If it’s not a macro like device, I guess I have no problem with it. I have no desire to use it myself. I’ve head from so many people who use it who hardly even open the game anymore. They just stare at the code and text of the app. Seems like defeating the point of having the game with all the graphics and sounds, but whatevs.
As long as we can still use the Codepen Voyage estimator tool, I’m good.
Merite are useful a little bit. Now that 725 can potentially get you one {or more} 5* Crew you did not have.
Just saying and no offense meant.
Fair enough, and point taken. I was being overly declarative
Specifically, at 0.54% drop rates:
30,933 merits (128 pulls, 42 packs) yields a 50% chance of at least one legendary
61,867 merits (256 pulls, 84 packs) yields a 75% chance of at least one legendary
102,950 merits (426 pulls, 142 packs) yields a 90% chance of at least one legendary
Using Paladin's 5000 merits/week strawman, that would be about 21 weeks of gauntlet-merit-only, IAP-accelerated play to have a 90% chance of the time savings being associated with something of significant value I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is far enough in the margins that while technically this might be an issue of fairness, practically it isn't. A once-every-5-months occurring advantage is pretty negligible.
Since SR's have some value, the situation is better there at 4.52% drop rates:
3,625 merits yields a 50% chance of at least one SR
7,250 merits yields a 75% chance of at least one SR
12,083 merits yields a 90% chance of at least one SR
So time savings from IAP-client gauntlet merit farming of 5000 merits per week (per the strawman) might be associated with ~1 SR every 2 weeks, worth 100-150 in equivalent honor per week or so (which could still be collected without IAP).
For merit rares to cash in for Honor, it's 1208 merits for a 90% chance. So about 400 honor per week from that. 2*'s have the same drop rate as rares, so add in another 200 honor per week. All told, farming merit packs @ 5000 merits per week for 2*/3*/4* honor should yield ~ 150 + 400 + 200 = 750 honor/week generated in a 1-2 minutes or so per gauntlet chunk via IAP (Paladin did not include login time), vs 4 minutes or so manually, per Paladin's estimate. Note of course that you don't generate more honor using IAP, you just spend less time doing it.
To extend the strawmen, some side-by-side comparisons:
Skirmish macro to win 5/5 gold: ~20++? fewer hours per skirmish to earn 271,000 honor value, harming 5 other players
250,000 honor for 5/5 reward
~21,000 honor cash-in for other Rank 1 rewards
Skirmish macro to win 1/5 gold: ~11 fewer hours per skirmish to earn 54,300 honor value, harming 1 other player
50,000 honor for 1/5 reward, rank 1000
~1,300 honor cash-in for other Rank 1000 rewards
~3,000 honor cash-in for all threshold rewards
(Assume (~800,000 VP / 6000 VP per mission * ~5 min per mission)
Skirmish macro to clear current thresholds (and then I guess nobly stop macro'ing???): ~5 fewer hours per skirmish to earn ~3,000 honor value, harming no other players:
2,200 honor for 2/2, 4/4 rewards
~800 honor cash-in for 10-pack premium cash-in
(Assume (~350,000 VP / 6000 VP per mission * ~5 min per mission)
IAP gauntlet time "acceleration" = ~1 fewer hour per week to earn the same ~3,130 honor/week value as manual play, harming no other players :
Merit pack 90% chance of legendary: 50,000 / 21 weeks = 2,380 honor per week value
Merit pack 2/3/4* honor = ~750 honor/week
We can even monetize this by assuming the current "market value" of a 1* new Legendary of $50 US ~ 50,000 honor, or ~1000 honor/$. (Or maybe $37.50 US ~ 50,000 honor if you include DYC).
Taking 20+ fewer hours to claim $203-271 in value is quite different than taking 1 fewer hours to claim $3 in value.
So Paladin is technically correct, the time-savings is not value-less. It is sort of comparable to the strawman he provided of macro'ing to clear thresholds, but that strawman assumes macro'ers will somehow miraculously revert to normal play after clearing thresholds when the next Captain Spock appears in the rank rewards, which I think is a dubious proposition...
