What 400K In A Faction Event Looks Like On A Schedule
in The Bridge
I threw this together pretty quickly, so it's bound to have mistakes somewhere - either math or assumptions. Feel free to rip it to shreds. Hopefully the visualization isn't too rudimentary. Times are in EST, military format.
There are some assumptions in scheduling. I figured 30 minutes for the first 22 shuttles in the kickstart, and then an average 5-7 minutes to catch and release shuttles. I applied the catch and release time as an offset towards the end of the day for simplicity.
"I can't play at work, I like sleep, but live my life in 3 hour blocks the rest of the time"
Can also be flipped... can play at work, but spend my free time doing things away from a screen... I assume the number of runs would be similar.
Best case scenario: possible if you have 91 3* time boosts and can send shuttles every 90 minutes while awake / not otherwise engaged
"I like sleep, but live my life in 3 hour blocks the rest of the time"
This one surprised me. When I did the basic math (which again, could have been wrong), I got 21 runs at 4K. 21 runs is a lot more mathematically feasible, but good luck cramming in those 4 runs somewhere. Maybe I'm worse at scheduling than I thought?
Best case scenario: 90% shuttles + 27 3* time boosts + 16 3* reward boosters
"I should not operate firearms, heavy machinery, or raise children"
And so we have the mathematically possible benchmark, finally revealed.
My first thought was, "if anyone is this crazy/dedicated, good for them". But then I thought about the health implications of this schedule and how socially irresponsible this is, unless maybe if you're a shut in. Sleep deprivation is a real problem that should not be minimized, glorified, encouraged, or rewarded in any way.
Obviously, players don't have to play for 400k. But to me, this exercise underlined what I already knew - this is ridiculous for something that was originally rolled out as an incentive in reruns, not as part of extended thresholds. I'd say I'm stunned that DB is standing by this, but very little they do surprises me at this point. This is socially irresponsible game design and once again walks the predatory line.
For expanded context, I ran some rudimentary numbers on 3* time boosters since as you've already seen for most players, copious numbers are needed. You may be asking yourself, why did I double the number of boosts needed per run? Because 4 boosts only add a run...you need 8 to fit into the former 3 hour window. (Please check this assumption.)
Obtaining boosts from one week of Thursday cadet with doubler and bonus warps yields max 17 3* boost packs (6 tickets/doubled warp = 12 + 5 every four hours, no ticket warp)
3* timers drop at slightly better than 1 in 10 (I think someone else said 13%?) so let’s be (super) generous and say 23 timers - should also produce 16 3* doublers for sleep runs
11 are used by the kickstart, leaving 12, which adds 3 runs at 4 shuttles. So congrats to people who like sleep and can send 90% shuttles while living life in 3 hour bubbles - you are on the verge of weekly sustainability without spending.
I have the crew needed for 90% shuttles this current event, so here's a snapshot of what that looks like:
1 5/5 Agent Janeway Squad Share
1 1/5 Bartender Tuvok
1 1/5 Agent Janeway
1 1/5 Niners Sisko
1 1/5 High Roller Sisko
1 5/5 Assimilated Janeway
1 3/5 Benny Russell
1 4/5 Professor Sato
1 5/5 Guinan
1 1/5 Ameilia Earhart (all better ENG is on a voyage)
1 4/4 Maquis Ro
1 4/4 Hipocrates Noah
1 4/4 Assimilated Tuvok
1 4/4 Gabriel Bell
1 4/4 Disguised Tuvok
1 4/4 Mirror Janeway
In reserve:
1/5 Katrine (not used once)
1/5 Enemy Lines Sisko (not used once)
1/5 Admiral Janeway (not used once)
5/5 Bell Riots Bashir (used sparingly)
4/5 Prisoner Cornwell (used sparingly)
5/5 Dark Ages McCoy (used sparingly)
1/5 Captain Sisko (used sparingly)
4/4 Captain Janeway (used sparingly)
4/4 Tuvix (used sparingly)
4/4 Warship Janeway (on ice)
4/4 Mirror Sisko (on ice)
^^ All that’s with a top fleet starbase bonus and most skill awarding collections cleared
Total time played ~3 years VIP 13, daily player
I'm heartened that most forum denizens don't appear to actually support the 400K threshold. To the subsection of people that don't support 400K but have done their own maths and consider this "hard work", "challenging", "fun", or some other poorly chosen euphemism - I hope your math and scheduling skills are superior to mine; also we have a terminal failure of connotation agreement in word choice.
There are some assumptions in scheduling. I figured 30 minutes for the first 22 shuttles in the kickstart, and then an average 5-7 minutes to catch and release shuttles. I applied the catch and release time as an offset towards the end of the day for simplicity.
"I can't play at work, I like sleep, but live my life in 3 hour blocks the rest of the time"
Can also be flipped... can play at work, but spend my free time doing things away from a screen... I assume the number of runs would be similar.
Best case scenario: possible if you have 91 3* time boosts and can send shuttles every 90 minutes while awake / not otherwise engaged
"I like sleep, but live my life in 3 hour blocks the rest of the time"
This one surprised me. When I did the basic math (which again, could have been wrong), I got 21 runs at 4K. 21 runs is a lot more mathematically feasible, but good luck cramming in those 4 runs somewhere. Maybe I'm worse at scheduling than I thought?
