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).
I haven’t analyzed numbers or anything like that. I just play the game and don’t do spreadsheets and calculations and all. But I can tell you by doing this from the start (and I was around before honor. When we got trainers for airlocking) I now have 92 immortalized legendaries, zero of what is referred to as honor debt, in the bank I have two legendary citations and 450,000 honor that I can usecon whoever catches my fancy, I can get a ten hour voyage easily on any skill pairing except the dreaded MED/ENG, and I have every shuttle seat possibility covered with 5/5s many times over. The one thing that may seem an issue is with event crew, but the only problem I had with that was the Desert Archer faction event but it seems like I wasn’t alone in not having much event crew for that one
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.
For me personally, many of the 1/5 crew are replacements for some of the purples that go in the freezer. Ideally it is a like card, e.g. Mirror Archer has the same base skills as my EV Suit Archer (1/5), yet EV Archer has better overall prof. and skills, and get used far more than 4/4 FE Mirror Archer, therefore, Mirror Archer gets iced. They have basically the same traits, but in some cases, like this example, there are differences. I try to leave out only the purple crew who can be potentially useful.
I am of the strong opinion that this game revolves highly around the proficiency of the crew, and on par, Gold crew always has better profs than purple, so even if you froze ALL your purples in lieu of your 1/5 golds, I cannot see fault in this. This has given me a very strong Gold crew, and I am quite happy with freezing 90% of my purples to get where I am. Yes, there is a revolving door to the freezer when it comes to certain 4* Event crew, but even then I am very selective of whether I need them or not. (Usually ONLY for Faction events.)
To date, I have only ever airlocked 1 gold that I don't already have a duplicate or 2 of. (I have airlocked 3 Armuses now, which would have given me a 3rd copy at 3/5)
If I ever get a begold where the options are that I don't have any of the 3 , one only has 2 skills, that one is automatically banned from the decision making, then it is down to the skills and my like of the other 2.
I am also very careful about timing when I make pulls, as to when I have the slots available, and/or if it is a rerun week for Event I don't care about kind of thing. It's all strategy, whether for my own sanity or for actual play of the game.
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.
If you don't feel Tosk is gonna help and you don't care about him, then yeah, ditch the dude and free up the crew slot for someone else. If you haven't already equipped him, you'll save those resources. If you have already equipped him, don't fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy and feel you have to keep him because it'd be a waste at this point.
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.
If you don't feel Tosk is gonna help and you don't care about him, then yeah, ditch the dude and free up the crew slot for someone else. If you haven't already equipped him, you'll save those resources. If you have already equipped him, don't fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy and feel you have to keep him because it'd be a waste at this point.
Yes. I forgot to mention in the above advantage comment that I have never paid for one crew slot and I still have 17 open spots after 2+ years of playing. Paying 3000 dilithium for 5 crew slots just seems to me like the worst bang for your buck in the game. Plus if you wait long enough they give you 5 free every once in a while. That always happens before I even get close to the limit, which for me is at 215.
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).
Oh, you're entirely right that the return on cashing in a 5* is negligible, @RaraRacing. But that's not the point of this philosophy. It's not about what you get for getting rid of the 5*'s, @RaraRacing. It's what you don't get out of keeping them. To borrow from Marie Kondo, why bother with someone who doesn't spark joy?
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.
For me personally, many of the 1/5 crew are replacements for some of the purples that go in the freezer. Ideally it is a like card, e.g. Mirror Archer has the same base skills as my EV Suit Archer (1/5), yet EV Archer has better overall prof. and skills, and get used far more than 4/4 FE Mirror Archer, therefore, Mirror Archer gets iced. They have basically the same traits, but in some cases, like this example, there are differences. I try to leave out only the purple crew who can be potentially useful.
Oh, for sure! Sometimes one 1/5 can even justify freezing two 4/4's. Suppose you were relying on a 4* crew member with a ship ability comparable to EV Suit Archer's. (It's a bad example because his is pretty weak, but you get the point. I don't think anyone is arguing against keeping any 1/5's; only against compulsively keeping every single one of them.
Yes. I forgot to mention in the above advantage comment that I have never paid for one crew slot and I still have 17 open spots after 2+ years of playing.
You mean never paid with Dilithium, right? Cause you get more slots for higher VIP Levels which you have and for which you have paid:
Yes. I forgot to mention in the above advantage comment that I have never paid for one crew slot and I still have 17 open spots after 2+ years of playing.
You mean never paid with Dilithium, right? Cause you get more slots for higher VIP Levels which you have and for which you have paid:
You get some good honor for going high in an event. I have the rare bashir and the super rare quark so I airlock those for 1100 honor. Then those 7 portal pulls will be anywhere from 400-700, more if there is a super rare or two. So let's say that is 550 honor to add to my 1100 so now I am at approx. 1650 in honor. I am going to keep Kamala but if I had airlocked her that would be another 550 honor. Provided you have chrons to burn there is some honor to be had. Every bit helps.
You get some good honor for going high in an event. I have the rare bashir and the super rare quark so I airlock those for 1100 honor. Then those 7 portal pulls will be anywhere from 400-700, more if there is a super rare or two. So let's say that is 550 honor to add to my 1100 so now I am at approx. 1650 in honor. I am going to keep Kamala but if I had airlocked her that would be another 550 honor. Provided you have chrons to burn there is some honor to be had. Every bit helps.
Also the two 2*’s you airlock and if you airlock the Bashirs (which prolly not cuz you would use him in the event). Also the Quark and the ten pull from community rewards. The 5 basic portal pulls as well will net you at least 250 that you get in the thresholds
You get some good honor for going high in an event. I have the rare bashir and the super rare quark so I airlock those for 1100 honor. Then those 7 portal pulls will be anywhere from 400-700, more if there is a super rare or two. So let's say that is 550 honor to add to my 1100 so now I am at approx. 1650 in honor. I am going to keep Kamala but if I had airlocked her that would be another 550 honor. Provided you have chrons to burn there is some honor to be had. Every bit helps.
