Will Detective Data and/or The Professor be included as threshold rewards?
The answer to that question could greatly influence my target ranking for the current event, as to whether or not I aim for a top-1500 finish to get a copy of The Professor.
an expedition in 2020, this has definitely been Done Better, thanks Shan!!
I'm reserving praise. An event called a flashback with a lot of open questions on how that's possible. And the answer of "you'll find out on Wednesday" or "I need to clarify". This has classic avoidable shipwreck written all over it.
I hope I'm wrong. But these are questions we were identifying last week. DB should have considered all of these and provided Shan with answers and a longer write-up before announcing the event. That they didn't has me afraid that they haven't considered the issues and we're in for a rough ride.
Expedition, nice! Need some thinking and calculating after all these weeks of more repetitive events.
My Holodeck Enthusiasts collection is one star for Doctor La Forge short of reaching next milestone goal, Detective Data has been sitting idle waiting for some action and I'm flying for 3rd star for the Professor.
For the rewards you will have to wait until the event is announced.
Thank you for answering the question about rewards. It's not definitive, but some of us paid attention.
🤞Four Detective Data's, four Detective Data's!! 🤞
I think this will be easier on a lot of players as well, due to the large amount of crew slots added over the last 2 years, bolstering crew depth (also warp getting those 6-10 greens and blues frozen for 6-10 purples or golds). Couple that with power creep, if the nodes maintain the original thresholds, then all those Mega crew will be slaughtering VP nodes and hopefully less mentally straining then expeditions of the past were, esp for newer or F2P players. The game is in the best position it’s ever been for expeditions to be enjoyable.
I think this will be easier on a lot of players as well, due to the large amount of crew slots added over the last 2 years, bolstering crew depth (also warp getting those 6-10 greens and blues frozen for 6-10 purples or golds). Couple that with power creep, if the nodes maintain the original thresholds, then all those Mega crew will be slaughtering VP nodes and hopefully less mentally straining then expeditions of the past were, esp for newer or F2P players. The game is in the best position it’s ever been for expeditions to be enjoyable.
For threshold yes. But those tickets have a fixed number of VP unless you mindlessly grind for each 100 VP at the end of each ticket.
So you now have thousands of players all getting basically the same VP and all trying for the limited 1500 slots that get the 5*. There is going to massive grouping and massive swings in rank. Unless you buy extra tickets rank placement is going to be a disaster.
It occurs to me that with The Professor involved, this is technically "The Game's Afoot 2" Flashback. It also occurs to me to offer a quick primer for players who have never done an Expedition.
Expeditions are basically Skirmishes for crew instead of ships. (Or, rather, Skirmishes are Expeditions for ships instead of crew.) The most notable difference is that you cannot use a crew member in the event if they are assigned to a shuttle or a Voyage, so plan accordingly. My personal strategy is to complete a ticket, then send out shuttles. Leave the game alone until the shuttles return, then complete another ticket. This helps me stave off event burnout, too.
Your crew will fatigue after each use, as they do in the Gauntlet. Featured and Bonus crew (The Professor, Data & La Forge variants) will fatigue five percent per node. Everyone else will fatigue at twice that pace. Ergo, you can use Featured & Bonus crew twenty times per ticket and everyone else just ten times.
As they fatigue, their stats will decrease, both base and proficiency. So too will the value of trait bonuses per node.
You have to complete the first mission to unlock the next, and on each difficulty to unlock the next highest. Once you have unlocked a mission/difficulty, it will remain unlocked for the duration of the event, so you only have to start from the bottom once. The best approach is to unlock everything with your first ticket, and on subsequent tickets, start with Mission 5 on Epic and work your way backward. That way as your crew fatigues, they're facing less difficult node skill levels.
You must crit a node in order to earn VP; just clearing it is insufficient. During the original run of this event, only Featured Crew were guaranteed VP for crits. Bonus crew had a higher chance of earning VP. In subsequent Expeditions, all crits were guaranteed VP. It remains to be seen which rules will be in place for this Flashback.
Just going through each ticket once for the max VP was usually sufficient to clear thresholds. However, that was before threshold rewards were expanded. It remains to be seen what the rewards table will look like. If the current schema is used, you will almost certainly have to grind it out for additional VP per ticket, or purchase additional tickets.
Most importantly, you will fatigue along with your crew! Pace yourself! Expeditions are the most accessible events for players to chase rank because a lot of players hate the format and will bail early. The key to competing is to repeat missions once you've claimed the maximum VP and grind it out to earn lesser VP per node. Most players are unwilling to do that, giving the advantage to those who will.
Will Detective Data and/or The Professor be included as threshold rewards?
