Lets see we are 8 hours into the event, with no further updates.... I guess its a good thing I have the other event chars, or I think id be cranky, thou im not sure they are working as intended either lol
@WaldoMag If I understand DB's logic, Phlox counts because he is a Phlox as well as main event crew, so he meets two criteria.
DB have messes up, they just don't want to admit it.
I wish I could believe you, but that doesn't hold any water. Reverand Phlox is just like Ru'afo: non-Dominion high bonus crew.
"Conveniently" DB has stated that all Phloxes are bugged, which just goes to prove my earlier point. DB got caught with its hand in the cookie jar and is backtracking with every line in the book to say it wasn't them.
So if I go with Yelgrun, I only will see bonus when he matches trait.
As with Ru'afo and Agar.
Boy I remember when I thought there was a fourth tier of rewards in the first skirmish. I list the reasoning and how I assumed the chance for higher rewards was.
Basic was no match of trait or bonus crew.
2nd tier chance I figured, trait with no bonus crew or bonus crew with no trait.
3rd tier bonus crew with trait or event specific bonus crew without trait.
4th if existed, would have been event specific bonus crew with trait.
I figured I was correct except there was no 4th tier of rewards.
I figured instead it would be just better Hull repair.
I have to tell you they might have given the rewards just as they are saying.
1st no trait bonus
2nd trait on a non event bonus crew
3rd trait on any event high or low crew.
I think we should all stop looking for logic where there obviously is none. The trait match / highest VP reward methodology is consistently inconsistent. For this event, don't use Ru'afo - use Phlox, Iggy, or Goran. And for the next skirmish event, I guess we should just check the blog's web cache to see if any goalposts have shifted further.
I don’t know if db wants to go down the traits rabbit hole. Unless of course they want to go and fix traits on the crew that have them wrong and at the same time commit to proper QC of traits BEFORE an event goes live AND at the same time coordinate internally on matching event crew traits and event mission traits.
All this requires a level of planning that DB hasn’t demonstrated yet.
This just confirms what you all are saying Ru'afo is bugged.
Edit: DB is saying anybody with Dominion trait and any Phloxes get the word bonus written on them. Anyone with the trait gets the word bonus written on them.
However, that is wrong because if they do not have the trait they do not have the chance for the third tier reward.
After investigating event bonuses for Adhar Ru'afo and other crew, we found that all the bonuses are working as intended.
Please note, that in phase 1 of this event, Ru'afo only has matching bonus crew traits in the first three of the five skirmish battles. If used in those first three skirmish battles, he receives the high bonus which is a larger bonus than crew receiving low bonus and non-event crew receiving the base bonus for having an applicable trait. Ru'afo, and other crew who do not have the bonus crew traits, will not receive any bonus in the fourth and fifth skirmish battles.
Example: Battle 1/5 with the Veteran and Brutal traits (Ru'afo has Brutal trait).
Example: Battle 4/5 with the Starfleet and Physician traits (Ru'afo does not have either of these traits).
Also, after clearing battle number 4 on elite, I'm only getting 850 points not the 1000. Is this error as well. Sorry no screenshot to prove. Will try on my next attempt. Feel cheated on this event.
So obviously everyone in this thread is aware of the problem of Rua’fo not giving a proper bonus at all times. If you haven’t already, restart your games and look in your messages and you’ll find a letter about this from DB. The gist of the letter is sorry it’s not working right, and oh, everyone’s idea on how Skirmish events work is wrong.
The letter says that previous Skirmishes have had it where event crew always give a bonus, no matter the traits requested. They say this is wrong and that crew selected has to have the suggested traits for each fight for a bonus to be applied. This is utter crud. If Skirmishes worked that way, there’d be no point whatsoever to having event crew. You’d just use whatever crew fit with the suggested traits for each fight and get bonuses that way. I suppose they could rig it so event crew that also had the suggested traits gave an even bigger bonus but again, that’s crap.
The way it was previously working seems the proper way that it was originally intended and explained to us as well. Event crew ALWAYS give a bonus, with the exact event crew giving a larger bonus than variations. Variations and random other crew giving a lesser bonus per fight. That was my understanding of how this was suppose to work and how it has previously been working. There’s no need to change that now and end up making Skirmish crew pointless for the event.
