I want to note - change do not affect bot users. As choosing crew can be put in the bot. Meaning that they have even MORE of advantage now.
But then you aren't talking about macros anymore. The fact that there is total randomness with the places where crew is, you can't simply pick the top row first crew. No, macro users (and smart players) will not even get into the horrible interface and just take the bonuses if they are there. I for one am not that opposed to the changes, I won't have to carry a event crew on the bridge and so I can now have an actual useful crew there instead. As far as time goes, it will probably not even be worth it to go into the crew selection even once because by the point you find your desired crew, I will probably complete 2 battles. This crew selection is punishing the people who have many crew being active.
I'm pretty convinced that skirmishes haven't been working 'as intended'. The VP rewards are through the roof compared to other events, and you only have to run 22 skirmishes at full bonus to hit threshold. At a very conservative 5 minutes per skirmish, that's just under 2 hours gameplay. The Intel needed for that is, I haven't worked it out, but someone else could. Indeed, a maximum 1200 Intel per skirmish, and 90 chrons per 1200 Intel, you're looking at 22x90 chrons is under 2,000 chrons less those won from rewards. Just to get to threshold. That's without the steady trickle of Intel awarded just for being in the event!
Sorry ,it just doesn't add up. And that's the main reason why I've been going nuts on them. The rewards have been fantastic, and it's been very easy for someone with a solid ship crew and a maxed ship to spam the event (even without macros). I didn't expect it to last forever, and I was surprised we had so many events before a fix (sort of) even showed up.
Thank god a skirmish event just what the doctored ordered after this run of shuttle events then hybrid and I randomly levelled up kal-if-fee Spock recently for once I feel ahead of the game.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
Just having a shy peak after over 3 months leaving the game (not returning) and being very satisfied to see that Commander Donatra apparently is finally going to make it into the game. Also nice that there will be a freebie Valdore 2* ship just for the looks to fly around in the game.
Even though Jhamel and Eris still haven't made it, I'm happy that Donatra made it, even though I had hoped she'd be worth a legendary card and Maid Marian the epic card instead.
Cloaking again ...
"Everything about the Jem'Hadar is lethal!" - Eris (ST-DS9 Episode 2x26 "The Jem'Hadar")
I hope they fix the bot problem soon but til then I am SO here for the Valdore and Commander Donatra finally getting the respect she deserves! I’d prefer she be 5* but then I’d have to fight bots to get her so I’ll deal.
I hope they do the Valdore justice, it’s a beautiful ship. Aside from the Ent-E and Nebula class it’s a favorite of mine
In all honesty, I think the Reliant was the last one that looked good. The renders on the Breen ship and the Dominion warship were pretty rough. I also hope they do the Valdore justice.
I’m glad it’s a Skirmish Event, and It appears to be working how I understood it work from the start. I’ll just pick which ever event character matches 3 or 4 battles traits and slap them in the Cube with a 10 second kill crew and crank through battles! I could care less about missing a few VP, the Holoemitters and Intel-Crons loop are what I’m in it for......... And Vash.
I don't understand why there are any stated event crew in a skirmish event since even big bonus crew don't give any bonus for just being stated big bonus crew. Last skirmish event showed that the only bonus is for matching the stated traits for the round. Or am I missing something here?
DB's change to make us swap out crew EACH BATTLE is a slap in the face. Why do that to us?!!!
If they improved the interface to make it easier on the player, then sure ok, go for it. As it stands now the event is no longer just "grindy" but down right torturous.
Skirmishes were great! I was pleasantly surprised by how good of an event Skirmishes were from day 1. Leave it to DB to go and RUIN A GOOD THING.
Why??!!
Because apparently they hate their consumer base.
Weirdly enough, I’m also Vulcan Housewife. Also, RNGesus hates me, like really, REALLY hates me.
I want to note - change do not affect bot users. As choosing crew can be put in the bot. Meaning that they have even MORE of advantage now.
But then you aren't talking about macros anymore. The fact that there is total randomness with the places where crew is, you can't simply pick the top row first crew. No, macro users (and smart players) will not even get into the horrible interface and just take the bonuses if they are there. I for one am not that opposed to the changes, I won't have to carry a event crew on the bridge and so I can now have an actual useful crew there instead. As far as time goes, it will probably not even be worth it to go into the crew selection even once because by the point you find your desired crew, I will probably complete 2 battles. This crew selection is punishing the people who have many crew being active.
