set clearly defined goals, do all the research you can, make decisions in service to your goals, live with the results.
This bit of your strategy is good advice, and almost every word beyond that diluted the message and colored it with some not so good advice. You seem very hung up on getting people to discard their 1/5s for a paltry 550 honor. Legendaries have a very broad application and have changing value week to week.
On average (with no assumed set of desires) you should not just ditch legendaries for 550 honor. The narrower you define your wants the less likely you are going to need that much honor. So if you have a broad set of aims you are going to want most legendaries. If you have a narrow set of aims you are going to need less honor and you should hold on to most legendaries because they might help you advance one of your other goals (in a faction for example, or if there is a new game mechanic). Should space become an issue, then decide whether to ditch a 1/5 and ditch the worst one. If you desperately need to raise 550 honor in 2 minutes sure ditch one then, but all-in-all as a strategy ditching legendaries is for the vast majority of people likely to be a bad idea.
For the record I have ditched legendaries, usually extras, and I have a set of 1/5s already marked for doom if the need arises, so I am not airlock averse. But a good strategy takes account of unknowns, and you never know when a legendary will help you so proactively airlocking them is bad advice.
I’m much in the same boat - I’ve kept most of the legendaries I have landed but have frozen or airlocked judiciously to make sure I have enough room to thaw out any Faction event bonus crew I need. I can place in the top 1500 of any event I choose, I routinely get to 9-9:30 on voyages, and am happy with where I am and where I am going.
Personally, I'd just stick with Travis's approach ... it is okay to airlock a 5* if that fits how you play, no matter what the whole system behind it is.
@Travis S McClain ... uh ... I'm in a fleet where all the cool kids hang out and I don't airlock 5*s!! Hope I don't get kicked out!!
By proclaiming your admiration for my superior intellect, you have earned a reprieve, @RaraRacing. You may continue to serve.
I suppose it's a good strategy, but I'm a hoarder. If I get four copies of a SR who is main cast and has a base over 900, I level it and throw the duplicate in the freezer. I have the proverbial army of 1/5's and that makes me happy. In the last Georgiou event, I thawed all three copies of S31 Georgiou and ran a ton of shuttles. Then I leveled up the new one that I got. Granted, those don't take up slots, but I prefer to have them over the 2,400 honor that I could have gotten from airlocking the three extra copies.
I kept my Tipsy Troi (since you mentioned her), so now I have her for the upcoming Empathy faction event. I didn't airlock my Goddess of Empathy Troi, either. That said... I doubt Locarno will be a prize worth going for. So even if you get him, he'll probably be an honor piñata.
Voyages just aren't the big deal they used to be for me. It's events. And making the most of my resources during events is ideal. It just goes back to different strategies for different players. This is absolutely a valid strategy, but it's not for me.
I suppose it's a good strategy, but I'm a hoarder. If I get four copies of a SR who is main cast and has a base over 900, I level it and throw the duplicate in the freezer. I have the proverbial army of 1/5's and that makes me happy. In the last Georgiou event, I thawed all three copies of S31 Georgiou and ran a ton of shuttles. Then I leveled up the new one that I got. Granted, those don't take up slots, but I prefer to have them over the 2,400 honor that I could have gotten from airlocking the three extra copies.
I know keeping multiple copies of a crew member is a fairly common practice, and in events can really pay off, but it's just not for me. I think it goes back to my childhood, when I had to choose action figures and I'd rather have a Cobra Officer and a Cobra Trooper than two Cobra Troopers.
To come back to @ByloBand's original thesis, there is a psychological barrier that a lot of players have for parting ways with a 5*, especially if earned in an event. Some of that could be alleviated if those players were more selective, rather than compulsively compete every week.I think the simplest flowchart is:
Do you care enough about this crew member to dedicate your resources to them?
Does this crew member help you enough that they may be worth it anyway?
You can break down ways in which they may be helpful, and even create a hierarchy for those ways, but these are all secondary to the first point.
To come back to @ByloBand's original thesis, there is a psychological barrier that a lot of players have for parting ways with a 5*, especially if earned in an event. Some of that could be alleviated if those players were more selective, rather than compulsively compete every week.I think the simplest flowchart is:
Do you care enough about this crew member to dedicate your resources to them?
Does this crew member help you enough that they may be worth it anyway?
You can break down ways in which they may be helpful, and even create a hierarchy for those ways, but these are all secondary to the first point.
Gold star, sir! You have perfectly summed it up.
With unlimited crew slots, one would simply keep 100% of the crew they receive and work on them as needed. This is not a reality in STT however, as managing crew slots is an important factor in decision making, and as a result like you said, some people needed a reminder or permission or whatever you want to call it to realize that it is OK to part with certain crew cards in the name of overall account health, as defined by each individual player and their own goals.
I've recognized multiple variants of myself in this thread, because at times over my 3+ years of playing, I've employed variations of each of these strategies. I was a hoarder for a long time, but I've become a bit more strategic about them in the past year. As noted above, it is a game, and playing it to maximize your own enjoyment is the best way to play.
It's a bit off-track, but this is a list of the 5* crew I've airlocked. ("Spoilered" to minimize thread hijacking potential.)
It is worth noting that I compete to earn them almost every week, but (these days) some of them are anticipated to become honor before I ever start the event. I am still sitting on an army of 1/5 crew earned/acquired during my hoarding days 'cause I am not yet ready to go full-Wesley on them.
Assimilated La Forge - my 3rd rank-earned 5* card, but I had no space then (and no foresight about how my roster building would progress).
Klingon Janeway - 4th rank-earned 5* card, still no space. Early days of STT were rough.
---Post-Janeway was the point where I made the decision to stop airlocking them, until...
Christopher Pike - 61st rank-earned. Skill-set added nothing for me and I'd never cite him.
---Pike opened the floodgates for my more strategic phase. And so...
Mirror Ellen Landry - 63rd. Same argument as Pike.
Frederick La Rouque - 79th. Same argument, plus a one-off.
Colonel Q - 86th. See Pike (but would have kept if post-mega packs cooperated).
Mirror Ellen Landry - 87th. Time hadn't changed my view of her.
Bounty Hunter Mudd - 92nd. See Colonel Q.
Pining Vina - 93rd. See Colonel Q.
Kamala - 97th. (I'm 10 hrs early on this, but there's no doubt). See La Rouque.
Grand Nagus Rom - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Gangster Kirk - event threshold but crew already 5/5
It is worth noting that I compete to earn them almost every week, but (these days) some of them are anticipated to become honor before I ever start the event. I am still sitting on an army of 1/5 crew earned/acquired during my hoarding days 'cause I am not yet ready to go full-Wesley on them.
Assimilated La Forge - my 3rd rank-earned 5* card, but I had no space then (and no foresight about how my roster building would progress).
Klingon Janeway - 4th rank-earned 5* card, still no space. Early days of STT were rough.
---Post-Janeway was the point where I made the decision to stop airlocking them, until...
Christopher Pike - 61st rank-earned. Skill-set added nothing for me and I'd never cite him.
---Pike opened the floodgates for my more strategic phase. And so...
Mirror Ellen Landry - 63rd. Same argument as Pike.
Frederick La Rouque - 79th. Same argument, plus a one-off.
Colonel Q - 86th. See Pike (but would have kept if post-mega packs cooperated).
Mirror Ellen Landry - 87th. Time hadn't changed my view of her.
Bounty Hunter Mudd - 92nd. See Colonel Q.
