The only solution to grounding crew is to increase your roster. I'm fortunate that I can run full strength Voyages and Shuttles (leaving out the featured crew of course) and still get plenty of VP.
There's something oddly satisfying about exhausting crew members in the course of clearing missions.
Also, 2* Lt. Commander Data is an absolute beast in the Normal level missions, or at least he is after Starbase and Collection bonuses.
But he only gives 1.5x bonus instead of 2x.
Anyway, I have started skipping Normal. Just running through EPIC and ELITE.
Even if you don't need him to supplement your Featured Crew for max VP, his fatigue rate makes him fantastic for clearing non-reward nodes. He can be used to clear every non-reward node in Mission 5 on Normal, for instance, and still be useful in lower missions. I singled him out for mentioning in part because pretty much everyone has him, even if they only just got him from this event's thresholds. YMMV based on bonuses, of course, but I've found him to be a gem and figured I'd sing his praises.
As for my event, there have been a few times when I've been inattentive when selecting for a specific node and used my Featured Crew in the wrong order. Example: The Professor can crit Node 2A and Node 3, but if I use him for Node 2A, then he can't crit Node 3. Node 2B is MED so that'll be Doctor La Forge. The correct sequence is on the first run to use La Forge for 2B, then The Professor for 3; on the second run, use The Professor for 2A. If I botch that, then I have to make do with a lesser bonus for Node 3. I've never forgotten that I appreciate having to actually think about something in this game, but I did kinda forget just how much I appreciate it.
One of the reasons I enjoy this event. It's a puzzle. It's not just tap tap tap. To get the most you have to think. To bad these are so rare.
I think we will see more. Why go to the time to create a sorting process for an event type they will not run again?
Because they added crew sorting on regular away team missions. And this is using that same UI.
I hope they will create a new expedition because I love the challenge. But the lighter competition, and the the difficulty in monetizing the event doesn't leave me hopeful.
One of the reasons I enjoy this event. It's a puzzle. It's not just tap tap tap. To get the most you have to think. To bad these are so rare.
I think we will see more. Why go to the time to create a sorting process for an event type they will not run again?
Because they added crew sorting on regular away team missions. And this is using that same UI.
I hope they will create a new expedition because I love the challenge. But the lighter competition, and the the difficulty in monetizing the event doesn't leave me hopeful.
It does seem like not a whole lot of people are trying. I’m coasting at a very relaxed pace and am ranked 225
I still maintain that the biggest problem with Expeditions is that they aren't lucrative. Over the years, forum members have consistently favored Galaxy Events over Expeditions, but when pressed, what they actually like are community rewards. Take away community rewards and no one would bother with Galaxy Events ever again. Skirmishes are popular because they have loot boxes; can be done with crew who are on Voyages or shuttles; and give us something to do with our ships. That's two things more than Galaxies offer.
Things people dig about Expeditions:
They don't require a single boost, chroniton, or credit, except whatever is needed to level up the threshold 4*.
They're tap, tap, tap, but they're not entirely mindless tap, tap, tap.
We have an actual use for more than the same two dozen crew we normally rotate between Voyages and shuttles. Those mid-tier and even low-tier crew that we kept because we liked but never have a reason to use finally get to come out and play.
Players willing to grind it out can be competitive against players with larger crews. It doesn't require stockpiling chronitons or boosts for months to take your one shot at running with the big dogs.
That grinding makes those rank rewards feel more important than the ones attained by burning through stockpiles of chronitons or boosts.
I honestly believe if Expeditions had something like community rewards or loot boxes, their popularity would surge. I think it'd be most interesting if it was something unique to Expeditions rather than reusing either of the other format rewards, but I'd gladly welcome either.
I still maintain that the biggest problem with Expeditions is that they aren't lucrative. Over the years, forum members have consistently favored Galaxy Events over Expeditions, but when pressed, what they actually like are community rewards. Take away community rewards and no one would bother with Galaxy Events ever again. Skirmishes are popular because they have loot boxes; can be done with crew who are on Voyages or shuttles; and give us something to do with our ships. That's two things more than Galaxies offer.
Things people dig about Expeditions:
They don't require a single boost, chroniton, or credit, except whatever is needed to level up the threshold 4*.
They're tap, tap, tap, but they're not entirely mindless tap, tap, tap.