I can only speak from experience, but the iampicard tool totally revived my enthusiasm for this game after a long, serious phase of burnout. It got me spending money on the game for the first time in months. It's the reason I started playing the gauntlet again, and it got me over the 10h mark on voyages (which I had struggled with). I wish its features were available in the Star Trek Timelines app.
I support iampicard.
I'd have quit months ago if not for that tool. Voyages and gauntlet are/have become perfunctory and tedious chores.
Unless I'm off base and DB's wrestling with the morality of this tool rather than the profit impact, +1 for the crew management tool putting my money in DB's pocket.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
Before you start writing your rant, maybe you should look up the facts. Every single device that can access the Internet had access to iampicard, not just the PC.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
This is just completely factually wrong. The IAP tool is available anywhere your timers are.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
This is just completely factually wrong. The IAP tool is available anywhere your timers are.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailable on my Casio.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
But it is available. There is a web version.
Is it available on phones?
Do you have internet access on your phone? do you have a built in web browser? If yes then it was and is available on phones.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
Before you start writing your rant, maybe you should look up the facts. Every single device that can access the Internet had access to iampicard, not just the PC.
It wasn’t a rant. It was a reply to someone else. I’ve never tried the app. But the consensus from the information i received was that Iampicard was unavailable on phones, and therefore people exclusively using phones were at a loss.
This is beside the point anyway. The app isn’t part of the game and is at the very least a means of saving a substantial amount of time. My opinion is to put these features into the game directly, rather than a third party app that can directly enhance some people’s performace.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
This is just completely factually wrong. The IAP tool is available anywhere your timers are.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailablenon my Casio.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
This is just completely factually wrong. The IAP tool is available anywhere your timers are.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailablenon my Casio.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailablenon my Casio.
If you only have your Casio watch, you can’t play the game so it doesn’t matter. If you’re in a place where you can play the game, you have access to the IAP tool.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailablenon my Casio.
If you only have your Casio watch, you can’t play the game so it doesn’t matter. If you’re in a place where you can play the game, you have access to the IAP tool.
I use an iPhone X to play. I just tried the app. It synchronized to an account which isn’t mine.
Using IamP - open a new tab, wait for few seconds, chose a dilemma
Using STT - opening the app - 40 seconds, pointless animation - 15 seconds.
It feels like a chore...
The animation speed can also be dependent on the speed of your internet or device. I have noticed that the animations on my PC (steam) are noticeably faster than on my tablet. But I am still not talking about 15 seconds for the dilemma to show up or 40 seconds to open the app.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailablenon my Casio.
If you only have your Casio watch, you can’t play the game so it doesn’t matter. If you’re in a place where you can play the game, you have access to the IAP tool.
I use an iPhone X to play. I just tried the app. It synchronized to an account which isn’t mine.
I tried today the first time this tool to see what is all the fuss about.
It takes the data from the account you input so i really don't see how it can take data from another one.
If you have more accounts it might be tricky to switch between them but not impossible.
I don't use the tool to choose my gauntlet crew. My strategy is better imho. I'm not going to say what my strategy is because it is my competitive advantage.
I chose my gauntlet crew manually too. The tool seldom chooses different crew, but sometimes puts them in a different order. I do better manually playing the gauntlet, more streaks, higher rank. But using IAP I have much less frustration when the gauntlet gives me the shaft, and less irritation with the game slogging through all the lousy animations.
People calling IAP or comparing IAP to a macro, by their own self declaration, have no clue what IAP does or what macros are doing in the game.
I disagree that any functionality should be removed. Most of the functionality is stuff that DB should have put in the game, and DB would have spent at least $100,000 on a salary for their own programmers to do this work, judging from what we see in the STT app.
Successful companies embrace their involved player community, and games with much higher profits have additional tools like IAP that ARE officially blessed by the company.