If they continue with this change, only the event ships will be worth attaining, at least for the sake of the event and it’s rewards. After all, with their preferred method, you can use ANY crew to get bonus points, as long as it contains one of the traits for each fight.
Weirdly enough, I’m also Vulcan Housewife. Also, RNGesus hates me, like really, REALLY hates me.
So obviously everyone in this thread is aware of the problem of Rua’fo not giving a proper bonus at all times. If you haven’t already, restart your games and look in your messages and you’ll find a letter about this from DB. The gist of the letter is sorry it’s not working right, and oh, everyone’s idea on how Skirmish events work is wrong.
The letter says that previous Skirmishes have had it where event crew always give a bonus, no matter the traits requested. They say this is wrong and that crew selected has to have the suggested traits for each fight for a bonus to be applied. This is utter crud. If Skirmishes worked that way, there’d be no point whatsoever to having event crew. You’d just use whatever crew fit with the suggested traits for each fight and get bonuses that way. I suppose they could rig it so event crew that also had the suggested traits gave an even bigger bonus but again, that’s crap.
The way it was previously working seems the proper way that it was originally intended and explained to us as well. Event crew ALWAYS give a bonus, with the exact event crew giving a larger bonus than variations. Variations and random other crew giving a lesser bonus per fight. That was my understanding of how this was suppose to work and how it has previously been working. There’s no need to change that now and end up making Skirmish crew pointless for the event.
If they continue with this change, only the event ships will be worth attaining, at least for the sake of the event and it’s rewards. After all, with their preferred method, you can use ANY crew to get bonus points, as long as it contains one of the traits for each fight.
Honestly, the event ships are not worth attaining. At least, not the 5* at the price of schematics packs. I am content to wait the 6-12 months it will take DB to get them into the premium portal pool...assuming this game exists or DB is in business at that time, given their escape rate in the last week.
DB, please let this be (yet another) lesson as to why you need a better quality control department. Or, seemingly, to have a quality control department in the first place. This is something that could have been easily caught in a test environment long before the first Skirmish event. A better explanation of how the event works would have also helped the players find this “bug” before now.
One other thing you can do is make sure each battle in every Skirmish event phase has at least one trait that applies to each of the three or four event crew.
And most importantly, a better description of large bonus and small bonus crew is needed for Skirmish events. Every other event type, even Galaxy events, will grant a bonus for the featured event crew and variants every single time. If event crew or variants will not be giving a bonus because they are missing a trait, that needs to be stated explicitly in the event announcement
“Not enough bandwidth” to do it like that? Tough...figure it out before the day the event goes live. [/quote]
But they advertised this whole Mega-Event 3 weeks ago and sure they planned this M.E. about a month before that SO.. they had PLENTY of time to test EVERYTHING, EVERY event, EVERY card(Yar), and work out all the kinks and bugs.
Look whose in charge now and advising us @dealwithitjazzriker, Name says it all.
Guess when the cat's(Shan) away the mice(DB crew) will play and d*ck off.
Hope your living it up on vacation Shan while your game company is in disarray 😮
I'm tired off all these screw-ups, nerfs, bugs, and sneakyness of this game. Almost don't wanna play anymore and delete the game from my phone.😥
After investigating event bonuses for Adhar Ru'afo and other crew, we found that all the bonuses are working as intended.
Please note, that in phase 1 of this event, Ru'afo only has matching bonus crew traits in the first three of the five skirmish battles. If used in those first three skirmish battles, he receives the high bonus which is a larger bonus than crew receiving low bonus and non-event crew receiving the base bonus for having an applicable trait. Ru'afo, and other crew who do not have the bonus crew traits, will not receive any bonus in the fourth and fifth skirmish battles.
Example: Battle 1/5 with the Veteran and Brutal traits (Ru'afo has Brutal trait).
Example: Battle 4/5 with the Starfleet and Physician traits (Ru'afo does not have either of these traits).
Also, after clearing battle number 4 on elite, I'm only getting 850 points not the 1000. Is this error as well. Sorry no screenshot to prove. Will try on my next attempt. Feel cheated on this event.
That is why we need to have event specific crew they are suppose to give the max VP reward at all times.
If Ru'afo was on your ship and you got 850. It just backs up that he is bugged.
If you use the low bonus crew I believe you need to match trait to get highest VP.