We have an actual use for more than the same two dozen crew we normally rotate between Voyages and shuttles. Those mid-tier and even low-tier crew that we kept because we liked but never have a reason to use finally get to come out and play.
Players willing to grind it out can be competitive against players with larger crews. It doesn't require stockpiling chronitons or boosts for months to take your one shot at running with the big dogs.
That grinding makes those rank rewards feel more important than the ones attained by burning through stockpiles of chronitons or boosts.
I honestly believe if Expeditions had something like community rewards or loot boxes, their popularity would surge. I think it'd be most interesting if it was something unique to Expeditions rather than reusing either of the other format rewards, but I'd gladly welcome either.
I completely agree with your thought. But I'd remind you popular and lucrative are not the same thing. You can have a very popular event that DB can't monetize well, and you can have a less popular event that is monetized well. The problem with expedition events are people don't like to buy extra tickets. So DB makes less money from them. Also, designing new missions takes more effort that designing faction missions and galaxy recipes.
I've debated if people should be able to revive crew with DIL. Would that make the event more profitable for DB? If you could still complete the missions without the revive, and revive only helped for players who couldn't figure out the puzzle, maybe it wouldn't be too P2W.
One of the reasons I enjoy this event. It's a puzzle. It's not just tap tap tap. To get the most you have to think. To bad these are so rare.
I think we will see more. Why go to the time to create a sorting process for an event type they will not run again?
Because they added crew sorting on regular away team missions. And this is using that same UI.
I hope they will create a new expedition because I love the challenge. But the lighter competition, and the the difficulty in monetizing the event doesn't leave me hopeful.
It does seem like not a whole lot of people are trying. I’m coasting at a very relaxed pace and am ranked 225
This event gets very old, very quickly. I'm ready for it to be over, and I'm not even doing more than the highest row anymore.
Yup...I did eventually make it to 475k but I just can’t go any farther. Same happened to a fleet mate of mine - she gave it her all and got Data but just has no urge to finish the thresholds.
I still maintain that the biggest problem with Expeditions is that they aren't lucrative. Over the years, forum members have consistently favored Galaxy Events over Expeditions, but when pressed, what they actually like are community rewards. Take away community rewards and no one would bother with Galaxy Events ever again. Skirmishes are popular because they have loot boxes; can be done with crew who are on Voyages or shuttles; and give us something to do with our ships. That's two things more than Galaxies offer.
Things people dig about Expeditions:
They don't require a single boost, chroniton, or credit, except whatever is needed to level up the threshold 4*.
They're tap, tap, tap, but they're not entirely mindless tap, tap, tap.
We have an actual use for more than the same two dozen crew we normally rotate between Voyages and shuttles. Those mid-tier and even low-tier crew that we kept because we liked but never have a reason to use finally get to come out and play.
Players willing to grind it out can be competitive against players with larger crews. It doesn't require stockpiling chronitons or boosts for months to take your one shot at running with the big dogs.
That grinding makes those rank rewards feel more important than the ones attained by burning through stockpiles of chronitons or boosts.
I honestly believe if Expeditions had something like community rewards or loot boxes, their popularity would surge. I think it'd be most interesting if it was something unique to Expeditions rather than reusing either of the other format rewards, but I'd gladly welcome either.
I completely agree with your thought. But I'd remind you popular and lucrative are not the same thing. You can have a very popular event that DB can't monetize well, and you can have a less popular event that is monetized well. The problem with expedition events are people don't like to buy extra tickets. So DB makes less money from them. Also, designing new missions takes more effort that designing faction missions and galaxy recipes.
It seems that Expeditions are entirely polarizing, but there have always been some forum members who say they like the format, but that they struggle to stick it out. I think adding, say, loot boxes to missions would go a long way toward making that repetition feel more rewarding and exciting. And, in turn, help sell some tickets. Maybe I'm entirely wrong about that, but I'd love to see it tested.
I've debated if people should be able to revive crew with DIL. Would that make the event more profitable for DB? If you could still complete the missions without the revive, and revive only helped for players who couldn't figure out the puzzle, maybe it wouldn't be too P2W.
Scale the cost by bonus tier (i.e., Featured Crew cost more than Bonus Crew, who cost more than everyone else) and scale by each revival (i.e., reviving Doctor La Forge a second time costs more than it cost the first time). But to make it more enticing, add more VP nodes per mission.
