Skirmishes are worse then Expedition , GZ DB !
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[SSR]Trollhammeren
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in The Bridge
So we all know that people were complaining about Expedition events being boring , I myself among them. But honestly Skirmishes are much much much worse. In order to do well (talking top 1000 here) you have to play 4 days ,most of those days, just to be able to spend the crono & intel you get. Never mind that two of said days are work days.
I am not surprised people resulted to automating this mind numbingly boring task, i mean it's only a game it's not like it's supposed to be fun right ? I know the pay out of a skirmish event is massive for people who pre farm for galaxy and so on.
But in all honesty this should have never been the case. The balance of it all is skewed to say the least. I know the game it's self is not the most balanced in most of it's cases, but this one in all honesty takes the cake.
Skirmishes managed to the following:
-Make people use outside help to play in form of macros, this in turn resulted in:
- People whining about it. (Not saying it's not well founded)
- Split the community more then the expedition issue ever could.
- Made DB invest into methods of monitoring boting, hours that could have been used to improve the
game content and bug(s) wise.
- Will most likely result in a ban wave that will contain many if not mostly paying players (i'm not sure
DB can afford to lose more revenue)
Fix the damned skirmishes before its to late, instead of trying the stick bring out the carrot. Make people not wanting to bother boting. Try to make skirmished more interesting and less repetitive. One easy way would be to increase the cost of each run, and the rewards of said run. And as always : PLAY YOUR OWN DAMNED GAME!
I am not surprised people resulted to automating this mind numbingly boring task, i mean it's only a game it's not like it's supposed to be fun right ? I know the pay out of a skirmish event is massive for people who pre farm for galaxy and so on.
But in all honesty this should have never been the case. The balance of it all is skewed to say the least. I know the game it's self is not the most balanced in most of it's cases, but this one in all honesty takes the cake.
Skirmishes managed to the following:
-Make people use outside help to play in form of macros, this in turn resulted in:
- People whining about it. (Not saying it's not well founded)
- Split the community more then the expedition issue ever could.
- Made DB invest into methods of monitoring boting, hours that could have been used to improve the
game content and bug(s) wise.
- Will most likely result in a ban wave that will contain many if not mostly paying players (i'm not sure
DB can afford to lose more revenue)
Fix the damned skirmishes before its to late, instead of trying the stick bring out the carrot. Make people not wanting to bother boting. Try to make skirmished more interesting and less repetitive. One easy way would be to increase the cost of each run, and the rewards of said run. And as always : PLAY YOUR OWN DAMNED GAME!
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Comments
I can mostly tap through Galaxy events while watching TV (unless it's an episode of something that is expertly-written with layers of subtext, nuanced acting performances and a great story), so I don't really lose any time to them. I can enjoy a few Trek re-runs over a couple of hours and hit the top 1000.
By setting up my crew correctly in the last Skirmish, I found I was able to battle consistently well while also reading a novel, let alone watching TV! It barely impinges on my time at all. I have a relaxing weekend of a TV marathon, occasional hand/eye breaks for a half-hour guitar session, and can continue while reading a book if my partner wants to watch her Korean ghost dramas in the evening! I've even gone hiking while blowing through ships in an inexplicably-orderly fashion.
I frequently see complaints about how sitting down and taking part in a Skirmish is boring. My advice is: don't. Don't let the Skirmish be your focus. Let it be a background activity to something more fun.
The grind that encourages macro use can be handled in a couple different ways. I'm hopeful they find an elegant solution to it.
I don't mind either expedition or skirmishes once you have your squads for expedition pegged it's much the same really with little thought/attention required.
Galaxies and Skirmishes are mind numbingly tedious.
Is it possible for DB to come up with an event that requires strategy and isn't a repetitive tapfest of boredom?
Ha! Silly question, I know.
Skirmishes Pros
Easy to play
Rewards participation with honour, Chrons etc
Can use intel at times to suit you
Can use chronos to level crew
Can send shuttles and voyages without needing to keep back event crew
Cons
Time consuming
repetitive
boring
hard to be competitive if you have life commitments, like spending time with the family, loved ones, eating etc.
So no. Long live skirmishes, expedition and galaxy events!
I haven't woken up for shuttles at night since i think forever ... factions are easy
So in the same spirit you don't have to sit at your desk all Sunday, play the game as much as you can tolerate and take breaks.
I think that's why DB doesn't like it. They prefer mindless events that lend themselves toward automation and throwing money at chrons, why wouldn't they? $$$.
I love expeditions. I want more of them. Full events, not just part of a hybrid. Make more event types like the expedition. You could even make the skirmish more like the expedition. Make the battles increase in challenge. Run as many ship battles as possible on a timed ticket system, like the expedition, but your ships don't recover during that ticket time, neither do your crew. If your ship explodes, then you don't get to use that crew for the rest of the timed ticket. Do something, anything, to make it require more thought and time. Let the bonuses stack, for Q's sake. Give us something worthwhile.
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So long and thanks for all the fish.
I think the real complaints are from those shooting for sub-100, and definitely those shooting for sub-15. I've not made a serious play at skirmishes, but in the last Galaxy event I burned up around 12k of my 22k chroniton stock in about 8 hours total. The rest of the event was little more than regular play. I ranked in the 30s. Too mind numbing for me to put that kind of effort into an event again.
1. Voyage.
2. Have fun. If something isn't fun, don't do it.
3. Only pursue characters I care about.
4. Contribute to the fleet.
5. No more spending beyond monthly cards.
6. Have fun.
7. Voyage.
8. Have fun!
A lot of people seem to think this is a nice easy fix, this also penalises those that play the game as intended (if not more so than those who use bots) I think the graphs that have been provided by the community in previous events have shown the use of bots are from a select few - if these can be identified and dealt with, there would be no need to change the intel cost. Once accounts start getting banned then I should think the problem will abate itself.