Is it random in skirmishes? For Arena at least, it seems like crew are consistently placed. I'll admit I'm not sure what criteria they are sorted by, but e.x. I know about where to scroll in the painful UI to find Krav Maga Sarek on my Borg SCI Slot.
That said, "Crew Selection is punishing the people who have many crew being active" seems pretty counterintuitive to DB's goals. I.E. They want us to use all those crew slots so we keep wanting more.
I'm pretty convinced that skirmishes haven't been working 'as intended'. The VP rewards are through the roof compared to other events, and you only have to run 22 skirmishes at full bonus to hit threshold. At a very conservative 5 minutes per skirmish, that's just under 2 hours gameplay. The Intel needed for that is, I haven't worked it out, but someone else could. Indeed, a maximum 1200 Intel per skirmish, and 90 chrons per 1200 Intel, you're looking at 22x90 chrons is under 2,000 chrons less those won from rewards. Just to get to threshold. That's without the steady trickle of Intel awarded just for being in the event!
Sorry ,it just doesn't add up. And that's the main reason why I've been going nuts on them. The rewards have been fantastic, and it's been very easy for someone with a solid ship crew and a maxed ship to spam the event (even without macros). I didn't expect it to last forever, and I was surprised we had so many events before a fix (sort of) even showed up.
I somewhat look at Skirmishes as a compromise to the players who wanted 'shorter' events. It certainly doesn't help people who want to *compete* in a shorter event, but it is nice for those who want to be able to threshold and out quickly. I'll admit I've never timed how long it's taken for me to finish a Galaxy Event, but I still feel like Skirmish is far less resource intensive. The Cost for threshold in galaxy is about the same (2,000 chrons, give or take) but you're losing items and credits in the process.
The practical reality is that most players who want to grind heavily are just going to end up ignoring this rules change because it’s insanely ill conceived and impractical to deal with. Our time and sanity are better managed by just slotting the two (once we grab Donatra, assuming Thresholds or pulled from a pack) and Spock (if owned) named event 4*s and just rolling with constant crew to maximize speed and ease of play. It’ll be worth the VP hit in the long run. But it’s fundamentally a bad event mechanic to make the named crew sometimes entirely irrelevant to the event.
Am I the only one here is looking forward to this event? I love variety, and strategy has been introduced to make things slightly more challenging. Plus, I want to finish Kal-if-fee Spock, get Donato, and I thought Vash was rather fun. The rewards from playing should be pretty decent too!
Me too!!! I actually love skirmish events and I am looking forward to the crew as well. Not happy about the need to change up crew to maximize vp, but it won't keep me away either. I use skirmish events to take care of so many things...leveling crew, taking care of collections, gathering more holoemitters to help the fleet I am in, use the honor I collect however I see fit, and compete to the best of my abilities. Definitely not a "whale" (monthly card with an occasional $10 spending here and there) so skirmishes come in handy for me.
Yep, I find skirmishes great for many things. While the crew selection interface is in sore need of improvement, my strategy revolves around picking the best crew per skirmish (not battle) and deciding whether to go for speed of completion (basically a standard crew including the best bonus of the event crew, as has been done in the past) or figuring out if a slightly slower sequence of battles using a mix of bonus crew gives better VP even if the battles take longer. Clearly, at least in my view, changing crew every battle isn't going to be fast or even ultimately that effective at harvesting VP, but someone else might find that worthwhile. But the option is there, and it might be possible to do a quick change for a specific battle rather than each one.
It's certainly more strategic than either faction or galaxy events both of which are insanely repetitive. And the rewards are considerably better. What's not to like?
What you describe is also insanely repetitive. Your decision point as to whether to go for fast or VP is about as strategic as to go for the 3 seat shuttle that you don't have as much event crew on but good boosts for or the 4 seater that you can fill with event crew and use a time booster for. Its essentially the same just perceived to be different.
I had no idea there was so much Vash hate. I always liked her episodes and the actress. Hopefully there will be a lack of interest and I can add her to crew.
