't really tell if you'd seen it or not yet because...
the glow effect was considerably weaker, and unnoticeable unless you were on top of it. To give you an example, in the tutorial during closed beta, I had trouble finding the console you were supposed to use to hail the ship. It was just that hard to see.
way points didn't exist early on. You had no idea where you needed to go. Scanning asteroids? Which ones? No idea. They were all about the same size and type with nothing to distinguish them. Sure, theres an asteroid field to orbit... but its a big orbit, and at full impulse you'd simple miss them.
map area markers similar to the above, and when they adjusted the patrols from 7-12 groups to 3-7, well, that left good chunks of space where there'd be nothing to find any more. Ever notice the random respawn points that seem to have no purpose? Well, they had a purpose. There used to be bad things not far off that would likely kill you.
To put this more in perspective, it took around 20 hours to go from levels 1 to 10 and get your second ship before the adjustments and changes that improved gameplay. This was assuming you were already somewhat familiar with the game mechanics, and had done some of the quests before. Compared to other MMO's that was tedious at the extreme. And that was just levels 1 to 10. 20 - 30 was harder and more tedious.
As it is now, I think theres a good balance. And it has come a very long way in the last few months... but yeah, it could use more polish. A lot more beyond t2... but thats coming.
If you think the combat is too easy, group with some one and do the patrols and missions solo. You'll have 2 to 5x the amount of enemies for you to beat on, or for you to get obliterated by over and over and over and over again. ;)
