The doc has changed to a mostly text format, this is about all that can be done in Google Docs to reduce load times. You can, of course, reference crew photos on the wiki if you're not sure which version of crew you have in your behold, or use one of the other sites linked in the intro. The other features introduced alongside crew photos in the last big update will remain.
The intro now has photos of the last ten crew added with links to their crew notes. Crew with three or more event features are noted. We're also in the process of updating all stat ranks, event counts, crew notes, and skill set tracking.
The way crews are tiered is changing slightly as well. In the past, tiers were used to represent all facets of a crew where one excellent attribute would not outweigh an otherwise terrible crew (Ardra, Chancellor Gowron, etc.). Going forward, tiers will attempt to represent the use you can expect to get from a crew, even if they're only desirable for a single element. Tiers are still entirely subjective, will differ based on play style, and should be considered after the crews' notes.
In/out of portal demarcation has been updated to match today's portal update. All 608 crew notes (pending Jellico) have been updated within the last month, but the new entries to the portal will get another look over the next few days for those whose value would be affected by the portal additions.
I make very regular use of the BBB and alongside the very useful wiki it is an indispensable resource for the committed players of STT. I'd like to express my gratitude for all the work put into the book, and here's to another year of helpful info on tricky beholds.
I need some advice and both characters are equal level in the book.
I have a begold, and i have to choose between added a second star to chancellor l'rell orgetting a first copy of temporal prisoner chakotay.
So i cant choose.
I would add a star to l'rell. But only have 10 legendary crew, and the ENG/MED combination i really need in my roster. I struggle with both in voyages. So that makes chakotay tempting.
Chakotay will make a fantastic 11th legend for your crew, I wish I had him drop that soon in my game. He is very versatile to help bump up hard to fill voyage slots. He was the first crew I ever fully fused with honor from 1/5 to 5/5, and I'm now almost captain level 80 and he's still in at least a third of my voyages if not half.
Lrell is an excellent dip crew, but if you have the available slots Chakotay will be in your voyages for a long time to come, while DIP is easier to come by.
Tiers are being condensed to 10 for both legendary and super rare crew. Frankly, it can be difficult to find 14-15 levels of differentiation between crew, even as we're at about 300 of each. And it's simply easier for the brain to look at crew at a glance and understand how useful/desirable they are on a scale of 10.
This will have the side effect of even larger tiers and some level of variation within them depending on how you value each attribute of crew makeup. We hope that you will continue to ask other knowledgeable players, read the crew notes, and know what you're looking for in each behold rather than relying strictly on tiers in order to maximize your roster potential, though the tiers should still help new players from making particularly poor behold choices.
Since it's been asked before, Discovery crew will continue to have a small amount of additional value assigned to them for event work/base relevance. The timing of this latest mega being nowhere near a television season and it being the second this year are too significant to ignore if you're looking for chances to utilize crew in the future. 10 of 16 Discovery bonuses have included a Faction component.
Thank you for your patience as we do significant re-tiering (and ranking/event count updates) over the next couple weeks. If we can escape this particular update alive, there are some other changes/features in the works include potentially splitting the non-crew note information to a separate doc to reduce load times.
The new tier system blew my mind. I agree that 15 might be getting a bit too big; it kind of shocked me when I started editing my tracking document and found that there were a ton of changes...
The Guardians of Tomorrow Protecting the Galaxy's Future from itself
Not sure if this is the right place for this but was looking through the "picture book" version of the big book and noticed a few changes that need to be made http://stt.doroexplo.com/all
- Theres only 10 Tiers now
- Da Vinci - Now T3
- Pollard - Now T2
- New Eden Owo is a 4*, not 5*
Not sure if this is the right place for this but was looking through the "picture book" version of the big book and noticed a few changes that need to be made http://stt.doroexplo.com/all
- Theres only 10 Tiers now
- Da Vinci - Now T3
- Pollard - Now T2
- New Eden Owo is a 4*, not 5*
That site is maintained by someone else; you can contact him on Reddit. Unfortunately his site is updated manually and because of the volume of daily tweaks and updates we do, such discrepancies are a chronic issue. Props to him for hosting and maintaining it as long as he has, though.
Change the EDIT at the end of the URL to VIEW instead.
We're not getting faster times on varying devices (logged out), but that's great if it helps others, thank you. Will edit the OP link.
Thnx ... i use the site thru my ipony se, my old surface tab, and several desktops ... i think i noticed the diff on my surface , especially when on a slow wifi
In Edit view you can also see who else is "editing/viewing" the document .. and when they have selections thru the document you get their cursors ...