Also the two 2*’s you airlock and if you airlock the Bashirs (which prolly not cuz you would use him in the event). Also the Quark and the ten pull from community rewards. The 5 basic portal pulls as well will net you at least 250 that you get in the thresholds
Yep, and the 1500 in honor from threshold and the 10x portal pull there as well. You could get about 5,000 in honor from doing these events or more depending on luck.
You get some good honor for going high in an event. I have the rare bashir and the super rare quark so I airlock those for 1100 honor. Then those 7 portal pulls will be anywhere from 400-700, more if there is a super rare or two. So let's say that is 550 honor to add to my 1100 so now I am at approx. 1650 in honor. I am going to keep Kamala but if I had airlocked her that would be another 550 honor. Provided you have chrons to burn there is some honor to be had. Every bit helps.
Also the two 2*’s you airlock and if you airlock the Bashirs (which prolly not cuz you would use him in the event). Also the Quark and the ten pull from community rewards. The 5 basic portal pulls as well will net you at least 250 that you get in the thresholds
Yep, and the 1500 in honor from threshold and the 10x portal pull there as well. You could get about 5,000 in honor from doing these events or more depending on luck.
Yes! Forgot those. That is what I came up with as well. About 5000 honor per galaxy if you airlock everything and win the legendary. Less for a faction without community rewards and more for a skirmish as honor is in the after battle loot table
I enjoy the discussion about crew management strategies. I personally tend to fall more on the collector side of the debate. Early on, I remember the painful decisions about airlocking 3* crew due to slot space issues... the good old days. I found the toughest time to manage crew slot space was when I just started to get consistently competitive in events, right around the time voyages were introduced. This created a huge influx of both 3* and 4* crew, as I was still working my way through immortalizing/freezing all the 1-4* crew.
One of the most effective ways I avoided the glut of 1/5 crew was to be selective about which events I ranked in. Prior to the changes to reward structures, I would always get the 5* crew from factions and always go threshold-and-out on galaxy events. Now it is much harder to plan, as I tend to go for ranked 5* crew in any event ahead of a faction or skirmish - the events when I'll purchase packs to FF the new 4* crew and might get a copy of the previously awarded 5* crew. While I get the logic of this change, it has added an annoying wrinkle to my crew management strategy.
I am thankful that my methodical approach to crew levelling early on allowed me to freeze loads of crew while mainly avoiding a major crew space problem. I never had to airlock a 4* or 5* crew until I got to the point I was collecting duplicates. I've actually immortalized over 100 duplicate 4* crew, mainly to give me something to do. While it could be viewed as a waste of resources and honor, many of them revolved around events that crew was featured in, so they served me well. Plus, doing so has helped acquire achievement dilithium. In total, that's about 80,000 worth of honor - crazy to think that 100 immortalized duplicate 4* crew would only give me 1 extra 5* citation (almost 2).
As for 5* crew, I've only airlocked a few:
- Proto Barclay x 1 -- I had him at 2/5 prior to his campaign
- Gloria x 1 -- ditto
- Degra x 1 -- immortalized him through pulls over the years, then won a 6th copy from his re-run event
- Armus x 2 -- I already had 2 immortalized copies
- Locutus x 2 -- I already had 2 immortalized copies (feels like a waste of 150k honor spent before old gauntlet crew were added to the gauntlet reward table)
One of the tougher decisions for me has been to freeze most of my 4* crew, so many of which had been consistent contributors for so long. I'm down to about 20 active 4* crew, with my army of 5* crew (mostly 1/5, 2/5 and 3/5) essentially replacing them. It has taken nearly 3 years of playing to get to this point, but it has allowed me to stay competitive and avoid having to airlock 5* crew. Without having spent any dilithium/$$$ on crew slots, I'm currently sitting with about 50 open slots (technically filled with duplicate 4* crew gained from voyages/packs, who will be airlocked whenever their slot is needed).
I definitely agree with the core points about Bylo's strategy - figure out what matters to you and prioritize your time, resources and effort around achieving the goals you set. That might mean making some tough decisions, which could include airlocking 5* crew or strategically avoiding them in the first place (ie: deliberately ranking outside the top-1500 in a particular event). As long as you're playing the game how you want to play it, don't sweat any decision that might be judged to be 'bad' by other players or game resources.
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).
Oh, you're entirely right that the return on cashing in a 5* is negligible, @RaraRacing. But that's not the point of this philosophy. It's not about what you get for getting rid of the 5*'s, @RaraRacing. It's what you don't get out of keeping them. To borrow from Marie Kondo, why bother with someone who doesn't spark joy?
I 100% agree ... and understand the premise (hence why I never said a word against that) ... but the honor piñata idea/image gives me the vision of hitting something and having goodies (Honor) drop out ... so maybe I'm not hitting the piñata correctly to get maximum effect ... like the OP, I too have the goals to:
- Complete collections (you only need to see the last post I started in the Ready Room!).
- Get all voyage combos over 10 hrs (now at 5 of 15).
(Those goals kinda counter each other ... because the collection crew I have left are mostly 2-skillers or CMD/DIP/SEC combos ... but hey, gotta live with what they give ya).
... and that's it for me.
The thing is ... no matter how I look at the original premise at the moment, I don't see the golden ticket. If I can achieve my goals faster, great ... but how often are they immortalising specific crew? What is the honor accrual for this mindset (avoiding strategy here)? At what cost is this coming (I might spend €10 a month for the campaign but that's my limit)?
As you know, I'm not a big spender ... so ...
- I see a 1/5 as a temporary storage for 6 Dil (I don't immortalise duplicates) that can be converted into 550 Honor (which equates to 0,066 Dil ... a loss in investment!) ... a 2/5 is 12 Dil etc. ... at a later date.
- The interest that a 1/5 (or x/5) brings in is when they are sent out on a voyage (i.e. 1/12th the value of the honor/credits/chronitons etc. brought in) or are used in an event (the players above have indicated what LJ Riker's value was this past event - he also saved me a ton of chronitons etc. by bringing in extra super rares so I didn't have to go out and farm items etc. etc.), used in gauntlet etc. ... this can in turn be converted into Honor (chronitons run missions which get creates and are converted to 90k credit pulls - 50+ Honor).
- If crew are part of a collection then their value increases with regards to the possible tier rewards that can be achieved (merits, dil, portal pulls, 1/5 crew etc.).