I thought she was fun, though the Robin Hood episode was clunky, only topped in its clunkiness by the DS9 sequel to that ep.
Her original ep was very fun and I thought she delivered with it.
That being said, I don't expect to add her to my crew as I don't have a bot and I don't plan on switching crew between skirmish battles.
DS9 sequel to Robin Hood episode? The episode where a Sisko punches Q in the face? Errr sequel? Not really.
That’s a great episode for one reason. After it aired the writers admitted that Q was never going to work on DS9 so they never brought him back. They saved that tired trope for Janeway and VOY.
I really don't see what the fuss is about as far as forcing players wanting top rewards to go through their crew roster once in a while. I play on the cheapest smart phone ever made that takes fifteen seconds to load a battle and playing exclusively in Elite in the first and second Skirmishes I made it under 3k in rank and with Epic I made it under 500 in the last one (and I'm a F2P'er).
One of my best squad mates (also F2P) played exclusively in Normal difficulty and made it under 5k in rank in the last Event.
It's not crazy hard, you just actually have to work for it. Honestly, I fully approve. Faction events are totally polarized toward paying players, Galaxies are polarized toward experienced and well-developed players. Expeditions are polarized toward strategic players.
Finally, Skirmishes are polarized toward people willing to put in the elbow grease because... Other than chrons, that's all you need 😉
I really don't see what the fuss is about as far as forcing players wanting top rewards to go through their crew roster once in a while. I play on the cheapest smart phone ever made that takes fifteen seconds to load a battle and playing exclusively in Elite in the first and second Skirmishes I made it under 3k in rank and with Epic I made it under 500 in the last one (and I'm a F2P'er).
One of my best squad mates (also F2P) played exclusively in Normal difficulty and made it under 5k in rank in the last Event.
It's not crazy hard, you just actually have to work for it. Honestly, I fully approve. Faction events are totally polarized toward paying players, Galaxies are polarized toward experienced and well-developed players. Expeditions are polarized toward strategic players.
Finally, Skirmishes are polarized toward people willing to put in the elbow grease because... Other than chrons, that's all you need 😉
I'd say there are three benchmarks in these event types that should be considered separately. (ignoring expeditions for this since it doesn't seem like they are still being done often)
Clearing Thresholds and/or getting a ff purple
Probably easiest for a new player to clear thresholds and get a ff purple in a galaxy or hybrid (both should be doable for a dedicated ftp player in under a month). Skirmish you can probably clear thresholds relatively soon on a new account, but not get a ff purple since no community reward. For a faction even it will take several months for all but the heaviest of spenders to develop a deep enough crew to get a ff purple.
Top 1000
Again, its possible for a newer player to grind these out (by saving chrons/pre-farming for a Galaxy) or by time (for a skirmish) but there is an advantage in both for more developed players, but probably less of an advantage than factions which requires both a well developed team with plenty of bonus crew and making frequent turn arounds on shuttles for the whole event.
Top 1-25
This is where I think most of the annoyance with the recent change comes in.
For a faction these are basically a contest of who wants to use more boosts and for the top few places spend more on dil shuttle completes. Is the same now as it was a year ago before voyages.
For a Hybrid. It is reaching the point that enough people have accumulated enough chrons and resources through voyages that the biggest limiting factor is time in the second half. Once it become possible for people to have enough resources to constantly craft, then automation/sharing accounts becomes more of an issue. This wasn't an issue a year ago because many fewer people had enough resources before voyages for them to have enough resources.
For a Full Galaxy, we are getting to the same point as a hybrid but not as fast, since it takes twice as many resources to craft for 4 days than 2. Resources are still the limiting factor here, but eventually they may also turn into time limited.
Skirmishes. While there is an advantage to having a power crew here, literally anyone with a good ship battle crew and a $300-$500 worth of dil could remove any chron limitation since the 10 dil purchase each battle makes skirmishes basically chron positive. The sole limitation here is time, with the caveat that humans have an inherent advantage over any automated tools since humans are able to easily react to the element in rng in battles that can cause a crew normaly capable of a 6-7 second kill to need 10-12 for an occasional battle. The issue with crew selection here is that it basically does the equivalent of wiping out this human advantage over long periods of time if a person has to scroll through a few hundred crew members twice every skirmish. That may not be meaningful to people grinding to thresholds or top 1000, but in the top 25 ranks it definitely is.