Asking IAP to remove his tool and cease development on it will speak loudly about DB. If I'm no longer able to access this tool, then I will be much less involved in the game, and won't be able to help carrying some long term resentment.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailablenon my Casio.
If you only have your Casio watch, you can’t play the game so it doesn’t matter. If you’re in a place where you can play the game, you have access to the IAP tool.
I use an iPhone X to play. I just tried the app. It synchronized to an account which isn’t mine.
I tried today the first time this tool to see what is all the fuss about.
It takes the data from the account you input so i really don't see how it can take data from another one.
If you have more accounts it might be tricky to switch between them but not impossible.
It’s probably because when I switched to a new phone and accessed the game it gave me a new DBID number, so I had to physically login to my old DBID to acces my profile. Perhaps for some reason, the app has synchronized to the DBID that I never used, rather than the one I use.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
But it is available. There is a web version.
Is it available on phones?
Yes, I use it on my cell phone all the time. Thank goodness, otherwise I couldn't make use of my coffee break time at work As far as I know, there are no barriers to using the tool other than personal preference.
Merite are useful a little bit. Now that 725 can potentially get you one {or more} 5* Crew you did not have.
Just saying and no offense meant.
Fair enough, and point taken. I was being overly declarative
Specifically, at 0.54% drop rates:
30,933 merits (128 pulls, 42 packs) yields a 50% chance of at least one legendary
61,867 merits (256 pulls, 84 packs) yields a 75% chance of at least one legendary
102,950 merits (426 pulls, 142 packs) yields a 90% chance of at least one legendary
Using Paladin's 5000 merits/week strawman, that would be about 21 weeks of gauntlet-merit-only, IAP-accelerated play to have a 90% chance of making a difference I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is far enough in the margins that while technically this might be an issue of fairness, practically it isn't. A once-every-5-months occurring advantage is pretty negligible.
Since SR's have some value, the situation is better there at 4.52% drop rates:
3,625 merits yields a 50% chance of at least one SR
7,250 merits yields a 75% chance of at least one SR
12,083 merits yields a 90% chance of at least one SR
So time savings from IAP-client gauntlet merit farming of 5000 merits per week (per the strawman) might generate ~1 SR every 2 weeks or be worth 100-150 in equivalent honor per week or so.
For merit rares to cash in for Honor, it's 1208 merits for a 90% chance. So about 400 honor per week from that. 2*'s have the same drop rate as rares, so add in another 200 honor per week. All told, farming merit packs @ 5000 merits per week for 2*/3*/4* honor should yield ~ 150 + 400 + 200 = 750 honor/week generated in a minute or so per gauntlet chunk via IAP, vs 4 minutes or so manually, per Paladin's estimate. Note of course that you don't generate more honor using IAP, you just spend less time doing it.
To extend the strawmen, some side-by-side comparisons:
Skirmish macro to win 5/5 gold: 5 months * 1 skirmish/month * 250,000 honor per skirmish (not counting other ranked rewards) / 21 weeks = 59,523 honor per week value, harming 3-5 other players, saving ?? 20+ ?? hours per skirmish
Skirmish macro to win 1/5 gold: 5 months * 1/month * 50,000 / 21 weeks = 11,904 honor per week value, harming 1 other player, saving ~11 hours per skirmish (~800,000 VP / 6000 VP per mission * ~5 min per mission)
IAP gauntlet time "acceleration" net honor value = ~3130 honor per week value with ~1 fewer hour spent per week (I do not believe Paladin included the time it takes to log in to IAP and then load the gauntlet module):
Merit pack 90% chance of legendary: 50,000 / 21 weeks = 2,380 honor per week value
Merit pack 2/3/4* honor = ~750 honor/week
3130 honor/week is not negligible, but it's a factor of 20 smaller than using macros to win a skirmish event, and harms no one. It also assumes that you spend every single merit earned on merit packs, rather than, say, buying shuttle missions during faction events to ensure the highest success rate missions...