Pining Vina - 93rd. See Colonel Q.
Kamala - 97th. (I'm 10 hrs early on this, but there's no doubt). See La Rouque.
Grand Nagus Rom - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Gangster Kirk - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Same here, I did an inventory as this thread was unfolding and I have 31 1/5 crew on my roster. Thankfully I'm not up against a crew slot crunch, but virtually all of them never get used for anything. A few are on my Gauntlet team, a few are on the citation list, and a few are just hanging around because I like them, but the vast majority exist as a constant reminder of how things used to be in the early going, and now serve as motivation to not allow that problem to get worse
So the reason I made my sheet was to justify some of the airlocking decisions in my crew roster. Previously like @Prime LorQa [10F] I had considered myself a collector but with the amount of new crew coming in I could not justify that position and a 1/5 was a lot more useless to me than a frozen 4/4. Especially since those 1/5 would not give me any extra bonuses. So people like Niners Sisko, Gunslinger Uhura went out the airlock.
I would say to those going for 1500, don't airlock your Legendary. Either that or don't compete for 1500+ because it's better to give that spot for someone who actually wants the Legendary.
I can totally understand the ethos but I just can't agree with it, not with the current economics of the game in any case.
I have technically 63 1/5s "superfluous" - by this I mean they are not on my tier 1-3 citation list, so if I was to airlock all these cards I would get....
drum roll ......
34,650 honor ..... I mean wow all that honor really at least I can by a purple citation, right. And in exchange for this I have lost the likes of EV Burnham and Archer, Admiral Kirk, Falcon O'Brien, the lush Seven in silver plus many more useful for an event or two throughout the year (who also help me keep rank and obtaining more honor)
Even if I added my 14 - 2/5s to the dump pile I'd only just get 1 gold citation. However this would include my Locutus, Caretaker MK II, High Roller Sisko MK II.
So a grand total of 77 legends for one citation to go towards my other 42 prioritised legends needing 2 or more citations.
NB I struck 4/5s from the comparison list because as I have not ranked them.
The point is when I really do scrutinise there would only be a few "bad cards" i would consider discarding and thus the honor accrued is even more minimal that it is just not worth it.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
I can totally understand the ethos but I just can't agree with it, not with the current economics of the game in any case.
I have technically 63 1/5s "superfluous" - by this I mean they are not on my tier 1-3 citation list, so if I was to airlock all these cards I would get....
drum roll ......
34,650 honor ..... I mean wow all that honor really at least I can by a purple citation, right. And in exchange for this I have lost the likes of EV Burnham and Archer, Admiral Kirk, Falcon O'Brien, the lush Seven in silver plus many more useful for an event or two throughout the year (who also help me keep rank and obtaining more honor)
Even if I added my 14 - 2/5s to the dump pile I'd only just get 1 gold citation. However this would include my Locutus, Caretaker MK II, High Roller Sisko MK II.
So a grand total of 77 legends for one citation to go towards my other 42 prioritised legends needing 2 or more citations.
NB I struck 4/5s from the comparison list because as I have not ranked them.
The point is when I really do scrutinise there would only be a few "bad cards" i would consider discarding and thus the honor accrued is even more minimal that it is just not worth it.
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
I can totally understand the ethos but I just can't agree with it, not with the current economics of the game in any case.
I have technically 63 1/5s "superfluous" - by this I mean they are not on my tier 1-3 citation list, so if I was to airlock all these cards I would get....
drum roll ......
34,650 honor ..... I mean wow all that honor really at least I can by a purple citation, right. And in exchange for this I have lost the likes of EV Burnham and Archer, Admiral Kirk, Falcon O'Brien, the lush Seven in silver plus many more useful for an event or two throughout the year (who also help me keep rank and obtaining more honor)
Even if I added my 14 - 2/5s to the dump pile I'd only just get 1 gold citation. However this would include my Locutus, Caretaker MK II, High Roller Sisko MK II.
So a grand total of 77 legends for one citation to go towards my other 42 prioritised legends needing 2 or more citations.
NB I struck 4/5s from the comparison list because as I have not ranked them.
The point is when I really do scrutinise there would only be a few "bad cards" i would consider discarding and thus the honor accrued is even more minimal that it is just not worth it.
First, I think Bylo stated that he generally doesn't ditch main cast unless that particular card is neither desirable, nor useful. We just had an Archer faction event recently. Did EV Archer get use? If so, then you were right to keep him. If not, do you like that episode enough to keep him? If you answered "no" to BOTH questions, then why are you keeping him?
Secondly, it takes me about three weeks to accumulate 34k honor. It's nothing to sneeze at. Even if you don't dismiss the three mentioned above, that's 33k honor. If that's not a temptation for you, that's fine. It doesn't invalidate the strategy, though.
It is here for those who want it. Those who stress over honor debt. If you airlocked those 63 1/5's, you would reduce your honor debt by 12.6 million. That might just appeal to a few players. Admittedly, I am not one of them. But they are out there. And Bylo and Banjo are pretty successful with it, imo. Scoff if you like, but I find it better to take the part of the stategy that works for me - finding voyage deficiencies - and use it with my own twist.
First, I think Bylo stated that he generally doesn't ditch main cast unless that particular card is neither desirable, nor useful. We just had an Archer faction event recently. Did EV Archer get use? If so, then you were right to keep him. If not, do you like that episode enough to keep him? If you answered "no" to BOTH questions, then why are you keeping him?
Secondly, it takes me about three weeks to accumulate 34k honor. It's nothing to sneeze at. Even if you don't dismiss the three mentioned above, that's 33k honor. If that's not a temptation for you, that's fine. It doesn't invalidate the strategy, though.
It is here for those who want it. Those who stress over honor debt. If you airlocked those 63 1/5's, you would reduce your honor debt by 12.6 million. That might just appeal to a few players. Admittedly, I am not one of them. But they are out there. And Bylo and Banjo are pretty successful with it, imo. Scoff if you like, but I find it better to take the part of the stategy that works for me - finding voyage deficiencies - and use it with my own twist.
Firstly and most importantly - my first line should be reread - I am scoffing the economics of the game not the strategy.
Secondly it turns out main cast do get airlocked as this thread has progressed. The point is any of them can be useful at any point for a future event.
Thirdly I'm sorry but I would scoff at circa 70 weeks of hard play in events if that only amounts to 3 weeks accumulation of honor.
Regarding Debt I only look at my citation list as honor debt, as I still have crew slots to spare I don't get hepped up about this.
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
No I've not missed the point. My response is weighted entirely on the whole evolution of this thread.
The fact that you are weighing the entirity of your comments around airlocking 5* crew tells me otherwise. As has been stated, if collecting 5* crew is your goal, if you don't have crew slot issues, or a few other situations I don't care to retype on my phone, then there is no point in even talking about airlocking your crew.
Like LorQa said, this isn't for everyone, and if it isn't your thing that is fine, but rehashing this tangent about rigid airlocking 5* crew is not productive, and if you have read the comments in here you already know that.
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
No I've not missed the point. My response is weighted entirely on the whole evolution of this thread.
The fact that you are weighing the entirity of your comments around airlocking 5* crew tells me otherwise. As has been stated, if collecting 5* crew is your goal, if you don't have crew slot issues, or a few other situations I don't care to retype on my phone, then there is no point in even talking about airlocking your crew.
Like LorQa said, this isn't for everyone, and if it isn't your thing that is fine, but rehashing this tangent about rigid airlocking 5* crew is not productive, and if you have read the comments in here you already know that.
