I could not agree more. I have over 1075000 VP. I am not going to beat top 600. But I will get T'Pol. So will more than half my squad. I really kept at it because I had some unexpected extra time (thank the dog for waking me up in the middle of the night) and to see if I could beat my last expedition where I hit almost a million. I imagine I could have gone more had I maxed out each ticket instead of canceling after the epic levels.
I've always enjoyed expeditions, but before we have another one (hopefully a brand-new one), here are some thing that need to/should be improved:
1) When sorting crew by skill, it needs to be fixed so that fatigue is included, as it was in the pre-searching view. This should be a required fix by DB before next expedition.
2) People have a valid critique about the lack of incentive. The obvious solution is to add real rewards for all starred nodes. I have two possible sets of rewards:
a) Credits for Normal, Merits for Elite, and Honor for Epic
b) Campaign Equipment Crates (maybe with a re-name, but same purpose: semi-random components and equipment)
3) It should be possible for the Event Crew to theoretically be used for all starred nodes, from Epic to Normal, if they're immortalized and played perfectly. They've gotten better about this since the original run of this particular event, but seeing this one come back reminds me how important this is.
I've always enjoyed expeditions, but before we have another one (hopefully a brand-new one), here are some thing that need to/should be improved:
1) When sorting crew by skill, it needs to be fixed so that fatigue is included, as it was in the pre-searching view. This should be a required fix by DB before next expedition.
2) People have a valid critique about the lack of incentive. The obvious solution is to add real rewards for all starred nodes. I have two possible sets of rewards:
a) Credits for Normal, Merits for Elite, and Honor for Epic
b) Campaign Equipment Crates (maybe with a re-name, but same purpose: semi-random components and equipment)
3) It should be possible for the Event Crew to theoretically be used for all starred nodes, from Epic to Normal, if they're immortalized and played perfectly. They've gotten better about this since the original run of this particular event, but seeing this one come back reminds me how important this is.
On your point #2... I wonder if more players would spend dilithium on tickets if there was some additional reward in it for them.
I've always enjoyed expeditions, but before we have another one (hopefully a brand-new one), here are some thing that need to/should be improved:
1) When sorting crew by skill, it needs to be fixed so that fatigue is included, as it was in the pre-searching view. This should be a required fix by DB before next expedition.
2) People have a valid critique about the lack of incentive. The obvious solution is to add real rewards for all starred nodes. I have two possible sets of rewards:
a) Credits for Normal, Merits for Elite, and Honor for Epic
b) Campaign Equipment Crates (maybe with a re-name, but same purpose: semi-random components and equipment)
3) It should be possible for the Event Crew to theoretically be used for all starred nodes, from Epic to Normal, if they're immortalized and played perfectly. They've gotten better about this since the original run of this particular event, but seeing this one come back reminds me how important this is.
Great idea for #2.
On #3, with the exception of the one command node, it was possible for me, on one full run-through (twice through each mission) to crit every starred node with The Professor and Detective Data at 1-star and Doctor LaForge at 4-stars. Starting with the most difficult elite mission and working backwards. It took some careful planning, though, the first couple times through to figure out how to make sure the Professor didn't run out of juice too soon. If I had had him at 3 or more stars, it would have been a cakewalk to do it.
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.
I set an extra challenge for myself. Play the event without claiming threshold at all. So I used my existing 2/5 Data, existing 2/5 Moriarty, didn't take a second La Forge that I initially considered, and didn't use any of the threshold tickets.
With careful planning I was still able to max VP all nodes except CMD which I used Captain La Forge on. And I am comfortably in the top 1k without using any of those extra tickets.
I've always enjoyed expeditions, but before we have another one (hopefully a brand-new one), here are some thing that need to/should be improved:
1) When sorting crew by skill, it needs to be fixed so that fatigue is included, as it was in the pre-searching view. This should be a required fix by DB before next expedition.
2) People have a valid critique about the lack of incentive. The obvious solution is to add real rewards for all starred nodes. I have two possible sets of rewards:
a) Credits for Normal, Merits for Elite, and Honor for Epic
b) Campaign Equipment Crates (maybe with a re-name, but same purpose: semi-random components and equipment)
3) It should be possible for the Event Crew to theoretically be used for all starred nodes, from Epic to Normal, if they're immortalized and played perfectly. They've gotten better about this since the original run of this particular event, but seeing this one come back reminds me how important this is.
On your point #2... I wonder if more players would spend dilithium on tickets if there was some additional reward in it for them.
A steady stream of honor would certainly blunt the pain of participating in Expeditions. Would it be enough to go from tolerable to enjoyable? I dunno about that.
I strongly disagree with sorting down by fatigue. Data is my #2 sec and Moriarty #4 dip. They were easy to find this way. If they got bumped down to 46 it would have been horrific.
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."
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.
I set an extra challenge for myself. Play the event without claiming threshold at all. So I used my existing 2/5 Data, existing 2/5 Moriarty, didn't take a second La Forge that I initially considered, and didn't use any of the threshold tickets.
