Picture the scene:
5 mins left in gauntlet. Positions 1 and 2 are holding back to compete late and make a final push for first. Who would have the advantage of completing more battles in a shorter space of time, and therefore winning?
Someone playing on the actual game? Or someone using Iampicard? If the answer is Iampicard, how can that be fair to people using the ACTUAL GAME? If there is no benefit in this instance, then I’d say use the app, it doesn’t matter at all. Voyage guidance won’t affect P2P directly. But if someone can be at a disadvantage using the gauntlet’s most common method for winning, then it’s definitely unfair.
Nobody would have an advantage because in Gauntlet's final pushes you only have 5-7 chances for a battle and I am Picard doesn't guarantee a win.
Someone using IamPicard in a final push could just knock out his entire Gauntlet platoon with 0 wins.
Many people use dilithium at this point to refresh their crew. It’s a simple question, and I genuinely don’t know the answer because I haven’t used the app due to a bug with my ID I’m looking into.
So which method would be faster in those dying minutes and seconds? The actual game, or Iampicard?
To answer your question as much as I’m able, IAP might get you a second or two of time saved, if only by bypassing animations. It still comes down MUCH more to the quality of crew, RNG luck, and willingness to spend merits/dil than any trivial time savings.
I just installed the application again, for the first time in a long time. I like the fact you can now login with facebook, so my biggest concern is gone that the developer gets desperate one day for cash and steals peoples password etc. And before you say that will never happen, it HAS happened in the past with legitimate software. Anytime you give a 3rd party your password to a web-based program, you run that risk.
So now, i'm just going to wait and see if the automation in it is declared to be illegal and they ban the app. And it is automation, its not macro'ing but you can do things in this 3rd party program without logging into the game and doing it...thats automation.
I think that though, it is more likely that DB would ask the coders to remove any feature that allows you to play the game from within it, rather than ban it outright.
I don't use the app so I have a question regarding DB approval. Has DB officially recognized it in the past or have a small number of CS agents recognized it and given it approval? If it's just CS agents, I wouldn't use this as acceptance by DB because the opinion of a CS agent is not official policy.
DB has full right to evaluate the IAP software, especially if it accesses it's own software and it is used to bypass actual game play. I would think this would be against its terms of service if IAP bypassed the official STT software for Guantlet, voyages and anything else. Some players make not like this, but the game is what it is. If all the IAP users requested certain game changes in proper forum pages and CS tickets etc., I am sure DB would listen and improve as much as they could, as the number of voices would be significant. However, this doesn't change what the IAP software does, whether on a small or large scale, it bypasses the game play of the STT software in some instances.
Picture the scene:
5 mins left in gauntlet. Positions 1 and 2 are holding back to compete late and make a final push for first. Who would have the advantage of completing more battles in a shorter space of time, and therefore winning?
Someone playing on the actual game? Or someone using Iampicard? If the answer is Iampicard, how can that be fair to people using the ACTUAL GAME? If there is no benefit in this instance, then I’d say use the app, it doesn’t matter at all. Voyage guidance won’t affect P2P directly. But if someone can be at a disadvantage using the gauntlet’s most common method for winning, then it’s definitely unfair.
Nobody would have an advantage because in Gauntlet's final pushes you only have 5-7 chances for a battle and I am Picard doesn't guarantee a win.
Someone using IamPicard in a final push could just knock out his entire Gauntlet platoon with 0 wins.
Many people use dilithium at this point to refresh their crew. It’s a simple question, and I genuinely don’t know the answer because I haven’t used the app due to a bug with my ID I’m looking into.
So which method would be faster in those dying minutes and seconds? The actual game, or Iampicard?
I think you are right, IAP users would have a slight statistical edge in that scenario. I wouldn't really know as I (and I think many of the IAP gauntlet users) are using it to grind rather than to achieve #1/2. At the end of the day, the Legendary drop rate is so infinitesimally small that the number of final boxes pulled hardly makes a difference. You'll either get him/her/it over your 6 months, or you won't, and optimizing the last 2 minutes to squeeze out the other meager rewards from a #1/2 position just isn't worth the effort. So after the first time you claim your Gauntlet #1 achievement (which as noted above will probably involve a dilithium refresh, a different and wholly sanctioned kind of "unfair"), it really doesn't matter.
New to this whole thing. Is this an app you can use on phones or what?
Web browser or Windows desktop. Also open source in node.js so you could compile for any *nix too. https://github.com/IAmPicard/StarTrekTimelinesSpreadsheet for the download and iampicard.com for the webpage. He's generously hosting this for free and only requests donations.
I think you are right, IAP users would have a slight statistical edge in that scenario. I wouldn't really know as I (and I think many of the IAP gauntlet users) are using it to grind rather than to achieve #1/2. At the end of the day, the Legendary drop rate is so infinitesimally small that the number of final boxes pulled hardly makes a difference. You'll either get him/her/it over your 6 months, or you won't, and optimizing the last 2 minutes to squeeze out the other meager rewards from a #1/2 position just isn't worth the effort. So after the first time you claim your Gauntlet #1 achievement (which as noted above will probably involve a dilithium refresh, a different and wholly sanctioned kind of "unfair"), it really doesn't matter.
Perhaps there's a small advantage in this instance, but it's nearly infinitesimal. You still get the same match-ups, for the same points, with the same chances for success. And if you're going tit-for-tat for #1, you're only getting 10 points a victory. And your crew still exhausts the same way. And you still have to pay for refreshes.
In some ways you're disadvantaged because you lose the visual queues you get in the app. You don't see the loot you win, just get a readout that you have to look for. The sort is off so you can't swipe right or left to get the most/fewest points and evaluate to hit that or the next or next option. And the crew layout makes it harder to read exhaustion levels and plan for future matches. If you actually try to do all of these things in IAP, it would take longer per match than in the STT client.
Either way, all you're given is a calculated chance for each match, something many discord bots do, as do many spreadsheets, and you still have to make a choice and initiate the action.