Of course it would be weighted on airlocking 5* crew...
"avoid the issue of having a large collection of essentially useless 1/5 crew"
Unless you are suggesting never open a premium pack or compete for rank in an event what other options are there because the point is the economics of the game means you can never catch up citing even a quarter of them.
EDIT:
A better honor pinata advice would be go crazy in Skirmishes - but that isn't even mentioned once anywhere in this thread.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
No I've not missed the point. My response is weighted entirely on the whole evolution of this thread.
The fact that you are weighing the entirity of your comments around airlocking 5* crew tells me otherwise. As has been stated, if collecting 5* crew is your goal, if you don't have crew slot issues, or a few other situations I don't care to retype on my phone, then there is no point in even talking about airlocking your crew.
Like LorQa said, this isn't for everyone, and if it isn't your thing that is fine, but rehashing this tangent about rigid airlocking 5* crew is not productive, and if you have read the comments in here you already know that.
Of course it would be weighted on airlocking 5* crew...
"avoid the issue of having a large collection of essentially useless 1/5 crew"
Unless you are suggesting never open a premium pack or compete for rank in an event what other options are there because the point is the economics of the game means you can never catch up citing even a quarter of them.
EVERYTHING you have just said has already been brought up by others and addressed, find another thread to derail. Have a pleasant day.
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
No I've not missed the point. My response is weighted entirely on the whole evolution of this thread.
The fact that you are weighing the entirity of your comments around airlocking 5* crew tells me otherwise. As has been stated, if collecting 5* crew is your goal, if you don't have crew slot issues, or a few other situations I don't care to retype on my phone, then there is no point in even talking about airlocking your crew.
Like LorQa said, this isn't for everyone, and if it isn't your thing that is fine, but rehashing this tangent about rigid airlocking 5* crew is not productive, and if you have read the comments in here you already know that.
Of course it would be weighted on airlocking 5* crew...
"avoid the issue of having a large collection of essentially useless 1/5 crew"
Unless you are suggesting never open a premium pack or compete for rank in an event what other options are there because the point is the economics of the game means you can never catch up citing even a quarter of them.
EVERYTHING you have just said has already been brought up by others and addressed, find another thread to derail. Have a pleasant day.
If it's been brought up by others then presumably it's on topic - therefore I am not derailing, just echoing a similar point of view - why then the animosity?
A point may/can be addressed but it doesn't necessarily mean it's "case closed" forever more.
In your initial post you welcome people's views yet when they differ from your own you meet it with disdain. Feel free to PM me. Hope you have a good day too.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
I've recognized multiple variants of myself in this thread, because at times over my 3+ years of playing, I've employed variations of each of these strategies. I was a hoarder for a long time, but I've become a bit more strategic about them in the past year. As noted above, it is a game, and playing it to maximize your own enjoyment is the best way to play.
It's a bit off-track, but this is a list of the 5* crew I've airlocked. ("Spoilered" to minimize thread hijacking potential.)
It is worth noting that I compete to earn them almost every week, but (these days) some of them are anticipated to become honor before I ever start the event. I am still sitting on an army of 1/5 crew earned/acquired during my hoarding days 'cause I am not yet ready to go full-Wesley on them.
Assimilated La Forge - my 3rd rank-earned 5* card, but I had no space then (and no foresight about how my roster building would progress).
Klingon Janeway - 4th rank-earned 5* card, still no space. Early days of STT were rough.
---Post-Janeway was the point where I made the decision to stop airlocking them, until...
Christopher Pike - 61st rank-earned. Skill-set added nothing for me and I'd never cite him.
---Pike opened the floodgates for my more strategic phase. And so...
Mirror Ellen Landry - 63rd. Same argument as Pike.
Frederick La Rouque - 79th. Same argument, plus a one-off.
Colonel Q - 86th. See Pike (but would have kept if post-mega packs cooperated).
Mirror Ellen Landry - 87th. Time hadn't changed my view of her.
Bounty Hunter Mudd - 92nd. See Colonel Q.
Pining Vina - 93rd. See Colonel Q.
Kamala - 97th. (I'm 10 hrs early on this, but there's no doubt). See La Rouque.
Grand Nagus Rom - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Gangster Kirk - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Can I ask why you would bother to compete for Kamala if you're planning to airlock her? I can understand it in a faction event where you could coast just sending out shuttles. But even with resources to burn, why would you bother to keep clicking in a galaxy event just for an extra 550 honor?
I've recognized multiple variants of myself in this thread, because at times over my 3+ years of playing, I've employed variations of each of these strategies. I was a hoarder for a long time, but I've become a bit more strategic about them in the past year. As noted above, it is a game, and playing it to maximize your own enjoyment is the best way to play.
It's a bit off-track, but this is a list of the 5* crew I've airlocked. ("Spoilered" to minimize thread hijacking potential.)
It is worth noting that I compete to earn them almost every week, but (these days) some of them are anticipated to become honor before I ever start the event. I am still sitting on an army of 1/5 crew earned/acquired during my hoarding days 'cause I am not yet ready to go full-Wesley on them.
Assimilated La Forge - my 3rd rank-earned 5* card, but I had no space then (and no foresight about how my roster building would progress).
Klingon Janeway - 4th rank-earned 5* card, still no space. Early days of STT were rough.
---Post-Janeway was the point where I made the decision to stop airlocking them, until...
Christopher Pike - 61st rank-earned. Skill-set added nothing for me and I'd never cite him.
---Pike opened the floodgates for my more strategic phase. And so...
Mirror Ellen Landry - 63rd. Same argument as Pike.
Frederick La Rouque - 79th. Same argument, plus a one-off.
Colonel Q - 86th. See Pike (but would have kept if post-mega packs cooperated).
Mirror Ellen Landry - 87th. Time hadn't changed my view of her.
Bounty Hunter Mudd - 92nd. See Colonel Q.
Pining Vina - 93rd. See Colonel Q.
Kamala - 97th. (I'm 10 hrs early on this, but there's no doubt). See La Rouque.
Grand Nagus Rom - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Gangster Kirk - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Can I ask why you would bother to compete for Kamala if you're planning to airlock her? I can understand it in a faction event where you could coast just sending out shuttles. But even with resources to burn, why would you bother to keep clicking in a galaxy event just for an extra 550 honor?
He might have done the same as me threshold and out phase one with chrons, then cash in the super rares in phase 2. Likelihood is i'll keep her though if not to help out my squad mates but also who knows what the next event and legend will be. Even though she is a slightly worse copy of New Eden Pike.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
No I've not missed the point. My response is weighted entirely on the whole evolution of this thread.
The fact that you are weighing the entirity of your comments around airlocking 5* crew tells me otherwise. As has been stated, if collecting 5* crew is your goal, if you don't have crew slot issues, or a few other situations I don't care to retype on my phone, then there is no point in even talking about airlocking your crew.
Like LorQa said, this isn't for everyone, and if it isn't your thing that is fine, but rehashing this tangent about rigid airlocking 5* crew is not productive, and if you have read the comments in here you already know that.
Of course it would be weighted on airlocking 5* crew...
"avoid the issue of having a large collection of essentially useless 1/5 crew"
Unless you are suggesting never open a premium pack or compete for rank in an event what other options are there because the point is the economics of the game means you can never catch up citing even a quarter of them.
EVERYTHING you have just said has already been brought up by others and addressed, find another thread to derail. Have a pleasant day.