Yeah last time I just stuck the threshold reward crew as soon as I got it and one other event crew in the roster and then filled the other 2 spots based on skill quality. Never changed crew after that and had no problems winning max bonus without taking much damage in any of the rounds. It didn't seem like a major issue to me.
I haven't even levelled up the threshold reward card yet. It's still on my roster as 3/4* with no items equipped. Once I had the 1/4* card and another event card I had finished long ago, all the traits were covered by one of those two cards or the other. The other cards I used based on skills were all that I needed to win every battle without needing to recharge the hull.
I hope they fix the bot problem soon but til then I am SO here for the Valdore and Commander Donatra finally getting the respect she deserves! I’d prefer she be 5* but then I’d have to fight bots to get her so I’ll deal.
I hope they do the Valdore justice, it’s a beautiful ship. Aside from the Ent-E and Nebula class it’s a favorite of mine
In all honesty, I think the Reliant was the last one that looked good. The renders on the Breen ship and the Dominion warship were pretty rough. I also hope they do the Valdore justice.
The Breen ship looks downright nasty. I thought there was something wrong with my phone when I first saw it.
So it's freeze and airlock all crew except the ones I am using, grind for three hours, and reenlist my crew. In the mean time hope that I don't lose my internet.
Event Name: A Valdore Too Far
Event Type: Skirmish Event
Event Crew: Maid Marian 5* (New), Commander Donatra 4* (New) and Kal-if-fee Spock 4* (existing)
Event Dates: Thursday 09/13 until Monday 09/17
Bonus crew:
• high bonus: event crew
• small bonus: variants of Vash, variants of Spock, and crew with the Romulan trait
The bonus will only apply if the appropriate crew trait is matched during each particular round of a Skirmish. (This will also be clarified in the event rules.)
Does this mean Commander Donatra will get the bonus in all rounds like in the first two skirmish events, or does she need to match a trait for that specific round?
Another option would be for the game to remember crew selection for each round, so we only need to strategize and select crew for each round once.
That wouldn't be bad, as I like the idea of picking round-specific crew in general. It just becomes tedious when you have to do so hundreds of time, especially with such a clunky interface.
Event Name: A Valdore Too Far
Event Type: Skirmish Event
Event Crew: Maid Marian 5* (New), Commander Donatra 4* (New) and Kal-if-fee Spock 4* (existing)
Event Dates: Thursday 09/13 until Monday 09/17
Bonus crew:
• high bonus: event crew
• small bonus: variants of Vash, variants of Spock, and crew with the Romulan trait
The bonus will only apply if the appropriate crew trait is matched during each particular round of a Skirmish. (This will also be clarified in the event rules.)
Does this mean Commander Donatra will get the bonus in all rounds like in the first two skirmish events, or does she need to match a trait for that specific round?
As far as they’ve been telling us, it was that she would always give a bonus but NOW she will only give a bonus if she has a matching trait for that battle. Yes, this sux.
Weirdly enough, I’m also Vulcan Housewife. Also, RNGesus hates me, like really, REALLY hates me.
DB's change to make us swap out crew EACH BATTLE is a slap in the face. Why do that to us?!!!
If they improved the interface to make it easier on the player, then sure ok, go for it. As it stands now the event is no longer just "grindy" but down right torturous.
Skirmishes were great! I was pleasantly surprised by how good of an event Skirmishes were from day 1. Leave it to DB to go and RUIN A GOOD THING.
Why??!!
You only need one bonus crew per battle to get the full bonus and there is a lot of cross-over. I do not recall this being terribly hard to manage and I do go for the bonus every round.
so in other words if this is implemented...... to max your VPs... you gotta put all 3 on your ship.... OR (shudder) change crew around each battle
With what you list you could use 2 slots for the event crew and just switch between Yelgrun and phlox as needed for one of those 2 slots. After 2 or 3 times through I suspect it would take little time to navigate to the needed crew to swap them. I just do not see this as more than a minor inconvenience.
