Item dropped by same mission with different difficulties do not show least difficult option
Phantum
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Has anyone else noticed that away missions shown for item drops is stuffed up when items are dropped by the same mission at two different difficulty levels. The game is not showing both difficulty levels but repeating the harder difficulty, making items cost more.
This could be costing you a lot of chrons. This is not always apparent unless you know the costs, because the game sorts missions according to cost so if you just click on the first mission listed without understanding costs you need to look down a bit.
For example:
Common Isolinear Chips should be available on Arms Race at Normal difficulty but instead the game shows the Elite difficulty twice (see pictures)
Arms Race Normal, cost 10 Chron, cost 4.8 per drop (from wiki)
Arms Race Elite, cost 20 Chron, cost 10.9 per drop (from wiki)
This was needed in in the current galaxy event so each build cost twice as much.
Also in the current galaxy I noticed Behind closed doors only showed epic twice instead of the elite option, dropping polyalloy I think.
Please note my screenshots may show the lower cost using a Supply Kit, but see the repeated difficulty levels.
This is even more infuriating for some more costly crew items such as 3* rare alcohol. The best drop option is the normal Operation Isolate mission cost 12 Chron per run, 4.8 at runs per drop cost per drop should be 58 Chrons (all according to Wikki). Instead the game shows two elite difficulty operation isolate (pics below) which cost about 140 chrons per drop according to the wikki.
This means I am paying nearly 100 chrons more per alcohol and let me tell you my crew are heavy drinkers!
I then later found a Chronon swallower that was even more hungry trying to get a Super Rare 4* casing or polyalloy, Which is normally a one circle mission drop costing about 150 Chron per drop. Then sometimes this "Evacuation orders" mission appears at the top of your list and you think great that will drop fast.
The problem is you need to read the fine print. This is only a rare drop, and I had already got the rare drop, so here I was clicking away on this and there was no way it was going to drop, late at night you can click it a dozen or more times without realising this and burn a few hundred Chron. Take screenshots and you can get help.
When you see it happening it can be fixed by restarting the game. But it comes back again quickly, either after a certain time or after you have done the missions once or twice. It has been happening for at least 2 months, but it is really hard to notice unless you remember the best missions to run for each item.
I have also tried clearing all settings and reinstalling the game. That is a bad idea because it does not fix it but after doing a reinstall you lose all your add benefits for about a week. I play only on Android so not sure about other platforms. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone else who notices this, or not. Particularly if you are living further away from game servers so the game is slower to respond, since I think it may be a sync issue which I have noticed on some other issues with screen refresh.
Thanks heaps if you have read down this far.
This could be costing you a lot of chrons. This is not always apparent unless you know the costs, because the game sorts missions according to cost so if you just click on the first mission listed without understanding costs you need to look down a bit.
For example:
Common Isolinear Chips should be available on Arms Race at Normal difficulty but instead the game shows the Elite difficulty twice (see pictures)
Arms Race Normal, cost 10 Chron, cost 4.8 per drop (from wiki)
Arms Race Elite, cost 20 Chron, cost 10.9 per drop (from wiki)
This was needed in in the current galaxy event so each build cost twice as much.
Also in the current galaxy I noticed Behind closed doors only showed epic twice instead of the elite option, dropping polyalloy I think.
Please note my screenshots may show the lower cost using a Supply Kit, but see the repeated difficulty levels.
This is even more infuriating for some more costly crew items such as 3* rare alcohol. The best drop option is the normal Operation Isolate mission cost 12 Chron per run, 4.8 at runs per drop cost per drop should be 58 Chrons (all according to Wikki). Instead the game shows two elite difficulty operation isolate (pics below) which cost about 140 chrons per drop according to the wikki.
This means I am paying nearly 100 chrons more per alcohol and let me tell you my crew are heavy drinkers!
I then later found a Chronon swallower that was even more hungry trying to get a Super Rare 4* casing or polyalloy, Which is normally a one circle mission drop costing about 150 Chron per drop. Then sometimes this "Evacuation orders" mission appears at the top of your list and you think great that will drop fast.