If you do not use any bonus crew and match trait you will get 850VP
If you have no bonus crew or no trait match you get 500VP
At least that was the way it use to be and why I always include one event specific crew on my ship.
DB, please let this be (yet another) lesson as to why you need a better quality control department. Or, seemingly, to have a quality control department in the first place. This is something that could have been easily caught in a test environment long before the first Skirmish event. A better explanation of how the event works would have also helped the players find this “bug” before now.
One other thing you can do is make sure each battle in every Skirmish event phase has at least one trait that applies to each of the three or four event crew.
And most importantly, a better description of large bonus and small bonus crew is needed for Skirmish events. Every other event type, even Galaxy events, will grant a bonus for the featured event crew and variants every single time. If event crew or variants will not be giving a bonus because they are missing a trait, that needs to be stated explicitly in the event announcement
“Not enough bandwidth” to do it like that? Tough...figure it out before the day the event goes live.
But they advertised this whole Mega-Event 3 weeks ago and sure they planned this M.E. about a month before that SO.. they had PLENTY of time to test EVERYTHING, EVERY event, EVERY card(Yar), and work out all the kinks and bugs.
Look whose in charge now and advising us @dealwithitjazzriker, Name says it all.
Guess when the cat's(Shan) away the mice(DB crew) will play and d*ck off.
Hope your living it up on vacation Shan while your game company is in disarray 😮
I'm tired off all these screw-ups, nerfs, bugs, and sneakyness of this game. Almost don't wanna play anymore and delete the game from my phone.😥
Yeah...it is very DB-tastic for things to go completely sideways when the one remaining employee that we seem to really like, get along with, and trust to communicate with us honestly (as much as upper management allows) is on a long and well-deserved vacation.
I am not at the “delete the game” level myself. I am not opposed to the Yar nerf or even Ru’afo’s lack of the Dominion trait. But the truly awful communication on every issue, poor choices for updating the blog post, and a stupendously critical quality escape have me wondering if DB is worthy of my money. At some point, whether the continual issues are incompetence or malice no longer matters...the end result is the same.
With a couple of choice console games coming out in the next few months and other hobbies that I could spend money on waiting in the wings, stopping all spending here would be a smart choice. And I have crew slots to spare that could keep me going at a slower pace for a long time, time enough for DB to finally get their act together or for me to feel that I have gotten enough additional value out of my spending to this point.
I would really like this game to persist and for DB to be successful. Despite the problems, it has been fun these last couple years. But changes have to be made and a better approach to customer service and quality assurance must become standard operating procedure. It remains to be seen if this is possible.
As Silver said Yulgren just gave me 240 Intel on battle number three. He does not have the trait.
So stick with one of Reverend, Agar, or Yulgren. You have chance for maximum reward.
Edit:
My other account with Phlox. I had to wait for next Skirmish to take pic of my crew so the battle would correspond with my crew. But I do not change crew, since I found out I do not need to for maximum reward.
The letter says that previous Skirmishes have had it where event crew always give a bonus, no matter the traits requested. They say this is wrong and that crew selected has to have the suggested traits for each fight for a bonus to be applied. This is utter crud. If Skirmishes worked that way, there’d be no point whatsoever to having event crew. You’d just use whatever crew fit with the suggested traits for each fight and get bonuses that way.
The letter says more than that, and the way they now say it works does make sense as how it should be supposed to work. (I'm not addressing any statements they may have made before about how it worked or was supposed to work.)
From what the letter says about how it's supposed to work:
no trait >> no bonus.
trait >> high/medium/low bonus for event/variant/other crew.
It makes sense to me for that to be an intended design. Getting event crew is not pointless. But it also isn't a free ticket to the best bonus. You wouldn't be able to just plop one event crew into a slot, regardless of his suitability, and ride him to the end. Instead, there would be a reason to get multiple event crew, so that you can swap (and yes, you can swap crew within a skirmish, you just can't swap your ship) to one with better traits for the individual battle (and perhaps, if you don't have enough event crew, you need to fall back to a bonus crew in order to get a matching trait).
The letter says that previous Skirmishes have had it where event crew always give a bonus, no matter the traits requested. They say this is wrong and that crew selected has to have the suggested traits for each fight for a bonus to be applied. This is utter crud. If Skirmishes worked that way, there’d be no point whatsoever to having event crew. You’d just use whatever crew fit with the suggested traits for each fight and get bonuses that way.
