Why do primary/secondary base stats switch with stars?

Ishmael Marx

Is there any consensus about why some crew have base stats that reverse their primary vs secondary assignment as stars are added? Just for a handful of examples -

Agent Janeway - SEC primary from 1* to 4*, then becomes DIP at 5*.
Gul Madred - SEC primary through 4*, then CMD primary at 5*.
The Keeper - SCI primary through 2*, then MED primary starting with 3*.

There are others - these just happen to be crew I've had recent experience with.

DavideBooks

Adding stars adds base value without regard to equipment. Some crew get huge skill boosts with equipment that eventually become overshadowed by base increases with stars.

Bylo Band

^ ACCEPTED ANSWER ^

Paladin 27

DavideBooks wrote: »

Adding stars adds base value without regard to equipment. Some crew get huge skill boosts with equipment that eventually become overshadowed by base increases with stars.

So this makes sense for Agent Janeway whose dip is best at lvl 1 1/5 and as you add items it switches to sec. Adding stars puts dip back in the lead eventually.

However Madred isn’t as straight forward. Per the wiki he is sec primary at lvl 1 at all fusions. Makes no sense that cmd can overtake at 5* from items when it doesn’t at the first four fusions.

Ishmael Marx

Admittedly I was only considering their FE stats, not the level 1 starting stats, so that's well noted. Still seems odd that crew would be designed such that their fusion level would alter the impact of their equipment. Or reverse that - that equipment could overshadow their "true" abilities - however you prefer to think of it.

If we put aside the math of it, just consider the conceptual issue. As a crew member is trained in their craft and dons the tools of their trade (equipment), they become a high achiever in ability A. As they gain more life experience (if that's how we want to interpret fusion level), their best characteristic changes from their trained ability to ability B. I suppose ability B could reflect parallel training, or latent skills, or perhaps just late-blooming abilities. Certainly some people follow this path in real life. The majority of crew do not do this skill-switch, but I suppose that also is reflective of real life.

If we fully-fuse one of these cards before FE'ing the card, then from our perspective their career training never catches up to their life experience (which in this scenario would be fully formed rather early in their life). I guess that could be interpreted as a person whose career is mis-matched to their personality.

I realize I'm overthinking this with respect to the game designers. It's just an interesting thought exercise to me.