The answer to that question could greatly influence my target ranking for the current event, as to whether or not I aim for a top-1500 finish to get a copy of The Professor.
It's a flashback, so they shouldn't be in the threshold rewards.
I was expecting a rerun too, because, if I remember well, we already had a flashback after the last mega.
Since it's a flashback, the rewards should be left the same, but it would be nice to have Data in the ranked rewards, like a 4*. As Lorca said, a 4/5* Detective Data would be great
It occurs to me that with The Professor involved, this is technically "The Game's Afoot 2" Flashback. It also occurs to me to offer a quick primer for players who have never done an Expedition.
Expeditions are basically Skirmishes for crew instead of ships. (Or, rather, Skirmishes are Expeditions for ships instead of crew.) The most notable difference is that you cannot use a crew member in the event if they are assigned to a shuttle or a Voyage, so plan accordingly. My personal strategy is to complete a ticket, then send out shuttles. Leave the game alone until the shuttles return, then complete another ticket. This helps me stave off event burnout, too.
Your crew will fatigue after each use, as they do in the Gauntlet. Featured and Bonus crew (The Professor, Data & La Forge variants) will fatigue ten percent per node. Everyone else will fatigue at twice that pace. Ergo, you can use Featured & Bonus crew twenty times per ticket and everyone else just ten times.
As they fatigue, their stats will decrease, both base and proficiency. So too will the value of trait bonuses per node.
You have to complete the first mission to unlock the next, and on each difficulty to unlock the next highest. Once you have unlocked a mission/difficulty, it will remain unlocked for the duration of the event, so you only have to start from the bottom once. The best approach is to unlock everything with your first ticket, and on subsequent tickets, start with Mission 5 on Epic and work your way backward. That way as your crew fatigues, they're facing less difficult node skill levels.
You must crit a node in order to earn VP; just clearing it is insufficient. During the original run of this event, only Featured Crew were guaranteed VP for crits. Bonus crew had a higher chance of earning VP. In subsequent Expeditions, all crits were guaranteed VP. It remains to be seen which rules will be in place for this Flashback.
Just going through each ticket once for the max VP was usually sufficient to clear thresholds. However, that was before threshold rewards were expanded. It remains to be seen what the rewards table will look like. If the current schema is used, you will almost certainly have to grind it out for additional VP per ticket, or purchase additional tickets.
Most importantly, you will fatigue along with your crew! Pace yourself! Expeditions are the most accessible events for players to chase rank because a lot of players hate the format and will bail early. The key to competing is to repeat missions once you've claimed the maximum VP and grind it out to earn lesser VP per node. Most players are unwilling to do that, giving the advantage to those who will.
Those are all the rules from the last expedition events. When this event first ran nodes relocked after each ticket. There was a RNG check before the star was given even if you rolled high enough. There was a timer for how long you had per ticket. This particular event had vastly different VP in threshold.
We don't know how this flashback will work. And DB has apparently not told Shan yet either.
Ranked grouping may be tight, yes, but is it really vastly different from skirmishes each rewarding 6000 VP and some bonus here and there? I get the limited pay to play nature of the tickets is rankling to many, but it’s ok to not get to top 1500 every event too. Those that want it will find the time, or find a way. I can’t tell you how many galaxies I’ve looked at and walked away from for similar reasons (time, money, time to stockpile resources to avoid money) but it’s honestly most of them. That said, a lot of folks really like galaxy events so they must be doing something right. I will be curious, should this not become a dumpster fire of old meets new systems and rules, to see how people feel with the larger crew pools and buffed up cards. Tickets are something we can appeal to Shan to take to the devs if the event type is more palatable now in other ways, perhaps asking it to be changed to intel gained by away missions and handled like Skirmishes. I’d be happy to see the wrinkles ironed out and more diverse event typing in 2020.
It occurs to me that with The Professor involved, this is technically "The Game's Afoot 2" Flashback. It also occurs to me to offer a quick primer for players who have never done an Expedition.
Expeditions are basically Skirmishes for crew instead of ships. (Or, rather, Skirmishes are Expeditions for ships instead of crew.) The most notable difference is that you cannot use a crew member in the event if they are assigned to a shuttle or a Voyage, so plan accordingly. My personal strategy is to complete a ticket, then send out shuttles. Leave the game alone until the shuttles return, then complete another ticket. This helps me stave off event burnout, too.
Your crew will fatigue after each use, as they do in the Gauntlet. Featured and Bonus crew (The Professor, Data & La Forge variants) will fatigue ten percent per node. Everyone else will fatigue at twice that pace. Ergo, you can use Featured & Bonus crew twenty times per ticket and everyone else just ten times.
As they fatigue, their stats will decrease, both base and proficiency. So too will the value of trait bonuses per node.