- Because I have plenty of crew space, I can hold these investments until the time comes that they are immortalised ... or I run out of space and they need to be sold for a loss ... both options are medium to long term and that's fine with me.
--> I've done steps #1 to 4 (paragraph 1 to 6 of original post) ... but from 7 down is where I had my qualms and I read things like ... "Basically, the core of the Honor Piñata strategy is to identify crew you need to advance your goals, and acquire Honor as rapidly as possible to get 5* citations for those crew." ... (see my previous posts about wishy washy nature of implementation) ... so okay ... how long does it take to get to 50k and at what cost? What am I seeing differently? Where am I missing the boat? How do I improve? What lessons can be learnt?
My method costs me €5 (at most, if I spend for the campaign) to get 50k Honor in 14 days ... allowing me to immortalise a 1/5 every 2 months (depressing thought).
As long as you're playing the game how you want to play it, don't sweat any decision that might be judged to be 'bad' by other players or game resources.
This is the single most helpful sentence in this entire thread.
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).
Oh, you're entirely right that the return on cashing in a 5* is negligible, @RaraRacing. But that's not the point of this philosophy. It's not about what you get for getting rid of the 5*'s, @RaraRacing. It's what you don't get out of keeping them. To borrow from Marie Kondo, why bother with someone who doesn't spark joy?
I 100% agree ... and understand the premise (hence why I never said a word against that) ... but the honor piñata idea/image gives me the vision of hitting something and having goodies (Honor) drop out ... so maybe I'm not hitting the piñata correctly to get maximum effect ... like the OP, I too have the goals to:
A fair question, @RaraRacing, and I share your confusion over the title. There's a net savings of resources, but that's not the same as a lucrative piñata. As illustrated by @(HGH)Apollo, a higher event rank is more beneficial than just the 550 Honor for dismissing the rank reward 5*. That would be the piñata, spilling a little more candy. It is also antithetical to what I promote of keeping out of the way in an event where you're just gonna dismiss the 5* anyway so someone who really wants it can slip into the top 1500. Perhaps it would be helpful if @ByloBand were to rename this?
I have only airlocked one legendary, and that was statue of liberty vina when I was out of crew slots a couple months after her event. You can always work hard, get the legendary, use that legendary in the next event where it is event crew, then airlock it after if your intention is to airlock that person. Remember though that Bylo was only talking about maybe airlocking one legendary a month, not all of them.
I have only airlocked one legendary, and that was statue of liberty vina when I was out of crew slots a couple months after her event. You can always work hard, get the legendary, use that legendary in the next event where it is event crew, then airlock it after if your intention is to airlock that person. Remember though that Bylo was only talking about maybe airlocking one legendary a month, not all of them.
That’s what I did this event. As soon as it was over Little John became Lost in Space
Just woke up, trying to catch up on things in here. Also, apologies for my tantrum this morning, what I said needed to be said, but I could have been more diplomatic about it (if only you could have seen the stuff I deleted, hoo boy!)
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First, to the confusion about the name of the thread: the phrase "Honor Piñata" came about months ago as a rando comment I made in another thread about the thrill of airlocking a 5* crew. It was both meant to be humorous but also as a way of making it easier for people reading to see that it isn't the end of the world to airlock a 5*. And then as I said this morning, I went with that as the title of the thread as a way of showing respect for @EnderW who seems to really enjoy the name
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Second, I was too busy this morning doing other things to properly respond to the question about why would someone expend resources in an event just to win the 5* crew to airlock them. I have touched on this previously in the thread but perhaps in bits and pieces from multiple comments, so here it is all in one place. For the record, I believe to date I have only done this three times, so it is not something I do often.
Please understand that I am not approaching events from the standpoint that they are tedious and boring, and only something we must endure, I enjoy doing them; download a half dozen or so episodes of Star Trek, put them your favorite device, and rewatch some classic episodes while you fly through your event in game. My old fleetmate who has disappeared put me on to that, and it is a pretty strong strategy to help your events become more immersive and enjoyable.
So if I find I have the desire/ability to play an event, I'm going to pust to win the crew, although sometimes that is not really the goal, you know? There are times when I see the 5* crew and try desperately to win a copy, but sometimes I just enjoy playing the event and the 5* is a side effect of playing so hard.
Like @(HGH)Apollo said a few comments back with screenshots, finishing high in an event nets the player quite a boon of Honor regardless of the 5*, but if you add in the 550 it gets that much better.
Now to answer the question directly: since we know that a high finish in an event gets the player over 1,000 Honor, if you have a surplus of chronitons or shuttle boosts/rental tokens, why not convert them for Honor, what other use do they ultimately have? We can already directly cash in merits, credits, and dilithium for Honor, but events are our opportunities to convert chronitons and various shuttle items into Honor, so that is why people do it.
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Third, you have my highest respect @Travis S McClain for your continued support in this thread, for your willingness to talk to people while I am asleep during the day, and for your ability to sift through my ramblings/musings and pull out EXACTLY what it was I was saying and explaining it to the masses. I've been sick all weekend and due to other mitigating factors I have not been able to craft these comments as carefully as is my usual practice, so thank you sincerely for all your help
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I also want to thank everyone who have contributed so far and been involved, it means a great deal.
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A player reached out to me via PM and has asked a question specific to this thread. One way or the other I will be posting my answer in here either later tonight or tomorrow, but I want to continue to communicate with this player to make sure everything is above board, so stay tuned!
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And to @RaraRacing, I am at a loss as to how to continue, lol. I can sense you are passionate about this and maybe we are just getting our messages crossed or something. A lot of explanations have been given and I am sorry if they are not landing with you, but in your last comment you asked with regard to airlocking 5* "At what cost is this coming?"
You meant it I believe it purely economic terms I think, so I will share with you that I buy the Monthly Card everyone month, and I also buy the premium campaign every month. I also occasionally bite on pop up offers, in the past I've purchased the 4* citation offer multiple times as a way to catch up/complete Collections, I pick up the occasional $10 pack offers, and a few times I've bought those $10 crew offers (like that Riker this week). I also buy the DYC the first week of every mega to allow me to complete the mega event crew without using a citation. I hope that helps you.