Wundigore, "just switch" is NOT a quick adjustment. Perhaps you did not, but I typically save my entire week's of Chrons before a skirmish to maximize honor and crew levelling during the event, and these events typically took take 6-8 hours total of active, screen tapping time for me as-is (not including breaks, bathroom, etc). And I spend as much of that time on Steam as possible with a faster mouse and keyboard interface, so I can rapidly move from one battle to the next. Most of the time of this event is screen loading and animations. Add in 2 awful character selection screens per skirmish round, and that's probably going to add another hour at least of my life.
After phase 1, I have to rearrange crew to match the ship slots already, figuring out which existing crew fit. I don't need MORE time wasting having to juggle these selections constantly. Either save the crew selections per battle, or don't make this rule change until this is possible. I don't even care if they change the crew selection UI, just SAVE THE CREW SELECTIONS PER BATTLE.
Comments
But then you aren't talking about macros anymore. The fact that there is total randomness with the places where crew is, you can't simply pick the top row first crew. No, macro users (and smart players) will not even get into the horrible interface and just take the bonuses if they are there. I for one am not that opposed to the changes, I won't have to carry a event crew on the bridge and so I can now have an actual useful crew there instead. As far as time goes, it will probably not even be worth it to go into the crew selection even once because by the point you find your desired crew, I will probably complete 2 battles. This crew selection is punishing the people who have many crew being active.
Sorry ,it just doesn't add up. And that's the main reason why I've been going nuts on them. The rewards have been fantastic, and it's been very easy for someone with a solid ship crew and a maxed ship to spam the event (even without macros). I didn't expect it to last forever, and I was surprised we had so many events before a fix (sort of) even showed up.
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
I have received mostly 1500 credits and whatnot with event crew bonuses. I don't think that I will be hurt by this change that much...
Just having a shy peak after over 3 months leaving the game (not returning) and being very satisfied to see that Commander Donatra apparently is finally going to make it into the game. Also nice that there will be a freebie Valdore 2* ship just for the looks to fly around in the game.
Even though Jhamel and Eris still haven't made it, I'm happy that Donatra made it, even though I had hoped she'd be worth a legendary card and Maid Marian the epic card instead.
Cloaking again ...
In all honesty, I think the Reliant was the last one that looked good. The renders on the Breen ship and the Dominion warship were pretty rough. I also hope they do the Valdore justice.
Because apparently they hate their consumer base.
Is it random in skirmishes? For Arena at least, it seems like crew are consistently placed. I'll admit I'm not sure what criteria they are sorted by, but e.x. I know about where to scroll in the painful UI to find Krav Maga Sarek on my Borg SCI Slot.
That said, "Crew Selection is punishing the people who have many crew being active" seems pretty counterintuitive to DB's goals. I.E. They want us to use all those crew slots so we keep wanting more.
I somewhat look at Skirmishes as a compromise to the players who wanted 'shorter' events. It certainly doesn't help people who want to *compete* in a shorter event, but it is nice for those who want to be able to threshold and out quickly. I'll admit I've never timed how long it's taken for me to finish a Galaxy Event, but I still feel like Skirmish is far less resource intensive. The Cost for threshold in galaxy is about the same (2,000 chrons, give or take) but you're losing items and credits in the process.
If the Valdore is coming, is enterprise E next??? Please please please!
What you describe is also insanely repetitive. Your decision point as to whether to go for fast or VP is about as strategic as to go for the 3 seat shuttle that you don't have as much event crew on but good boosts for or the 4 seater that you can fill with event crew and use a time booster for. Its essentially the same just perceived to be different.
...but what if John Henry IS the macro??
DS9 sequel to Robin Hood episode? The episode where a Sisko punches Q in the face? Errr sequel? Not really.
That’s a great episode for one reason. After it aired the writers admitted that Q was never going to work on DS9 so they never brought him back. They saved that tired trope for Janeway and VOY.
One of my best squad mates (also F2P) played exclusively in Normal difficulty and made it under 5k in rank in the last Event.
It's not crazy hard, you just actually have to work for it. Honestly, I fully approve. Faction events are totally polarized toward paying players, Galaxies are polarized toward experienced and well-developed players. Expeditions are polarized toward strategic players.
