Shuttle Event Feedback from a returner
Kirkish1
✭✭
in The Bridge
Just started back after a 6 month hiatus, did the latest shuttle event and wanted to share my feedback. When I last played there were no such things as shuttle tokens. Wow have they changed the dynamics of that event. I bought the $99.99 pack the day before the event started, maxed out Tuvok, and shared him with my squad. After going very hard for 4 days I still ended up placing 1670. This includes using time and loot boosters, 10 shuttle tokens (at the end), and only failing 2 shuttle missions. I was extremely disappointed that I didn't at least place above the 1500 mark so I could get the next events 5 star crew prepped. I realize a lot of this game is pay to win but, holy cow, that was extremely discouraging for future events. Unless something changes I will most likely not be going that hard or spending that kind of money / dedication in the future.
A couple of suggestions I have.
1) Limit the number of shuttle tokens that can be used per event. This would still allow people to spend money on the event but also even the playing field a little.
2) Offer more 5 star crew as rewards. For example, making the reward available to people who place from 1-3000 instead of 1-1500.
Just my personal feedback so take it as you want.
A couple of suggestions I have.
1) Limit the number of shuttle tokens that can be used per event. This would still allow people to spend money on the event but also even the playing field a little.
2) Offer more 5 star crew as rewards. For example, making the reward available to people who place from 1-3000 instead of 1-1500.
Just my personal feedback so take it as you want.
0
Comments
Welcome Back!
When the tokens first appeared, I would have agreed with limiting them per event as it was very easy to buy a bunch.
Now that is not the case, they only appear as rewards in Faction events, and awards in the campaigns. (And they are very easy to accumulate, I had over 50 coming into this event) So it is very possible to horde the rentals and use them strategically.
One thing in particular about this event was the amount of strong bonus crew, it allowed me to run 8-10 shuttles at a time in some cases. Usually, I may only be strong enough to run 1 or 2 extra. So this event was an outlier.
This was my experience as well. I started with 60 tokens (having used few over the last couple of Faction and hybrid events) and ended up with 13. Same for boosts, where I came in with about 190 saved up and am around 90 now. Ended up ranked 623.
The kicker was indeed the huge number of good bonus crew - when I was pulling off five or six 90%+ time-boosted shuttles and another five or six 80+% skill-boosted shuttles, it was all thanks to relatively common crew like Ru’afo, Armus, the Borg Queen, Determined Janeway, and a litany of older 4* crew (my 1/5* Resilient Tuvok, immortal Klingon Janeway, immortal Warship Tuvok, 2/5* Rura Penthe Commandant, and 3/5* Survivalist Kirk all helped a lot but weren’t so widely available like the others). The large number of ENG seats were magnificently filled by crew like Time Loop Mudd, Prisoner O’Brien, EV Suit Tucker, alongside the 5* crew and Obrist. I even had a few shuttles using my 2/5* Khan, 1/5* Mirror Bashir, and Augment Riker (their shuttles got 4* ENG or SEC boosts and still got over 80% with ease).
All in all, this was a pretty rough event for a comeback. Tons of bonus crew, good supplies of tokens and boosts, and a desirable character made for a perfect storm...hopefully the hybrid at the end of the month won’t be so bad for you.
Since you've only been away 6 months, I'm assuming you had Ru'afo as a potential share. He would have been an excellent share, and as soon as you won Janeway you could have switched to sharing her. Sending four shuttles every three hours is no longer enough to place in the top 1500.
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
This is entirely correct. 4 shuttles every 3 hours will joe get you 2000-2500 so soon we will see a thread calling for the 1/5 ranked reward to be in that area.
DB was so hesitant to expand the first time but now they have 1700 people putting money and time into trying to get that prize rather than 1200 people. I wonder at what level the increased competition would truly fall off...
I did however use 60-odd 3* time boosts, had a successful kickstart and about 115k VP from my squad.
I used 2x reward tokens when I knew I wouldn't be able to collect a 90 minute mission. I also used 9hr boosts overnight (running two extra shuttles each time).
I stopped using boosts about 6 hours from the end once I realised I wouldn't get to the top 100 (which is an outstanding achievement for me)
In my experience tokens are not the problem nor the solution!
That's just my experience of course, your milage may vary...
For the record, I spent $0 on the event, although I had accumulated some shuttle tokens from previous events and from the campaign, where I did purchase the premium track. I did win a 1/5 Tuvok last weekend, whom I put to use in the event, but he was quickly replaced by Janeway as the crew I shared with my squad. I placed 669th.
I'm not planning to buy the premium track for the Picard campaign since I already have Biceps Picard immortalized. It will be an interesting experiment to see if I can still place in top 1500 on a faction event without those extra shuttle boosts and tokens.
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
for me to place now would require sending shuttles every 1.5 hours during the day. chained to the game every 1.5 hours for 5 days. so much fun.
my solution - skip shuttle events - done - tada!
This is true of almost all the events compared to a year or two ago. The amount of time the nearly elite (top player but not a "whale" spender) must play in order to rank high enough to win the legendary crew reward has increased noticeably.
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
This was my experience as well. I used roughly the same timers (and about 12 5* gold ones at the very end) and about 20 shuttle tokens saved up from 2 previous campaigns. Placed 289 and would of been higher if 3 90%+ 9 hour shuttles hadn’t failed.
It’s just about being strategic and picking which faction events you want to make a run on and planning accordingly!
Edit: A word
nah, not on galaxy for me. it's about 6 to 8 hours of clicking - same as the first galaxy event. and you know i'm cool with it. i hate sending shuttles out anyway and it makes the game better for me to only do 1 or 2 events a month. the question remains - what to do with hundreds of shuttle rental tokens?
Maybe in a different timeline?
this to me is the bigger issue. I'm F2P, and finished at 752. As of Sunday morning, I was top 250, but I didn't have it in me to spend another day checking in every 90 minutes.
*not squad leader, so no bonus there. Ran through about 8 rent-a-shuttles 70 3* time boosts, and 4 double-score boosts. As a F2P, I can't compete for the Legendary every week, but I've been trying for and winning roughly two per month consistently.
A while back, due to a screwup, they gave extra copies of the 5* crew to much worse ranks, but I can't recall the details. I know it was a Data Legendary.
I can tell you I had to work very hard to climb the board. I had to formulate a strategy to maximize my limited crew resources, commit a massive amount of resources (including dilithium), and I was in constant communication with another player (you know who you are) who offered me encouragement and a few strategic moves I used to help my situation, and I needed all of these to hang.
As you correctly observed, faction events have changed a lot since you last played. I hope you learn from this and come back stronger next time! It's good to have you back
Just remember to jumpstart right, and to always run the 3* shuttles for each faction, you'll do fine. Use your 2x boosts, always do your overnights, and make sure to clear them and send new ones out when they come home. You can be competitive without full stable of max crew and tons of tokens if you are diligent for 4 days straight.
Jim
So we have multiple prongs to compete, deep crew, strategic use of tokens harvested from daily work and small investment, diligent doubler hoarding, and of course the ever-present disciplined timing and kickstart proficiency. Any one of those can help surge or catch up, and when you choose to use them is strategic. I find that fun and actually feels *less* onerous than just mechanically responding to my phone timer every 90/180 minutes...