But your question also has another meaning, at what cost to your future game strength. I took that as a way of you expressing uncertainty about getting rid of a crew you may one day wish you had kept, and I can respect that. As you know, one of the drums I've been beating loudly in here is the need to do your research to know what crew you definitely want/need, and then I've been trying to imbue people like you with the courage and comfort to be able to make a bold move like that and KNOW that you made the best decision you could at the time and that once you've satisfied that, it is very, very easy to live with the results. You can only do the best you can do at the time, but as long as you did your homework I hope to empower people to not be burdened with regrets. If you get to a point where airlocking a crew is the right decision for you, you will be safe in knowing you did your best and that makes living with the decision easy
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?
Away from forum for a day and it got crazy in here. @AviTrek , @Ironagedave - to answer your questions from waaaay back in this thread about what I was/am thinking... (spoiler-ed again, in deference to the thread derailing that seems to be happening).
It's partly about the 550 honor (every bit counts), but it's also about the rest of the rewards. I finished 61st in this one, which got me a 4* portal, 200 dilithium, and 800 merits. These are the stuff of dreams for me (slight hyperbole). All of them could produce a legendary card - ideally one that I do want. Plus, the extra dilithium makes it a lot easier to justify buying the event pack in next week's faction event to try to FF the new 4*. I will actually hold Kamala long enough to see if I catch a second star for her from the packs - if I do, I'll happily keep her, but the odds are never good.
I occasionally feel a twinge of guilt about competing for a card that I don't actually want, but then, I didn't make the rules of the game. I'd be happy to pass the card back to the 1501st place finisher (while still netting the honor) if that were possible, but it isn't. I'm not a big enough spender to FF every 5* card that I do want/like, so the only way I can reach my goals is to maximize return from available sources.
And if I'm being totally honest... I need the competitive outlet, and I'm past the age where I can satisfy that need with my own athletic events/activities. So instead, I click a screen. Oh how my younger self would weep at this turn of events.
Upon reflection and from talking it over with others, I have decided that the single biggest hangup in here has been with my decision to use the word "Strategy" in the title. After much reflection about all of this it just now dawned on me that I really should have called this a Philosophy, not a "Strategy", so I have amended the thread title.
I want to extend an apology to everyone for whom this has been a stumbling block, it was my mistake, and it is my hope that this minor correction can lead to a more profound understanding of the intended message
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?
Away from forum for a day and it got crazy in here. @AviTrek , @Ironagedave - to answer your questions from waaaay back in this thread about what I was/am thinking... (spoiler-ed again, in deference to the thread derailing that seems to be happening).
It's partly about the 550 honor (every bit counts), but it's also about the rest of the rewards. I finished 61st in this one, which got me a 4* portal, 200 dilithium, and 800 merits. These are the stuff of dreams for me (slight hyperbole). All of them could produce a legendary card - ideally one that I do want. Plus, the extra dilithium makes it a lot easier to justify buying the event pack in next week's faction event to try to FF the new 4*. I will actually hold Kamala long enough to see if I catch a second star for her from the packs - if I do, I'll happily keep her, but the odds are never good.
I occasionally feel a twinge of guilt about competing for a card that I don't actually want, but then, I didn't make the rules of the game. I'd be happy to pass the card back to the 1501st place finisher (while still netting the honor) if that were possible, but it isn't. I'm not a big enough spender to FF every 5* card that I do want/like, so the only way I can reach my goals is to maximize return from available sources.
And if I'm being totally honest... I need the competitive outlet, and I'm past the age where I can satisfy that need with my own athletic events/activities. So instead, I click a screen. Oh how my younger self would weep at this turn of events.
Like the competitive comment. That’s what drives me. I won four copies of Janet Reno and airlocked them all because it went too long between competing in an event. Even people who say it’s a card collecting game, that phrase includes the word game. Isn’t the point of a game to compete and win?
I am of the strong opinion that this game revolves highly around the proficiency of the crew, and on par, Gold crew always has better profs than purple, so even if you froze ALL your purples in lieu of your 1/5 golds, I cannot see fault in this. This has given me a very strong Gold crew, and I am quite happy with freezing 90% of my purples to get where I am. Yes, there is a revolving door to the freezer when it comes to certain 4* Event crew, but even then I am very selective of whether I need them or not. (Usually ONLY for Faction events.)
MED is one skill where I would not entirely say that holds true - Defensive Phlox is great, Sulan still has some power, and both Crell Moset and Alternate Future Bashir are situationally highly effective. But between Mirror Phlox, Doc Crusher, Nurse Garland, and Antaak I get quite a lot of use out of 4* crew in the gauntlet. I also keep Marshal of France Q for when the 65% Q gauntlets come up, but have moved past needing 4* crew for any other skill in the gauntlet.
Here is a question I was PM'd with regard to this subject (I am waiting to hear back with permission to tag the person who asked).
I am curious what crew you went with to be able to get consistent long voyages. The line of 1/5's I have is starting to get on my nerves and I have been trying to find a good way to go about this.
Before I considered crew, I first spent an entire month (November, 2018) tracking my voyages. I kept track of the primary/secondary skills, ship traits, seat bonus traits, the skill totals I was able to get together each time, all the SR and chroniton drops I received, and the total length of the voyages.
After a month it became pretty clear that my MED was very bad, and that I also had subpar SCI and ENG. From there I set myself the project of improving my MED, while also keeping an eye on SCI and ENG.
Then it became a matter of specifics. I read MANY threads on the forums that discussed crew, I studied the spreadsheets in the Ready Room forum, and as I encountered new crew I would compare them to my research, and if they were good, I'd immortalize them.
The first was Mirror Stammets. I saw that while his MED was not high, he had the trifecta of SCI/ENG/MED, so I made sure to do well in his event to win a copy, and then 100% of my resources went into immortalizing him ASAP. I did the same with Warship EMA, "Dark Ages" McCoy (got him from a pack), and Tactical Officer Neelix.
Also, every week when the new 5* is announced, I look them up to see if they will be good voyage performers. There are several aspects to consider when making this determination: overall voyage score (all of their combined skill totals added together), skill combinations, traits, other (I say this because sometimes a crew like Delta Flyer Paris comes along that doesn't move the needle otherwise but whose traits combination is so unique that they add value).