Finally, Skirmishes are polarized toward people willing to put in the elbow grease because... Other than chrons, that's all you need 😉
I'd say there are three benchmarks in these event types that should be considered separately. (ignoring expeditions for this since it doesn't seem like they are still being done often)
Clearing Thresholds and/or getting a ff purple
Probably easiest for a new player to clear thresholds and get a ff purple in a galaxy or hybrid (both should be doable for a dedicated ftp player in under a month). Skirmish you can probably clear thresholds relatively soon on a new account, but not get a ff purple since no community reward. For a faction even it will take several months for all but the heaviest of spenders to develop a deep enough crew to get a ff purple.
Top 1000
Again, its possible for a newer player to grind these out (by saving chrons/pre-farming for a Galaxy) or by time (for a skirmish) but there is an advantage in both for more developed players, but probably less of an advantage than factions which requires both a well developed team with plenty of bonus crew and making frequent turn arounds on shuttles for the whole event.
Top 1-25
This is where I think most of the annoyance with the recent change comes in.
For a faction these are basically a contest of who wants to use more boosts and for the top few places spend more on dil shuttle completes. Is the same now as it was a year ago before voyages.
For a Hybrid. It is reaching the point that enough people have accumulated enough chrons and resources through voyages that the biggest limiting factor is time in the second half. Once it become possible for people to have enough resources to constantly craft, then automation/sharing accounts becomes more of an issue. This wasn't an issue a year ago because many fewer people had enough resources before voyages for them to have enough resources.
For a Full Galaxy, we are getting to the same point as a hybrid but not as fast, since it takes twice as many resources to craft for 4 days than 2. Resources are still the limiting factor here, but eventually they may also turn into time limited.
Skirmishes. While there is an advantage to having a power crew here, literally anyone with a good ship battle crew and a $300-$500 worth of dil could remove any chron limitation since the 10 dil purchase each battle makes skirmishes basically chron positive. The sole limitation here is time, with the caveat that humans have an inherent advantage over any automated tools since humans are able to easily react to the element in rng in battles that can cause a crew normaly capable of a 6-7 second kill to need 10-12 for an occasional battle. The issue with crew selection here is that it basically does the equivalent of wiping out this human advantage over long periods of time if a person has to scroll through a few hundred crew members twice every skirmish. That may not be meaningful to people grinding to thresholds or top 1000, but in the top 25 ranks it definitely is.
I haven't even levelled up the threshold reward card yet. It's still on my roster as 3/4* with no items equipped. Once I had the 1/4* card and another event card I had finished long ago, all the traits were covered by one of those two cards or the other. The other cards I used based on skills were all that I needed to win every battle without needing to recharge the hull.
I brought up all of your concerns and we are doing something about it.
I am working on the communication now, so please stand by - thanks!
The Breen ship looks downright nasty. I thought there was something wrong with my phone when I first saw it.
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
Does this mean Commander Donatra will get the bonus in all rounds like in the first two skirmish events, or does she need to match a trait for that specific round?
That wouldn't be bad, as I like the idea of picking round-specific crew in general. It just becomes tedious when you have to do so hundreds of time, especially with such a clunky interface.
That was my first idea too last time. Still some coding but much easier than the all crew UI rework with filters and sorting etc.
The best is stil let it go as it works now.
As far as they’ve been telling us, it was that she would always give a bonus but NOW she will only give a bonus if she has a matching trait for that battle. Yes, this sux.
Wundigore, "just switch" is NOT a quick adjustment. Perhaps you did not, but I typically save my entire week's of Chrons before a skirmish to maximize honor and crew levelling during the event, and these events typically took take 6-8 hours total of active, screen tapping time for me as-is (not including breaks, bathroom, etc). And I spend as much of that time on Steam as possible with a faster mouse and keyboard interface, so I can rapidly move from one battle to the next. Most of the time of this event is screen loading and animations. Add in 2 awful character selection screens per skirmish round, and that's probably going to add another hour at least of my life.
After phase 1, I have to rearrange crew to match the ship slots already, figuring out which existing crew fit. I don't need MORE time wasting having to juggle these selections constantly. Either save the crew selections per battle, or don't make this rule change until this is possible. I don't even care if they change the crew selection UI, just SAVE THE CREW SELECTIONS PER BATTLE.