I understand why the timer was removed from tickets, and I agree that was the right decision. The timer made the event impractical for most players, who were unable and/or unwilling to commit to tapping away on their phones for 2-3 hours. (And it had to be on a phone because there was no desktop version at the time most of the original Expeditions ran; only in time for "Merry Men" was STT on Facebook Gameroom.)
However, by removing the timer, Expeditions lost any real sense of challenge. I delighted in trying to exhaust all 25 of my crew before the timer cut me off. Racing to squeeze in one last run on the first mission on Normal mode with worn down cadets was legitimately one of the most exciting things in this whole game for me. Now you can just keep scrolling and throw someone new at the missions all day long if you wanted, limited only by the size of your crew and your threshold for masochism.
What I think would resurrect some of that sense of challenge would be to restrict us to a set pool of crew per ticket. As with the Gauntlet, we would assign x number of crew to our team and only be able to use them for the duration of that ticket. You might think at first you'd just load it up with Featured and Bonus crew, but do you expect Doctor La Forge to clear all the MED nodes, including the ones that don't drop VP? We've outgrown having to make any real choices about crew other than which 1/5's are worth adding to the pile from habitually competing in events week in, week out.
I still maintain that the biggest problem with Expeditions is that they aren't lucrative. Over the years, forum members have consistently favored Galaxy Events over Expeditions, but when pressed, what they actually like are community rewards. Take away community rewards and no one would bother with Galaxy Events ever again. Skirmishes are popular because they have loot boxes; can be done with crew who are on Voyages or shuttles; and give us something to do with our ships. That's two things more than Galaxies offer.
Things people dig about Expeditions:
They don't require a single boost, chroniton, or credit, except whatever is needed to level up the threshold 4*.
They're tap, tap, tap, but they're not entirely mindless tap, tap, tap.
We have an actual use for more than the same two dozen crew we normally rotate between Voyages and shuttles. Those mid-tier and even low-tier crew that we kept because we liked but never have a reason to use finally get to come out and play.
Players willing to grind it out can be competitive against players with larger crews. It doesn't require stockpiling chronitons or boosts for months to take your one shot at running with the big dogs.
That grinding makes those rank rewards feel more important than the ones attained by burning through stockpiles of chronitons or boosts.
I honestly believe if Expeditions had something like community rewards or loot boxes, their popularity would surge. I think it'd be most interesting if it was something unique to Expeditions rather than reusing either of the other format rewards, but I'd gladly welcome either.
I completely agree with your thought. But I'd remind you popular and lucrative are not the same thing. You can have a very popular event that DB can't monetize well, and you can have a less popular event that is monetized well. The problem with expedition events are people don't like to buy extra tickets. So DB makes less money from them. Also, designing new missions takes more effort that designing faction missions and galaxy recipes.
It seems that Expeditions are entirely polarizing, but there have always been some forum members who say they like the format, but that they struggle to stick it out. I think adding, say, loot boxes to missions would go a long way toward making that repetition feel more rewarding and exciting. And, in turn, help sell some tickets. Maybe I'm entirely wrong about that, but I'd love to see it tested.
I've debated if people should be able to revive crew with DIL. Would that make the event more profitable for DB? If you could still complete the missions without the revive, and revive only helped for players who couldn't figure out the puzzle, maybe it wouldn't be too P2W.
Scale the cost by bonus tier (i.e., Featured Crew cost more than Bonus Crew, who cost more than everyone else) and scale by each revival (i.e., reviving Doctor La Forge a second time costs more than it cost the first time). But to make it more enticing, add more VP nodes per mission.
I understand why the timer was removed from tickets, and I agree that was the right decision. The timer made the event impractical for most players, who were unable and/or unwilling to commit to tapping away on their phones for 2-3 hours. (And it had to be on a phone because there was no desktop version at the time most of the original Expeditions ran; only in time for "Merry Men" was STT on Facebook Gameroom.)
However, by removing the timer, Expeditions lost any real sense of challenge. I delighted in trying to exhaust all 25 of my crew before the timer cut me off. Racing to squeeze in one last run on the first mission on Normal mode with worn down cadets was legitimately one of the most exciting things in this whole game for me. Now you can just keep scrolling and throw someone new at the missions all day long if you wanted, limited only by the size of your crew and your threshold for masochism.