Couldn't agree more but if you are pegging for that high a spot then the cost is tap tap tap repetition for the majority of the weekend for every type of event would be like that. Faction may be the only difference there but you are still boosting then ending early the mission for a large proportion of the time specially for the top few spots.
It's that I reserve myself to sub 1k the rewards between there and lower are so small until you get to the double figures - it really isn't worth my while.
It doesn't penalise anyone. Indeed the rewards could be pro rated.
I will not say the original post is wrong. We all approach things from different angles. Personally, I agree with the sentiment above.
I play skirmish for the rewards.
Indeed, unfortunately.
Ditto. If there weren't random honor drops I probably would walk away after thresholds (or in this week's case, after getting the mega).
1. Voyage.
2. Have fun. If something isn't fun, don't do it.
3. Only pursue characters I care about.
4. Contribute to the fleet.
5. No more spending beyond monthly cards.
6. Have fun.
7. Voyage.
8. Have fun!
I enjoy Expeditions, too. It's nice to have to put some thought into them. Having more regular Expeditions would make me happy - not every month, but 4-6 a year, perhaps. They make a lovely change.
For Skirmishes, I'm not sure about more timed tickets. Keep those in Expeditions, IMO. But I agree that Skirmishes could be improved. Before their release, I was imagining some sort of strategic overmap, where you fight your way through your own path, with correlating risks/rewards. It didn't have to be terribly complex. Just something a bit like the navigation in F.T.L., perhaps, or fighting to build up a "fleet" as you go from battle to battle, maybe a bit like Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (which itself owed a lot to Risk).
Not just battle-prize-battle-prize-battle-prize-battle-prize-battle-NOPRIZE!
It would then boil down to who has the most amount of chrons as well as who can sustain the longest
/ ending battles quicker.
By keeping the intel price lower you are ensuring those with less chrons still have a chance of ranking top spots because it would then be down to who can sustain longest and who can finish their ship battles quicker. No other factor.
I agree, too time consuming and repetitive for me to even considering ranking. That being said, once done with Thresholds, I've got a whole lot of credit, honor, and chrons.
My biggest issue is my partner who gets the **tsk tsk** if I don't put my phone down while she's around, which she is, lots.
If I was on my own I'd be in the top 100 easy.
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I came in here to say this, but then I saw that you said it first, so I'll just quote to give your words extra weight. I absolutely love skirmishes, the are my favorite event by far for all the reasons you said: they keep your shuttles free, they don't mess up voyages, they are relaxing, the cool little reward bonuses, it is all great!
Galaxies - You spend chrotons in order to rank in the top 1000, you lose a large amount of chrotons, you just need to spend 1-3 hours
Skirmishes - You have to spend a large portion of your weekend and chrotons in order to even dream of ranking in the top 1000, you get rewards for spending resources, takes over most of your weekend
For me factions are still my favorite event type. They don't take much time and are easy to play. I used to hate galaxies. But then skirmishes came out. At this point I am starting to like galaxies. You can at-least know what amount of time and chrotons you need to spend. The only good part of skirmishes that I can see is that you get bonus rewards. They take huge amounts of time to play compared to the other two that it is almost ridiculous. You shouldn't be expected to spend that much time playing. It makes the game even more dull.
You like skirmishes? I like skirmishes too! (Said in James Earl Jones voice to Sheldon Cooper.)
You hate skirmishes? Grind it out for Minuet and take the next 3.75 days off. Happy weekend!
use Chrons to do "ship missions"(as opposed to away missions).. they will return intel so you can continue the skirmish
The pros of skirmishes outweigh the cons for me. I have a very busy schedule and the fact that I can use intel for when I want/can use it, is great. The fact that intel builds up even when I'm not playing is wonderful, it means when I do get to play, I can start catching back up with the competition.
Skirmish events in my opinion, aside from not getting all 4 stars of the threshold crew, are infinitely better than the tedium and resource waste that are galaxy events. Sure, they are repetitive, but literally every event in this game is repetitive to a degree, some just more than others. Boring, sure a bit, but so is every other event type. I find skirmishes a welcome event type back from when all we used to get were Faction, Galaxy, or Faction/Galaxy Hybrid.
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Amenities include wifi, fully-functioning holodecks, a full-service bar, 3 party decks, a Trill spa, and a business centre.
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I have to echo that this is another thing I enjoy about skirmishes. Unless I'm going for the top 1000...
---In Galaxy events, I quit after threshold and don't touch the event anymore, because it's a complete waste of time, components, and chronitons.
---In Faction events, I usually keep going in the event, but not for any desire to do so. I continue simply because it's easy to just keep sending shuttles and usually at least one of the event's factions is one I need faction-only items from (e.g. Augments, Section 31, Federation, Maquis). Plus, I need to send shuttles for daily missions anyway, so why not?
---In Skirmish events, I purposely keep going in the event after thresholds, because the rewards are so good. I don't see a reason to leave the event in entirety even after the thresholds due to the excellent rewards of chrons, honour, or credits, and it is no waste on my resources. I don't farm intel either, I just let it refill over time.
Captain of the voyage vessels: Queen of Bashir, Landsknecht, and Sunspear, the first luxury starship cruiseliners.
Amenities include wifi, fully-functioning holodecks, a full-service bar, 3 party decks, a Trill spa, and a business centre.
Fun fact: The ships are propelled by bouncy castle technology.
Use a supply kit first and save big time. Supply kit, then run a bunch of ship missions for whatever you need or want to farm. I usually build up about 30000 intel and then use it over the weekend.