But that could have been me spying while you guys were updating .......
In Edit view you can also see who else is "editing/viewing" the document .. and when they have selections thru the document you get their cursors ...
But that could have been me spying while you guys were updating .......
Time to break out the Tinfoil Placebo hats ...
Haha that's a feature, not a bug™️. Outside of big formatting changes and new crew entries, we do all changes on the live doc so players can see them as they happen. Maybe that doesn't matter, but I think it's nice to know that it's active and always getting some TLC.
If you don't mind the critique - Vina has an incredibly negative write up, but you've installed her at tier 4, worth pushing or not? You indicate not, so why T4? Everything equal and below is also virtually worthless???
The BB has been an invaluable resource, many thanks to all those that have contributed, but, to my mind, T4 should read a lot more positive if truly T4.
If you don't mind the critique - Vina has an incredibly negative write up, but you've installed her at tier 4, worth pushing or not? You indicate not, so why T4? Everything equal and below is also virtually worthless???
The BB has been an invaluable resource, many thanks to all those that have contributed, but, to my mind, T4 should read a lot more positive if truly T4.
I've been asked this once before, so allow me to explain the thought process here. Crew notes and tiers typically jive in the manner you describe above, but not always. Rogers, L'Rell, and others are from the same tier and read similarly.
The two main components of tiers are where a crew's power/usefulness sits in the current landscape of the game and as a more minor consideration, how well they will age in the future. Before I start rambling, let's look at Vina specifically. I attempt to explain the discrepancy at the end of her note;
But despite the above panning, Vina’s stats are significant enough to garner shuttle and voyage work on any roster and a splash of MED is something we rarely pass on, especially if you weren’t playing during the former MED/DIP megas. A strong and relevant crew in the current game’s landscape may shrivel up if Discovery events do too.
and put a bow on it that sums up my/our thoughts on her, like they taught us in English class Vina mostly checks the box for the first component of tiers - strength and/or relevance in the current landscape of the game. We're in the middle of our fourth Discovery mega and she has great usability in those as well as a good overall voyage score (~83rd percentile), the 4th ranked DIP/MED voyager, and a top 5 base.
Now, part of what pulls those great attributes 'down' to t4 is the rest of the card; no gauntlet/arena considerations, a common skill set among those which contain MED (23 other crew share it), a primary skill which is easy to find, frequently introduced, and has more representation than is demanded by Faction seating (see the bottom of the BB doc for more), poor traits, etc.
When we introduce the other component, how a crew ages, there's a lot of overlap with her current cons. [As a brief aside, this portion of our evaluations is the most speculative, but we try to base it on DB's previous behavior/communication and never solely on hunches or guesses] DIP receives a lot of love, historically. The skill has more crew with scores of 1,000/1,100/1,200 than any other skill, despite being behind CMD and SEC in Faction seating opportunity. Not only is the value of a DIP base over a replacement crew lower than other skills, but they're also introduced at a high power level more frequently.
The same can be said for Vina's skill set, within the context of MED. You can see the skill pair representation in the bottom of the BB doc as well - DIP/MED is the most populous of the MED combinations for her category (3-skill legendary), in fact by a factor of three or more over most of the other MED combinations. Although a secondary-or-better MED is generally considered a voyage strength (addressed in Vina's note - "a splash of MED is something we rarely pass on") and is something we consider a plus when ranking crew, her particular skill set is near the bottom of usefulness out of all those MED skill set permutations.
The other future consideration which doesn't overlap to the same degree and is the most speculative is event chances. We look at variant and trait event possibilities and try to gauge the likelihood of them showing up in the future. One of the key factors here is the size of the pool of available bonus crew. To my knowledge, there has never been an event with over 100 bonus crew. The recent Worf/Disco Faction where many players said they had more crew than they could fit into their shuttles had 79 bonus crew and an anomaly from back in early 2018 had 73. Four of Vina's five traits have representation numbering well over 100 and Diplomat is not a trait that I would categorize as having a rosy outlook. Again speculative, but non-racial collection traits have not exceeded one event (Physician, Innovator), with the rather gray-area exception of Xindi (2).
Then we look at Discovery. The TL;DR here is 'who the **tsk tsk** knows?', but in a vacuum, it's a plus consideration in the short term and a minus in the long term. Is it possible that CB$ wants DB to run Discovery mega events with 150 bonus crew? Sure. Would I rather invest in a character with a strong variant event history like Kirk (15) or Data (13) instead? Yea. And when the bonus pool reaches a certain size, good ol' value over replacement kicks in again and your Disco super rares stop making shuttles as you've had so many previous mega events granting you Discovery crew.