The letter says more than that, and the way they now say it works does make sense as how it should be supposed to work. (I'm not addressing any statements they may have made before about how it worked or was supposed to work.)
From what the letter says about how it's supposed to work:
no trait >> no bonus.
trait >> high/medium/low bonus for event/variant/other crew.
It makes sense to me for that to be an intended design. Getting event crew is not pointless. But it also isn't a free ticket to the best bonus. You wouldn't be able to just plop one event crew into a slot, regardless of his suitability, and ride him to the end. Instead, there would be a reason to get multiple event crew, so that you can swap (and yes, you can swap crew within a skirmish, you just can't swap your ship) to one with better traits for the individual battle (and perhaps, if you don't have enough event crew, you need to fall back to a bonus crew in order to get a matching trait).
Yes but by your explanation, you are basically saying that, If a character who is completely unrelated to this event has a random trait needed for this skirmish, that he should get more of a bonus, then an event crew? and not only that but the main reoccurring officer of that event... Not to mention no other event works this way, event crew does get max bonus for faction events, and basically you are just plopping them into a shuttle, so thats a free ticket is it not? and how is having an event officer, free in any sense of the word?
The method it is apparently meant to work does make a sort of sense. It is meant to work similarly to a galaxy event. Pick the best crew that the traits match for. So in fact yes, for one match it is likely some random crew with the right trait will score better than named crew without it.
But... That's not so bad with galaxy when its just pick one name of a list, that is usually sorted mostly in the right order, ish. sort of. But when it involves picking up to 4 new little faces out of a sea of vaguely similar faces, even with the word BONUS across them to reduce the choice a bit, its a lot worse.
DB have two things to do. Fix the error that finally became visible to them, and fix the interface that presently makes the proper method totally unreasonable. I sadly suspect that the first bit will be fixed quickly and the second bit, not at all. Jumping to correct such errors always seems a lot quicker when it's a serious problem making it too easy, unlike things like shuttle bugs that still lurk 2 years after being found.
The solution to crew selection would be helped by a way to limit crew to low bonus crew with trait.
And then to be able to select just the event specific crew.
Since they eliminated stat requirement for passive bonus. The other three crew hopefully would not change. No guarantee there. You may want someone else for a different bonus crew.
1. Ru'aflo does not provide a bonus
2. Except that he wasn't supposed to
3. Except that in previous skirmishes the event crew always did
4. All previous skirmishes were thus bugged allowing event crew bonus regardless of traits
6. The current event will run as-is; with Phlox variants and Dominion crew providing bonus regardless of traits, but...
7. Ru'aflo is not providing a bonus unless traits match
8. Future skirmish rules will run as intended
9. It is not clear what is intended, but it seems to be: Event Crew+Trait > Small Bonus Crew+Trait > Trait> Event > Small Bonus > neither
10. There is no information on what a "bigger" versus a "smaller" bonus actually means numericaly
11. Only one crew member can provide a bonus anyway
And also:
12. All other small event bonus crew are erroneously providing the big bonus. Meanwhile, Ru'afo, the Mega Event Bonus crew is not providing any bonus.
It does enhance rewards, I think. Depending on how many traits I'm matching, I can get either 75 or 150 honor (though I don't often get honor).
No, it doesn't. It's totally random what you get. With highest bonus crew (even if I fill every slot with bonus crews), I can get 1500 credits, 3000 credits and so on. No enhancement whatsoever.
I'm thinking they did this just to take our minds off the bait and switch with Yar. Have a look behind the curtains and see if "The Wizard of Bugz". Is pulling some chains.
I'm thinking they did this just to take our minds off the bait and switch with Yar. Have a look behind the curtains and see if "The Wizard of Bugz". Is pulling some chains.
Haha, but they did it the wrong way. At least the PolyYar nerf has a somewhat viable justification (game balancing, too OP). But Ru'afoGate is just downright deceitful and wrong.
Neither was handled particularly well, but if they wanted to distract us, they should've pulled the PolyYar Berg after.
It does enhance rewards, I think. Depending on how many traits I'm matching, I can get either 75 or 150 honor (though I don't often get honor).