Best case scenario: 90% shuttles + 27 3* time boosts + 16 3* reward boosters
"I should not operate firearms, heavy machinery, or raise children"
And so we have the mathematically possible benchmark, finally revealed.
My first thought was, "if anyone is this crazy/dedicated, good for them". But then I thought about the health implications of this schedule and how socially irresponsible this is, unless maybe if you're a shut in. Sleep deprivation is a real problem that should not be minimized, glorified, encouraged, or rewarded in any way.
Obviously, players don't have to play for 400k. But to me, this exercise underlined what I already knew - this is ridiculous for something that was originally rolled out as an incentive in reruns, not as part of extended thresholds. I'd say I'm stunned that DB is standing by this, but very little they do surprises me at this point. This is socially irresponsible game design and once again walks the predatory line.
For expanded context, I ran some rudimentary numbers on 3* time boosters since as you've already seen for most players, copious numbers are needed. You may be asking yourself, why did I double the number of boosts needed per run? Because 4 boosts only add a run...you need 8 to fit into the former 3 hour window. (Please check this assumption.)
Obtaining boosts from one week of Thursday cadet with doubler and bonus warps yields max 17 3* boost packs (6 tickets/doubled warp = 12 + 5 every four hours, no ticket warp)
3* timers drop at slightly better than 1 in 10 (I think someone else said 13%?) so let’s be (super) generous and say 23 timers - should also produce 16 3* doublers for sleep runs
11 are used by the kickstart, leaving 12, which adds 3 runs at 4 shuttles. So congrats to people who like sleep and can send 90% shuttles while living life in 3 hour bubbles - you are on the verge of weekly sustainability without spending.
I have the crew needed for 90% shuttles this current event, so here's a snapshot of what that looks like:
1 5/5 Agent Janeway Squad Share
1 1/5 Bartender Tuvok
1 1/5 Agent Janeway
1 1/5 Niners Sisko
1 1/5 High Roller Sisko
1 5/5 Assimilated Janeway
1 3/5 Benny Russell
1 4/5 Professor Sato
1 5/5 Guinan
1 1/5 Ameilia Earhart (all better ENG is on a voyage)
1 4/4 Maquis Ro
1 4/4 Hipocrates Noah
1 4/4 Assimilated Tuvok
1 4/4 Gabriel Bell
1 4/4 Disguised Tuvok
1 4/4 Mirror Janeway
In reserve:
1/5 Katrine (not used once)
1/5 Enemy Lines Sisko (not used once)
1/5 Admiral Janeway (not used once)
5/5 Bell Riots Bashir (used sparingly)
4/5 Prisoner Cornwell (used sparingly)
5/5 Dark Ages McCoy (used sparingly)
1/5 Captain Sisko (used sparingly)
4/4 Captain Janeway (used sparingly)
4/4 Tuvix (used sparingly)
4/4 Warship Janeway (on ice)
4/4 Mirror Sisko (on ice)
^^ All that’s with a top fleet starbase bonus and most skill awarding collections cleared
Total time played ~3 years VIP 13, daily player
I'm heartened that most forum denizens don't appear to actually support the 400K threshold. To the subsection of people that don't support 400K but have done their own maths and consider this "hard work", "challenging", "fun", or some other poorly chosen euphemism - I hope your math and scheduling skills are superior to mine; also we have a terminal failure of connotation agreement in word choice.
10
Comments
that was a good time. but once was enough.
i would describe shuttle events in general with one word: horrible.
only get 3/4 for the purple. no chance for gold. on the clock for 5 days
got to push the button every three hours 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42...
My crew isn't near as good as yours (1/5 Maquis Tuvok, Bartender Tuvok, Captain Sisko, Niners Sisko; 2/5 Admiral Janeway), so yeah ... don't have a chance.
That being said, I agree that 400k is an awfully high amount of vp for an old legendary. But we already got some sort of official answer on the other thread and it doesn't look like it's going to change.
They could change reward structures according to event types, but I guess there's no incentive for DB to do so.
I am surprised at the limited usefulness of so many bonus crew. My unused list is as follows (not including the kickstart):
-1/5* Katrine
-4/4* Captain Janeway
-1/5* Enemy Lines Sisko
-1/5* Niners Sisko
-frozen Mirror Sisko
-frozen Warship Janeway
-frozen second copy of Captain Janeway
But I suppose this will happen when SEC and DIP are so heavily featured in the event.
"...you are on the verge of weekly sustainability without spending." - yeah, that's your mistake. Faction events aren't every week.
If we assume using the same boosters across all shuttle-related events, that's still more than double the time boosters, which seems to make it much less of a challenge than your summaries suggest. Heck, if we're purely talking booster usage for Faction reruns to hit 400K for the Legendary, as your title suggests, we have one of these every eight weeks at most. Your numbers say that's 184 rare time boosters if they're saved for these specific events.