Everything except the bit you conveniently chose to not quote..... Why isn't going hell for leather in skirmishes in your general advice? As a source of honor, discarding legendaries is a pitifully small percentage of possible honor obtained, so it does not make for the core of good gameplay.
As I've said before there is a strong kernel of good advice here, but you seem to be patting yourself on the back pretty hard because you get pleasure from discarding Legendaries. This seems like a huge distraction from the core message.
I would also suggest that people who are going to label what they do as a strategy and want to suggest to others that they might want to follow it, should first try to take it from the particular to the general case. You were very careful to say that it's not for free players or new players, but I am not sure in its particulars, it's really for anyone except you because you *like* ditching legendaries.
DB are taking the piss with the 550 honor for a legendary, so people have a right to be upset about that as they have been since it was announced. It's also not good that there are legendary cards that are utterly useless. A better way to address this is to lobby DB to improve that part of the game, and as we have seen from recent musings on the subject a huge thing that people want is to see older legendaries improved, found a gameplay niche for or become easier to get so that we can freeze them.
This is the direction the game should go in. And I would advise every player to do their best to hold onto their legendaries with that possible development in mind. If you have even 1 spare crew slot you are hurting yourself by discarding a legendary before you need to. Discarding a legendary should always be followed by a curse on DB, but I agree that there are times when it is necessary.
And to comment on another facet that has come out in the conversation, that of doing events and then ditching the rewards, I find that somewhat unjust. You are totally free to do it of course, it is not against any rules, but your paltry, almost insignificant in the scheme of things, 550 honor gain is likely depriving a player who could really benefit from the card. There is already a facet of the game that is about making the rich richer, it disturbs me that the rich would take the stuff and burn it and laugh about it.
All in all, discarding a legendary for 550 honor just doesn't matter, it's chump change. And discarding a card that might possibly help you in the future is just bad advice.
I'm sort of getting to this point and I've been considering a similar strategy for a while now. I don't particularly have a shortage of slots now, as all 4* crew started going in the fridge after being FFFE. Had we not received the cryo option I definitely think I would have been there long ago. Though truthfully my only goal now is to win an event, so I'm not sure how much difference this will make at this point, as what I lack is time, not resources.
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This thread is titled as a strategy ... you've got to be open to some criticism ... maybe it isn't me who doesn't get the gist of it, as you say ("It is just a tough assumption to make given that you are laser-focussed on a tiny portion of the sales pitch portion of the post and seem to be ignoring the actual strategy portion, such as it is.") ... I'm a business guy IRL and if you're giving me a sales pitch on a product I might consider buying, I want to make sure that you're not spouting BS, so yes, I will fiddle down into the details of that pitch you're giving me, as I don't want to buy hot air off some guy I don't even know.
If my fiddling makes the sales person uncomfortable (exception #1, exception #2, let me tweak this here or there), that's their problem not mine, I'm not trying to sell something but will buy (in) if the pitch is successful (so far it is not).
So, if the pitch comes down to this ... "the meat and potatoes of the strategy is to set clearly defined goals, do all the research you can, make decisions in service to your goals, live with the results." ... it isn't a piñata strategy but more a meat & potatoes strategy ... which is so straightforward that any player who is even slightly serious about the game will follow it ... then, yes I'm in ...
Maybe you should have tried to sell it by stating that you happily airlocked 4 copies of Covert Operative Leland ... that hits all your criteria with ease ... so choosing an example of crew that fits the strategy you've laid out.
But if you're selling me a strategy that is around airlocking waste crew based on certain premises which you don't even follow yourself (exceptions or not) then I'm out.
But personally, I just like to approach things from a more positive/sustainable angle that doesn't feed into consumerist/throw-away culture tendencies:
- If I get unique crew in then I try to find reasons why I should cite them (rather than why I should ditch them for 550 Honor) ... an approach e.g. Ironagedave takes and who I think you've been quite harsh on.
- If there is nothing pressing at the moment of first acquisition then I just leave them at 1/5 (lvl 100) ... the resources needed to level crew is kinda peanuts at my stage of the game, and it gives me something to do during the week ... there they will sit gathering dust and stars until their days comes a calling for a citation or being frozen due to natural accumulation of stars.
- Should my crew quarters ever fill up then I will approach the situation just as I did with 4* crew (and have been a proponent of for eons ... just ask @Shy Khan) ... I'll start freezing immortalised 5* crew (I've already frozen my first even though I have 40+ empty spots ... Minuet).
Caveat: I hardly ever spend money on the game (buying event packs etc.), so influx of new 5*s is very minimal, as I do not rank highly enough for the weekly event 5*, only once in a while (only 7 of the last 10 and one was a duplicate ... who I airlocked (Honey Bare)).
I do a ton of research ... I've even written up my own spreadsheet/formulas detailing which crew would be best to cite from a voyage perspective.
I prefer to gain Honor by ... playing hard in Skirmishes ... spending excess credits over 3 million, spending excess Merits over 3000.
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
No I've not missed the point. My response is weighted entirely on the whole evolution of this thread.
The fact that you are weighing the entirity of your comments around airlocking 5* crew tells me otherwise. As has been stated, if collecting 5* crew is your goal, if you don't have crew slot issues, or a few other situations I don't care to retype on my phone, then there is no point in even talking about airlocking your crew.
Like LorQa said, this isn't for everyone, and if it isn't your thing that is fine, but rehashing this tangent about rigid airlocking 5* crew is not productive, and if you have read the comments in here you already know that.
Of course it would be weighted on airlocking 5* crew...
"avoid the issue of having a large collection of essentially useless 1/5 crew"
Unless you are suggesting never open a premium pack or compete for rank in an event what other options are there because the point is the economics of the game means you can never catch up citing even a quarter of them.
EVERYTHING you have just said has already been brought up by others and addressed, find another thread to derail. Have a pleasant day.
Everything except the bit you conveniently chose to not quote..... Why isn't going hell for leather in skirmishes in your general advice? As a source of honor, discarding legendaries is a pitifully small percentage of possible honor obtained, so it does not make for the core of good gameplay.
Admitedly in Bylo's defence my edit may have come after he responded, however a big +1 to the rest of your post. I do wonder though increasing the value in honor for a legendary may inadvertently actively encourage people to rank and burning legends more in events. Not that I want to give DB ammunition for defence on this because the amount as I have expressed earlier is indeed pitiful.
Edit: A possible solution to 1/5s is to be able to trade in with say about 10k honor in the portal, maybe once a week or month, for a featured trade in legend (with perhaps an ad refresh or two). That way the legendary feels more like circa 40k worth of honor but it's locked until you see fit to or can use.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
This is the last time I'm saying any of this with regard to this hyper-focussed attention on airlocking 1/5 crew for Honor; it was done in the spirit of helping people with crew slot issues come up with a way of feeling better about the idea of getting rid of 5* crew. The "strategy" is not about airlocking crew, if you are getting confused because of the thread name, it was a tongue-in-cheek reference for @EnderW, and the word "strategy" was included mostly because the bulk of the ideas presented here (I mean seriously, I've typed this exact sentence many times) "set clearly defined goals, do all the research you can, make decisions in service to your goals, live with the results".
In this thread I have been apologetic, I have made corrections, I have acknowledged mistakes as I've gone on, and I have asked follow up questions. And I and a few other people have addressed the issues and concerns that have been raised about the dangers or even value of airlocking 5* crew, which again is a VERY small part of the overall "strategy". A small group of you keep ignoring all of those words and all of those explanations and keep stating the same exact objection over and over and over. It is irritating and disrespectful.