So a somewhat negative future outlook coupled with her current downsides felt, to me, to be a notable enough portion of the card to be the thing to talk the most about in her note. But since her current power level is significant and is the majority of what tiers are based off of (because it's less speculative and can be [and is] constantly adjusted based on what DB does with new crew/events), we agreed on t4 and I did my best to outline what her biggest considerations are in the note.
In the broader context, the type of crew who might elicit that sort of dissonance between tier and note generally fall into one of two categories; 'weak but unique' or strong, but with narrow use/poor future outlook.
The weak but unique crowd are fairly polarizing crew and more roster dependent because even though something like a fantastic skill set can make a Caretaker one of the best voyagers in the game, its voyage value degenerates quickly if not backed up by power. And that same skill set can tank shuttle desirability as certain skill pairings (ENG/MED, CMD/MED) may go several events without a single seat available.
Take, for example, Imprinted Archer. He's currently in tier 5 (above average), but with a decidedly negative write-up. A voyage rank below #200 means that on strong enough endgame rosters 🐋🐋, he's functionally useless in that area, despite having one of the best skill sets possible. [This assertion is from speaking with players in that situation, not just number crunching] Such a roster would use ENG/xxx/MED or MED/xxx/xxx crew with big voyage scores (Caretaker, Cornwell) to piece together a more ideal voyage. Skill set or power alone do not dictate voyage efficacy; you have to find the right balance.
However, on rosters that aren't quite there yet, his skill set will play like a crew with a much higher score because it can otherwise be too difficult to get both featured skills high enough if they're an uncommon pairing.
There's also something of an inverse relationship between voyages and shuttles. Voyages demand equal representation, so thanks to the concept of value over replacement, an ENG/MED skill set is several times more valuable than a CMD/DIP/SEC of equal strength. While on shuttles, you're often forced to utilize only one base from a crew with a rare skill pairing, which robs you of the extra scoring potential of 'and' seats. This relationship isn't exactly relevant to the note/tier discussion, but is worth considering. If you place more value on voyages, you want those rare skill sets. If you love Faction events, ENG/MED and other such crew lose value.
The doc is generally tailored to the average player and not endgame or whales, and so Archer is a plus voyage player in the short term who will be power creeped much faster than his skill set suggests, as it lacks power. In this case, his note is negative (warning), but his current usability on an average roster is fairly good.
On the other end of the spectrum are the crew whose numbers are good enough to demand day one use, but are a lock to be flooded with competition or have very narrow use. The Basic **tsk tsk**, if you will.
Chancellor L'Rell comes to mind. Her note is pretty negative despite debuting as a top 5 base and top 30 voyager (I think) with a fat event count. In fact, that note still calls her the #1 Disco DIP despite currently being third (NE Pike, Vina), which goes to show how certain elements are historically power creeped like clockwork. But she was in t3 because her power at the time (and usability on the average roster) demanded it.
We do our best to try to identify and highlight the sort of markers that will cause a crew's value to fluctuate more rapidly than most. In fact, there's even a Value Highlights section in there. A crew can be ranked highly while also having a terrible future outlook, because if we tried to rank solely on how an investment would look it a year or two, it would be a hot mess and a thousand times more subjective than it already is. Those dissonant crew notes are our attempt at warning players while also admitting with a high ranking that they would certainly have use on present day rosters. Or, in the reverse scenario, that they excel in one area while being garbage elsewhere and that one area may be significant enough to justify taking them over other crew (Chancellor Gowron, Ardra, etc.).
There's also something of an inverse relationship between voyages and shuttles. Voyages demand equal representation, so thanks to the concept of value over replacement, an ENG/MED skill set is several times more valuable than a CMD/DIP/SEC of equal strength. While on shuttles, you're often forced to utilize only one base from a crew with a rare skill pairing, which robs you of the extra scoring potential of 'and' seats. This relationship isn't exactly relevant to the note/tier discussion, but is worth considering. If you place more value on voyages, you want those rare skill sets. If you love Faction events, ENG/MED and other such crew lose value.
This is an important point that I don’t see discussed often (or at all, really). Case in point: my immortal White Rabbit is my best ENG/MED voyager and it’s not even that close - The Caretaker is I think several hundred points behind despite also being immortal (I’m on the road for work and can’t check my master spreadsheet). The Rabbit makes any voyage with any two of his skills, as well any others where I need a MED or ENG boost from any seat he can fill. Voyage utility for me is off the charts.