But assuming we're using boosters across all shuttley events, it's worth noting that hybrid events with shuttles don't require any such booster investment - I typically spend 15-19 rare time boosters in hybrids, to kickstart and get my shuttle times to be convenient. A few Trek episodes get the Galaxy portion done for an easy top-1K finish.
And there are also the shuttle booster tokens. Two are handed out per event. Use one each on two nights with a legendary 9-hour booster for an extra 16K per event. I've still got 16 of my 18 handed out from achievements stockpiled for an emergency (two were invested in making sure I got the EMA).
Third and fourth shuttles aside, the main two issues are crew depth and adwarp availability. If you don't yet have a decent crew for a particular faction-only event, then (shock, horror!) you won't get all of the rewards. And if you don't get adwarps or miss a few Thursdays of cadet missions, it will mean either intense booster management, or just insufficient boosters and a missed target.
Fortunately, because we're now being inundated with time boosters, it's possible to amass stockpiles in advance. But it does take some discipline and timing.
And that's the point of your argument that's beyond me - you seem to be saying that it's difficult to achieve 400K VP if one lacks discipline and timing, or dangerous to have that target for people who are babies who cannot manage their own lives. Of course challenges like this are going to be easier for better-organized people, just like competitive first-person shooters are easier for people with better reactions. And the idea that Timelines players are too inept to manage their own lives is... well, I can see why you claimed that was your motivation instead of 'I don't like having to work for these rewards', but it's still a little insulting.
This is also my complaint when hybrids include faction phase, The faction phase will contribute about 1/3 of the VP for those who finish top 1000. (Actually less for skirmish hybrid)
Actually maybe this is the answer, 6000 VP should be the award for the current 4000 VP.
All the VP for faction shuttle missions need to be increased by 50%.
Then DB could leave their reward structure intact.
This is the right answer right there. All of the different events should be brought into alignment for rewards. Though by that logic Skirmishes should possibly be reduced in points, as I can often complete thresholds in less than 2 episodes of Star Trek.
Ya, I was thinking the same thing about skirmishes.
DB should check the average VP for the top 2000 since they expanded the rewards. Then bring each event into a balance. It could mean increasing to bring in alignment with skirmishes. Or it could mean increasing the other events and decreasing skirmish VP rewarded.
If this is the case you need to report your employer to your local labour board for not giving you lunch and/or coffee breaks.
I’ve used nothing but skill boosts and 2x overnights since the quick start, which I started an hour late. Just hit the threshold an hour and a half ago.
This is so very true. Well said.
I'm just about to hit 300K with 13 hours to go.
I used the kickstart (10 3* boosts and 2 4* boosts)
I used 15 3* boosts once 4K shuttles were reached. I used 7 rental shuttles. I used 7 gold reward multipliers (without time extension) and 10 3* reward boosts (with time extension).
I am also squad leader, although I didn't get much kickback this time because some members were inactive.
But when it comes to shuttles without adequate boosts (possibly crew although I don't tend to struggle here but for new players it will definitely be an issue), knowledge of the kickstart. the threshold is not achievable. In all other events thresholds are achievable just with consistency and achievement and basic knowledge/sense of holding on to adequate amount of Chronitons or pre-farming.
The only other factor is lifestyle - which really should not be on the agenda - everyones lifestyle is different and it is unreasonable to expect a game to cater for each and every different one.
I personally feel if they raised the faction threshold to the same level they should have reduced what effectively is the 'cooldown' from 3 hours to 2 hours, if they can reduce shuttle time for event bonus winner I see no reason why they couldn't do that for ear marked event factions. They actually wouldn't be losing revenue on this because the top dogs would be insta-ending more shuttles.
On a side note,
I managed to get Janeway this morning and having power levelled her to 80 , I was able to send her out on 1 shuttle, of course she might make a second shuttle if I was prepared to throw down a 5* time boost, but it is neither needed nor necessary as my rank is pretty secure I think. So little use for her featured event. Not to mention the DTC will interfere with securing Landry; - if I was that way inclined.
I'm about 60k past threshold, and that is currently good for 460th place.
true enough and I would agree if we were talking about the newest legendary or something along those lines of high level reward, that should be difficult to achieve, but we are talking about the highest threshold level for an old legendary with diminished traits and stats.
Yeah, this really falls in a kind of no-man's-land where the ones that can attain the VP don't really need or want the reward, and the ones that it would help really can't, generally speaking. I'm not playing particularly hard, but I wouldn't even be putting this much effort into it if I didn't want to make a run at Pulaski next weekend. I am accepting that this Janeway and Landry I don't really want are just the cost of doing business.
It's about as logical as having a number 1 base Engineering crew at the 25k threshold
I did not use any dilithium.
I did not use any shuttle rental tokens.
I did not use any speed boosts after my kickstart.
I did set alarms overnight, but missed one wave of shuttles.
My shuttles were going out at 93%, 94%, 94% and 95% at 4000 points.
There are 1000 people who got Janeway the first time and are presumably capable of getting her this time. Some might use her FF, but most have her at 1/5 or 2/5. They want extra copies and are the reason the reward tier exists. They old 5* was never about being easy for people to get the crew, it was about providing a way to add stars in a rerun without forcing you to buy packs.