I'll repeat the core of the "strategy: for those of you who seem determined to not read it:
1. Set clearly defined goals.
2. Do as much research as you can.
3. Make decisions in service to your goals.
4. Live with the results (ie have no regrets).
Nowhere in those four lines does it say "airlock all of your 1/5 crew". To paraphrase @Prime LorQa [10F] from earlier, if you have a 1/5 that is not helping you achieve your goals, is taking up a valuable crew slot, and is never going to see resources invested in it to improve it, getting rid of that crew and gaining 550 Honor is a valid and helpful solution.
If you do not want to airlock your crew, nobody is forcing you, and if your goals are such that airlocking crew is not compatible with achieving said goal, don't do it. It is really that simple!
And now I am going to ask that all comments regarding specifically airlocking crew be terminated within this thread, it has been covered repeatedly, and is detracting from the overall conversation about the "strategy". Start your own thread if you feel you need to continue discussing it.
And to comment on another facet that has come out in the conversation, that of doing events and then ditching the rewards, I find that somewhat unjust. You are totally free to do it of course, it is not against any rules, but your paltry, almost insignificant in the scheme of things, 550 honor gain is likely depriving a player who could really benefit from the card. There is already a facet of the game that is about making the rich richer, it disturbs me that the rich would take the stuff and burn it and laugh about it
I agree wholeheartedly with @Thurthorad on this point. Or, rather, I already agreed several posts earlier:
To come back to @ByloBand's original thesis, there is a psychological barrier that a lot of players have for parting ways with a 5*, especially if earned in an event. Some of that could be alleviated if those players were more selective, rather than compulsively compete every week.
However, I respectfully disagree on a second point:
All in all, discarding a legendary for 550 honor just doesn't matter, it's chump change. And discarding a card that might possibly help you in the future is just bad advice.
Pruning is pragmatic and even necessary -- especially for our VIP 0 comrades, who have to be ruthless about such decisions. I would also suggest that it's better for one's mental health to push back against rationalizing compulsive collecting, even if it's just pixels that take up no real physical space. If you review the myriad "I quit!" threads from the last three years (there were some even before I started playing, four months after launch), one of the most recurring declarations is that those players will now feel "free" of the drain on their resources of time and money.
I've recognized multiple variants of myself in this thread, because at times over my 3+ years of playing, I've employed variations of each of these strategies. I was a hoarder for a long time, but I've become a bit more strategic about them in the past year. As noted above, it is a game, and playing it to maximize your own enjoyment is the best way to play.
It's a bit off-track, but this is a list of the 5* crew I've airlocked. ("Spoilered" to minimize thread hijacking potential.)
It is worth noting that I compete to earn them almost every week, but (these days) some of them are anticipated to become honor before I ever start the event. I am still sitting on an army of 1/5 crew earned/acquired during my hoarding days 'cause I am not yet ready to go full-Wesley on them.
Assimilated La Forge - my 3rd rank-earned 5* card, but I had no space then (and no foresight about how my roster building would progress).
Klingon Janeway - 4th rank-earned 5* card, still no space. Early days of STT were rough.
---Post-Janeway was the point where I made the decision to stop airlocking them, until...
Christopher Pike - 61st rank-earned. Skill-set added nothing for me and I'd never cite him.
---Pike opened the floodgates for my more strategic phase. And so...
Mirror Ellen Landry - 63rd. Same argument as Pike.
Frederick La Rouque - 79th. Same argument, plus a one-off.
Colonel Q - 86th. See Pike (but would have kept if post-mega packs cooperated).
Mirror Ellen Landry - 87th. Time hadn't changed my view of her.
Bounty Hunter Mudd - 92nd. See Colonel Q.
Pining Vina - 93rd. See Colonel Q.
Kamala - 97th. (I'm 10 hrs early on this, but there's no doubt). See La Rouque.
Grand Nagus Rom - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Gangster Kirk - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Can I ask why you would bother to compete for Kamala if you're planning to airlock her? I can understand it in a faction event where you could coast just sending out shuttles. But even with resources to burn, why would you bother to keep clicking in a galaxy event just for an extra 550 honor?
He might have done the same as me threshold and out phase one with chrons, then cash in the super rares in phase 2. Likelihood is i'll keep her though if not to help out my squad mates but also who knows what the next event and legend will be. Even though she is a slightly worse copy of New Eden Pike.
But why even do that? If all you want is threshold and out, then turn in rares as you go and stop after threshold. Waiting for phase 2 only matters if you are planning to earn more in phase 2. You're just overbuilding and and spending more time clicking than you need.
I've recognized multiple variants of myself in this thread, because at times over my 3+ years of playing, I've employed variations of each of these strategies. I was a hoarder for a long time, but I've become a bit more strategic about them in the past year. As noted above, it is a game, and playing it to maximize your own enjoyment is the best way to play.
It's a bit off-track, but this is a list of the 5* crew I've airlocked. ("Spoilered" to minimize thread hijacking potential.)
It is worth noting that I compete to earn them almost every week, but (these days) some of them are anticipated to become honor before I ever start the event. I am still sitting on an army of 1/5 crew earned/acquired during my hoarding days 'cause I am not yet ready to go full-Wesley on them.
Assimilated La Forge - my 3rd rank-earned 5* card, but I had no space then (and no foresight about how my roster building would progress).
Klingon Janeway - 4th rank-earned 5* card, still no space. Early days of STT were rough.
---Post-Janeway was the point where I made the decision to stop airlocking them, until...
Christopher Pike - 61st rank-earned. Skill-set added nothing for me and I'd never cite him.
---Pike opened the floodgates for my more strategic phase. And so...
Mirror Ellen Landry - 63rd. Same argument as Pike.
Frederick La Rouque - 79th. Same argument, plus a one-off.
Colonel Q - 86th. See Pike (but would have kept if post-mega packs cooperated).
Mirror Ellen Landry - 87th. Time hadn't changed my view of her.
Bounty Hunter Mudd - 92nd. See Colonel Q.
Pining Vina - 93rd. See Colonel Q.
Kamala - 97th. (I'm 10 hrs early on this, but there's no doubt). See La Rouque.
Grand Nagus Rom - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Gangster Kirk - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Can I ask why you would bother to compete for Kamala if you're planning to airlock her? I can understand it in a faction event where you could coast just sending out shuttles. But even with resources to burn, why would you bother to keep clicking in a galaxy event just for an extra 550 honor?
He might have done the same as me threshold and out phase one with chrons, then cash in the super rares in phase 2. Likelihood is i'll keep her though if not to help out my squad mates but also who knows what the next event and legend will be. Even though she is a slightly worse copy of New Eden Pike.
But why even do that? If all you want is threshold and out, then turn in rares as you go and stop after threshold. Waiting for phase 2 only matters if you are planning to earn more in phase 2. You're just overbuilding and and spending more time clicking than you need.
I guess just a false of habit from the old threshold and out days, I always liked to get the most out of your super rare turnins, hitting rank would be a secondary objective. I probably over tap anyway as I use it as a convenient pre-farming method, instead of compiling and cross referencing missions and farming later on, for the next galaxy/replenishing stockpile, as well whilst being under one supply kit.