So Paladin is technically correct, the time-savings is not value-less, but as a practical matter, far less valuable than macro'ing skirmishes while harming no one.
But you don't actually time save anything. Sure, you will finish the gauntlet rounds faster but they will recover equally fast as if you did them on any other platform. In fact the gauntlet recovery rate is always 4 hours and it starts counting down immediately as you enter the gauntlet screen, you don't have to even play any rounds. So you aren't saving any time in the end whatsoever. All your calculations are based on a false premise that it somehow enables you to do more actual gauntlet rounds.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailablenon my Casio.
If you only have your Casio watch, you can’t play the game so it doesn’t matter. If you’re in a place where you can play the game, you have access to the IAP tool.
I use an iPhone X to play. I just tried the app. It synchronized to an account which isn’t mine.
I tried today the first time this tool to see what is all the fuss about.
It takes the data from the account you input so i really don't see how it can take data from another one.
If you have more accounts it might be tricky to switch between them but not impossible.
It’s probably because when I switched to a new phone and accessed the game it gave me a new DBID number, so I had to physically login to my old DBID to acces my profile. Perhaps for some reason, the app has synchronized to the DBID that I never used, rather than the one I use.
I had a similar issue with my phone and steam some time ago.
Merite are useful a little bit. Now that 725 can potentially get you one {or more} 5* Crew you did not have.
Just saying and no offense meant.
Fair enough, and point taken. I was being overly declarative
Specifically, at 0.54% drop rates:
30,933 merits (128 pulls, 42 packs) yields a 50% chance of at least one legendary
61,867 merits (256 pulls, 84 packs) yields a 75% chance of at least one legendary
102,950 merits (426 pulls, 142 packs) yields a 90% chance of at least one legendary
Using Paladin's 5000 merits/week strawman, that would be about 21 weeks of gauntlet-merit-only, IAP-accelerated play to have a 90% chance of making a difference I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is far enough in the margins that while technically this might be an issue of fairness, practically it isn't. A once-every-5-months occurring advantage is pretty negligible.
Since SR's have some value, the situation is better there at 4.52% drop rates:
3,625 merits yields a 50% chance of at least one SR
7,250 merits yields a 75% chance of at least one SR
12,083 merits yields a 90% chance of at least one SR
So time savings from IAP-client gauntlet merit farming of 5000 merits per week (per the strawman) might generate ~1 SR every 2 weeks or be worth 100-150 in equivalent honor per week or so.
For merit rares to cash in for Honor, it's 1208 merits for a 90% chance. So about 400 honor per week from that. 2*'s have the same drop rate as rares, so add in another 200 honor per week. All told, farming merit packs @ 5000 merits per week for 2*/3*/4* honor should yield ~ 150 + 400 + 200 = 750 honor/week generated in a minute or so per gauntlet chunk via IAP, vs 4 minutes or so manually, per Paladin's estimate. Note of course that you don't generate more honor using IAP, you just spend less time doing it.
To extend the strawmen, some side-by-side comparisons:
Skirmish macro to win 5/5 gold: 5 months * 1 skirmish/month * 250,000 honor per skirmish (not counting other ranked rewards) / 21 weeks = 59,523 honor per week value, harming 3-5 other players, saving ?? 20+ ?? hours per skirmish
Skirmish macro to win 1/5 gold: 5 months * 1/month * 50,000 / 21 weeks = 11,904 honor per week value, harming 1 other player, saving ~11 hours per skirmish (~800,000 VP / 6000 VP per mission * ~5 min per mission)
IAP gauntlet time "acceleration" net honor value = ~3130 honor per week value with ~1 fewer hour spent per week (I do not believe Paladin included the time it takes to log in to IAP and then load the gauntlet module):
Merit pack 90% chance of legendary: 50,000 / 21 weeks = 2,380 honor per week value
Merit pack 2/3/4* honor = ~750 honor/week
3130 honor/week is not negligible, but it's a factor of 20 smaller than using macros to win a skirmish event, and harms no one. It also assumes that you spend every single merit earned on merit packs, rather than, say, buying shuttle missions during faction events to ensure the highest success rate missions...