The problem is you need to read the fine print. This is only a rare drop, and I had already got the rare drop, so here I was clicking away on this and there was no way it was going to drop, late at night you can click it a dozen or more times without realising this and burn a few hundred Chron. Take screenshots and you can get help.
When you see it happening it can be fixed by restarting the game. But it comes back again quickly, either after a certain time or after you have done the missions once or twice. It has been happening for at least 2 months, but it is really hard to notice unless you remember the best missions to run for each item.
I have also tried clearing all settings and reinstalling the game. That is a bad idea because it does not fix it but after doing a reinstall you lose all your add benefits for about a week. I play only on Android so not sure about other platforms. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone else who notices this, or not. Particularly if you are living further away from game servers so the game is slower to respond, since I think it may be a sync issue which I have noticed on some other issues with screen refresh.
Thanks heaps if you have read down this far.
4
Comments
If you had read through the post you would have seen that I am quoting the drop rates directly from the wiki source you quote which lists the most cost effective drops. Your reply that "You will also find that the real, observes drop rates differ from the number of dots provided in-game." is (strangely) similar to what I get from customer services also not reading the full description. However it is definitely not a known issue because I have did file a customer services request and when they finally understood the issue they knew nothing about it, but were very helpful.
It is nothing to do with the circles for each mission.
What I have described is, admitably, complicated, but in essence the game is listing the wrong missions for the item. For example if you look up on the wiki the best drop for Common Isolinear Chips should be Arms Race at Normal difficulty. You then go back to the game and select the arms race mission shown but in fact the game is not showing Arms race at normal difficulty but showing it twice at Elite difficulty which has a much worse drop rate.
This is definitely not a known bug, that is why I am asking here if anyone else has seen this with any missions dropping the same item at different difficulties, or as a rare drop that the game forgets...
Yeah, Dirk I'm sure knew exactly what you were talking about, he was just adding that one should rely upon the wiki for which version of the mission to run, and that when you do so, you will also notice that the drop rates as shown in-game are also messed up.
The game showing the incorrect difficulty of the mission is indeed a "known bug" — as far as I'm aware, it's been around as long as I have, and I started playing at the beginning of 2017. Not sure if DB is unable to fix it, or if they just don't care enough to fix it, but I guess those of us who've been around a while just take it for granted (and many of us also have sort of memorized the best rates for the most common items). Who it really hurts is newer players who aren't aware that they're being directed to the wrong mission.
Another similar bug exists in which it will show missions where the item can be acquired via the rare rewards (starred nodes) only, when you have already critted all nodes on that mission. Again, not sure why that was never fixed, either, but it's been around for ages.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
I was lead to believe it was not a known bug and had to go to great lengths to explain it. How can it be known by the community here but not known by customer services?
Is there some sticky thread or place that known bugs are listed like this??
For example today I went to check my voyage which was due for a 10 hour dilema. It says 10 hours, but no dilema is available. Time ticks up to 10 hours 6 seconds then back to 10 hours. It has been like this for 4 hours on both Android and PC. Can I find if this is a known bug also, so I know if I should wait for a reply from customer services or just cut my losses and recall it?
Really really frustrating to learn about this.
Oh and I also was told to reinstall the game to try and fix the issue, which cost me a week of Ad bonuses, is it also a known bug that reinstalling looses ads?
Good question. But some CS reps aren't as knowledgeable about the game as many of the forum regulars are.
Not really. I mean, you can do a search in the Engineering sub-forum to check whether your question has been asked before (though the native search function leaves much to be desired). Best practice is just to do exactly what you did — post a thread in Engineering and usually someone will chime in if it's a common issue.
Yeah, unfortunately, stuck Voyages is another documented issue. Nobody at DB seems to know what causes it, and they have no way of fixing it. They will usually tell you to recall the Voyage, and will give you compensation for the previous two dilemmas, if you spent dilithium on them. So take some screenshots in case they ask for them.
I haven't personally encountered this, but I see you started another thread on the topic, and a couple other players have had the same problem — but at least Shan is aware of it, which means she's probably alerted the proper folks at DB about it.
Alas, we are forced to live with certain issues. However, if there are workarounds or other options, the players who frequent this forum are really good about sharing what they know, and sometimes that knowledge is better than what you might get from the official representatives.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"