Same to voyages, there are spreadsheets and bots that calculate your best crew for a voyage. This just reads your crew, you still decide if you take them and have to initiate the voyage.
And if you want an estimation of time remaining, once you start to fail all your skill checks, just divide remaining AM by 22.
New to this whole thing. Is this an app you can use on phones or what?
Web browser or Windows desktop. Also open source in node.js so you could compile for any *nix too. https://github.com/IAmPicard/StarTrekTimelinesSpreadsheet for the download and iampicard.com for the webpage. He's generously hosting this for free and only requests donations.
I think you are right, IAP users would have a slight statistical edge in that scenario. I wouldn't really know as I (and I think many of the IAP gauntlet users) are using it to grind rather than to achieve #1/2. At the end of the day, the Legendary drop rate is so infinitesimally small that the number of final boxes pulled hardly makes a difference. You'll either get him/her/it over your 6 months, or you won't, and optimizing the last 2 minutes to squeeze out the other meager rewards from a #1/2 position just isn't worth the effort. So after the first time you claim your Gauntlet #1 achievement (which as noted above will probably involve a dilithium refresh, a different and wholly sanctioned kind of "unfair"), it really doesn't matter.
Perhaps there's a small advantage in this instance, but it's nearly infinitesimal. You still get the same match-ups, for the same points, with the same chances for success. And if you're going tit-for-tat for #1, you're only getting 10 points a victory. And your crew still exhausts the same way. And you still have to pay for refreshes.
In some ways you're disadvantaged because you lose the visual queues you get in the app. You don't see the loot you win, just get a readout that you have to look for. The sort is off so you can't swipe right or left to get the most/fewest points and evaluate to hit that or the next or next option. And the crew layout makes it harder to read exhaustion levels and plan for future matches. If you actually try to do all of these things in IAP, it would take longer per match than in the STT client.
Either way, all you're given is a calculated chance for each match, something many discord bots do, as do many spreadsheets, and you still have to make a choice and initiate the action.
Same to voyages, there are spreadsheets and bots that calculate your best crew for a voyage. This just reads your crew, you still decide if you take them and have to initiate the voyage.
And if you want an estimation of time remaining, once you start to fail all your skill checks, just divide remaining AM by 22.
So I’ll change my stance somewhat. If there isn’t a definite speed advantage for those final gauntlet moments, which very often determine who is the winner, then I wouldn’t condem the app. I do, however, wanna try it for myself once the DBID issue I’m having is fixed up. LLAP people, even the guy that called me a troll haha. Not everyone is fully briefed on this app, so it would be better to kindly inform than criticize.
So I’ll change my stance somewhat. If there isn’t a definite speed advantage for those final gauntlet moments, which very often determine who is the winner, then I wouldn’t condem the app. I do, however, wanna try it for myself once the DBID issue I’m having is fixed up. LLAP people, even the guy that called me a troll haha. Not everyone is fully briefed on this app, so it would be better to kindly inform than criticize.
LOL, yeah, sorry about that mate, I included the option of trolling on my first pass and realized it was unnecessary, so edited it out, but the original quote was already there.
IAP speeds up playing the gauntlet when you're going for absolutes, but provides a hindrance to certain strategies. And if you're duking it out for first place, you're still stuck waiting on the other guy to make his move before you can make your next one, so speed advantages are mostly nullified.
FWIW, I've got several first place wins with no dil refreshes, and only a net loss of a few hundred merits. My first was completely accidental. I think luck plays the biggest part, but strategy helps.
And as IAP is concerned, I do worse using it, and find it easier to waste more merits. That emotional detachment and faster cycling through matches do that for me. Still, I use it frequently, as I don't have the patience many times to wait through the in game animations.
So I’ll change my stance somewhat. If there isn’t a definite speed advantage for those final gauntlet moments, which very often determine who is the winner, then I wouldn’t condem the app. I do, however, wanna try it for myself once the DBID issue I’m having is fixed up. LLAP people, even the guy that called me a troll haha. Not everyone is fully briefed on this app, so it would be better to kindly inform than criticize.
LOL, yeah, sorry about that mate, I included the option of trolling on my first pass and realized it was unnecessary, so edited it out, but the original quote was already there.
IAP speeds up playing the gauntlet when you're going for absolutes, but provides a hindrance to certain strategies. And if you're duking it out for first place, you're still stuck waiting on the other guy to make his move before you can make your next one, so speed advantages are mostly nullified.
FWIW, I've got several first place wins with no dil refreshes, and only a net loss of a few hundred merits. My first was completely accidental. I think luck plays the biggest part, but strategy helps.
And as IAP is concerned, I do worse using it, and find it easier to waste more merits. That emotional detachment and faster cycling through matches do that for me. Still, I use it frequently, as I don't have the patience many times to wait through the in game animations.
I’ll have a nosy. I usually win gauntlet (no dil refresh), because I live in Taiwan and the last round is when I wake up, it’s ideal. Already have an Armus and six Caretakers and a Guinan in the year I’ve been playing. And, no worries at all.
I Fully support the IAMPICARD APP i use it daily but have never used it to actually play the game . I use it to make an informed decision .as far as it being any advantage in actual game play is BS . too many times the stated outcome of a gauntlet round or total time of a voyage has not been correct what it does the most of is allow me to have a better understanding of my crew available, my inventory needed,what missions i still havent completed and what crew I have in cryo. IN OTHERWORDS DB NEEDS TO LEAVE IT ALONE.
Not gonna slog through four pages full of lengthy posts, but I'll add my voice to those in support of the tool. Anyone who accuses it of being an exploit doesn't understand what it does--or doesn't. Just being an outside tool doesn't constitute any more of an "unfair advantage" than a player's own spreadsheets and tracked data.
Plus, rather than complain about IAmPicard calculating Gauntlet odds, why hasn't there been widespread demand for DB to show us this data in-game? They do that for shuttles and Galaxy crafting, so it's not like it's unprecedented. Personally, I think it's because they know how discouraging it would be and that it would cause some players to cut back on crew refreshes. I can't say I find that an especially laudable reason for withholding that information from us.