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
One problem I see in your system Bylo is that if you are squad leader often times the 1/5 for that week will be a really good share so you cannot exactly airlock it before the event and after the event you have used up a lot of resources to lvl that person up to lvl100. Second problem is that your system is very expensive. The campaigns every month are $10 which is $120 a year. Then you are adding on some DYC's which are $25 each. If you have the money to spend then by all means spend it but I find DYC's to be a terrible value. For that $25 I could buy 2 campaigns where I get 8 legendaries, 2 legendary citations and many other things. For two DYC's I could buy 5 campaigns. And for what do I get from a DYC? Adding one star for each DYC and some low lvl items to get that crew person to lvl50 which is easy to do without those items. That is a bad deal unless you have a lot of disposable income.
As to helping earn honor, a great way is saving credits and buying the 90k credit packs and airlocking the crew for honor. For every million in credits you get about 700-950 in honor. It adds up fast. So I try to only use my credits for levelling up crew and buying 90k credit packs with just occasional replicators as needed.
Those are good points, especially about the DYC. I do not DYC often, but I never hesitate if I get a crew I've earmarked as one I definitely need to get immortalized, that is usually my criteria. That, and I DYC all the mega event legends to let me save my citations for the 5* crew I need to work on. If you are concerned about spending I would be happy to share with you one of my tricks in a private message.
As far as being squad leader, that is a tricky tightrope to walk, but it is manageable. In the past we have rotated squad leader status when it was advantageous, but lately I've been operating under the premise that an immortalized 4* event crew is roughly equal to a 1/5 event crew.
I like most of your strategy and employ many of those techniques already, I just hate airlocking 1/5 crew. I suppose I will have to soon but the 550 honor for doing it is so small. I would suggest waiting towards the end of a month in non mega months to airlock the legendaries so you do not airlock crew that will be bonus in the upcoming mega. I also try to airlock super rares on Fridays after I hear who the event crew will be for the next week.
There'll always be a reason to think you'll have a reason to keep everyone. "I might need this someday" is an unhealthy reason to hold onto things, except Band-Aids, Allen wrenches, and receipts no older than 90 days. Go on, shove a 5* crew out the airlock. It's liberating. All the cool kids are doing it.
So you’re saying I should toss Tosk out the nearest airlock. It is tempting. I’ve been one to cling to 5*s but this thread definitely makes me question it. Especially if they aren’t going to help at all for the most part.
One problem I see in your system Bylo is that if you are squad leader often times the 1/5 for that week will be a really good share so you cannot exactly airlock it before the event and after the event you have used up a lot of resources to lvl that person up to lvl100. Second problem is that your system is very expensive. The campaigns every month are $10 which is $120 a year. Then you are adding on some DYC's which are $25 each. If you have the money to spend then by all means spend it but I find DYC's to be a terrible value. For that $25 I could buy 2 campaigns where I get 8 legendaries, 2 legendary citations and many other things. For two DYC's I could buy 5 campaigns. And for what do I get from a DYC? Adding one star for each DYC and some low lvl items to get that crew person to lvl50 which is easy to do without those items. That is a bad deal unless you have a lot of disposable income.
As to helping earn honor, a great way is saving credits and buying the 90k credit packs and airlocking the crew for honor. For every million in credits you get about 700-950 in honor. It adds up fast. So I try to only use my credits for levelling up crew and buying 90k credit packs with just occasional replicators as needed.
Those are good points, especially about the DYC. I do not DYC often, but I never hesitate if I get a crew I've earmarked as one I definitely need to get immortalized, that is usually my criteria. That, and I DYC all the mega event legends to let me save my citations for the 5* crew I need to work on. If you are concerned about spending I would be happy to share with you one of my tricks in a private message.
As far as being squad leader, that is a tricky tightrope to walk, but it is manageable. In the past we have rotated squad leader status when it was advantageous, but lately I've been operating under the premise that an immortalized 4* event crew is roughly equal to a 1/5 event crew.
I like most of your strategy and employ many of those techniques already, I just hate airlocking 1/5 crew. I suppose I will have to soon but the 550 honor for doing it is so small. I would suggest waiting towards the end of a month in non mega months to airlock the legendaries so you do not airlock crew that will be bonus in the upcoming mega. I also try to airlock super rares on Fridays after I hear who the event crew will be for the next week.
There'll always be a reason to think you'll have a reason to keep everyone. "I might need this someday" is an unhealthy reason to hold onto things, except Band-Aids, Allen wrenches, and receipts no older than 90 days. Go on, shove a 5* crew out the airlock. It's liberating. All the cool kids are doing it.
So you’re saying I should toss Tosk out the nearest airlock. It is tempting. I’ve been one to cling to 5*s but this thread definitely makes me question it. Especially if they aren’t going to help at all for the most part.
I can tell you I have at least 10 immortalized legendaries that I never use. On voyages, shuttles, gauntlet. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t be an event bonus someday. But that is 27,500 honor right there. I’m with Bylo. I’ve tossed out way more legendaries then I ever keep. I am a collector too, Albiet a very picky one. I do argue that this strategy can be used by newer players. I’ve used this strategy from the first day I started playing and I just scored my 12th top 5 event finish with Kamala.
Like talking to a brick wall sometimes ... anyway ... what then does this Piñata strategy deliver in Honor over an extended period? What is this big payoff that the strategy gives you?
e.g. On 07 Oct 2019 I cited Tenavik and was at 355 Honor.
On 04 Nov 2019 I had 100.720 Honor ... because I'm just not sure where to spend it at the moment, there are a couple of collection crew and I'm just not sure (Aviator Yar, Assimilated La Forge, Tuxedo Nog etc.).
Today, right after airlocking all the event crew 155.226 (thresholds and out for me, ended at spot 2.753).
So that's 50-55k Honor every 14 days and working towards my goal of collections etc. ... without spending on packs etc. ... just voyages, credits, merits and the pulls we get through events, gauntlet etc.
ps - I mention honor build-up because, like you I want to improve my voyage lengths to 10+ hrs across all skill combos and so need to cite up 5*s (5 combos so far with DIP/SCI today as the 5th).
Comments
I’m much in the same boat - I’ve kept most of the legendaries I have landed but have frozen or airlocked judiciously to make sure I have enough room to thaw out any Faction event bonus crew I need. I can place in the top 1500 of any event I choose, I routinely get to 9-9:30 on voyages, and am happy with where I am and where I am going.
By proclaiming your admiration for my superior intellect, you have earned a reprieve, @RaraRacing. You may continue to serve.
I kept my Tipsy Troi (since you mentioned her), so now I have her for the upcoming Empathy faction event. I didn't airlock my Goddess of Empathy Troi, either. That said... I doubt Locarno will be a prize worth going for. So even if you get him, he'll probably be an honor piñata.
Voyages just aren't the big deal they used to be for me. It's events. And making the most of my resources during events is ideal. It just goes back to different strategies for different players. This is absolutely a valid strategy, but it's not for me.
I know keeping multiple copies of a crew member is a fairly common practice, and in events can really pay off, but it's just not for me. I think it goes back to my childhood, when I had to choose action figures and I'd rather have a Cobra Officer and a Cobra Trooper than two Cobra Troopers.
Do you care enough about this crew member to dedicate your resources to them?
Does this crew member help you enough that they may be worth it anyway?
You can break down ways in which they may be helpful, and even create a hierarchy for those ways, but these are all secondary to the first point.
Gold star, sir! You have perfectly summed it up.
With unlimited crew slots, one would simply keep 100% of the crew they receive and work on them as needed. This is not a reality in STT however, as managing crew slots is an important factor in decision making, and as a result like you said, some people needed a reminder or permission or whatever you want to call it to realize that it is OK to part with certain crew cards in the name of overall account health, as defined by each individual player and their own goals.