For shuttles? White Rabbit is only my third best option for straight ENG slots (behind two mega legendaries) and is well behind Spider Barclay, Mirror Cochrane, Leonardo, and Survivalist Kirk for ENG/SCI seats. And as my tenth-best doctor, there is literally no time when the Rabbit would fill a MED or MED/SCI seat (if a voyage needs MED that badly, he’d be on it anyway). His ENG base is great and if he’s not on a voyage he is very likely to end up on a shuttle, but VORP compared to other engineers is very limited for shuttle use.
Thanks for your explanation on Vina. I used to take the BB tiers as gospel, but now that I’ve gotten a little farther in the game, I appreciate the unique balancing act you have to do.
I don’t think you’ll ever go *wrong* going by the BB, but I’ve been musing citing up Amanda Rogers despite the fact she’s “only” a Tier 4, because for one reason, I think her Voyage use will be off the charts for the foreseeable future on my roster (much like the poster above with the White Rabbit.)
I appreciate your detailed notes because it helps me make my own decisions about what works best for my roster—and the tiers do make great starting points for discussion, as well as providing a “can’t go wrong” baseline for newer/less serious players.
I know you’ve gotten a lot of thanks already, but just another thank you from me you and your contributors, not only for doing the work in the first place, but also for making it so widely available. And kudos for being willing to answer questions when something doesn’t make sense to a player. That’s something that a lot of creators don’t have the time or the inclination to do.
I don’t think you’ll ever go *wrong* going by the BB, but I’ve been musing citing up Amanda Rogers despite the fact she’s “only” a Tier 4, because for one reason, I think her Voyage use will be off the charts for the foreseeable future on my roster (much like the poster above with the White Rabbit.)
I appreciate your detailed notes because it helps me make my own decisions about what works best for my roster—and the tiers do make great starting points for discussion, as well as providing a “can’t go wrong” baseline for newer/less serious players.
These tier lists have always been so cool to me. In trading card games as a kid, or the artifact tier list in some other mobile game I used to play. Opening a pack and then eagerly looking up the choices to see if I got anything good was fun. Christmas in July. STT is a bit different, of course, since your love of the character plays a big role. But having something for new and casual players was definitely the goal.
When I first started playing, I sought out some kind of rankings list so I wouldn't get myself started on the wrong foot or miss something that I'd kick myself about forever. There was a tier list on the old forums and I was thrilled when I consulted it and saw that Commander Uhura was listed as S class. Full props to its creator - 2016 was a way different game and I am grateful to have had a list to consult and learn from. No complaints about that. But the fact that she never did a damn thing for me, sat at 1/4 for over a year, and then wasn't even the best choice for me in a galaxy feature at FF is something that has always stuck in my craw. So having, as you say, an up-to-date baseline where (just about) everyone can agree within a 2-3 tier difference is a big boon to new players, I hope.
I'm right with you guys on roster construction. I'd move White Rabbit to the head of the line if I had him - ENG/MED is about 30 minutes behind my other voyage combos. My advice to anyone who thinks they have even the slightest clue what they're doing; ignore the tiers unless it's 2 vs 8. Read the notes and see if what they offer is what you need.
Many thanks for the replies Automaton_2000, interesting to see how thought process work.
Maybe I misread/ misunderstood something I read a while back, card stats; Base for Shuttles, Proficiency for Gauntlet, Combined for Voyages.
I'll give you Annorax (the unloved one) T6, Voyages #118, is superior to to Honored Owesekan T3, Voyages #21 by those rules, or do the 50ish points difference (given my starbase and collection bonuses which should work out fairly even anyway) really make nearly 100 places position difference?
As for Vina, her 'competition' in my crew is Commander Troi, who gets no game time beyond faction quick start. Vina may well be better, BUT, is she usable beyond the next part of the mega? Tenavik will have use beyond the coming weekend, but the other 4 golds from the event???
Alos, whilst I'm at it, I'm not convinced that gauntlet strength or otherwise is particularly relevent in the tiers, maybe as a bonus to move up a level, but overall, fairly pointless given the top 'prize' is another gauntlet character, that yuo don't actually getting for winning ......
Many thanks for the replies Automaton_2000, interesting to see how thought process work.
Maybe I misread/ misunderstood something I read a while back, card stats; Base for Shuttles, Proficiency for Gauntlet, Combined for Voyages.
I'll give you Annorax (the unloved one) T6, Voyages #118, is superior to to Honored Owesekan T3, Voyages #21 by those rules, or do the 50ish points difference (given my starbase and collection bonuses which should work out fairly even anyway) really make nearly 100 places position difference?