So Paladin is technically correct, the time-savings is not value-less, but as a practical matter, far less valuable than macro'ing skirmishes while harming no one.
But you don't actually time save anything. Sure, you will finish the gauntlet rounds faster but they will recover equally fast as if you did them on any other platform. In fact the gauntlet recovery rate is always 4 hours and it starts counting down immediately as you enter the gauntlet screen, you don't have to even play any rounds. So you aren't saving any time in the end whatsoever. All your calculations are based on a false premise that it somehow enables you to do more actual gauntlet rounds.
I didn't actually say that, I was working from Paladin's premise that you can complete gauntlet rounds in 1 minute rather than 4 by using the tool. So properly phrased, it is "~1 fewer hour per week to earn the same 3130 honor". I'll edit the post - thanks for pointing out the ambiguity.
Update - edited the post, yes I had some poorly chosen verbs. I think it is now logically correct, thanks for the peer review!
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
But it is available. There is a web version.
Is it available on phones?
I use it on my phone or iPad. If you can play this game, you can use IPA.
“A committee is a cul-de-sac, down which good ideas are lured and quietly strangled.” —Mark TwainMEMBER: [BoB] Barrel of Bloodwine... We are recruiting and putting the “curv” in scurvy! Best Event Finish: #3 Honor Debt: Inconceivable...Honor Bank Account: Slowly building...
Merite are useful a little bit. Now that 725 can potentially get you one {or more} 5* Crew you did not have.
Just saying and no offense meant.
Fair enough, and point taken. I was being overly declarative
Specifically, at 0.54% drop rates:
30,933 merits (128 pulls, 42 packs) yields a 50% chance of at least one legendary
61,867 merits (256 pulls, 84 packs) yields a 75% chance of at least one legendary
102,950 merits (426 pulls, 142 packs) yields a 90% chance of at least one legendary
Using Paladin's 5000 merits/week strawman, that would be about 21 weeks of gauntlet-merit-only, IAP-accelerated play to have a 90% chance of making a difference I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is far enough in the margins that while technically this might be an issue of fairness, practically it isn't. A once-every-5-months occurring advantage is pretty negligible.
Since SR's have some value, the situation is better there at 4.52% drop rates:
3,625 merits yields a 50% chance of at least one SR
7,250 merits yields a 75% chance of at least one SR
12,083 merits yields a 90% chance of at least one SR
So time savings from IAP-client gauntlet merit farming of 5000 merits per week (per the strawman) might generate ~1 SR every 2 weeks or be worth 100-150 in equivalent honor per week or so.
For merit rares to cash in for Honor, it's 1208 merits for a 90% chance. So about 400 honor per week from that. 2*'s have the same drop rate as rares, so add in another 200 honor per week. All told, farming merit packs @ 5000 merits per week for 2*/3*/4* honor should yield ~ 150 + 400 + 200 = 750 honor/week generated in a minute or so per gauntlet chunk via IAP, vs 4 minutes or so manually, per Paladin's estimate. Note of course that you don't generate more honor using IAP, you just spend less time doing it.
To extend the strawmen, some side-by-side comparisons:
Skirmish macro to win 5/5 gold: 5 months * 1 skirmish/month * 250,000 honor per skirmish (not counting other ranked rewards) / 21 weeks = 59,523 honor per week value, harming 3-5 other players, saving ?? 20+ ?? hours per skirmish
Skirmish macro to win 1/5 gold: 5 months * 1/month * 50,000 / 21 weeks = 11,904 honor per week value, harming 1 other player, saving ~11 hours per skirmish (~800,000 VP / 6000 VP per mission * ~5 min per mission)
IAP gauntlet time "acceleration" net honor value = ~3130 honor per week value with ~1 fewer hour spent per week (I do not believe Paladin included the time it takes to log in to IAP and then load the gauntlet module):
Merit pack 90% chance of legendary: 50,000 / 21 weeks = 2,380 honor per week value
Merit pack 2/3/4* honor = ~750 honor/week
3130 honor/week is not negligible, but it's a factor of 20 smaller than using macros to win a skirmish event, and harms no one. It also assumes that you spend every single merit earned on merit packs, rather than, say, buying shuttle missions during faction events to ensure the highest success rate missions...