No, it doesn't. It's totally random what you get. With highest bonus crew (even if I fill every slot with bonus crews), I can get 1500 credits, 3000 credits and so on. No enhancement whatsoever.
I noticed the previous skirmishes that whenever I got 300 chrons and screenshotted, it was always from the same battle. This led me to believe that the number of bonus crew does affect chances of the top rewards. I also got portal tokens 3 times always from the top bonus battles.
This skirmish I recorded what top bonuses I have got so far.
Battle 1, 4 bonus crew. 5 top bonus. 300 chrons once, 300 honor once, 240 intel 3 times.
Battle 2, 1 bonus crew. no top bonus.
Battle 3, 2 bonus crew. 3 top bonus. 300 honor once, 1500 VP twice
Battle 4, 2 bonus crew. 1 top bonus, 300 honor once.
Now this is only from a small scan of 232 bonus items, but I think it suggests that having at least 2 bonus crew improves chances of the better rewards. And often its still the 76 chrons instead of 300 even with 4 bonus crew.
Allow me to attempt a voice of reason in this heated debate.
Now there are two possible scenario's:
A) Skirmishes worked right from the start and Ru'afo is bugged in this one Skirmishes haven't worked as intended from the start and Ru'afo is working as intended
Whatever the scenario, I think it is safe to say that internally not all in DB understand how their skirmishes are supposed to work. Either their handling of this topic or the previous two skirmishes are evidence of that.
Now clearly whoever is handling this in absence of Shan and who else may be on vacation is in over their heads. But for us players, the event plays pretty much as usual except for Ru'afo. So I say: let's stay relaxed and wait for their Monday morning meeting to sort things out. DB is not going to fix an event during an event, and that wouldn't be the best option anyway.
If this is how DB intend Skirmishes to operate going forward then this event type will quickly become unplayable given the presently crummy crew selection mechanics, and the mind numbing monotony which constantly switching entails.
Ok Ru'afo not giving bonus so people potentially miss out on a few VP before they get Yelgrun (unless they have Agar) okay that's Irksome considering event notes et al said he would have big bonus. However Yelgrun works just fine don't even need to level him or buy the pack to get the missing copy so I can space him to ease my legendary honor debt (a little bit) after this event is done. Thanks DB won't be buying your event packs. Won't be wasting my chrons on leveling event crew - all the more intel farming for me.
This new trait business makes a bit of a mockery event crew - this is like the proverbial shuttle event where skills don't pair up with event crew, isn't this going back to the dark ages (regression).
If this trait bonus is an attempt to combat bots well Yelgrun can be used in all missions and still yield the bonus so we're not really fighting the bots there.
Frankly I think there has been poor judgement from whoever is responsible for taking the lead on releasing this event, not an attack on mods et al. but the real programmers behind the scenes they will know who they are. I think this just shows time and again the lack of quality assurance and play testing behind the scenes.
This is what really needs to be addressed.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
Event crew is event crew, regardless of high or low bonus. If Ru'afo IS (high) event crew, why is he not being given his full potential points? Makes no sense due to this being a mega event, and he IS the featured crew.
Also, this he-is-not-event-crew-after-all. Why not state beforehand, one day before event start, the other events were... bugged? I'm certain people would be far more understanding, despite the possible backlash. It wouldn't be blown out of proportion, like in this case.
There is one rule for all companies that DB is failing here: poor communication kills.
Imagine we, players, have a contract with you, DB (we do, by playing whatever games you create). You offer us an entertainment service which can be paid to use. Everyone, especially these paying people who support your game, would like to know if there is any change to the contract. And communication of these changes before ANY change is essential. Gives time for everyone to parlay about the problems and discuss solutions and find middle terms that may please both parties.
After the Yar nerf, this stunt and many others in the past, I cannot reward this behaviour. Do forgive me for being blunt, but I cannot stand in favour of a company which undermines its own laws, changes clear and pre estabilished rules without warning and expects the other party to go silent, quiet and on about their lives as if nothing had happened.
I consider myself one of the players, and will be rational and fair to the bitter end, seeking compromises whenever possible. There is no compromise here. I will now close the funding tap until further notice.
Comments
DB have messes up, they just don't want to admit it.
