Voyage Reward Drop Tracking
Commander Sinclair
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This comes from our original thread https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/5914/observation-of-stuff-dropped-by-voyages
My major goal was to see which set of skill combinations would drop the "best" stuff, especially SR (4*) crew
While we had a LOT of input, there is still nowhere near enough data to make conclusions, but some patterns emerged that I thought were noteworthy. You're welcome.
All of the Voyages tracked for this were between 6-1/2 hours-10-1/2 hours. Even with 65 Voyages tracked in this range, most skill sets were only represented a couple times. I also did a separate tracking of 11-16 hour voyages, but there is not enough data there for anything yet. Link to the Spreadsheet is in the other thread.
Highest Percentage of SR drops DIP/ENG
Highest Chroniton Drops ENG/DIP
(Note: Chrons seem to be very well averaged across all skill combos, so there is really not a huge variance.)
Highest Credit Drops MED/CMD
Highest Replicator Ration Drops DIP/SCI
Only tracking 4* rep rations here. A few 5* rations drop from time to time, but only from dilemmas
Highest Honor Drops DIP/CMD
Highest drops of SR crew from random drops (NOT from dilemmas):
CMD/ENG
CMD/SEC
DIP/ENG
DIP/MED
DIP/SCI
ENG/MED
MED/CMD
MED/DIP
MED/SCI
SCI/ENG
SCI/MED
SEC/ENG
SEC/MED
So, if you read between the lines, DIP, ENG, and MED seem to drop the most SRs.
I would appreciate if you are willing to participate to send me your voyage info, either by PM< or in the other thread. The tracking info I use is pretty simple, however there have been reports it is more difficult to obtain from Desktop apps than mobile apps.
Tracking info needed:
Length of Voyage
Primary & Secondary Skills
Chrons
Honor
Crew drops (all), and whether 4*s were Random or from Dilemma
Credits
Replicator Rations
Optional: equipment broken down into 2*/1*/0*, Trainers
My major goal was to see which set of skill combinations would drop the "best" stuff, especially SR (4*) crew
While we had a LOT of input, there is still nowhere near enough data to make conclusions, but some patterns emerged that I thought were noteworthy. You're welcome.
All of the Voyages tracked for this were between 6-1/2 hours-10-1/2 hours. Even with 65 Voyages tracked in this range, most skill sets were only represented a couple times. I also did a separate tracking of 11-16 hour voyages, but there is not enough data there for anything yet. Link to the Spreadsheet is in the other thread.
Highest Percentage of SR drops DIP/ENG
Highest Chroniton Drops ENG/DIP
(Note: Chrons seem to be very well averaged across all skill combos, so there is really not a huge variance.)
Highest Credit Drops MED/CMD
Highest Replicator Ration Drops DIP/SCI
Only tracking 4* rep rations here. A few 5* rations drop from time to time, but only from dilemmas
Highest Honor Drops DIP/CMD
Highest drops of SR crew from random drops (NOT from dilemmas):
CMD/ENG
CMD/SEC
DIP/ENG
DIP/MED
DIP/SCI
ENG/MED
MED/CMD
MED/DIP
MED/SCI
SCI/ENG
SCI/MED
SEC/ENG
SEC/MED
So, if you read between the lines, DIP, ENG, and MED seem to drop the most SRs.
I would appreciate if you are willing to participate to send me your voyage info, either by PM< or in the other thread. The tracking info I use is pretty simple, however there have been reports it is more difficult to obtain from Desktop apps than mobile apps.
Tracking info needed:
Length of Voyage
Primary & Secondary Skills
Chrons
Honor
Crew drops (all), and whether 4*s were Random or from Dilemma
Credits
Replicator Rations
Optional: equipment broken down into 2*/1*/0*, Trainers
I want to become a Dilionaire...
4
Comments
That's a lot of DIP always showing up. I wonder if you're picking up something correlated but not necessarily drop chances. Like is your DIP stats better and that yields longer voyages not adjusted for? Does a higher overall stat lead to more drops somehow? I don't have an answer and I'd need to dig into the data more to see, but seeing DIP show up so often doesn't pass the smell test.
This. If you aren't adjusting your inputs based on duration, it will be very difficult to correlate.
Probably the best apples-to-apples thing you could do is track all of the drops between two dilemmas. So get all the 0-2, 2-4, etc drops, remove any dilemma rewards (that would be its own companion analysis).
When my crew allows, I am able to rack up lots of points on those two skills, and exceed 8000+ for primary and secondary, I tend to get the SR cards more often than not. I also tend to get better rewards as far as Chronitons and replicators are concerned. In these instances, I generally have a big difference between those two skills and some of my others so I am failing other skills earlier but also passing primary and secondary later on when it matters.
If my skills are more balanced and I have 5000+ for every skill without primary and secondary being significantly higher, I tend to get great rewards early on and lots of 3* cards but once I start failing before the 6 hour mark, my rewards tend to become less favourable and I very rarely get any SR cards.
I don't think the skill itself matters, I think passing the skill tests regularly helps to trigger something that gives better rewards. I don't think DB have done anything complicated and I think the simple approach of matching the two skills AND putting your best crew forward gets the best rewards.
As far as skills go, Diplomacy may be everyone's best skill so it would explain why it is listed everywhere in the OP and I think the variability would come from the fact that everyone's second/third best skills are different. When the voyage tests DIP and either MED or SEC, I always do great because my best voyage crew have those stat combinations. When ENG shows up, not so much because it is my worst stat and it rarely passes after 6 hours.
I used to get lots of SR cards before the nerf and I didn't have any 5/5s at that point and would barely get to 6 hours. I would extend with Dilithium and bring some SR home almost every time without passing skill tests. I think all they did was change the pass or fail effect on rewards because I went a long time without getting any SRs and it changed once my crew was strong enough to start passing skills after longer after the 6 hour mark and now I get them more consistently. I may be wrong but I think it is that simple.
You make a thoughtful point. I have also found that when I extend after getting several 4* crew, they stop dropping after a while.
Same happens to me which is why I don't extend for SRs any more. I only extend if it fails or if I want more Chronitons and I can sneak on another two hours before having it fail again.
I think you may be onto something there, as we regularly get duplicate Voyages back to back (Same ship & skills/traits). I purposely matched the same crew for the second of such a pattern and got completely different results.
For example, one Voyage lasted only 7:42, while the other went beyond 8 hours. The first one dropped 3 SRs randomly, while the second one only dropped 1 from a dilemma. (and other loot was a lot different.)
While I agree with @[TFA] GTMET about not having separate loot tables, there would be an easy way to program it to drop things from one category over another. I know there is already an algorithm built in for Voyages (and Portal) to peek at your active crew roster when making crew drops. This suggests that all items, whether crew, equipment, trainers, rations, etc., are grouped into categories in a database table.
If all crew-dropping mechanisms would also take into account my frozen crew, I would be much, much happier. 🖖🏻
And the time variance you're seeing is from RNG skill selection. If you're pushing your primary/secondary skill and letting one skill suffer, then your length will vary based on how often that weak skill comes up relative to other skills. You could get lucky and it comes up a little, or it could come up a lot. When you look at the skill check at the end of the voyage you'll see that the 4 non-featured skills do not occur evenly. This is exactly what you'd expect from RNG and will swing your Voyage length. That's also why we've said that any analysis needs to control for length.