So Paladin is technically correct, the time-savings is not value-less, but as a practical matter, far less valuable than macro'ing skirmishes while harming no one.
But you don't actually time save anything. Sure, you will finish the gauntlet rounds faster but they will recover equally fast as if you did them on any other platform. In fact the gauntlet recovery rate is always 4 hours and it starts counting down immediately as you enter the gauntlet screen, you don't have to even play any rounds. So you aren't saving any time in the end whatsoever. All your calculations are based on a false premise that it somehow enables you to do more actual gauntlet rounds.
^^^^^^^
This all day long.
No one is getting voyages done quicker either. I still miss recalling many and (since I'm forced to use a token rather than Dil) abandon them.
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
But it is available. There is a web version.
Is it available on phones?
I use it on my phone or iPad. If you can play this game, you can use IPA.
Yes, i just tried to check it out but it synchronizes to an obsolete account from when i switched phones. I’ve asked DB to delete that account so I can take a look. I probably won’t use it anyway because I never have... but who knows?!
>put these features into the game directly
and compensate IAP dearly for the code and insights on UI usefulness (or even put him on payroll as a consulting architect)
and my 2c about this dilema:
i usually start a new game with 2 accounts,one f2p, the other a light casher, to see if its worth the money. if its not, i play the former and drop the later or viceversa. and sometimes, but rarely , like here with stt, i find interesting people to play it with, and have great chats about trek,life etc. Aas this was also a case with f2p, i invested some and still do in it.
but then the time bill hit in. so not to cut in chats to severly, but needed, and still get all the daylies , or most of them (blessed be the cadet blitzes) , beside researching what i need and where to get that, IAP was and is the dearest timecutter i 've met so far. if they ban iap, it would hurt me severely, but hey,thats the life, you cant have everything (where would you put it ,anyways).
i'm faaar from 1k ranks, kinda 100th and some in gauntlets on good days.
i would hate to see iap app gone, as that would mean i would be forced to drop 1 acc (i know, selfishness) and cut severly into the other. with all that, investing in packs and dycs and such would be non-productive.
As far as DB adding this functionality to the game itself, we have been told many times that the "Spaghetti" code makes it difficult to add features to the game. My opinion is that if they do deem this against TOS then throw some cash at IAmPicard for all his hard work. Then remove the source code and make it an official companion app. Or pay him for updating if they don't have someone in house that can. I think we can all agree that he has done an amazing job with it as a fan of the game. If they want to remove the ability to play gauntlet rounds or send voyages, fine. All the other features are a great help in managing crew and making decisions so it would be a huge loss.
Comments
As long as we can still use the Codepen Voyage estimator tool, I’m good.
Fair enough, and point taken. I was being overly declarative
Specifically, at 0.54% drop rates:
30,933 merits (128 pulls, 42 packs) yields a 50% chance of at least one legendary
61,867 merits (256 pulls, 84 packs) yields a 75% chance of at least one legendary
102,950 merits (426 pulls, 142 packs) yields a 90% chance of at least one legendary
Using Paladin's 5000 merits/week strawman, that would be about 21 weeks of gauntlet-merit-only, IAP-accelerated play to have a 90% chance of the time savings being associated with something of significant value
Since SR's have some value, the situation is better there at 4.52% drop rates:
3,625 merits yields a 50% chance of at least one SR
7,250 merits yields a 75% chance of at least one SR
12,083 merits yields a 90% chance of at least one SR
So time savings from IAP-client gauntlet merit farming of 5000 merits per week (per the strawman) might be associated with ~1 SR every 2 weeks, worth 100-150 in equivalent honor per week or so (which could still be collected without IAP).