If anything, knowing the odds makes me refresh more, not less, looking for more favorable matchups.
Also +1 in favor of IAP.
Context: I don't care about winning a Gauntlet. I'm just after those rewards that drop after a third consecutive win. And I don't care enough about those to spend dilithium chasing them. Other players may have different priorities or place different values on these things.
Some matches are obviously favorable one way or the other, but my brain is not wired to work out the closer ones. I used to bleed merits, hoping to get to that third win. It's easier for me now to see when to just stop and wait the four hours for a refreshed crew.
I knew the Gauntlet was unfavorable roulette when it launched, but it wasn't until IAmPicard displaying the odds for me that I saw just how ridiculously unfavorable it is. IAP also highlights how the in-game animation is there to razzle dazzle and keep the gambler at the table. The whole game is one big casino, but the Gauntlet is a table run by a loan shark. I didn't need IAmPicard to see that, but the confirmation has helped keep me from bleeding merits.
Picture the scene:
5 mins left in gauntlet. Positions 1 and 2 are holding back to compete late and make a final push for first. Who would have the advantage of completing more battles in a shorter space of time, and therefore winning?
Someone playing on the actual game? Or someone using Iampicard? If the answer is Iampicard, how can that be fair to people using the ACTUAL GAME? If there is no benefit in this instance, then I’d say use the app, it doesn’t matter at all. Voyage guidance won’t affect P2P directly. But if someone can be at a disadvantage using the gauntlet’s most common method for winning, then it’s definitely unfair.
Nobody would have an advantage because in Gauntlet's final pushes you only have 5-7 chances for a battle and I am Picard doesn't guarantee a win.
Someone using IamPicard in a final push could just knock out his entire Gauntlet platoon with 0 wins.
Many people use dilithium at this point to refresh their crew. It’s a simple question, and I genuinely don’t know the answer because I haven’t used the app due to a bug with my ID I’m looking into.
So which method would be faster in those dying minutes and seconds? The actual game, or Iampicard?
To answer your question as much as I’m able, IAP might get you a second or two of time saved, if only by bypassing animations. It still comes down MUCH more to the quality of crew, RNG luck, and willingness to spend merits/dil than any trivial time savings.
Even if this was not true which it is, the solution is easy and would take seconds to implement. Add a 1 second delay to each battle for the last 15 minutes of the gauntlet.
I just installed the application again, for the first time in a long time. I like the fact you can now login with facebook, so my biggest concern is gone that the developer gets desperate one day for cash and steals peoples password etc. And before you say that will never happen, it HAS happened in the past with legitimate software. Anytime you give a 3rd party your password to a web-based program, you run that risk.
So now, i'm just going to wait and see if the automation in it is declared to be illegal and they ban the app. And it is automation, its not macro'ing but you can do things in this 3rd party program without logging into the game and doing it...thats automation.
I think that though, it is more likely that DB would ask the coders to remove any feature that allows you to play the game from within it, rather than ban it outright.
I've never been able to use it because I play through Facebook. I realize that it may be a bit late to ask this, but how does it login with Facebook?
That being said, I know that a few people in my fleet use it and that they find it very helpful. I don't know if they use the gauntlet and voyage feature, but the reason they suggested it to me and the reason I wanted to try it is the crew management, the possibility to see replicator uses and the fact that apparently it makes it easier to manage the inventory.
As others mentioned, those are weaknesses of the game that should be corrected, but as long as they're not adressed I can't see anything wrong about using this app.
I would think that the only justification for banning this tool outright would be that in places it makes the official interface look so bad. Crew management to sort and compare crew, item lists and searching, replicator where you can actually identify old equipment to recycle, gauntlet where you can actually see both your crew skills and the opponents in one screen.
I am sure that the author has asked DB for permission and obtained permission for each feature he added such as the voyages. The only issue seems to be people complaining that it is automation.
So let's assume that the info tabs such as crew management and equipment and missions are ok since they only display in game info in a better way. (Or is that automation because otherwise you would need to write all the crew stats into your own spreadsheet or notepad?)
Voyages, where it automatically fits crew into slots, based on comparing stats and then a monte carlo run of the best options. Isn't the actual information already widely used, things such as the 22 chron per minute rule, the weighting to primary and secondary skills? The game interface is ... well start with ship selection, no sort so cycle through until you find all your top ships to see if any have bonus, unless you have a good memory or do you 'automate' by checking the wiki to check ship properties? Then crew selection where you can at least list sorted stats, but then after you add a crew in one station they do not show as an option for a later station they may be better for. If you want to try them elsewhere ... there is no way to remove a crew from a station only to replace them.
So apart from a the interface issues, what does the voyage automate, the best crew? Well not always, but it gives you a quick selection to avoid the interface. If you know your crew well it saves a few minutes, but it is not a repetitive task that is repeated often, maybe once a day. If that is such an issue then just allow the tool to list crew and select them and ships in an easier way. Ranked based on all stats not just a single stat.
So then the gauntlet... What does it automate really, showing you the chance of success, but the game does that for shuttle missions and it for the gauntlet it is quite a trivial comparison to get within 10% using your head. Not that important really compared with selecting the best crew. The main advantage here is that you see all your crew and all your opponents together. The game interface only shows your crew after you select your opponent. Very frustrating. There is no automated selection of crew, you select them yourself from a list. The only speed change is that you do a round with one click instead of 3, but automation ... really.
What iampicard does is give you an interface on a computer screen that is designed for a computer screen, showing better aggregates of information. The game has no PC optimised interface as such, just for the phone.
The arguments against automation and macros are where it gives the player an advantage over other players. What if you set an alarm to automatically notify you when it is time to fight the gauntlet or recall a voyage. That automates the game but is not really uncompetitive. Is iampicard uncompetitive at all by saving you a few minutes once a day putting out a voyage, or a few clicks each gauntlet? I don't think so. Even if the voyage goes too far putting crew in slots, then just allow the tool to list the crew better for voyage selection.