I wish I could believe you, but that doesn't hold any water. Reverand Phlox is just like Ru'afo: non-Dominion high bonus crew.
"Conveniently" DB has stated that all Phloxes are bugged, which just goes to prove my earlier point. DB got caught with its hand in the cookie jar and is backtracking with every line in the book to say it wasn't them.
As with Ru'afo and Agar.
Boy I remember when I thought there was a fourth tier of rewards in the first skirmish. I list the reasoning and how I assumed the chance for higher rewards was.
Basic was no match of trait or bonus crew.
2nd tier chance I figured, trait with no bonus crew or bonus crew with no trait.
3rd tier bonus crew with trait or event specific bonus crew without trait.
4th if existed, would have been event specific bonus crew with trait.
I figured I was correct except there was no 4th tier of rewards.
I figured instead it would be just better Hull repair.
I have to tell you they might have given the rewards just as they are saying.
1st no trait bonus
2nd trait on a non event bonus crew
3rd trait on any event high or low crew.
Proud Former Officer of The Gluten Empire
Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
All this requires a level of planning that DB hasn’t demonstrated yet.
This just confirms what you all are saying Ru'afo is bugged.
Edit: DB is saying anybody with Dominion trait and any Phloxes get the word bonus written on them. Anyone with the trait gets the word bonus written on them.
However, that is wrong because if they do not have the trait they do not have the chance for the third tier reward.
DB: Do Better
Also, after clearing battle number 4 on elite, I'm only getting 850 points not the 1000. Is this error as well. Sorry no screenshot to prove. Will try on my next attempt. Feel cheated on this event.
The letter says that previous Skirmishes have had it where event crew always give a bonus, no matter the traits requested. They say this is wrong and that crew selected has to have the suggested traits for each fight for a bonus to be applied. This is utter crud. If Skirmishes worked that way, there’d be no point whatsoever to having event crew. You’d just use whatever crew fit with the suggested traits for each fight and get bonuses that way. I suppose they could rig it so event crew that also had the suggested traits gave an even bigger bonus but again, that’s crap.
The way it was previously working seems the proper way that it was originally intended and explained to us as well. Event crew ALWAYS give a bonus, with the exact event crew giving a larger bonus than variations. Variations and random other crew giving a lesser bonus per fight. That was my understanding of how this was suppose to work and how it has previously been working. There’s no need to change that now and end up making Skirmish crew pointless for the event.
If they continue with this change, only the event ships will be worth attaining, at least for the sake of the event and it’s rewards. After all, with their preferred method, you can use ANY crew to get bonus points, as long as it contains one of the traits for each fight.
Honestly, the event ships are not worth attaining. At least, not the 5* at the price of schematics packs. I am content to wait the 6-12 months it will take DB to get them into the premium portal pool...assuming this game exists or DB is in business at that time, given their escape rate in the last week.
One other thing you can do is make sure each battle in every Skirmish event phase has at least one trait that applies to each of the three or four event crew.
And most importantly, a better description of large bonus and small bonus crew is needed for Skirmish events. Every other event type, even Galaxy events, will grant a bonus for the featured event crew and variants every single time. If event crew or variants will not be giving a bonus because they are missing a trait, that needs to be stated explicitly in the event announcement
“Not enough bandwidth” to do it like that? Tough...figure it out before the day the event goes live. [/quote]
But they advertised this whole Mega-Event 3 weeks ago and sure they planned this M.E. about a month before that SO.. they had PLENTY of time to test EVERYTHING, EVERY event, EVERY card(Yar), and work out all the kinks and bugs.
Look whose in charge now and advising us @dealwithitjazzriker, Name says it all.
Guess when the cat's(Shan) away the mice(DB crew) will play and d*ck off.
Hope your living it up on vacation Shan while your game company is in disarray 😮
I'm tired off all these screw-ups, nerfs, bugs, and sneakyness of this game. Almost don't wanna play anymore and delete the game from my phone.😥
That is why we need to have event specific crew they are suppose to give the max VP reward at all times.
If Ru'afo was on your ship and you got 850. It just backs up that he is bugged.
If you use the low bonus crew I believe you need to match trait to get highest VP.
If you do not use any bonus crew and match trait you will get 850VP
If you have no bonus crew or no trait match you get 500VP
At least that was the way it use to be and why I always include one event specific crew on my ship.