As for Vina, her 'competition' in my crew is Commander Troi, who gets no game time beyond faction quick start. Vina may well be better, BUT, is she usable beyond the next part of the mega? Tenavik will have use beyond the coming weekend, but the other 4 golds from the event???
Alos, whilst I'm at it, I'm not convinced that gauntlet strength or otherwise is particularly relevent in the tiers, maybe as a bonus to move up a level, but overall, fairly pointless given the top 'prize' is another gauntlet character, that yuo don't actually getting for winning ......
I don't quite understand what you're asking with Annorax/Owo. If you're talking about the 'Combined' tab in-game in the crew panel, that only looks at one skill compared to all three for voyage rank and the 'Combined' tab is base + maximum proficiency, whereas voyages takes base + average proficiency.
Vina will be just fine after this mega event. I posted this in the event thread that talks a little bit to her voyage potential on the average roster. And she still has a big DIP base that you will find shuttle work for if you star her up. Losing Discovery megas will hurt for sure, but we don't know if that's a certainty yet.
It's funny you say that about the gauntlet, I just had someone say yesterday that the doc undervalues gauntlet contributions. We try to give events and gauntlet equal consideration and trust the player to make the behold choice that benefits their style of play the most.
We've been talking about Vina and the Discovery crew for most of the day and to go back to what you said the other day, her note probably is too harsh and we're not seeing a tier difference between her and the likes of New Eden Pike or Honored Owosekun. Losing event chances would hurt her a lot, but that's true of about 60 other crew at this point. She's still a strong voyager and even the fortuitous timing on her 45% Romantic/Federation/Diplomat gauntlet going on right now is saying to give her another look.
Alos, whilst I'm at it, I'm not convinced that gauntlet strength or otherwise is particularly relevent in the tiers, maybe as a bonus to move up a level, but overall, fairly pointless given the top 'prize' is another gauntlet character, that yuo don't actually getting for winning ......
Just to pick up on this last point but this is the big book of behold advice, chances are you are looking at this document because you are unlocking a crew at 1/5 and you're not sure of their use. Gauntlet would therefore be a strong argument for choosing a new card (as you only ever need them at 1/5) also high proficiency can make that card a stronger than the average 1/5 in terms of voyage score (because by fully equipping them you have unlocked their overall voyage potential much sooner), so they may make more voyages than others at 1/5.
I won't go down the gauntlet argument as there is extensive arguments on the forum about the Pros and Cons of participating in gauntlet. My view will remain that there is far more pros to cons.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
Comments
I turned off the cross-site tracking option on my iPad, and that appears to have done the trick.
Thank you kindly...
The intro now has photos of the last ten crew added with links to their crew notes. Crew with three or more event features are noted. We're also in the process of updating all stat ranks, event counts, crew notes, and skill set tracking.
The way crews are tiered is changing slightly as well. In the past, tiers were used to represent all facets of a crew where one excellent attribute would not outweigh an otherwise terrible crew (Ardra, Chancellor Gowron, etc.). Going forward, tiers will attempt to represent the use you can expect to get from a crew, even if they're only desirable for a single element. Tiers are still entirely subjective, will differ based on play style, and should be considered after the crews' notes.
Yes, thank you.
Happy anniversary, and a big thank you to everyone who has worked on this project!
Captain Level: 95
VIP Level: 12
Unique Crew Immortalized: 525
Collections Completed: Vulcan, Ferengi, Borg, Romulan, Cardassian, Uncommon, Rare, Veteran, Common, Engineered, Physician, Innovator, Inspiring, Diplomat, Jury Rigger, Gauntlet Legends
I have a begold, and i have to choose between added a second star to chancellor l'rell orgetting a first copy of temporal prisoner chakotay.
So i cant choose.
I would add a star to l'rell. But only have 10 legendary crew, and the ENG/MED combination i really need in my roster. I struggle with both in voyages. So that makes chakotay tempting.
Anyone any advice?
Lrell is an excellent dip crew, but if you have the available slots Chakotay will be in your voyages for a long time to come, while DIP is easier to come by.
This will have the side effect of even larger tiers and some level of variation within them depending on how you value each attribute of crew makeup. We hope that you will continue to ask other knowledgeable players, read the crew notes, and know what you're looking for in each behold rather than relying strictly on tiers in order to maximize your roster potential, though the tiers should still help new players from making particularly poor behold choices.
Since it's been asked before, Discovery crew will continue to have a small amount of additional value assigned to them for event work/base relevance. The timing of this latest mega being nowhere near a television season and it being the second this year are too significant to ignore if you're looking for chances to utilize crew in the future. 10 of 16 Discovery bonuses have included a Faction component.