And like @Banjo1012 preaches, it is also important to pay attention to the pairing of the crew's two biggest skill scores. You eventually want to get to a point where you have at least two crew with all the possible skill pairings (ie the aforementioned Tactical Officer Neelix has a very strong SEC/MED pairing), although more is obviously better.
So my advice is to look over all of your 1/5 crew and look them up either on the wiki or the spreadsheets in the Ready Room and look at their 5/5 stats, and then make a short citation list and immediately start citing up the people on the top of the list. While you are doing this, also look at each new 5* announcement each week to see if the new crew will help you at 5/5 and if so, make sure you win a copy.
The final advice is to also look at your Collections and complete the ones that give skill bonuses, each 1% helps! That also gives you something to work in each day to make steady progress, as often these are more easily achieved with 3*/4* crew
I hope I have answered your question, please ask follow ups if there is additional help I can provide
Even people who say it’s a card collecting game, that phrase includes the word game. Isn’t the point of a game to compete and win?
No. The competition part of STT annoys me more than it inspires me, and not every game works this way (see most MMORPGs or as an example for a board game "Andor" which is brilliant).
I would love to see more community challenges where we work together instead of against each other.
But competition as such is on average rather a male than a female thing so our standpoints are not surprising.
Wir, die Mirror Tribbles [MiT] haben freie Plätze zu vergeben. Kein Zwang und kein Stress, dafür aber Spaß, Discord und eine nette, hilfsbereite Gemeinschaft, incl. voll ausgebauter Starbase und täglich 700 ISM.
I do have one serious question: do you suggest airlocking crew you've FE'ed? It's been my general policy, since back when I started the game, and till relatively recently, that any card I invested in (ie: did work on leveling) was not to be airlocked. This was mainly because I had limited resources and didn't want to waste any effort. Things are massively different now; I have no extra 4* cards to level and I have an over abundance of everything (except holoemitters, grrrr!), including 1/ 5 cards. And I certainly have some 1/5s that I seriously regret working on and will never cit up...looking at you FO Riker and Romulan Data. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
I do have one serious question: do you suggest airlocking crew you've FE'ed? It's been my general policy, since back when I started the game, and till relatively recently, that any card I invested in (ie: did work on leveling) was not to be airlocked. This was mainly because I had limited resources and didn't want to waste any effort. Things are massively different now; I have no extra 4* cards to level and I have an over abundance of everything (except holoemitters, grrrr!), including 1/ 5 cards. And I certainly have some 1/5s that I seriously regret working on and will never cit up...looking at you FO Riker and Romulan Data. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
I never have...yet. These days I vet new recruits carefully and I don't let "undesirables" last long enough to be a concern, but I do have 37 1/5 FE crew on my roster. Some are Gauntlet crew (like Kahless), some I am happy to have because they are cool (like Trelane), some are awaiting citations (like Merry Men Crusher), 3 are Janeways, but the rest I keep as a reminder of my early days before I got serious.
There may come a day when one or more of them needs to go and if that day comes, I promise I will not concern myself with the resources I used to train/level them.
Even people who say it’s a card collecting game, that phrase includes the word game. Isn’t the point of a game to compete and win?
No. The competition part of STT annoys me more than it inspires me, and not every game works this way (see most MMORPGs or as an example for a board game "Andor" which is brilliant).
I would love to see more community challenges where we work together instead of against each other.
But competition as such is on average rather a male than a female thing so our standpoints are not surprising.
So collecting cards IS the game. That sounds like lots of fun! Shouldn’t there then be a trade with your friends aspect?
Even people who say it’s a card collecting game, that phrase includes the word game. Isn’t the point of a game to compete and win?
No. The competition part of STT annoys me more than it inspires me, and not every game works this way (see most MMORPGs or as an example for a board game "Andor" which is brilliant).
I would love to see more community challenges where we work together instead of against each other.
But competition as such is on average rather a male than a female thing so our standpoints are not surprising.
So collecting cards IS the game. That sounds like lots of fun! Shouldn’t there then be a trade with your friends aspect?
You are absolutely right: there should be trading option. And lot of us are asking that for a very long time. Card trading is one key aspect this game is missing. Adding it would completely change strategies discussed here and the very economy of the game,
But I like this Honor Pinata "strategy" as one of the better ways to play this game as it works now.
I have airlocked most of the bottom tier legendaries I got, but I wouldn't call that a pleasing experience with no regrets. Getting 550 honour only makes me quite bitter when I remember it takes 91 legendary crew to get one legendary citation. That's almost two years of reaching top 1500 every week. How fun is that?
Comments
I haven’t analyzed numbers or anything like that. I just play the game and don’t do spreadsheets and calculations and all. But I can tell you by doing this from the start (and I was around before honor. When we got trainers for airlocking) I now have 92 immortalized legendaries, zero of what is referred to as honor debt, in the bank I have two legendary citations and 450,000 honor that I can usecon whoever catches my fancy, I can get a ten hour voyage easily on any skill pairing except the dreaded MED/ENG, and I have every shuttle seat possibility covered with 5/5s many times over. The one thing that may seem an issue is with event crew, but the only problem I had with that was the Desert Archer faction event but it seems like I wasn’t alone in not having much event crew for that one
For me personally, many of the 1/5 crew are replacements for some of the purples that go in the freezer. Ideally it is a like card, e.g. Mirror Archer has the same base skills as my EV Suit Archer (1/5), yet EV Archer has better overall prof. and skills, and get used far more than 4/4 FE Mirror Archer, therefore, Mirror Archer gets iced. They have basically the same traits, but in some cases, like this example, there are differences. I try to leave out only the purple crew who can be potentially useful.
I am of the strong opinion that this game revolves highly around the proficiency of the crew, and on par, Gold crew always has better profs than purple, so even if you froze ALL your purples in lieu of your 1/5 golds, I cannot see fault in this. This has given me a very strong Gold crew, and I am quite happy with freezing 90% of my purples to get where I am. Yes, there is a revolving door to the freezer when it comes to certain 4* Event crew, but even then I am very selective of whether I need them or not. (Usually ONLY for Faction events.)