What I think would resurrect some of that sense of challenge would be to restrict us to a set pool of crew per ticket. As with the Gauntlet, we would assign x number of crew to our team and only be able to use them for the duration of that ticket. You might think at first you'd just load it up with Featured and Bonus crew, but do you expect Doctor La Forge to clear all the MED nodes, including the ones that don't drop VP? We've outgrown having to make any real choices about crew other than which 1/5's are worth adding to the pile from habitually competing in events week in, week out.
I'm trying to avoid the mindless grind. What I enjoy about expedition events is finding the right combination of crew to clear the stars without over exhausting the crew.
Rather than encourage the grind for points mentality, I'd rather make the event harder. Force you to think about the rare skill combinations to cover non-star nodes so you can save your event crew for stars.
Who has med+eng or med+cmd so you can use two event crew together.
I know you enjoy the grind and take pride in out grinding people. But what I love about expedition events is you don't need to grind, you just need to be smarter than other players. Instead of grinding an extra couple times for 100vp each, I'll find the right order to crit another sci/eng node with my event crew despite none of them being sci or eng primary.
The crew search box is great. If not for that, this event would have been a nightmare. But I'm am sick of typing "Data", "Forg", and "Fran" (for Hollander). Skill sorting is nice too for the non-vp nodes.
Every event is a grind it their own ways, and we each have our favorites. This one just reinforces how much I hate the expedition grind. It's not just that it's a grind. It is SLOW. Individual galaxy recipes and skirmish battles are completed quickly - you make progress in a matter of seconds. Faction doesn't require much screen time to generate the points (clock time, yes, but not screen time). But expedition... select mission, select crew slot, select search, type generic name, scroll and select specific crew, repeat twice more, then click 5 times per node to accelerate the graphics, click 5 or more nodes per mission, wait or click through 2 separate vp reward animations for each mission, and then repeat all of this 29 more times to complete the ticket. Ugh.
If you are enjoying your expedition, I'm happy for you. I've just passed 600K. I have 5 unused tickets that I doubt I'll even bother to run. And I'm not touching this event after day reset.
3 tickets per day is fine - I'm actually now doing them in about 10-15 minutes by only doing one go through medium and low. The first 2 days were rough with 6 tickets each day. But 3 is fine.
Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, is all ancient history. Then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly, it threatens to start all over again."
Know that the more difficulty you add the fewer that will have the crew and can participate.
Complete highest difficulty is not the same as participate. Everyone should be able to participate on lower difficulty and clear threshold. But rank should be determined by skill and not how many times a player repeated the same mindless task.
This event feels like the same thing over and over in a mind-numbing, annoying way. It is fitting that it is on Feb 2. Now off to grind some more while participating in the annual watching of the Bill Murray movie.
I was planning on clearing thresholds, but I pushed to Data yesterday and threw in the towel. Give me priority sorting of bonus crew and it won't feel so much the slog through.
The crew search box is great. If not for that, this event would have been a nightmare. But I'm am sick of typing "Data", "Forg", and "Fran" (for Hollander). Skill sorting is nice too for the non-vp nodes.
You can search for "andr" to bring up Androids, which will find Data and Frank Hollander together.
Know that the more difficulty you add the fewer that will have the crew and can participate.
Complete highest difficulty is not the same as participate. Everyone should be able to participate on lower difficulty and clear threshold. But rank should be determined by skill and not how many times a player repeated the same mindless task.
Having the handwrist(s) with the most stamina could be considered
a „skill“ as well? 😆
Know that the more difficulty you add the fewer that will have the crew and can participate.
Complete highest difficulty is not the same as participate. Everyone should be able to participate on lower difficulty and clear threshold. But rank should be determined by skill and not how many times a player repeated the same mindless task.
But to get all those crew didn’t you have to complete many events over and over?
Know that the more difficulty you add the fewer that will have the crew and can participate.
Complete highest difficulty is not the same as participate. Everyone should be able to participate on lower difficulty and clear threshold. But rank should be determined by skill and not how many times a player repeated the same mindless task.