Yeah...it is very DB-tastic for things to go completely sideways when the one remaining employee that we seem to really like, get along with, and trust to communicate with us honestly (as much as upper management allows) is on a long and well-deserved vacation.
I am not at the “delete the game” level myself. I am not opposed to the Yar nerf or even Ru’afo’s lack of the Dominion trait. But the truly awful communication on every issue, poor choices for updating the blog post, and a stupendously critical quality escape have me wondering if DB is worthy of my money. At some point, whether the continual issues are incompetence or malice no longer matters...the end result is the same.
With a couple of choice console games coming out in the next few months and other hobbies that I could spend money on waiting in the wings, stopping all spending here would be a smart choice. And I have crew slots to spare that could keep me going at a slower pace for a long time, time enough for DB to finally get their act together or for me to feel that I have gotten enough additional value out of my spending to this point.
I would really like this game to persist and for DB to be successful. Despite the problems, it has been fun these last couple years. But changes have to be made and a better approach to customer service and quality assurance must become standard operating procedure. It remains to be seen if this is possible.
So stick with one of Reverend, Agar, or Yulgren. You have chance for maximum reward.
Edit:
My other account with Phlox. I had to wait for next Skirmish to take pic of my crew so the battle would correspond with my crew. But I do not change crew, since I found out I do not need to for maximum reward.
The letter says more than that, and the way they now say it works does make sense as how it should be supposed to work. (I'm not addressing any statements they may have made before about how it worked or was supposed to work.)
From what the letter says about how it's supposed to work:
no trait >> no bonus.
trait >> high/medium/low bonus for event/variant/other crew.
It makes sense to me for that to be an intended design. Getting event crew is not pointless. But it also isn't a free ticket to the best bonus. You wouldn't be able to just plop one event crew into a slot, regardless of his suitability, and ride him to the end. Instead, there would be a reason to get multiple event crew, so that you can swap (and yes, you can swap crew within a skirmish, you just can't swap your ship) to one with better traits for the individual battle (and perhaps, if you don't have enough event crew, you need to fall back to a bonus crew in order to get a matching trait).
Yes but by your explanation, you are basically saying that, If a character who is completely unrelated to this event has a random trait needed for this skirmish, that he should get more of a bonus, then an event crew? and not only that but the main reoccurring officer of that event... Not to mention no other event works this way, event crew does get max bonus for faction events, and basically you are just plopping them into a shuttle, so thats a free ticket is it not? and how is having an event officer, free in any sense of the word?
But... That's not so bad with galaxy when its just pick one name of a list, that is usually sorted mostly in the right order, ish. sort of. But when it involves picking up to 4 new little faces out of a sea of vaguely similar faces, even with the word BONUS across them to reduce the choice a bit, its a lot worse.
DB have two things to do. Fix the error that finally became visible to them, and fix the interface that presently makes the proper method totally unreasonable. I sadly suspect that the first bit will be fixed quickly and the second bit, not at all. Jumping to correct such errors always seems a lot quicker when it's a serious problem making it too easy, unlike things like shuttle bugs that still lurk 2 years after being found.
And then to be able to select just the event specific crew.
Since they eliminated stat requirement for passive bonus. The other three crew hopefully would not change. No guarantee there. You may want someone else for a different bonus crew.
1. Ru'aflo does not provide a bonus
2. Except that he wasn't supposed to
3. Except that in previous skirmishes the event crew always did
4. All previous skirmishes were thus bugged allowing event crew bonus regardless of traits
6. The current event will run as-is; with Phlox variants and Dominion crew providing bonus regardless of traits, but...
7. Ru'aflo is not providing a bonus unless traits match
8. Future skirmish rules will run as intended
9. It is not clear what is intended, but it seems to be: Event Crew+Trait > Small Bonus Crew+Trait > Trait> Event > Small Bonus > neither
10. There is no information on what a "bigger" versus a "smaller" bonus actually means numericaly
11. Only one crew member can provide a bonus anyway
I will check others to verify this. I know Reverend and Yelgrun do.
The low bonus event crew do not provide max VP for win or max reward.
In game message wrong
Must use one of Yelgrun, Reverend Phlox, or First Goran'Agar
I have confirmed that they all provide max reward and max VP regardless of trait.