To date, I have only ever airlocked 1 gold that I don't already have a duplicate or 2 of. (I have airlocked 3 Armuses now, which would have given me a 3rd copy at 3/5)
If I ever get a begold where the options are that I don't have any of the 3 , one only has 2 skills, that one is automatically banned from the decision making, then it is down to the skills and my like of the other 2.
I am also very careful about timing when I make pulls, as to when I have the slots available, and/or if it is a rerun week for Event I don't care about kind of thing. It's all strategy, whether for my own sanity or for actual play of the game.
If you don't feel Tosk is gonna help and you don't care about him, then yeah, ditch the dude and free up the crew slot for someone else. If you haven't already equipped him, you'll save those resources. If you have already equipped him, don't fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy and feel you have to keep him because it'd be a waste at this point.
Yes. I forgot to mention in the above advantage comment that I have never paid for one crew slot and I still have 17 open spots after 2+ years of playing. Paying 3000 dilithium for 5 crew slots just seems to me like the worst bang for your buck in the game. Plus if you wait long enough they give you 5 free every once in a while. That always happens before I even get close to the limit, which for me is at 215.
Oh, you're entirely right that the return on cashing in a 5* is negligible, @RaraRacing. But that's not the point of this philosophy. It's not about what you get for getting rid of the 5*'s, @RaraRacing. It's what you don't get out of keeping them. To borrow from Marie Kondo, why bother with someone who doesn't spark joy?
Oh, for sure! Sometimes one 1/5 can even justify freezing two 4/4's. Suppose you were relying on a 4* crew member with a ship ability comparable to EV Suit Archer's. (It's a bad example because his is pretty weak, but you get the point. I don't think anyone is arguing against keeping any 1/5's; only against compulsively keeping every single one of them.
You mean never paid with Dilithium, right? Cause you get more slots for higher VIP Levels which you have and for which you have paid:
VIP 0: 85 crew slots
VIP 2: 95 crew slots (10 bonus)
VIP 4: 105 crew slots (20 bonus)
VIP 6: 120 crew slots (35 bonus)
VIP 8: 140 crew slots (55 bonus)
VIP 10: 160 crew slots (75 bonus)
VIP 12: 180 crew slots (95 bonus)
VIP 14: 200 crew slots (115 bonus)
And you can also buy some with game credits at first which I am sure you did as well. Cause at least they were a bargain...
Correct. I did get the extra slots as my VIP level increased but incorrect in that I have never even paid credits for them
You get some good honor for going high in an event. I have the rare bashir and the super rare quark so I airlock those for 1100 honor. Then those 7 portal pulls will be anywhere from 400-700, more if there is a super rare or two. So let's say that is 550 honor to add to my 1100 so now I am at approx. 1650 in honor. I am going to keep Kamala but if I had airlocked her that would be another 550 honor. Provided you have chrons to burn there is some honor to be had. Every bit helps.
Also the two 2*’s you airlock and if you airlock the Bashirs (which prolly not cuz you would use him in the event). Also the Quark and the ten pull from community rewards. The 5 basic portal pulls as well will net you at least 250 that you get in the thresholds
Yep, and the 1500 in honor from threshold and the 10x portal pull there as well. You could get about 5,000 in honor from doing these events or more depending on luck.
Yes! Forgot those. That is what I came up with as well. About 5000 honor per galaxy if you airlock everything and win the legendary. Less for a faction without community rewards and more for a skirmish as honor is in the after battle loot table
One of the most effective ways I avoided the glut of 1/5 crew was to be selective about which events I ranked in. Prior to the changes to reward structures, I would always get the 5* crew from factions and always go threshold-and-out on galaxy events. Now it is much harder to plan, as I tend to go for ranked 5* crew in any event ahead of a faction or skirmish - the events when I'll purchase packs to FF the new 4* crew and might get a copy of the previously awarded 5* crew. While I get the logic of this change, it has added an annoying wrinkle to my crew management strategy.
I am thankful that my methodical approach to crew levelling early on allowed me to freeze loads of crew while mainly avoiding a major crew space problem. I never had to airlock a 4* or 5* crew until I got to the point I was collecting duplicates. I've actually immortalized over 100 duplicate 4* crew, mainly to give me something to do. While it could be viewed as a waste of resources and honor, many of them revolved around events that crew was featured in, so they served me well. Plus, doing so has helped acquire achievement dilithium. In total, that's about 80,000 worth of honor - crazy to think that 100 immortalized duplicate 4* crew would only give me 1 extra 5* citation (almost 2).
As for 5* crew, I've only airlocked a few:
- Proto Barclay x 1 -- I had him at 2/5 prior to his campaign
- Gloria x 1 -- ditto
- Degra x 1 -- immortalized him through pulls over the years, then won a 6th copy from his re-run event
- Armus x 2 -- I already had 2 immortalized copies
- Locutus x 2 -- I already had 2 immortalized copies (feels like a waste of 150k honor spent before old gauntlet crew were added to the gauntlet reward table)
One of the tougher decisions for me has been to freeze most of my 4* crew, so many of which had been consistent contributors for so long. I'm down to about 20 active 4* crew, with my army of 5* crew (mostly 1/5, 2/5 and 3/5) essentially replacing them. It has taken nearly 3 years of playing to get to this point, but it has allowed me to stay competitive and avoid having to airlock 5* crew. Without having spent any dilithium/$$$ on crew slots, I'm currently sitting with about 50 open slots (technically filled with duplicate 4* crew gained from voyages/packs, who will be airlocked whenever their slot is needed).
I definitely agree with the core points about Bylo's strategy - figure out what matters to you and prioritize your time, resources and effort around achieving the goals you set. That might mean making some tough decisions, which could include airlocking 5* crew or strategically avoiding them in the first place (ie: deliberately ranking outside the top-1500 in a particular event). As long as you're playing the game how you want to play it, don't sweat any decision that might be judged to be 'bad' by other players or game resources.
I 100% agree ... and understand the premise (hence why I never said a word against that) ... but the honor piñata idea/image gives me the vision of hitting something and having goodies (Honor) drop out ... so maybe I'm not hitting the piñata correctly to get maximum effect ... like the OP, I too have the goals to:
- Complete collections (you only need to see the last post I started in the Ready Room!).