For merit rares to cash in for Honor, it's 1208 merits for a 90% chance. So about 400 honor per week from that. 2*'s have the same drop rate as rares, so add in another 200 honor per week. All told, farming merit packs @ 5000 merits per week for 2*/3*/4* honor should yield ~ 150 + 400 + 200 = 750 honor/week generated in a 1-2 minutes or so per gauntlet chunk via IAP (Paladin did not include login time), vs 4 minutes or so manually, per Paladin's estimate. Note of course that you don't generate more honor using IAP, you just spend less time doing it.
To extend the strawmen, some side-by-side comparisons:
Skirmish macro to win 5/5 gold: ~20++? fewer hours per skirmish to earn 271,000 honor value, harming 5 other players
Skirmish macro to win 1/5 gold: ~11 fewer hours per skirmish to earn 54,300 honor value, harming 1 other player
Skirmish macro to clear current thresholds (and then I guess nobly stop macro'ing???): ~5 fewer hours per skirmish to earn ~3,000 honor value, harming no other players:
IAP gauntlet time "acceleration" = ~1 fewer hour per week to earn the same ~3,130 honor/week value as manual play, harming no other players :
We can even monetize this by assuming the current "market value" of a 1* new Legendary of $50 US ~ 50,000 honor, or ~1000 honor/$. (Or maybe $37.50 US ~ 50,000 honor if you include DYC).
Taking 20+ fewer hours to claim $203-271 in value is quite different than taking 1 fewer hours to claim $3 in value.
So Paladin is technically correct, the time-savings is not value-less. It is sort of comparable to the strawman he provided of macro'ing to clear thresholds, but that strawman assumes macro'ers will somehow miraculously revert to normal play after clearing thresholds when the next Captain Spock appears in the rank rewards, which I think is a dubious proposition...
I'd have quit months ago if not for that tool. Voyages and gauntlet are/have become perfunctory and tedious chores.
Unless I'm off base and DB's wrestling with the morality of this tool rather than the profit impact, +1 for the crew management tool putting my money in DB's pocket.
The wiki is accessible on all devices, be it phones, tablets or computers. Iampicard isn’t. Timers are available to anyone on any device, Iampicard ain’t. Iampicard can automatically choose optimum crew for your voyages and gauntlet, and apparently the time it takes to do so is a fraction of somebody doing it manually, like me. Consider those time savings over the course of a day, month, year.... it creates a definite and uneven advantage to those using the app. I get top 1000 every time, win gauntlet 9 times out of 10 and my voyages are always over 8 hours...
But: In my opinion, and it’s only an opinion: I’d ban it immediately, incorporate some of the best parts of it into the game and let everybody have the same access to these features. It’s only fair.
But it is available. There is a web version.
Is it available on phones?
Before you start writing your rant, maybe you should look up the facts. Every single device that can access the Internet had access to iampicard, not just the PC.
This is just completely factually wrong. The IAP tool is available anywhere your timers are.
I use my watch as a timer. And I can assure you that Iampicard is unavailable on my Casio.
Do you have internet access on your phone? do you have a built in web browser? If yes then it was and is available on phones.
It wasn’t a rant. It was a reply to someone else. I’ve never tried the app. But the consensus from the information i received was that Iampicard was unavailable on phones, and therefore people exclusively using phones were at a loss.
This is beside the point anyway. The app isn’t part of the game and is at the very least a means of saving a substantial amount of time. My opinion is to put these features into the game directly, rather than a third party app that can directly enhance some people’s performace.
And is the game itself available on your watch?
Take a wild guess
I use an iPhone X to play. I just tried the app. It synchronized to an account which isn’t mine.
Using IamP - open a new tab, wait for few seconds, chose a dilemma
Using STT - opening the app - 40 seconds, pointless animation - 15 seconds.