Instead I think iampicard is showing what players would rather have in an interface for the game. Give captains the information they would like to make better decisions faster. The sort of tools you would expect a star trek captain to have on their console.
Let's say you don't have a gauntlet or voyage running and you launch the Tool. It does not launch a voyage or start a gauntlet. Assume now both are ongoing.
It does not complete gauntlet battles every 4 hours. It does not resolve voyage dilemas every 2 hours. It does not recall a voyage when antimatter is low. It does not claim rewards at the end of a voyage or gauntlet.
What it does do is download data, process it and then present it.
I’ll have a nosy. I usually win gauntlet (no dil refresh), because I live in Taiwan and the last round is when I wake up, it’s ideal. Already have an Armus and six Caretakers and a Guinan in the year I’ve been playing. And, no worries at all.
Yes, geographic location is surely one of the more important factors. I live in Europe, so gauntlet ends in the middle of the night. Guess how often I have won...
I've never used it so could someone explain how IamPicard helps in the gauntlet, please.
Presents the matchups in the much better way, shows you the winning percentage chance of a win based on the rolls and crit rate, no animation (what people calls the “unfair advantage”). Save you a few seconds...
I’ll have a nosy. I usually win gauntlet (no dil refresh), because I live in Taiwan and the last round is when I wake up, it’s ideal. Already have an Armus and six Caretakers and a Guinan in the year I’ve been playing. And, no worries at all.
Yes, geographic location is surely one of the more important factors. I live in Europe, so gauntlet ends in the middle of the night. Guess how often I have won...
Well, on the negative side for me, events start at midnight in summer (not too bad), and 1am in winter. For Galaxy events it isn’t too bad, but for faction or skirmish events where a good start is paramount, it’s really inconevenient. It would be good if events had floating start times. But, I guess most players live in North America. In Asia, all we have is a decent gauntlet end time.
I've never used it so could someone explain how IamPicard helps in the gauntlet, please.
Presents the matchups in the much better way, shows you the winning percentage chance of a win based on the rolls and crit rate, no animation (what people calls the “unfair advantage”). Save you a few seconds...
Edit:
Thank you.
I'm up against
Mirror Picard at 45% for 170 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 120 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 90 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 55 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 15 points.
In support of iampicard here;
Personally I don't care for the Gauntlet interface at all. If I've used it, it's just to start the clock running on the refresh because I'm already in IAP doing one of two things:
1 - assistance selecting voyage crew. Admittedly I can live without this, but I find the process to be really tedious otherwise. I don't think it gives me a huge advantage in the results, rather it saves me several minutes in doing what is otherwise annoying but necessary in the game
2 - the REAL reason I use IAP is for Inventory Management. Namely, the CSV export is absolute Gold for me. I maintain a separate list of items that I seem to always run out of, and have some formulas which can update their qtys out of the IAP export. Note here that I'm still monitoring my inventory manually AND outside of IAP, but it's saved me tons of time trying to find how many items I have of particular types.
I've been doing that successfully for months now without IAP. Just discovered IAP and began using it a couple weeks ago. Does it give me an advantage in the game? I wouldn't say so, I'm still doing what I was doing before. The number of chrons I have to work with doesn't change. Just spending less time searching for the information I was looking for, to know where to spend them. I use extra chrons for farming, in other words (I do not stockpile them).
Simply put, iampicard in my personal use case just took some of the tedium out of the game. I don't feel that it gives an unfair advantage - and this is from the perspective of someone who only just started using it fairly recently. If anything, I think DB could consider making it an official companion app and provide access to it within the game so all players have awareness of it. Removing tedium from the game is keeping me playing when I otherwise may have burned out.
I've never used it so could someone explain how IamPicard helps in the gauntlet, please.
Presents the matchups in the much better way, shows you the winning percentage chance of a win based on the rolls and crit rate, no animation (what people calls the “unfair advantage”). Save you a few seconds...
Edit:
Thank you.
I'm up against
Mirror Picard at 45% for 170 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 120 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 90 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 55 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 15 points.
I lost. IamPicard is rubbish.
I’m struggling to understand how the fool that helps you see win chances without busting out a calculator is trash because DBRNG caused you to lose? It doesn’t make it easier to win any given battle (that would be an actual TOS violation), it just gives you the actual probability of winning said battle.
This is what Paladin27 was wrong about earlier - IAP isn’t a magic device that turns the user into a guaranteed winner of every gauntlet...it just helps you make an informed decision. Personally speaking, my final gauntlet rankings really didn’t change since I started using IAP. I still fall somewhere between 10th and 45th place, with occasional top-ten finishes when RNGesus smiles upon me. That “extra three minutes” thing is nothing compared to the twin brick walls of other people spending dil to revive crew and the almighty RNG, especially when the rewards are such a crapshoot to begin with.
I've never used it so could someone explain how IamPicard helps in the gauntlet, please.
Presents the matchups in the much better way, shows you the winning percentage chance of a win based on the rolls and crit rate, no animation (what people calls the “unfair advantage”). Save you a few seconds...
Edit:
Thank you.
I'm up against
Mirror Picard at 45% for 170 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 120 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 90 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 55 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 15 points.
I lost. IamPicard is rubbish.
I’m struggling to understand how the fool that helps you see win chances without busting out a calculator is trash because DBRNG caused you to lose? It doesn’t make it easier to win any given battle (that would be an actual TOS violation), it just gives you the actual probability of winning said battle.
This is what Paladin27 was wrong about earlier - IAP isn’t a magic device that turns the user into a guaranteed winner of every gauntlet...it just helps you make an informed decision. Personally speaking, my final gauntlet rankings really didn’t change since I started using IAP. I still fall somewhere between 10th and 45th place, with occasional top-ten finishes when RNGesus smiles upon me. That “extra three minutes” thing is nothing compared to the twin brick walls of other people spending dil to revive crew and the almighty RNG, especially when the rewards are such a crapshoot to begin with.