Thank you for your patience as we do significant re-tiering (and ranking/event count updates) over the next couple weeks. If we can escape this particular update alive, there are some other changes/features in the works include potentially splitting the non-crew note information to a separate doc to reduce load times.
Protecting the Galaxy's Future from itself
Change the EDIT at the end of the URL to VIEW instead.
This will load the page/hyperlink/favorite in reading mode, which will reduce the load time since no editing components will be loaded.
- Theres only 10 Tiers now
- Da Vinci - Now T3
- Pollard - Now T2
- New Eden Owo is a 4*, not 5*
We're not getting faster times on varying devices (logged out), but that's great if it helps others, thank you. Will edit the OP link.
That site is maintained by someone else; you can contact him on Reddit. Unfortunately his site is updated manually and because of the volume of daily tweaks and updates we do, such discrepancies are a chronic issue. Props to him for hosting and maintaining it as long as he has, though.
In Edit view you can also see who else is "editing/viewing" the document .. and when they have selections thru the document you get their cursors ...
But that could have been me spying while you guys were updating .......
Time to break out the Tinfoil Placebo hats ...
Haha that's a feature, not a bug™️. Outside of big formatting changes and new crew entries, we do all changes on the live doc so players can see them as they happen. Maybe that doesn't matter, but I think it's nice to know that it's active and always getting some TLC.
Genius :-)
The BB has been an invaluable resource, many thanks to all those that have contributed, but, to my mind, T4 should read a lot more positive if truly T4.
I've been asked this once before, so allow me to explain the thought process here. Crew notes and tiers typically jive in the manner you describe above, but not always. Rogers, L'Rell, and others are from the same tier and read similarly.
The two main components of tiers are where a crew's power/usefulness sits in the current landscape of the game and as a more minor consideration, how well they will age in the future. Before I start rambling, let's look at Vina specifically. I attempt to explain the discrepancy at the end of her note;
and put a bow on it that sums up my/our thoughts on her, like they taught us in English class
Now, part of what pulls those great attributes 'down' to t4 is the rest of the card; no gauntlet/arena considerations, a common skill set among those which contain MED (23 other crew share it), a primary skill which is easy to find, frequently introduced, and has more representation than is demanded by Faction seating (see the bottom of the BB doc for more), poor traits, etc.
When we introduce the other component, how a crew ages, there's a lot of overlap with her current cons. [As a brief aside, this portion of our evaluations is the most speculative, but we try to base it on DB's previous behavior/communication and never solely on hunches or guesses] DIP receives a lot of love, historically. The skill has more crew with scores of 1,000/1,100/1,200 than any other skill, despite being behind CMD and SEC in Faction seating opportunity. Not only is the value of a DIP base over a replacement crew lower than other skills, but they're also introduced at a high power level more frequently.
The same can be said for Vina's skill set, within the context of MED. You can see the skill pair representation in the bottom of the BB doc as well - DIP/MED is the most populous of the MED combinations for her category (3-skill legendary), in fact by a factor of three or more over most of the other MED combinations. Although a secondary-or-better MED is generally considered a voyage strength (addressed in Vina's note - "a splash of MED is something we rarely pass on") and is something we consider a plus when ranking crew, her particular skill set is near the bottom of usefulness out of all those MED skill set permutations.
The other future consideration which doesn't overlap to the same degree and is the most speculative is event chances. We look at variant and trait event possibilities and try to gauge the likelihood of them showing up in the future. One of the key factors here is the size of the pool of available bonus crew. To my knowledge, there has never been an event with over 100 bonus crew. The recent Worf/Disco Faction where many players said they had more crew than they could fit into their shuttles had 79 bonus crew and an anomaly from back in early 2018 had 73. Four of Vina's five traits have representation numbering well over 100 and Diplomat is not a trait that I would categorize as having a rosy outlook. Again speculative, but non-racial collection traits have not exceeded one event (Physician, Innovator), with the rather gray-area exception of Xindi (2).
Then we look at Discovery. The TL;DR here is 'who the **tsk tsk** knows?', but in a vacuum, it's a plus consideration in the short term and a minus in the long term. Is it possible that CB$ wants DB to run Discovery mega events with 150 bonus crew? Sure. Would I rather invest in a character with a strong variant event history like Kirk (15) or Data (13) instead? Yea. And when the bonus pool reaches a certain size, good ol' value over replacement kicks in again and your Disco super rares stop making shuttles as you've had so many previous mega events granting you Discovery crew.