- Get all voyage combos over 10 hrs (now at 5 of 15).
(Those goals kinda counter each other ... because the collection crew I have left are mostly 2-skillers or CMD/DIP/SEC combos ... but hey, gotta live with what they give ya).
... and that's it for me.
The thing is ... no matter how I look at the original premise at the moment, I don't see the golden ticket. If I can achieve my goals faster, great ... but how often are they immortalising specific crew? What is the honor accrual for this mindset (avoiding strategy here)? At what cost is this coming (I might spend €10 a month for the campaign but that's my limit)?
As you know, I'm not a big spender ... so ...
- I see a 1/5 as a temporary storage for 6 Dil (I don't immortalise duplicates) that can be converted into 550 Honor (which equates to 0,066 Dil ... a loss in investment!) ... a 2/5 is 12 Dil etc. ... at a later date.
- The interest that a 1/5 (or x/5) brings in is when they are sent out on a voyage (i.e. 1/12th the value of the honor/credits/chronitons etc. brought in) or are used in an event (the players above have indicated what LJ Riker's value was this past event - he also saved me a ton of chronitons etc. by bringing in extra super rares so I didn't have to go out and farm items etc. etc.), used in gauntlet etc. ... this can in turn be converted into Honor (chronitons run missions which get creates and are converted to 90k credit pulls - 50+ Honor).
- If crew are part of a collection then their value increases with regards to the possible tier rewards that can be achieved (merits, dil, portal pulls, 1/5 crew etc.).
- Because I have plenty of crew space, I can hold these investments until the time comes that they are immortalised ... or I run out of space and they need to be sold for a loss ... both options are medium to long term and that's fine with me.
--> I've done steps #1 to 4 (paragraph 1 to 6 of original post) ... but from 7 down is where I had my qualms and I read things like ... "Basically, the core of the Honor Piñata strategy is to identify crew you need to advance your goals, and acquire Honor as rapidly as possible to get 5* citations for those crew." ... (see my previous posts about wishy washy nature of implementation) ... so okay ... how long does it take to get to 50k and at what cost? What am I seeing differently? Where am I missing the boat? How do I improve? What lessons can be learnt?
My method costs me €5 (at most, if I spend for the campaign) to get 50k Honor in 14 days ... allowing me to immortalise a 1/5 every 2 months (depressing thought).
This is the single most helpful sentence in this entire thread.
A fair question, @RaraRacing, and I share your confusion over the title. There's a net savings of resources, but that's not the same as a lucrative piñata. As illustrated by @(HGH)Apollo, a higher event rank is more beneficial than just the 550 Honor for dismissing the rank reward 5*. That would be the piñata, spilling a little more candy. It is also antithetical to what I promote of keeping out of the way in an event where you're just gonna dismiss the 5* anyway so someone who really wants it can slip into the top 1500. Perhaps it would be helpful if @ByloBand were to rename this?
That’s what I did this event. As soon as it was over Little John became Lost in Space
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First, to the confusion about the name of the thread: the phrase "Honor Piñata" came about months ago as a rando comment I made in another thread about the thrill of airlocking a 5* crew. It was both meant to be humorous but also as a way of making it easier for people reading to see that it isn't the end of the world to airlock a 5*. And then as I said this morning, I went with that as the title of the thread as a way of showing respect for @EnderW who seems to really enjoy the name
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Second, I was too busy this morning doing other things to properly respond to the question about why would someone expend resources in an event just to win the 5* crew to airlock them. I have touched on this previously in the thread but perhaps in bits and pieces from multiple comments, so here it is all in one place. For the record, I believe to date I have only done this three times, so it is not something I do often.
Please understand that I am not approaching events from the standpoint that they are tedious and boring, and only something we must endure, I enjoy doing them; download a half dozen or so episodes of Star Trek, put them your favorite device, and rewatch some classic episodes while you fly through your event in game. My old fleetmate who has disappeared put me on to that, and it is a pretty strong strategy to help your events become more immersive and enjoyable.
So if I find I have the desire/ability to play an event, I'm going to pust to win the crew, although sometimes that is not really the goal, you know? There are times when I see the 5* crew and try desperately to win a copy, but sometimes I just enjoy playing the event and the 5* is a side effect of playing so hard.
Like @(HGH)Apollo said a few comments back with screenshots, finishing high in an event nets the player quite a boon of Honor regardless of the 5*, but if you add in the 550 it gets that much better.
Now to answer the question directly: since we know that a high finish in an event gets the player over 1,000 Honor, if you have a surplus of chronitons or shuttle boosts/rental tokens, why not convert them for Honor, what other use do they ultimately have? We can already directly cash in merits, credits, and dilithium for Honor, but events are our opportunities to convert chronitons and various shuttle items into Honor, so that is why people do it.
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Third, you have my highest respect @Travis S McClain for your continued support in this thread, for your willingness to talk to people while I am asleep during the day, and for your ability to sift through my ramblings/musings and pull out EXACTLY what it was I was saying and explaining it to the masses. I've been sick all weekend and due to other mitigating factors I have not been able to craft these comments as carefully as is my usual practice, so thank you sincerely for all your help
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I also want to thank everyone who have contributed so far and been involved, it means a great deal.
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A player reached out to me via PM and has asked a question specific to this thread. One way or the other I will be posting my answer in here either later tonight or tomorrow, but I want to continue to communicate with this player to make sure everything is above board, so stay tuned!
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And to @RaraRacing, I am at a loss as to how to continue, lol. I can sense you are passionate about this and maybe we are just getting our messages crossed or something. A lot of explanations have been given and I am sorry if they are not landing with you, but in your last comment you asked with regard to airlocking 5* "At what cost is this coming?"
You meant it I believe it purely economic terms I think, so I will share with you that I buy the Monthly Card everyone month, and I also buy the premium campaign every month. I also occasionally bite on pop up offers, in the past I've purchased the 4* citation offer multiple times as a way to catch up/complete Collections, I pick up the occasional $10 pack offers, and a few times I've bought those $10 crew offers (like that Riker this week). I also buy the DYC the first week of every mega to allow me to complete the mega event crew without using a citation. I hope that helps you.