I didn’t state that it changes the results, just that you don’t have to do extra taps and watch animations for ~20 seconds each match or 3 minutes a round.
Personally speaking, my final gauntlet rankings really didn’t change since I started using IAP. I still fall somewhere between 10th and 45th place, with occasional top-ten finishes when RNGesus smiles upon me. That “extra three minutes” thing is nothing compared to the twin brick walls of other people spending dil to revive crew and the almighty RNG, especially when the rewards are such a crapshoot to begin with.
Yep.
If you view gauntlets as a head to head competition for the most reward boxes, the answer is, at the end of the day it's your crew that matters since all the other potential efficiencies gained are so far down in the margins as to be negligible.
If you view gauntlets as resource farming, then I'd say the complaints fall into the category of "really, you choose not to use the tool and then are going to begrudge me the ability to make my harvesting tedium marginally less miserable every day ... really?". All of the other IAP features outside of gauntlet fall in this category as well.
I've never used it so could someone explain how IamPicard helps in the gauntlet, please.
Presents the matchups in the much better way, shows you the winning percentage chance of a win based on the rolls and crit rate, no animation (what people calls the “unfair advantage”). Save you a few seconds...
Edit:
Thank you.
I'm up against
Mirror Picard at 45% for 170 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 120 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 90 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 55 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 15 points.
I lost. IamPicard is rubbish.
I’m struggling to understand how the fool that helps you see win chances without busting out a calculator is trash because DBRNG caused you to lose? It doesn’t make it easier to win any given battle (that would be an actual TOS violation), it just gives you the actual probability of winning said battle.
This is what Paladin27 was wrong about earlier - IAP isn’t a magic device that turns the user into a guaranteed winner of every gauntlet...it just helps you make an informed decision. Personally speaking, my final gauntlet rankings really didn’t change since I started using IAP. I still fall somewhere between 10th and 45th place, with occasional top-ten finishes when RNGesus smiles upon me. That “extra three minutes” thing is nothing compared to the twin brick walls of other people spending dil to revive crew and the almighty RNG, especially when the rewards are such a crapshoot to begin with.
I didn’t state that it changes the results, just that you don’t have to do extra taps and watch animations for ~20 seconds each match or 3 minutes a round.
The difference in time efficiency is essentially moot for gauntlet. It doesn't change the amount of rewards one person gets over another. You're still limited by the 4 hour crew reset timer. Either you run your 15 battles over 5 minutes or over 8 minutes, you still only do 15 battles. You dont win more rewards. It also doesnt allow you to spend dil to extend a streak, so if you want to go streaking and fight against streak-busting rng, then you should be doing that in STT anyway.
Your argument would be so much different if gauntlet wasnt effected by crew exhaustion and you could just battle endlessly for the 48 hours between resets.
I've never used it so could someone explain how IamPicard helps in the gauntlet, please.
Presents the matchups in the much better way, shows you the winning percentage chance of a win based on the rolls and crit rate, no animation (what people calls the “unfair advantage”). Save you a few seconds...
Edit:
Thank you.
I'm up against
Mirror Picard at 45% for 170 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 120 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 90 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 55 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 15 points.
I lost. IamPicard is rubbish.
I’m struggling to understand how the fool that helps you see win chances without busting out a calculator is trash because DBRNG caused you to lose? It doesn’t make it easier to win any given battle (that would be an actual TOS violation), it just gives you the actual probability of winning said battle.
This is what Paladin27 was wrong about earlier - IAP isn’t a magic device that turns the user into a guaranteed winner of every gauntlet...it just helps you make an informed decision. Personally speaking, my final gauntlet rankings really didn’t change since I started using IAP. I still fall somewhere between 10th and 45th place, with occasional top-ten finishes when RNGesus smiles upon me. That “extra three minutes” thing is nothing compared to the twin brick walls of other people spending dil to revive crew and the almighty RNG, especially when the rewards are such a crapshoot to begin with.
I didn’t state that it changes the results, just that you don’t have to do extra taps and watch animations for ~20 seconds each match or 3 minutes a round.
The difference in time efficiency is essentially moot for gauntlet. It doesn't change the amount of rewards one person gets over another. You're still limited by the 4 hour crew reset timer. Either you run your 15 battles over 5 minutes or over 8 minutes, you still only do 15 battles. You dont win more rewards. It also doesnt allow you to spend dil to extend a streak, so if you want to go streaking and fight against streak-busting rng, then you should be doing that in STT anyway.
Your argument would be so much different if gauntlet wasnt effected by crew exhaustion and you could just battle endlessly for the 48 hours between resets.
Back to my initial point.
There are three things that dictate your success and progress in this game long term
Money spent
Time invested
Playing with correct strategy
To play this game to the maximum every day you would have to do the following:
Watch 48 30 second adds evenly spaced every 30 minutes (with navigating through screens to the right missions or cadets, that takes about 48 minutes over the course of a day.
Claim and resend shuttles every 3 hours. Call that 8 minutes over a day.
Voyage dilemmas and sending a voyage every day. Call that 5 minutes.
Arena battles. Call that 5 minutes
Gauntlet. 30 minutes. 7-8 refreshes at 4 minutes of matches each refresh.
That is 90-100 minutes of different in game activities you have to do each day at perfectly timed intervals to maximize the free resources in this game. Shaving time off that requirement (up to 120 hours or 5 days in a year just from bypassing gauntlet animations) without losing out on the rewards is an advantage.
People taking advantage of the dil bugged packs last July was wrong to get free dil and reduce the money they had to spend in this game was wrong.
People taking shortcuts to get similar results without investing time is wrong. It may not seem like much but 20 seconds of animations a gauntlet match adds up to a lot of time over the course of the year, and does a disservice to everyone else who actually does invest their time in this game.
People taking shortcuts to get similar results without investing time is wrong. It may not seem like much but 20 seconds of animations a gauntlet match adds up to a lot of time over the course of the year, and does a disservice to everyone else who actually does invest their time in this game.
