Just re-downloaded it from GOG. Is there a way or patch to get the crew to do more? Give them an AI so that all you do would be issuing orders and monitoring the ship in ala Bridge Commander/Universal Combat. I would like the option of manualy take controls. It just seems to me, a "good" space sim shouldn't be all fighter, explore, or mining. Mix it up. That was half the fun of Star Trek( ToS). Depth, and atmosphere are important. Realism and fun must be balanced and MMO should be optional and not required. The ArmA series did it with mil sims. Why cant someone do it with Space Sims? Thoughts?

I always looked at it like this - the crew is doing a lot, just not the functions we perform in-game.

In the cutscenes and the the "virtual bridge", you can see that the various stations on the bridge all have many displays and panels that can't be interacted with as the player. The "crew" is then using these other functions when they create waypoints, detect "thermal traces", see that the "jumpoint sensor is ramping up", get a star fix, or do any of the other things they do.

In short, the player drives around and essentially plays "captain" while the crew does all the nitty-gritty details of their job duties.