Having the handwrist(s) with the most stamina could be considered
a „skill“ as well? 😆
For sure. I’m still paying the price two weeks later. Arm is still sore and it tingles alot
One of the reasons I enjoy this event. It's a puzzle. It's not just tap tap tap. To get the most you have to think. To bad these are so rare.
I really like the thinking part at the beginning too, but once you've figured out your crew usage it becomes just tap tap tap for days. More than the tapping for me it's the animations slowing everything down that have always been a drag.
I wish it would remember the crew you last used for each mission/level. Grinding the missions is bad enough, but constantly having to look up the same folks over and over and again for placement was maddening.
Six degrees in Inter-species Veterinary Medicine. Treating all manner of critters, from Tribbles to Humans.
IMO I found this expedition to be quite interesting, the last expedition I think was during a mega event where we had ample big bonus crew and it was a hybrid event at that. Conversely all big bonus crew for this event have ENG as a tertiary which made sharing the load quite difficult. I was already fortuitous to have a 4/5 Professor for this event and a 2/5 Data but it wasn't until I power levelled a 2nd Geordi and got Data up to 3/5 before things became far easier, to maximise getting big bonus VP on Epic level. The CMD node is the only one I couldn't get big bonus on.
I found this event to be a pleasant challenge. The event pack pulls in trying to immortalise the Professor or add stars to Data however...
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
First ticket to unlock all missions. Second and third ticket to maximize VP. That was the fun part.
Beginning with the fourth ticket I only did the epic missions. Just couldn't care for elite or even normal. I guess it will be enough for top 1500. I still have the six sorry tickets in my mail, but I won't touch them this time.
Comments
Even if you don't need him to supplement your Featured Crew for max VP, his fatigue rate makes him fantastic for clearing non-reward nodes. He can be used to clear every non-reward node in Mission 5 on Normal, for instance, and still be useful in lower missions. I singled him out for mentioning in part because pretty much everyone has him, even if they only just got him from this event's thresholds. YMMV based on bonuses, of course, but I've found him to be a gem and figured I'd sing his praises.
As for my event, there have been a few times when I've been inattentive when selecting for a specific node and used my Featured Crew in the wrong order. Example: The Professor can crit Node 2A and Node 3, but if I use him for Node 2A, then he can't crit Node 3. Node 2B is MED so that'll be Doctor La Forge. The correct sequence is on the first run to use La Forge for 2B, then The Professor for 3; on the second run, use The Professor for 2A. If I botch that, then I have to make do with a lesser bonus for Node 3. I've never forgotten that I appreciate having to actually think about something in this game, but I did kinda forget just how much I appreciate it.
I think we will see more. Why go to the time to create a sorting process for an event type they will not run again?
Because they added crew sorting on regular away team missions. And this is using that same UI.
I hope they will create a new expedition because I love the challenge. But the lighter competition, and the the difficulty in monetizing the event doesn't leave me hopeful.
It does seem like not a whole lot of people are trying. I’m coasting at a very relaxed pace and am ranked 225
Things people dig about Expeditions:
I honestly believe if Expeditions had something like community rewards or loot boxes, their popularity would surge. I think it'd be most interesting if it was something unique to Expeditions rather than reusing either of the other format rewards, but I'd gladly welcome either.
I completely agree with your thought. But I'd remind you popular and lucrative are not the same thing. You can have a very popular event that DB can't monetize well, and you can have a less popular event that is monetized well. The problem with expedition events are people don't like to buy extra tickets. So DB makes less money from them. Also, designing new missions takes more effort that designing faction missions and galaxy recipes.
I've debated if people should be able to revive crew with DIL. Would that make the event more profitable for DB? If you could still complete the missions without the revive, and revive only helped for players who couldn't figure out the puzzle, maybe it wouldn't be too P2W.
We were but burnt out.
Yup...I did eventually make it to 475k but I just can’t go any farther. Same happened to a fleet mate of mine - she gave it her all and got Data but just has no urge to finish the thresholds.
It seems that Expeditions are entirely polarizing, but there have always been some forum members who say they like the format, but that they struggle to stick it out. I think adding, say, loot boxes to missions would go a long way toward making that repetition feel more rewarding and exciting. And, in turn, help sell some tickets. Maybe I'm entirely wrong about that, but I'd love to see it tested.