12. All other small event bonus crew are erroneously providing the big bonus. Meanwhile, Ru'afo, the Mega Event Bonus crew is not providing any bonus.
No, it doesn't. It's totally random what you get. With highest bonus crew (even if I fill every slot with bonus crews), I can get 1500 credits, 3000 credits and so on. No enhancement whatsoever.
Haha, but they did it the wrong way. At least the PolyYar nerf has a somewhat viable justification (game balancing, too OP). But Ru'afoGate is just downright deceitful and wrong.
Neither was handled particularly well, but if they wanted to distract us, they should've pulled the PolyYar Berg after.
I noticed the previous skirmishes that whenever I got 300 chrons and screenshotted, it was always from the same battle. This led me to believe that the number of bonus crew does affect chances of the top rewards. I also got portal tokens 3 times always from the top bonus battles.
This skirmish I recorded what top bonuses I have got so far.
Battle 1, 4 bonus crew. 5 top bonus. 300 chrons once, 300 honor once, 240 intel 3 times.
Battle 2, 1 bonus crew. no top bonus.
Battle 3, 2 bonus crew. 3 top bonus. 300 honor once, 1500 VP twice
Battle 4, 2 bonus crew. 1 top bonus, 300 honor once.
Now this is only from a small scan of 232 bonus items, but I think it suggests that having at least 2 bonus crew improves chances of the better rewards. And often its still the 76 chrons instead of 300 even with 4 bonus crew.
Now there are two possible scenario's:
A) Skirmishes worked right from the start and Ru'afo is bugged in this one
Whatever the scenario, I think it is safe to say that internally not all in DB understand how their skirmishes are supposed to work. Either their handling of this topic or the previous two skirmishes are evidence of that.
Now clearly whoever is handling this in absence of Shan and who else may be on vacation is in over their heads. But for us players, the event plays pretty much as usual except for Ru'afo. So I say: let's stay relaxed and wait for their Monday morning meeting to sort things out. DB is not going to fix an event during an event, and that wouldn't be the best option anyway.
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Ok Ru'afo not giving bonus so people potentially miss out on a few VP before they get Yelgrun (unless they have Agar) okay that's Irksome considering event notes et al said he would have big bonus. However Yelgrun works just fine don't even need to level him or buy the pack to get the missing copy so I can space him to ease my legendary honor debt (a little bit) after this event is done. Thanks DB won't be buying your event packs. Won't be wasting my chrons on leveling event crew - all the more intel farming for me.
This new trait business makes a bit of a mockery event crew - this is like the proverbial shuttle event where skills don't pair up with event crew, isn't this going back to the dark ages (regression).
If this trait bonus is an attempt to combat bots well Yelgrun can be used in all missions and still yield the bonus so we're not really fighting the bots there.
Frankly I think there has been poor judgement from whoever is responsible for taking the lead on releasing this event, not an attack on mods et al. but the real programmers behind the scenes they will know who they are. I think this just shows time and again the lack of quality assurance and play testing behind the scenes.
This is what really needs to be addressed.
Event crew is event crew, regardless of high or low bonus. If Ru'afo IS (high) event crew, why is he not being given his full potential points? Makes no sense due to this being a mega event, and he IS the featured crew.
Also, this he-is-not-event-crew-after-all. Why not state beforehand, one day before event start, the other events were... bugged? I'm certain people would be far more understanding, despite the possible backlash. It wouldn't be blown out of proportion, like in this case.
There is one rule for all companies that DB is failing here: poor communication kills.
Imagine we, players, have a contract with you, DB (we do, by playing whatever games you create). You offer us an entertainment service which can be paid to use. Everyone, especially these paying people who support your game, would like to know if there is any change to the contract. And communication of these changes before ANY change is essential. Gives time for everyone to parlay about the problems and discuss solutions and find middle terms that may please both parties.
After the Yar nerf, this stunt and many others in the past, I cannot reward this behaviour. Do forgive me for being blunt, but I cannot stand in favour of a company which undermines its own laws, changes clear and pre estabilished rules without warning and expects the other party to go silent, quiet and on about their lives as if nothing had happened.
I consider myself one of the players, and will be rational and fair to the bitter end, seeking compromises whenever possible. There is no compromise here. I will now close the funding tap until further notice.