It's a bit off-track, but this is a list of the 5* crew I've airlocked. ("Spoilered" to minimize thread hijacking potential.)
Assimilated La Forge - my 3rd rank-earned 5* card, but I had no space then (and no foresight about how my roster building would progress).
Klingon Janeway - 4th rank-earned 5* card, still no space. Early days of STT were rough.
---Post-Janeway was the point where I made the decision to stop airlocking them, until...
Christopher Pike - 61st rank-earned. Skill-set added nothing for me and I'd never cite him.
---Pike opened the floodgates for my more strategic phase. And so...
Mirror Ellen Landry - 63rd. Same argument as Pike.
Frederick La Rouque - 79th. Same argument, plus a one-off.
Colonel Q - 86th. See Pike (but would have kept if post-mega packs cooperated).
Mirror Ellen Landry - 87th. Time hadn't changed my view of her.
Bounty Hunter Mudd - 92nd. See Colonel Q.
Pining Vina - 93rd. See Colonel Q.
Kamala - 97th. (I'm 10 hrs early on this, but there's no doubt). See La Rouque.
Grand Nagus Rom - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Gangster Kirk - event threshold but crew already 5/5
Same here, I did an inventory as this thread was unfolding and I have 31 1/5 crew on my roster. Thankfully I'm not up against a crew slot crunch, but virtually all of them never get used for anything. A few are on my Gauntlet team, a few are on the citation list, and a few are just hanging around because I like them, but the vast majority exist as a constant reminder of how things used to be in the early going, and now serve as motivation to not allow that problem to get worse
I would say to those going for 1500, don't airlock your Legendary. Either that or don't compete for 1500+ because it's better to give that spot for someone who actually wants the Legendary.
I have technically 63 1/5s "superfluous" - by this I mean they are not on my tier 1-3 citation list, so if I was to airlock all these cards I would get....
drum roll ......
34,650 honor ..... I mean wow all that honor really at least I can by a purple citation, right. And in exchange for this I have lost the likes of EV Burnham and Archer, Admiral Kirk, Falcon O'Brien, the lush Seven in silver plus many more useful for an event or two throughout the year (who also help me keep rank and obtaining more honor)
Even if I added my 14 - 2/5s to the dump pile I'd only just get 1 gold citation. However this would include my Locutus, Caretaker MK II, High Roller Sisko MK II.
So a grand total of 77 legends for one citation to go towards my other 42 prioritised legends needing 2 or more citations.
NB I struck 4/5s from the comparison list because as I have not ranked them.
The point is when I really do scrutinise there would only be a few "bad cards" i would consider discarding and thus the honor accrued is even more minimal that it is just not worth it.
You seem to have missed the point entirely. The previous comments in this thread will be helpful should you want to find it.
First, I think Bylo stated that he generally doesn't ditch main cast unless that particular card is neither desirable, nor useful. We just had an Archer faction event recently. Did EV Archer get use? If so, then you were right to keep him. If not, do you like that episode enough to keep him? If you answered "no" to BOTH questions, then why are you keeping him?
Secondly, it takes me about three weeks to accumulate 34k honor. It's nothing to sneeze at. Even if you don't dismiss the three mentioned above, that's 33k honor. If that's not a temptation for you, that's fine. It doesn't invalidate the strategy, though.
It is here for those who want it. Those who stress over honor debt. If you airlocked those 63 1/5's, you would reduce your honor debt by 12.6 million. That might just appeal to a few players. Admittedly, I am not one of them. But they are out there. And Bylo and Banjo are pretty successful with it, imo. Scoff if you like, but I find it better to take the part of the stategy that works for me - finding voyage deficiencies - and use it with my own twist.
Firstly and most importantly - my first line should be reread - I am scoffing the economics of the game not the strategy.
Secondly it turns out main cast do get airlocked as this thread has progressed. The point is any of them can be useful at any point for a future event.
Thirdly I'm sorry but I would scoff at circa 70 weeks of hard play in events if that only amounts to 3 weeks accumulation of honor.
Regarding Debt I only look at my citation list as honor debt, as I still have crew slots to spare I don't get hepped up about this.
No I've not missed the point. My response is weighted entirely on the whole evolution of this thread.
The fact that you are weighing the entirity of your comments around airlocking 5* crew tells me otherwise. As has been stated, if collecting 5* crew is your goal, if you don't have crew slot issues, or a few other situations I don't care to retype on my phone, then there is no point in even talking about airlocking your crew.
Like LorQa said, this isn't for everyone, and if it isn't your thing that is fine, but rehashing this tangent about rigid airlocking 5* crew is not productive, and if you have read the comments in here you already know that.
Of course it would be weighted on airlocking 5* crew...
"avoid the issue of having a large collection of essentially useless 1/5 crew"
Unless you are suggesting never open a premium pack or compete for rank in an event what other options are there because the point is the economics of the game means you can never catch up citing even a quarter of them.
EDIT:
A better honor pinata advice would be go crazy in Skirmishes - but that isn't even mentioned once anywhere in this thread.
EVERYTHING you have just said has already been brought up by others and addressed, find another thread to derail. Have a pleasant day.
If it's been brought up by others then presumably it's on topic - therefore I am not derailing, just echoing a similar point of view - why then the animosity?
A point may/can be addressed but it doesn't necessarily mean it's "case closed" forever more.
In your initial post you welcome people's views yet when they differ from your own you meet it with disdain. Feel free to PM me. Hope you have a good day too.
Can I ask why you would bother to compete for Kamala if you're planning to airlock her? I can understand it in a faction event where you could coast just sending out shuttles. But even with resources to burn, why would you bother to keep clicking in a galaxy event just for an extra 550 honor?
He might have done the same as me threshold and out phase one with chrons, then cash in the super rares in phase 2. Likelihood is i'll keep her though if not to help out my squad mates but also who knows what the next event and legend will be. Even though she is a slightly worse copy of New Eden Pike.
Everything except the bit you conveniently chose to not quote..... Why isn't going hell for leather in skirmishes in your general advice? As a source of honor, discarding legendaries is a pitifully small percentage of possible honor obtained, so it does not make for the core of good gameplay.
As I've said before there is a strong kernel of good advice here, but you seem to be patting yourself on the back pretty hard because you get pleasure from discarding Legendaries. This seems like a huge distraction from the core message.
I would also suggest that people who are going to label what they do as a strategy and want to suggest to others that they might want to follow it, should first try to take it from the particular to the general case. You were very careful to say that it's not for free players or new players, but I am not sure in its particulars, it's really for anyone except you because you *like* ditching legendaries.
DB are taking the piss with the 550 honor for a legendary, so people have a right to be upset about that as they have been since it was announced. It's also not good that there are legendary cards that are utterly useless. A better way to address this is to lobby DB to improve that part of the game, and as we have seen from recent musings on the subject a huge thing that people want is to see older legendaries improved, found a gameplay niche for or become easier to get so that we can freeze them.
This is the direction the game should go in. And I would advise every player to do their best to hold onto their legendaries with that possible development in mind. If you have even 1 spare crew slot you are hurting yourself by discarding a legendary before you need to. Discarding a legendary should always be followed by a curse on DB, but I agree that there are times when it is necessary.