Even if that were accepted, it would not be a TOS violation. Pretty sure the TOS does not stipulate "thou shalt not disservice other players". Part of the point of a game is to get better and better at playing it, i.e., competing.
I save massive amounts of time during events using my own tools, the wiki, fleetbots, and IAP to reduce the amount of time I spend making decisions, and to optimize the outcomes of those decisions. These give far, far greater benefits to me than any time-shavings off of daily tasks. Is that a disservice to other players? Am I in violation of the TOS?
In different ways, I have used multiple tools - both my own and multiple community tools - to improve my all of my daily housekeeping: daily shuttle, voyage, arena and gauntlet performance. Not just IAP. "what I get for my investment" vs "what other players get for their investment" isn't just a matter of time invested, it's time times performance. Which of all of those tools used to minimize time or maximize performance is not disservicing other players who choose not to do those things?
Since people didn't like the derivative works prohibition of the TOS. How about this?
"You further agree not to create or provide any means other than through the Disruptor Beam Sites by which Disruptor Beam's on-line computer game may be played by others - for example, through server emulators"
And from the the user side.
"Abuse bugs or exploit features in the Services to gain unintended advantages over other players; create multiple accounts to artificially increase the ratings or scores; or to engage in any form of "sock puppetry,” or engage in any act which Disruptor Beam deems to be in conflict with the spirit or intent of the Services."
DB hasn't yet, but if they wanted to (and it my not be in their commercial interest to do so) they could say that users are exploiting the gauntlet feature by bypassing animations.
Since people didn't like the derivative works prohibition of the TOS. How about this?
"You further agree not to create or provide any means other than through the Disruptor Beam Sites by which Disruptor Beam's on-line computer game may be played by others - for example, through server emulators"
And from the the user side.
"Abuse bugs or exploit features in the Services to gain unintended advantages over other players; create multiple accounts to artificially increase the ratings or scores; or to engage in any form of "sock puppetry,” or engage in any act which Disruptor Beam deems to be in conflict with the spirit or intent of the Services."
DB hasn't yet, but if they wanted to (and it my not be in their commercial interest to do so) they could say that users are exploiting the gauntlet feature by bypassing animations.
For the first one, depends on how you parse it. IAP doesn't emulate the server, it accesses it. Server emulation could be construed as "having a STT experience without at all using the STT servers", i.e., someone clones the game, functionality, and crew and simulates the entire game on their server - i.e., appropriating their IP. I agree there's greyness in interpretation there, but not black and white. The broader "any other means" would be stronger ground.
IAP is not abusing bugs or exploiting features. It does not create multiple accounts. I don't know what "sock puppetry" is so maybe some grey area there, and the last of course one could drive truck through :-)
Comments
To answer your question as much as I’m able, IAP might get you a second or two of time saved, if only by bypassing animations. It still comes down MUCH more to the quality of crew, RNG luck, and willingness to spend merits/dil than any trivial time savings.
So now, i'm just going to wait and see if the automation in it is declared to be illegal and they ban the app. And it is automation, its not macro'ing but you can do things in this 3rd party program without logging into the game and doing it...thats automation.
I think that though, it is more likely that DB would ask the coders to remove any feature that allows you to play the game from within it, rather than ban it outright.
If you don't like what DB does, don't pay them.
Cheating other players isn't protesting DB. It's just punishing people who might have put a lot of effort.
~· Fly with the Subspace Eddies! ·~
DB has full right to evaluate the IAP software, especially if it accesses it's own software and it is used to bypass actual game play. I would think this would be against its terms of service if IAP bypassed the official STT software for Guantlet, voyages and anything else. Some players make not like this, but the game is what it is. If all the IAP users requested certain game changes in proper forum pages and CS tickets etc., I am sure DB would listen and improve as much as they could, as the number of voices would be significant. However, this doesn't change what the IAP software does, whether on a small or large scale, it bypasses the game play of the STT software in some instances.
I think you are right, IAP users would have a slight statistical edge in that scenario. I wouldn't really know as I (and I think many of the IAP gauntlet users) are using it to grind rather than to achieve #1/2. At the end of the day, the Legendary drop rate is so infinitesimally small that the number of final boxes pulled hardly makes a difference. You'll either get him/her/it over your 6 months, or you won't, and optimizing the last 2 minutes to squeeze out the other meager rewards from a #1/2 position just isn't worth the effort. So after the first time you claim your Gauntlet #1 achievement (which as noted above will probably involve a dilithium refresh, a different and wholly sanctioned kind of "unfair"), it really doesn't matter.
Web browser or Windows desktop. Also open source in node.js so you could compile for any *nix too. https://github.com/IAmPicard/StarTrekTimelinesSpreadsheet for the download and iampicard.com for the webpage. He's generously hosting this for free and only requests donations.
Perhaps there's a small advantage in this instance, but it's nearly infinitesimal. You still get the same match-ups, for the same points, with the same chances for success. And if you're going tit-for-tat for #1, you're only getting 10 points a victory. And your crew still exhausts the same way. And you still have to pay for refreshes.
In some ways you're disadvantaged because you lose the visual queues you get in the app. You don't see the loot you win, just get a readout that you have to look for. The sort is off so you can't swipe right or left to get the most/fewest points and evaluate to hit that or the next or next option. And the crew layout makes it harder to read exhaustion levels and plan for future matches. If you actually try to do all of these things in IAP, it would take longer per match than in the STT client.
Either way, all you're given is a calculated chance for each match, something many discord bots do, as do many spreadsheets, and you still have to make a choice and initiate the action.
Same to voyages, there are spreadsheets and bots that calculate your best crew for a voyage. This just reads your crew, you still decide if you take them and have to initiate the voyage.
And if you want an estimation of time remaining, once you start to fail all your skill checks, just divide remaining AM by 22.
So I’ll change my stance somewhat. If there isn’t a definite speed advantage for those final gauntlet moments, which very often determine who is the winner, then I wouldn’t condem the app. I do, however, wanna try it for myself once the DBID issue I’m having is fixed up. LLAP people, even the guy that called me a troll haha. Not everyone is fully briefed on this app, so it would be better to kindly inform than criticize.