With careful planning I was still able to max VP all nodes except CMD which I used Captain La Forge on. And I am comfortably in the top 1k without using any of those extra tickets.
I strongly disagree with sorting down by fatigue. Data is my #2 sec and Moriarty #4 dip. They were easy to find this way. If they got bumped down to 46 it would have been horrific.
The overly simplistic point is that they didn't stay your #2 SEC and #4 DIP throughout the ticket. If they got bumped own to #46, it would be because they were weaker than 45 other crew.
That, however, is as I said, overly simplistic. It was still better to use the Featured Crew than anyone else so long as they could still crit a node because of the value of the VP, and the sorting algorithm needs to account for that. A fatigued Detective Data who could still crit was preferable to an unused High Roller Sisko because of the VP.
I also wish crew selection everywhere in the game could be set by minimum roll, rather than maximum. I don't care what the most perfect possible outcome is; I care what the absolute least is.
I'm kinda disappointed that I didn't get to play much and fell outside the top 1500. However, that disappointment is tempered by having gotten to have a wonderful Saturday evening with friends. Besides, Twilight T'Pol would have just been a vanity trophy for me so I stayed out of the way of someone who hopefully cared more about her than I did.
I strongly disagree with sorting down by fatigue. Data is my #2 sec and Moriarty #4 dip. They were easy to find this way. If they got bumped down to 46 it would have been horrific.
The only way this should be done is to keep the search it currently has, but fix the sorting to account for fatigue. So, if you need Professor even though he's been used 15 times, you just search for "Prof" and there he is. But for the non-star nodes, where you just need to make sure you pass the nodes, correct sorting helps.
Comments
I could not agree more. I have over 1075000 VP. I am not going to beat top 600. But I will get T'Pol. So will more than half my squad. I really kept at it because I had some unexpected extra time (thank the dog for waking me up in the middle of the night) and to see if I could beat my last expedition where I hit almost a million. I imagine I could have gone more had I maxed out each ticket instead of canceling after the epic levels.
1) When sorting crew by skill, it needs to be fixed so that fatigue is included, as it was in the pre-searching view. This should be a required fix by DB before next expedition.
2) People have a valid critique about the lack of incentive. The obvious solution is to add real rewards for all starred nodes. I have two possible sets of rewards:
a) Credits for Normal, Merits for Elite, and Honor for Epic
b) Campaign Equipment Crates (maybe with a re-name, but same purpose: semi-random components and equipment)
3) It should be possible for the Event Crew to theoretically be used for all starred nodes, from Epic to Normal, if they're immortalized and played perfectly. They've gotten better about this since the original run of this particular event, but seeing this one come back reminds me how important this is.
On your point #2... I wonder if more players would spend dilithium on tickets if there was some additional reward in it for them.
Great idea for #2.
On #3, with the exception of the one command node, it was possible for me, on one full run-through (twice through each mission) to crit every starred node with The Professor and Detective Data at 1-star and Doctor LaForge at 4-stars. Starting with the most difficult elite mission and working backwards. It took some careful planning, though, the first couple times through to figure out how to make sure the Professor didn't run out of juice too soon. If I had had him at 3 or more stars, it would have been a cakewalk to do it.
Captain Level: 95
VIP Level: 12
Unique Crew Immortalized: 525
Collections Completed: Vulcan, Ferengi, Borg, Romulan, Cardassian, Uncommon, Rare, Veteran, Common, Engineered, Physician, Innovator, Inspiring, Diplomat, Jury Rigger, Gauntlet Legends
I set an extra challenge for myself. Play the event without claiming threshold at all. So I used my existing 2/5 Data, existing 2/5 Moriarty, didn't take a second La Forge that I initially considered, and didn't use any of the threshold tickets.
With careful planning I was still able to max VP all nodes except CMD which I used Captain La Forge on. And I am comfortably in the top 1k without using any of those extra tickets.
A steady stream of honor would certainly blunt the pain of participating in Expeditions. Would it be enough to go from tolerable to enjoyable? I dunno about that.
Good event, @AviTrek
The overly simplistic point is that they didn't stay your #2 SEC and #4 DIP throughout the ticket. If they got bumped own to #46, it would be because they were weaker than 45 other crew.
That, however, is as I said, overly simplistic. It was still better to use the Featured Crew than anyone else so long as they could still crit a node because of the value of the VP, and the sorting algorithm needs to account for that. A fatigued Detective Data who could still crit was preferable to an unused High Roller Sisko because of the VP.
I also wish crew selection everywhere in the game could be set by minimum roll, rather than maximum. I don't care what the most perfect possible outcome is; I care what the absolute least is.
I'm glad this is finally over. I did at least 6 tickets on Epic only. I hope future Expeditions are hybrids only.
The only way this should be done is to keep the search it currently has, but fix the sorting to account for fatigue. So, if you need Professor even though he's been used 15 times, you just search for "Prof" and there he is. But for the non-star nodes, where you just need to make sure you pass the nodes, correct sorting helps.