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Can we get a break from shuttle-based events, PLEASE?!?!
Drago Musevni
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in Make It So!
Counting next week's upcoming Hybrid Faction/Galaxy rerun (11-28-2019), of the past 15 events, 11 of those events have involved shuttles in some capacity, be it a full 4-day shuttle event or a faction/galaxy hybrid. Crunching the numbers, shuttle-based events make up nearly 3/4ths of the events in this recent time period, clocking in at 73.33%.
I like shuttles as much as the next person, but when we only get a break from shuttles 4 times in 15 events, it's enough to make even the most die-hard of us ardent shuttle aficionados wince and get queasy upon seeing that the upcoming event will feature shuttles in some capacity. We haven't had back-to-back events with no shuttle involvement for over 3 months. You have to go back to 08-08-2019's Galaxy event that was followed by 08-15-2019's Skirmish event to find the last time we the players got even the mildest of respite from the constant monotony of shuttle events week in and week out. And what did we get after that brief vacation from shuttle events? 5 Straight weeks of shuttle-based events stretching from 08-22-2019's event through 09-19-2019's event.
Adding in the seldom seen Hybrid Skirmish/Galaxy Event would go a long way towards alleviating the shuttle burn-out many of us are experiencing right now. I’m sure you’d get no complaints either if you implemented more full 4-day Skirmish Events as well.
I farm cadet missions 18 times most Thursdays to get 36+ Standard Shuttle Boost 10-packs per week. That’s a crazy amount of farming that requires a lot of dedication. Even so, I still find myself needing to do that week in and week out as the constant barrage of shuttle-based events always depletes my supply of time-reducing-boosts. I shudder to think the predicament of the casual player without my level of dedication, going into these shuttle events week after week, feeling nothing but frustration as their supply of boosts, especially time reducing boosts, dwindle to the point of nonexistence.
At the very least I’d hope that every other month it could be arranged to have two non-shuttle-based events in a row. You could even do us players a solid and go 3 weeks without any shuttles by running a Skirmish, followed by a Galaxy, concluding with a Skirmish/Galaxy Hybrid Event. I can’t be the only one who is getting burned out from shuttles, shuttles, all the time shuttles.
For those interested, here’s the breakdown of the last 15 events (non-shuttle events in CAPS):
1.) 11-28 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
2.) 11-21 Full Faction
3.) *11-14 FULL GALAXY
4.) 11-07 Full Faction
5.) *10/31 FULL GALAXY
6.) 10/24 Full Faction
7.) *10/17 FULL SKIRMISH
8.) 10/10 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
9.) 10/03 Full Faction
10.) *09-26 FULL SKIRMISH
11.) 09-19 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
12.) 09-12 Full Faction
13.) 09-05 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
14.) 08-29 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
15.) 08-22 Full Faction
I like shuttles as much as the next person, but when we only get a break from shuttles 4 times in 15 events, it's enough to make even the most die-hard of us ardent shuttle aficionados wince and get queasy upon seeing that the upcoming event will feature shuttles in some capacity. We haven't had back-to-back events with no shuttle involvement for over 3 months. You have to go back to 08-08-2019's Galaxy event that was followed by 08-15-2019's Skirmish event to find the last time we the players got even the mildest of respite from the constant monotony of shuttle events week in and week out. And what did we get after that brief vacation from shuttle events? 5 Straight weeks of shuttle-based events stretching from 08-22-2019's event through 09-19-2019's event.
Adding in the seldom seen Hybrid Skirmish/Galaxy Event would go a long way towards alleviating the shuttle burn-out many of us are experiencing right now. I’m sure you’d get no complaints either if you implemented more full 4-day Skirmish Events as well.
I farm cadet missions 18 times most Thursdays to get 36+ Standard Shuttle Boost 10-packs per week. That’s a crazy amount of farming that requires a lot of dedication. Even so, I still find myself needing to do that week in and week out as the constant barrage of shuttle-based events always depletes my supply of time-reducing-boosts. I shudder to think the predicament of the casual player without my level of dedication, going into these shuttle events week after week, feeling nothing but frustration as their supply of boosts, especially time reducing boosts, dwindle to the point of nonexistence.
At the very least I’d hope that every other month it could be arranged to have two non-shuttle-based events in a row. You could even do us players a solid and go 3 weeks without any shuttles by running a Skirmish, followed by a Galaxy, concluding with a Skirmish/Galaxy Hybrid Event. I can’t be the only one who is getting burned out from shuttles, shuttles, all the time shuttles.