LOL, yeah, sorry about that mate, I included the option of trolling on my first pass and realized it was unnecessary, so edited it out, but the original quote was already there.
IAP speeds up playing the gauntlet when you're going for absolutes, but provides a hindrance to certain strategies. And if you're duking it out for first place, you're still stuck waiting on the other guy to make his move before you can make your next one, so speed advantages are mostly nullified.
FWIW, I've got several first place wins with no dil refreshes, and only a net loss of a few hundred merits. My first was completely accidental. I think luck plays the biggest part, but strategy helps.
And as IAP is concerned, I do worse using it, and find it easier to waste more merits. That emotional detachment and faster cycling through matches do that for me. Still, I use it frequently, as I don't have the patience many times to wait through the in game animations.
I’ll have a nosy. I usually win gauntlet (no dil refresh), because I live in Taiwan and the last round is when I wake up, it’s ideal. Already have an Armus and six Caretakers and a Guinan in the year I’ve been playing. And, no worries at all.
Context: I don't care about winning a Gauntlet. I'm just after those rewards that drop after a third consecutive win. And I don't care enough about those to spend dilithium chasing them. Other players may have different priorities or place different values on these things.
Some matches are obviously favorable one way or the other, but my brain is not wired to work out the closer ones. I used to bleed merits, hoping to get to that third win. It's easier for me now to see when to just stop and wait the four hours for a refreshed crew.
I knew the Gauntlet was unfavorable roulette when it launched, but it wasn't until IAmPicard displaying the odds for me that I saw just how ridiculously unfavorable it is. IAP also highlights how the in-game animation is there to razzle dazzle and keep the gambler at the table. The whole game is one big casino, but the Gauntlet is a table run by a loan shark. I didn't need IAmPicard to see that, but the confirmation has helped keep me from bleeding merits.
Other players caused the ban of IAmPicard. Yes, it's a good move.
Even if this was not true which it is, the solution is easy and would take seconds to implement. Add a 1 second delay to each battle for the last 15 minutes of the gauntlet.
I've never been able to use it because I play through Facebook. I realize that it may be a bit late to ask this, but how does it login with Facebook?
That being said, I know that a few people in my fleet use it and that they find it very helpful. I don't know if they use the gauntlet and voyage feature, but the reason they suggested it to me and the reason I wanted to try it is the crew management, the possibility to see replicator uses and the fact that apparently it makes it easier to manage the inventory.
As others mentioned, those are weaknesses of the game that should be corrected, but as long as they're not adressed I can't see anything wrong about using this app.
I am sure that the author has asked DB for permission and obtained permission for each feature he added such as the voyages. The only issue seems to be people complaining that it is automation.
So let's assume that the info tabs such as crew management and equipment and missions are ok since they only display in game info in a better way. (Or is that automation because otherwise you would need to write all the crew stats into your own spreadsheet or notepad?)
Voyages, where it automatically fits crew into slots, based on comparing stats and then a monte carlo run of the best options. Isn't the actual information already widely used, things such as the 22 chron per minute rule, the weighting to primary and secondary skills? The game interface is ... well start with ship selection, no sort so cycle through until you find all your top ships to see if any have bonus, unless you have a good memory or do you 'automate' by checking the wiki to check ship properties? Then crew selection where you can at least list sorted stats, but then after you add a crew in one station they do not show as an option for a later station they may be better for. If you want to try them elsewhere ... there is no way to remove a crew from a station only to replace them.
So apart from a the interface issues, what does the voyage automate, the best crew? Well not always, but it gives you a quick selection to avoid the interface. If you know your crew well it saves a few minutes, but it is not a repetitive task that is repeated often, maybe once a day. If that is such an issue then just allow the tool to list crew and select them and ships in an easier way. Ranked based on all stats not just a single stat.
So then the gauntlet... What does it automate really, showing you the chance of success, but the game does that for shuttle missions and it for the gauntlet it is quite a trivial comparison to get within 10% using your head. Not that important really compared with selecting the best crew. The main advantage here is that you see all your crew and all your opponents together. The game interface only shows your crew after you select your opponent. Very frustrating. There is no automated selection of crew, you select them yourself from a list. The only speed change is that you do a round with one click instead of 3, but automation ... really.
What iampicard does is give you an interface on a computer screen that is designed for a computer screen, showing better aggregates of information. The game has no PC optimised interface as such, just for the phone.
The arguments against automation and macros are where it gives the player an advantage over other players. What if you set an alarm to automatically notify you when it is time to fight the gauntlet or recall a voyage. That automates the game but is not really uncompetitive. Is iampicard uncompetitive at all by saving you a few minutes once a day putting out a voyage, or a few clicks each gauntlet? I don't think so. Even if the voyage goes too far putting crew in slots, then just allow the tool to list the crew better for voyage selection.
Instead I think iampicard is showing what players would rather have in an interface for the game. Give captains the information they would like to make better decisions faster. The sort of tools you would expect a star trek captain to have on their console.
Let's say you don't have a gauntlet or voyage running and you launch the Tool. It does not launch a voyage or start a gauntlet. Assume now both are ongoing.
It does not complete gauntlet battles every 4 hours. It does not resolve voyage dilemas every 2 hours. It does not recall a voyage when antimatter is low. It does not claim rewards at the end of a voyage or gauntlet.
What it does do is download data, process it and then present it.
Presents the matchups in the much better way, shows you the winning percentage chance of a win based on the rolls and crit rate, no animation (what people calls the “unfair advantage”). Save you a few seconds...
Edit:
Well, on the negative side for me, events start at midnight in summer (not too bad), and 1am in winter. For Galaxy events it isn’t too bad, but for faction or skirmish events where a good start is paramount, it’s really inconevenient. It would be good if events had floating start times. But, I guess most players live in North America. In Asia, all we have is a decent gauntlet end time.
Thank you.
I'm up against
Mirror Picard at 45% for 170 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 120 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 90 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 55 points
Mirror Picard at 45% for 15 points.