It feels like a chore...
The animation speed can also be dependent on the speed of your internet or device. I have noticed that the animations on my PC (steam) are noticeably faster than on my tablet. But I am still not talking about 15 seconds for the dilemma to show up or 40 seconds to open the app.
I tried today the first time this tool to see what is all the fuss about.
It takes the data from the account you input so i really don't see how it can take data from another one.
If you have more accounts it might be tricky to switch between them but not impossible.
I chose my gauntlet crew manually too. The tool seldom chooses different crew, but sometimes puts them in a different order. I do better manually playing the gauntlet, more streaks, higher rank. But using IAP I have much less frustration when the gauntlet gives me the shaft, and less irritation with the game slogging through all the lousy animations.
People calling IAP or comparing IAP to a macro, by their own self declaration, have no clue what IAP does or what macros are doing in the game.
I disagree that any functionality should be removed. Most of the functionality is stuff that DB should have put in the game, and DB would have spent at least $100,000 on a salary for their own programmers to do this work, judging from what we see in the STT app.
Successful companies embrace their involved player community, and games with much higher profits have additional tools like IAP that ARE officially blessed by the company.
Asking IAP to remove his tool and cease development on it will speak loudly about DB. If I'm no longer able to access this tool, then I will be much less involved in the game, and won't be able to help carrying some long term resentment.
It’s probably because when I switched to a new phone and accessed the game it gave me a new DBID number, so I had to physically login to my old DBID to acces my profile. Perhaps for some reason, the app has synchronized to the DBID that I never used, rather than the one I use.
Yes, I use it on my cell phone all the time. Thank goodness, otherwise I couldn't make use of my coffee break time at work
But you don't actually time save anything. Sure, you will finish the gauntlet rounds faster but they will recover equally fast as if you did them on any other platform. In fact the gauntlet recovery rate is always 4 hours and it starts counting down immediately as you enter the gauntlet screen, you don't have to even play any rounds. So you aren't saving any time in the end whatsoever. All your calculations are based on a false premise that it somehow enables you to do more actual gauntlet rounds.
I had a similar issue with my phone and steam some time ago.
I didn't actually say that, I was working from Paladin's premise that you can complete gauntlet rounds in 1 minute rather than 4 by using the tool. So properly phrased, it is "~1 fewer hour per week to earn the same 3130 honor". I'll edit the post - thanks for pointing out the ambiguity.
Update - edited the post, yes I had some poorly chosen verbs. I think it is now logically correct, thanks for the peer review!
I use it on my phone or iPad. If you can play this game, you can use IPA.
^^^^^^^
This all day long.
No one is getting voyages done quicker either. I still miss recalling many and (since I'm forced to use a token rather than Dil) abandon them.
Yes, i just tried to check it out but it synchronizes to an obsolete account from when i switched phones. I’ve asked DB to delete that account so I can take a look. I probably won’t use it anyway because I never have... but who knows?!
and compensate IAP dearly for the code and insights on UI usefulness (or even put him on payroll as a consulting architect)
and my 2c about this dilema:
i usually start a new game with 2 accounts,one f2p, the other a light casher, to see if its worth the money. if its not, i play the former and drop the later or viceversa. and sometimes, but rarely , like here with stt, i find interesting people to play it with, and have great chats about trek,life etc. Aas this was also a case with f2p, i invested some and still do in it.
but then the time bill hit in. so not to cut in chats to severly, but needed, and still get all the daylies , or most of them (blessed be the cadet blitzes) , beside researching what i need and where to get that, IAP was and is the dearest timecutter i 've met so far. if they ban iap, it would hurt me severely, but hey,thats the life, you cant have everything (where would you put it ,anyways).
i'm faaar from 1k ranks, kinda 100th and some in gauntlets on good days.
i would hate to see iap app gone, as that would mean i would be forced to drop 1 acc (i know, selfishness) and cut severly into the other. with all that, investing in packs and dycs and such would be non-productive.