So a somewhat negative future outlook coupled with her current downsides felt, to me, to be a notable enough portion of the card to be the thing to talk the most about in her note. But since her current power level is significant and is the majority of what tiers are based off of (because it's less speculative and can be [and is] constantly adjusted based on what DB does with new crew/events), we agreed on t4 and I did my best to outline what her biggest considerations are in the note.
In the broader context, the type of crew who might elicit that sort of dissonance between tier and note generally fall into one of two categories; 'weak but unique' or strong, but with narrow use/poor future outlook.
The weak but unique crowd are fairly polarizing crew and more roster dependent because even though something like a fantastic skill set can make a Caretaker one of the best voyagers in the game, its voyage value degenerates quickly if not backed up by power. And that same skill set can tank shuttle desirability as certain skill pairings (ENG/MED, CMD/MED) may go several events without a single seat available.
Take, for example, Imprinted Archer. He's currently in tier 5 (above average), but with a decidedly negative write-up. A voyage rank below #200 means that on strong enough endgame rosters 🐋🐋, he's functionally useless in that area, despite having one of the best skill sets possible. [This assertion is from speaking with players in that situation, not just number crunching] Such a roster would use ENG/xxx/MED or MED/xxx/xxx crew with big voyage scores (Caretaker, Cornwell) to piece together a more ideal voyage. Skill set or power alone do not dictate voyage efficacy; you have to find the right balance.
However, on rosters that aren't quite there yet, his skill set will play like a crew with a much higher score because it can otherwise be too difficult to get both featured skills high enough if they're an uncommon pairing.
There's also something of an inverse relationship between voyages and shuttles. Voyages demand equal representation, so thanks to the concept of value over replacement, an ENG/MED skill set is several times more valuable than a CMD/DIP/SEC of equal strength. While on shuttles, you're often forced to utilize only one base from a crew with a rare skill pairing, which robs you of the extra scoring potential of 'and' seats. This relationship isn't exactly relevant to the note/tier discussion, but is worth considering. If you place more value on voyages, you want those rare skill sets. If you love Faction events, ENG/MED and other such crew lose value.
The doc is generally tailored to the average player and not endgame or whales, and so Archer is a plus voyage player in the short term who will be power creeped much faster than his skill set suggests, as it lacks power. In this case, his note is negative (warning), but his current usability on an average roster is fairly good.
On the other end of the spectrum are the crew whose numbers are good enough to demand day one use, but are a lock to be flooded with competition or have very narrow use. The Basic **tsk tsk**, if you will.
Chancellor L'Rell comes to mind. Her note is pretty negative despite debuting as a top 5 base and top 30 voyager (I think) with a fat event count. In fact, that note still calls her the #1 Disco DIP despite currently being third (NE Pike, Vina), which goes to show how certain elements are historically power creeped like clockwork. But she was in t3 because her power at the time (and usability on the average roster) demanded it.
We do our best to try to identify and highlight the sort of markers that will cause a crew's value to fluctuate more rapidly than most. In fact, there's even a Value Highlights section in there. A crew can be ranked highly while also having a terrible future outlook, because if we tried to rank solely on how an investment would look it a year or two, it would be a hot mess and a thousand times more subjective than it already is. Those dissonant crew notes are our attempt at warning players while also admitting with a high ranking that they would certainly have use on present day rosters. Or, in the reverse scenario, that they excel in one area while being garbage elsewhere and that one area may be significant enough to justify taking them over other crew (Chancellor Gowron, Ardra, etc.).
This is an important point that I don’t see discussed often (or at all, really). Case in point: my immortal White Rabbit is my best ENG/MED voyager and it’s not even that close - The Caretaker is I think several hundred points behind despite also being immortal (I’m on the road for work and can’t check my master spreadsheet). The Rabbit makes any voyage with any two of his skills, as well any others where I need a MED or ENG boost from any seat he can fill. Voyage utility for me is off the charts.
For shuttles? White Rabbit is only my third best option for straight ENG slots (behind two mega legendaries) and is well behind Spider Barclay, Mirror Cochrane, Leonardo, and Survivalist Kirk for ENG/SCI seats. And as my tenth-best doctor, there is literally no time when the Rabbit would fill a MED or MED/SCI seat (if a voyage needs MED that badly, he’d be on it anyway). His ENG base is great and if he’s not on a voyage he is very likely to end up on a shuttle, but VORP compared to other engineers is very limited for shuttle use.