I lost. IamPicard is rubbish.
Personally I don't care for the Gauntlet interface at all. If I've used it, it's just to start the clock running on the refresh because I'm already in IAP doing one of two things:
1 - assistance selecting voyage crew. Admittedly I can live without this, but I find the process to be really tedious otherwise. I don't think it gives me a huge advantage in the results, rather it saves me several minutes in doing what is otherwise annoying but necessary in the game
2 - the REAL reason I use IAP is for Inventory Management. Namely, the CSV export is absolute Gold for me. I maintain a separate list of items that I seem to always run out of, and have some formulas which can update their qtys out of the IAP export. Note here that I'm still monitoring my inventory manually AND outside of IAP, but it's saved me tons of time trying to find how many items I have of particular types.
I've been doing that successfully for months now without IAP. Just discovered IAP and began using it a couple weeks ago. Does it give me an advantage in the game? I wouldn't say so, I'm still doing what I was doing before. The number of chrons I have to work with doesn't change. Just spending less time searching for the information I was looking for, to know where to spend them. I use extra chrons for farming, in other words (I do not stockpile them).
Simply put, iampicard in my personal use case just took some of the tedium out of the game. I don't feel that it gives an unfair advantage - and this is from the perspective of someone who only just started using it fairly recently. If anything, I think DB could consider making it an official companion app and provide access to it within the game so all players have awareness of it. Removing tedium from the game is keeping me playing when I otherwise may have burned out.
Please let it stay.
I’m struggling to understand how the fool that helps you see win chances without busting out a calculator is trash because DBRNG caused you to lose? It doesn’t make it easier to win any given battle (that would be an actual TOS violation), it just gives you the actual probability of winning said battle.
This is what Paladin27 was wrong about earlier - IAP isn’t a magic device that turns the user into a guaranteed winner of every gauntlet...it just helps you make an informed decision. Personally speaking, my final gauntlet rankings really didn’t change since I started using IAP. I still fall somewhere between 10th and 45th place, with occasional top-ten finishes when RNGesus smiles upon me. That “extra three minutes” thing is nothing compared to the twin brick walls of other people spending dil to revive crew and the almighty RNG, especially when the rewards are such a crapshoot to begin with.
I didn’t state that it changes the results, just that you don’t have to do extra taps and watch animations for ~20 seconds each match or 3 minutes a round.
Yep.
If you view gauntlets as a head to head competition for the most reward boxes, the answer is, at the end of the day it's your crew that matters since all the other potential efficiencies gained are so far down in the margins as to be negligible.
If you view gauntlets as resource farming, then I'd say the complaints fall into the category of "really, you choose not to use the tool and then are going to begrudge me the ability to make my harvesting tedium marginally less miserable every day ... really?". All of the other IAP features outside of gauntlet fall in this category as well.
The difference in time efficiency is essentially moot for gauntlet. It doesn't change the amount of rewards one person gets over another. You're still limited by the 4 hour crew reset timer. Either you run your 15 battles over 5 minutes or over 8 minutes, you still only do 15 battles. You dont win more rewards. It also doesnt allow you to spend dil to extend a streak, so if you want to go streaking and fight against streak-busting rng, then you should be doing that in STT anyway.
Your argument would be so much different if gauntlet wasnt effected by crew exhaustion and you could just battle endlessly for the 48 hours between resets.
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
Back to my initial point.
There are three things that dictate your success and progress in this game long term
To play this game to the maximum every day you would have to do the following:
That is 90-100 minutes of different in game activities you have to do each day at perfectly timed intervals to maximize the free resources in this game. Shaving time off that requirement (up to 120 hours or 5 days in a year just from bypassing gauntlet animations) without losing out on the rewards is an advantage.
People taking advantage of the dil bugged packs last July was wrong to get free dil and reduce the money they had to spend in this game was wrong.
People taking shortcuts to get similar results without investing time is wrong. It may not seem like much but 20 seconds of animations a gauntlet match adds up to a lot of time over the course of the year, and does a disservice to everyone else who actually does invest their time in this game.
Even if that were accepted, it would not be a TOS violation. Pretty sure the TOS does not stipulate "thou shalt not disservice other players". Part of the point of a game is to get better and better at playing it, i.e., competing.
I save massive amounts of time during events using my own tools, the wiki, fleetbots, and IAP to reduce the amount of time I spend making decisions, and to optimize the outcomes of those decisions. These give far, far greater benefits to me than any time-shavings off of daily tasks. Is that a disservice to other players? Am I in violation of the TOS?
In different ways, I have used multiple tools - both my own and multiple community tools - to improve my all of my daily housekeeping: daily shuttle, voyage, arena and gauntlet performance. Not just IAP. "what I get for my investment" vs "what other players get for their investment" isn't just a matter of time invested, it's time times performance. Which of all of those tools used to minimize time or maximize performance is not disservicing other players who choose not to do those things?
"You further agree not to create or provide any means other than through the Disruptor Beam Sites by which Disruptor Beam's on-line computer game may be played by others - for example, through server emulators"
And from the the user side.
"Abuse bugs or exploit features in the Services to gain unintended advantages over other players; create multiple accounts to artificially increase the ratings or scores; or to engage in any form of "sock puppetry,” or engage in any act which Disruptor Beam deems to be in conflict with the spirit or intent of the Services."
DB hasn't yet, but if they wanted to (and it my not be in their commercial interest to do so) they could say that users are exploiting the gauntlet feature by bypassing animations.
For the first one, depends on how you parse it. IAP doesn't emulate the server, it accesses it. Server emulation could be construed as "having a STT experience without at all using the STT servers", i.e., someone clones the game, functionality, and crew and simulates the entire game on their server - i.e., appropriating their IP. I agree there's greyness in interpretation there, but not black and white. The broader "any other means" would be stronger ground.
IAP is not abusing bugs or exploiting features. It does not create multiple accounts. I don't know what "sock puppetry" is so maybe some grey area there, and the last of course one could drive truck through :-)