And to comment on another facet that has come out in the conversation, that of doing events and then ditching the rewards, I find that somewhat unjust. You are totally free to do it of course, it is not against any rules, but your paltry, almost insignificant in the scheme of things, 550 honor gain is likely depriving a player who could really benefit from the card. There is already a facet of the game that is about making the rich richer, it disturbs me that the rich would take the stuff and burn it and laugh about it.
All in all, discarding a legendary for 550 honor just doesn't matter, it's chump change. And discarding a card that might possibly help you in the future is just bad advice.
PM for details.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
This thread is titled as a strategy ... you've got to be open to some criticism ... maybe it isn't me who doesn't get the gist of it, as you say ("It is just a tough assumption to make given that you are laser-focussed on a tiny portion of the sales pitch portion of the post and seem to be ignoring the actual strategy portion, such as it is.") ... I'm a business guy IRL and if you're giving me a sales pitch on a product I might consider buying, I want to make sure that you're not spouting BS, so yes, I will fiddle down into the details of that pitch you're giving me, as I don't want to buy hot air off some guy I don't even know.
If my fiddling makes the sales person uncomfortable (exception #1, exception #2, let me tweak this here or there), that's their problem not mine, I'm not trying to sell something but will buy (in) if the pitch is successful (so far it is not).
So, if the pitch comes down to this ... "the meat and potatoes of the strategy is to set clearly defined goals, do all the research you can, make decisions in service to your goals, live with the results." ... it isn't a piñata strategy but more a meat & potatoes strategy ... which is so straightforward that any player who is even slightly serious about the game will follow it ... then, yes I'm in ...
Maybe you should have tried to sell it by stating that you happily airlocked 4 copies of Covert Operative Leland ... that hits all your criteria with ease ... so choosing an example of crew that fits the strategy you've laid out.
But if you're selling me a strategy that is around airlocking waste crew based on certain premises which you don't even follow yourself (exceptions or not) then I'm out.
But personally, I just like to approach things from a more positive/sustainable angle that doesn't feed into consumerist/throw-away culture tendencies:
- If I get unique crew in then I try to find reasons why I should cite them (rather than why I should ditch them for 550 Honor) ... an approach e.g. Ironagedave takes and who I think you've been quite harsh on.
- If there is nothing pressing at the moment of first acquisition then I just leave them at 1/5 (lvl 100) ... the resources needed to level crew is kinda peanuts at my stage of the game, and it gives me something to do during the week ... there they will sit gathering dust and stars until their days comes a calling for a citation or being frozen due to natural accumulation of stars.
- Should my crew quarters ever fill up then I will approach the situation just as I did with 4* crew (and have been a proponent of for eons ... just ask @Shy Khan) ... I'll start freezing immortalised 5* crew (I've already frozen my first even though I have 40+ empty spots ... Minuet).
Caveat: I hardly ever spend money on the game (buying event packs etc.), so influx of new 5*s is very minimal, as I do not rank highly enough for the weekly event 5*, only once in a while (only 7 of the last 10 and one was a duplicate ... who I airlocked (Honey Bare)).
I do a ton of research ... I've even written up my own spreadsheet/formulas detailing which crew would be best to cite from a voyage perspective.
I prefer to gain Honor by ... playing hard in Skirmishes ... spending excess credits over 3 million, spending excess Merits over 3000.
Admitedly in Bylo's defence my edit may have come after he responded, however a big +1 to the rest of your post. I do wonder though increasing the value in honor for a legendary may inadvertently actively encourage people to rank and burning legends more in events. Not that I want to give DB ammunition for defence on this because the amount as I have expressed earlier is indeed pitiful.
Edit: A possible solution to 1/5s is to be able to trade in with say about 10k honor in the portal, maybe once a week or month, for a featured trade in legend (with perhaps an ad refresh or two). That way the legendary feels more like circa 40k worth of honor but it's locked until you see fit to or can use.
In this thread I have been apologetic, I have made corrections, I have acknowledged mistakes as I've gone on, and I have asked follow up questions. And I and a few other people have addressed the issues and concerns that have been raised about the dangers or even value of airlocking 5* crew, which again is a VERY small part of the overall "strategy". A small group of you keep ignoring all of those words and all of those explanations and keep stating the same exact objection over and over and over. It is irritating and disrespectful.
I'll repeat the core of the "strategy: for those of you who seem determined to not read it:
1. Set clearly defined goals.
2. Do as much research as you can.
3. Make decisions in service to your goals.
4. Live with the results (ie have no regrets).
Nowhere in those four lines does it say "airlock all of your 1/5 crew". To paraphrase @Prime LorQa [10F] from earlier, if you have a 1/5 that is not helping you achieve your goals, is taking up a valuable crew slot, and is never going to see resources invested in it to improve it, getting rid of that crew and gaining 550 Honor is a valid and helpful solution.
If you do not want to airlock your crew, nobody is forcing you, and if your goals are such that airlocking crew is not compatible with achieving said goal, don't do it. It is really that simple!
And now I am going to ask that all comments regarding specifically airlocking crew be terminated within this thread, it has been covered repeatedly, and is detracting from the overall conversation about the "strategy". Start your own thread if you feel you need to continue discussing it.
I agree wholeheartedly with @Thurthorad on this point. Or, rather, I already agreed several posts earlier:
However, I respectfully disagree on a second point:
Pruning is pragmatic and even necessary -- especially for our VIP 0 comrades, who have to be ruthless about such decisions. I would also suggest that it's better for one's mental health to push back against rationalizing compulsive collecting, even if it's just pixels that take up no real physical space. If you review the myriad "I quit!" threads from the last three years (there were some even before I started playing, four months after launch), one of the most recurring declarations is that those players will now feel "free" of the drain on their resources of time and money.
But why even do that? If all you want is threshold and out, then turn in rares as you go and stop after threshold. Waiting for phase 2 only matters if you are planning to earn more in phase 2. You're just overbuilding and and spending more time clicking than you need.
I guess just a false of habit from the old threshold and out days, I always liked to get the most out of your super rare turnins, hitting rank would be a secondary objective. I probably over tap anyway as I use it as a convenient pre-farming method, instead of compiling and cross referencing missions and farming later on, for the next galaxy/replenishing stockpile, as well whilst being under one supply kit.
So you’re saying I should toss Tosk out the nearest airlock. It is tempting. I’ve been one to cling to 5*s but this thread definitely makes me question it. Especially if they aren’t going to help at all for the most part.
I can tell you I have at least 10 immortalized legendaries that I never use. On voyages, shuttles, gauntlet. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t be an event bonus someday. But that is 27,500 honor right there. I’m with Bylo. I’ve tossed out way more legendaries then I ever keep. I am a collector too, Albiet a very picky one. I do argue that this strategy can be used by newer players. I’ve used this strategy from the first day I started playing and I just scored my 12th top 5 event finish with Kamala.
e.g. On 07 Oct 2019 I cited Tenavik and was at 355 Honor.
On 04 Nov 2019 I had 100.720 Honor ... because I'm just not sure where to spend it at the moment, there are a couple of collection crew and I'm just not sure (Aviator Yar, Assimilated La Forge, Tuxedo Nog etc.).
Today, right after airlocking all the event crew 155.226 (thresholds and out for me, ended at spot 2.753).
So that's 50-55k Honor every 14 days and working towards my goal of collections etc. ... without spending on packs etc. ... just voyages, credits, merits and the pulls we get through events, gauntlet etc.
ps - I mention honor build-up because, like you I want to improve my voyage lengths to 10+ hrs across all skill combos and so need to cite up 5*s (5 combos so far with DIP/SCI today as the 5th).