For those interested, here’s the breakdown of the last 15 events (non-shuttle events in CAPS):
1.) 11-28 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
2.) 11-21 Full Faction
3.) *11-14 FULL GALAXY
4.) 11-07 Full Faction
5.) *10/31 FULL GALAXY
6.) 10/24 Full Faction
7.) *10/17 FULL SKIRMISH
8.) 10/10 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
9.) 10/03 Full Faction
10.) *09-26 FULL SKIRMISH
11.) 09-19 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
12.) 09-12 Full Faction
13.) 09-05 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
14.) 08-29 Hybrid Faction/Galaxy
15.) 08-22 Full Faction
01000010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110100 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100001 01110011 01110011 00100001
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Comments
Especially the Galaxy/Skirmish hybrid option I would like to see coming to life. There was only one ever, and that was before I started the game.
I would like to add the obvious: Reruns or flahbacks of Expeditions.
Having one week off from any given event type is about the most we could ask. DB has been keeping skirmishes limited to once a month, so that leaves faction and galaxy to keep us occupied. Is this ideal? Not really, imo. But it is reality.
I would love to see a new voyage event type. I pitched an idea for one, but it didn't seem very popular. Hopefully once DB gets past the current sign-in issue, they can devote some resources to new event type or game mode. I think it's going to take a little time, though.
You say that like that's the way it's always been, but this is a pretty big and recent change.
In the last 14 events starting from the beginning of that nasty run of 5 straight events with a faction phase, if you count each event as having 2 phases (with factions counting as 2 phases, even though they're technically just one long phase), 16/28 or 57% of phases have been factions, with 8/28 or 29% being galaxies and 4/28 or 14% being skirmishes.
By contrast, in the previous 14 events, 9/28 or 32% of phases have been factions, with 13/28 or 46% being galaxies and 6/28 or 21% being skirmishes. The faction events have almost doubled over the last 3 months.
Ideally, I'd love more event types, but if that's not possible even just having galaxy/skirmish hybrids would give us a welcome break from factions. There's no reason why over a 3 month period we should be seeing one of the 3 event types more than half of the time.
I would like to see the breakdown. Because of you selectively chose a set that began and ended with a Galaxy or Skirmish, then it's a little intellectually dishonest. And was there an opposing thread during that time period where players complained that so many events required chronitons that they were "over it"?
Quite frankly, DB will never make everyone happy. I'm sorry that it's your turn to be unhappy. I'm sure the tide will turn and you'll get your chroniton events soon.
As to it being "intellectually dishonest", well I'll admit the time frame may be a bit semi-arbitrary. Almost any comparison of time-frames is. Of course, when there's only 3 events, saying the data is invalid if the period starts or ends with 2 of them seems a bit over the top. I chose that period simply because of the long streak from August 22nd to September 23rd which is where much of the current series of complaints began. The event list I chose was from the wiki.
Also, while I might wish for something different than the current deluge of faction events and phases, I'm not especially unhappy. This is a free game for me, and I endeavour to not complain (too much) if the free content I'm given isn't the free content I want. My primary reason for posting what I did was simply to refute the suggestion that this current situation is normal.
Anyway, I meant no disrespect, and hopefully someday we'll see some version of your voyage event idea and then we can all be happy.
There was a fair amount of (justified) backlash in that August-September stretch you mentioned. I think the events are moving in a better direction since then. I try to argue in favor of trends that I prefer.
And thank you for de-escalating the tension!
I agree that it is impossible to make everyone happy but balance should not be that hard to achieve rather than swinging one way and then the other and almost completely ignoring one event type.
There are four event types: Faction, Galaxy, Expedition (it does exist ... we used to have it in the Before Times), and Skirmish.
Allowing for hybrid events, there are 10 possible combinations for the events. (I am counting hybrid events that have the same types in a different phase order, e.g. Faction/Galaxy and Galaxy/Faction, as one event type as they are functionally the same).
Perhaps I am being overly simplistic here, but surely it would be possible to create a rotation that would give each event time equal play time?
Even doing a rotation where each 4-week cycle is dedicated to a primary event type with the first being completely that event type and the remaining three being hybrids with each other event type (e.g. Gal/Gal, Gal/Fac, Gal/Exp, Gal/Ski) would be a simple way to ensure even distribution of event types.
I am sure that there are very valid reasons why it is absolutely impossible to achieve balance but I am at a loss to see what those reasons are.
(Yes, I know, dev time, sales revenue, etc, etc. I am looking at this from a the perspective of a player/customer that would like to see some more even distribution of events, not from a marketing & sales perspective)
The Bovine League
"Leave bigotry in your quarters; there's no room for it on the bridge." James T. Kirk
There is one thing I think DB could do better and that's add a sort of crew "BONUS" boost card plus let boost cards be part of the reward of a shuttle mission.
Also, short shuttle missions to let say 1-2 hours instead of 3 hours once it reaches that, but somehow I don't think that is feasible due to coding.
Skirmish is too time consuming.
Expeditions seems lost in space.
Maybe DB should create something new ?