Scale the cost by bonus tier (i.e., Featured Crew cost more than Bonus Crew, who cost more than everyone else) and scale by each revival (i.e., reviving Doctor La Forge a second time costs more than it cost the first time). But to make it more enticing, add more VP nodes per mission.
I understand why the timer was removed from tickets, and I agree that was the right decision. The timer made the event impractical for most players, who were unable and/or unwilling to commit to tapping away on their phones for 2-3 hours. (And it had to be on a phone because there was no desktop version at the time most of the original Expeditions ran; only in time for "Merry Men" was STT on Facebook Gameroom.)
However, by removing the timer, Expeditions lost any real sense of challenge. I delighted in trying to exhaust all 25 of my crew before the timer cut me off. Racing to squeeze in one last run on the first mission on Normal mode with worn down cadets was legitimately one of the most exciting things in this whole game for me. Now you can just keep scrolling and throw someone new at the missions all day long if you wanted, limited only by the size of your crew and your threshold for masochism.
What I think would resurrect some of that sense of challenge would be to restrict us to a set pool of crew per ticket. As with the Gauntlet, we would assign x number of crew to our team and only be able to use them for the duration of that ticket. You might think at first you'd just load it up with Featured and Bonus crew, but do you expect Doctor La Forge to clear all the MED nodes, including the ones that don't drop VP? We've outgrown having to make any real choices about crew other than which 1/5's are worth adding to the pile from habitually competing in events week in, week out.
I'm trying to avoid the mindless grind. What I enjoy about expedition events is finding the right combination of crew to clear the stars without over exhausting the crew.
Rather than encourage the grind for points mentality, I'd rather make the event harder. Force you to think about the rare skill combinations to cover non-star nodes so you can save your event crew for stars.
Who has med+eng or med+cmd so you can use two event crew together.
I know you enjoy the grind and take pride in out grinding people. But what I love about expedition events is you don't need to grind, you just need to be smarter than other players. Instead of grinding an extra couple times for 100vp each, I'll find the right order to crit another sci/eng node with my event crew despite none of them being sci or eng primary.
The crew search box is great. If not for that, this event would have been a nightmare. But I'm am sick of typing "Data", "Forg", and "Fran" (for Hollander). Skill sorting is nice too for the non-vp nodes.
Every event is a grind it their own ways, and we each have our favorites. This one just reinforces how much I hate the expedition grind. It's not just that it's a grind. It is SLOW. Individual galaxy recipes and skirmish battles are completed quickly - you make progress in a matter of seconds. Faction doesn't require much screen time to generate the points (clock time, yes, but not screen time). But expedition... select mission, select crew slot, select search, type generic name, scroll and select specific crew, repeat twice more, then click 5 times per node to accelerate the graphics, click 5 or more nodes per mission, wait or click through 2 separate vp reward animations for each mission, and then repeat all of this 29 more times to complete the ticket. Ugh.
If you are enjoying your expedition, I'm happy for you. I've just passed 600K. I have 5 unused tickets that I doubt I'll even bother to run. And I'm not touching this event after day reset.
Complete highest difficulty is not the same as participate. Everyone should be able to participate on lower difficulty and clear threshold. But rank should be determined by skill and not how many times a player repeated the same mindless task.
This event feels like the same thing over and over in a mind-numbing, annoying way. It is fitting that it is on Feb 2. Now off to grind some more while participating in the annual watching of the Bill Murray movie.
You can search for "andr" to bring up Androids, which will find Data and Frank Hollander together.
Having the handwrist(s) with the most stamina could be considered
a „skill“ as well? 😆
But to get all those crew didn’t you have to complete many events over and over?
For sure. I’m still paying the price two weeks later. Arm is still sore and it tingles alot
I really like the thinking part at the beginning too, but once you've figured out your crew usage it becomes just tap tap tap for days. More than the tapping for me it's the animations slowing everything down that have always been a drag.
Starport
Wow....that’s drawing a long bow and quite insulting. Report, don't engage. ~Shan
I found this event to be a pleasant challenge. The event pack pulls in trying to immortalise the Professor or add stars to Data however...
Beginning with the fourth ticket I only did the epic missions. Just couldn't care for elite or even normal. I guess it will be enough for top 1500. I still have the six sorry tickets in my mail, but I won't touch them this time.