But your question also has another meaning, at what cost to your future game strength. I took that as a way of you expressing uncertainty about getting rid of a crew you may one day wish you had kept, and I can respect that. As you know, one of the drums I've been beating loudly in here is the need to do your research to know what crew you definitely want/need, and then I've been trying to imbue people like you with the courage and comfort to be able to make a bold move like that and KNOW that you made the best decision you could at the time and that once you've satisfied that, it is very, very easy to live with the results. You can only do the best you can do at the time, but as long as you did your homework I hope to empower people to not be burdened with regrets. If you get to a point where airlocking a crew is the right decision for you, you will be safe in knowing you did your best and that makes living with the decision easy
Away from forum for a day and it got crazy in here. @AviTrek , @Ironagedave - to answer your questions from waaaay back in this thread about what I was/am thinking... (spoiler-ed again, in deference to the thread derailing that seems to be happening).
I occasionally feel a twinge of guilt about competing for a card that I don't actually want, but then, I didn't make the rules of the game. I'd be happy to pass the card back to the 1501st place finisher (while still netting the honor) if that were possible, but it isn't. I'm not a big enough spender to FF every 5* card that I do want/like, so the only way I can reach my goals is to maximize return from available sources.
And if I'm being totally honest... I need the competitive outlet, and I'm past the age where I can satisfy that need with my own athletic events/activities. So instead, I click a screen. Oh how my younger self would weep at this turn of events.
I want to extend an apology to everyone for whom this has been a stumbling block, it was my mistake, and it is my hope that this minor correction can lead to a more profound understanding of the intended message
Like the competitive comment. That’s what drives me. I won four copies of Janet Reno and airlocked them all because it went too long between competing in an event. Even people who say it’s a card collecting game, that phrase includes the word game. Isn’t the point of a game to compete and win?
MED is one skill where I would not entirely say that holds true - Defensive Phlox is great, Sulan still has some power, and both Crell Moset and Alternate Future Bashir are situationally highly effective. But between Mirror Phlox, Doc Crusher, Nurse Garland, and Antaak I get quite a lot of use out of 4* crew in the gauntlet. I also keep Marshal of France Q for when the 65% Q gauntlets come up, but have moved past needing 4* crew for any other skill in the gauntlet.
I am curious what crew you went with to be able to get consistent long voyages. The line of 1/5's I have is starting to get on my nerves and I have been trying to find a good way to go about this.
Before I considered crew, I first spent an entire month (November, 2018) tracking my voyages. I kept track of the primary/secondary skills, ship traits, seat bonus traits, the skill totals I was able to get together each time, all the SR and chroniton drops I received, and the total length of the voyages.
After a month it became pretty clear that my MED was very bad, and that I also had subpar SCI and ENG. From there I set myself the project of improving my MED, while also keeping an eye on SCI and ENG.
Then it became a matter of specifics. I read MANY threads on the forums that discussed crew, I studied the spreadsheets in the Ready Room forum, and as I encountered new crew I would compare them to my research, and if they were good, I'd immortalize them.
The first was Mirror Stammets. I saw that while his MED was not high, he had the trifecta of SCI/ENG/MED, so I made sure to do well in his event to win a copy, and then 100% of my resources went into immortalizing him ASAP. I did the same with Warship EMA, "Dark Ages" McCoy (got him from a pack), and Tactical Officer Neelix.
Also, every week when the new 5* is announced, I look them up to see if they will be good voyage performers. There are several aspects to consider when making this determination: overall voyage score (all of their combined skill totals added together), skill combinations, traits, other (I say this because sometimes a crew like Delta Flyer Paris comes along that doesn't move the needle otherwise but whose traits combination is so unique that they add value).
And like @Banjo1012 preaches, it is also important to pay attention to the pairing of the crew's two biggest skill scores. You eventually want to get to a point where you have at least two crew with all the possible skill pairings (ie the aforementioned Tactical Officer Neelix has a very strong SEC/MED pairing), although more is obviously better.
So my advice is to look over all of your 1/5 crew and look them up either on the wiki or the spreadsheets in the Ready Room and look at their 5/5 stats, and then make a short citation list and immediately start citing up the people on the top of the list. While you are doing this, also look at each new 5* announcement each week to see if the new crew will help you at 5/5 and if so, make sure you win a copy.
The final advice is to also look at your Collections and complete the ones that give skill bonuses, each 1% helps! That also gives you something to work in each day to make steady progress, as often these are more easily achieved with 3*/4* crew
I hope I have answered your question, please ask follow ups if there is additional help I can provide
No. The competition part of STT annoys me more than it inspires me, and not every game works this way (see most MMORPGs or as an example for a board game "Andor" which is brilliant).
I would love to see more community challenges where we work together instead of against each other.
But competition as such is on average rather a male than a female thing so our standpoints are not surprising.
I do have one serious question: do you suggest airlocking crew you've FE'ed? It's been my general policy, since back when I started the game, and till relatively recently, that any card I invested in (ie: did work on leveling) was not to be airlocked. This was mainly because I had limited resources and didn't want to waste any effort. Things are massively different now; I have no extra 4* cards to level and I have an over abundance of everything (except holoemitters, grrrr!), including 1/ 5 cards. And I certainly have some 1/5s that I seriously regret working on and will never cit up...looking at you FO Riker and Romulan Data. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
I never have...yet. These days I vet new recruits carefully and I don't let "undesirables" last long enough to be a concern, but I do have 37 1/5 FE crew on my roster. Some are Gauntlet crew (like Kahless), some I am happy to have because they are cool (like Trelane), some are awaiting citations (like Merry Men Crusher), 3 are Janeways, but the rest I keep as a reminder of my early days before I got serious.
There may come a day when one or more of them needs to go and if that day comes, I promise I will not concern myself with the resources I used to train/level them.
So collecting cards IS the game. That sounds like lots of fun! Shouldn’t there then be a trade with your friends aspect?
You are absolutely right: there should be trading option. And lot of us are asking that for a very long time. Card trading is one key aspect this game is missing. Adding it would completely change strategies discussed here and the very economy of the game,
But I like this Honor Pinata "strategy" as one of the better ways to play this game as it works now.