I don’t think you’ll ever go *wrong* going by the BB, but I’ve been musing citing up Amanda Rogers despite the fact she’s “only” a Tier 4, because for one reason, I think her Voyage use will be off the charts for the foreseeable future on my roster (much like the poster above with the White Rabbit.)
I appreciate your detailed notes because it helps me make my own decisions about what works best for my roster—and the tiers do make great starting points for discussion, as well as providing a “can’t go wrong” baseline for newer/less serious players.
I know you’ve gotten a lot of thanks already, but just another thank you from me you and your contributors, not only for doing the work in the first place, but also for making it so widely available. And kudos for being willing to answer questions when something doesn’t make sense to a player. That’s something that a lot of creators don’t have the time or the inclination to do.
These tier lists have always been so cool to me. In trading card games as a kid, or the artifact tier list in some other mobile game I used to play. Opening a pack and then eagerly looking up the choices to see if I got anything good was fun. Christmas in July. STT is a bit different, of course, since your love of the character plays a big role. But having something for new and casual players was definitely the goal.
When I first started playing, I sought out some kind of rankings list so I wouldn't get myself started on the wrong foot or miss something that I'd kick myself about forever. There was a tier list on the old forums and I was thrilled when I consulted it and saw that Commander Uhura was listed as S class. Full props to its creator - 2016 was a way different game and I am grateful to have had a list to consult and learn from. No complaints about that. But the fact that she never did a damn thing for me, sat at 1/4 for over a year, and then wasn't even the best choice for me in a galaxy feature at FF is something that has always stuck in my craw. So having, as you say, an up-to-date baseline where (just about) everyone can agree within a 2-3 tier difference is a big boon to new players, I hope.
I'm right with you guys on roster construction. I'd move White Rabbit to the head of the line if I had him - ENG/MED is about 30 minutes behind my other voyage combos. My advice to anyone who thinks they have even the slightest clue what they're doing; ignore the tiers unless it's 2 vs 8. Read the notes and see if what they offer is what you need.
Maybe I misread/ misunderstood something I read a while back, card stats; Base for Shuttles, Proficiency for Gauntlet, Combined for Voyages.
I'll give you Annorax (the unloved one) T6, Voyages #118, is superior to to Honored Owesekan T3, Voyages #21 by those rules, or do the 50ish points difference (given my starbase and collection bonuses which should work out fairly even anyway) really make nearly 100 places position difference?
As for Vina, her 'competition' in my crew is Commander Troi, who gets no game time beyond faction quick start. Vina may well be better, BUT, is she usable beyond the next part of the mega? Tenavik will have use beyond the coming weekend, but the other 4 golds from the event???
Alos, whilst I'm at it, I'm not convinced that gauntlet strength or otherwise is particularly relevent in the tiers, maybe as a bonus to move up a level, but overall, fairly pointless given the top 'prize' is another gauntlet character, that yuo don't actually getting for winning ......
I don't quite understand what you're asking with Annorax/Owo. If you're talking about the 'Combined' tab in-game in the crew panel, that only looks at one skill compared to all three for voyage rank and the 'Combined' tab is base + maximum proficiency, whereas voyages takes base + average proficiency.
Vina will be just fine after this mega event. I posted this in the event thread that talks a little bit to her voyage potential on the average roster. And she still has a big DIP base that you will find shuttle work for if you star her up. Losing Discovery megas will hurt for sure, but we don't know if that's a certainty yet.
It's funny you say that about the gauntlet, I just had someone say yesterday that the doc undervalues gauntlet contributions. We try to give events and gauntlet equal consideration and trust the player to make the behold choice that benefits their style of play the most.
We've been talking about Vina and the Discovery crew for most of the day and to go back to what you said the other day, her note probably is too harsh and we're not seeing a tier difference between her and the likes of New Eden Pike or Honored Owosekun. Losing event chances would hurt her a lot, but that's true of about 60 other crew at this point. She's still a strong voyager and even the fortuitous timing on her 45% Romantic/Federation/Diplomat gauntlet going on right now is saying to give her another look.
Just to pick up on this last point but this is the big book of behold advice, chances are you are looking at this document because you are unlocking a crew at 1/5 and you're not sure of their use. Gauntlet would therefore be a strong argument for choosing a new card (as you only ever need them at 1/5) also high proficiency can make that card a stronger than the average 1/5 in terms of voyage score (because by fully equipping them you have unlocked their overall voyage potential much sooner), so they may make more voyages than others at 1/5.
I won't go down the gauntlet argument as there is extensive arguments on the forum about the Pros and Cons of participating in gauntlet. My view will remain that there is far more pros to cons.