You have to complete the first mission to unlock the next, and on each difficulty to unlock the next highest. Once you have unlocked a mission/difficulty, it will remain unlocked for the duration of the event, so you only have to start from the bottom once. The best approach is to unlock everything with your first ticket, and on subsequent tickets, start with Mission 5 on Epic and work your way backward. That way as your crew fatigues, they're facing less difficult node skill levels.
You must crit a node in order to earn VP; just clearing it is insufficient. During the original run of this event, only Featured Crew were guaranteed VP for crits. Bonus crew had a higher chance of earning VP. In subsequent Expeditions, all crits were guaranteed VP. It remains to be seen which rules will be in place for this Flashback.
Just going through each ticket once for the max VP was usually sufficient to clear thresholds. However, that was before threshold rewards were expanded. It remains to be seen what the rewards table will look like. If the current schema is used, you will almost certainly have to grind it out for additional VP per ticket, or purchase additional tickets.
Most importantly, you will fatigue along with your crew! Pace yourself! Expeditions are the most accessible events for players to chase rank because a lot of players hate the format and will bail early. The key to competing is to repeat missions once you've claimed the maximum VP and grind it out to earn lesser VP per node. Most players are unwilling to do that, giving the advantage to those who will.
Those are all the rules from the last expedition events. When this event first ran nodes relocked after each ticket. There was a RNG check before the star was given even if you rolled high enough. There was a timer for how long you had per ticket. This particular event had vastly different VP in threshold.
We don't know how this flashback will work. And DB has apparently not told Shan yet either.
This is based on my understanding that the inclusion of The Professor establishes this as "The Game's Afoot 2", rather than the original run. That would also explain skipping "Holograms Are Forever" and "Ribbon of Joy", which were played under the original, harsher, conditions. From Shan's post in the old forum:
The Game’s Afoot is a rerun of the first Expedition Event. Since it ran, we have made two significant changes:
- This event will run under the newest Expedition Event ticketing system (1 hour of play from the redemption of a ticket, with three free tickets per day).
- New for this event: once an Elite or Epic Event Away Team Mission is unlocked, it will remain so for the remainder of the event, not just the duration of the ticket.
Featured characters have a 100% chance to earn rare rewards on Event Away Team Missions
- Doctor La Forge
- The Professor
- Detective Data (only available in the event pack in your Time Portal)
Using other versions of The Professor, Data or La Forge will provide a bonus to earning rare rewards on Event Away Team Missions.
Ranked grouping may be tight, yes, but is it really vastly different from skirmishes each rewarding 6000 VP and some bonus here and there? I get the limited pay to play nature of the tickets is rankling to many, but it’s ok to not get to top 1500 every event too. Those that want it will find the time, or find a way. I can’t tell you how many galaxies I’ve looked at and walked away from for similar reasons (time, money, time to stockpile resources to avoid money) but it’s honestly most of them. That said, a lot of folks really like galaxy events so they must be doing something right. I will be curious, should this not become a dumpster fire of old meets new systems and rules, to see how people feel with the larger crew pools and buffed up cards. Tickets are something we can appeal to Shan to take to the devs if the event type is more palatable now in other ways, perhaps asking it to be changed to intel gained by away missions and handled like Skirmishes. I’d be happy to see the wrinkles ironed out and more diverse event typing in 2020.
Actually, it is completely different. In a skirmish, you can play as many times as you like as long as you have the chrons to support intel gathering. In an expedition, you get a limited number of tickets each day (+ a few in thresholds). So, unless you buy extra tickets with dilithium, everyone has an equal number of chances to earn the same number of points.
Ranked grouping may be tight, yes, but is it really vastly different from skirmishes each rewarding 6000 VP and some bonus here and there? I get the limited pay to play nature of the tickets is rankling to many, but it’s ok to not get to top 1500 every event too. Those that want it will find the time, or find a way. I can’t tell you how many galaxies I’ve looked at and walked away from for similar reasons (time, money, time to stockpile resources to avoid money) but it’s honestly most of them. That said, a lot of folks really like galaxy events so they must be doing something right. I will be curious, should this not become a dumpster fire of old meets new systems and rules, to see how people feel with the larger crew pools and buffed up cards. Tickets are something we can appeal to Shan to take to the devs if the event type is more palatable now in other ways, perhaps asking it to be changed to intel gained by away missions and handled like Skirmishes. I’d be happy to see the wrinkles ironed out and more diverse event typing in 2020.
Actually, it is completely different. In a skirmish, you can play as many times as you like as long as you have the chrons to support intel gathering. In an expedition, you get a limited number of tickets each day (+ a few in thresholds). So, unless you buy extra tickets with dilithium, everyone has an equal number of chances to earn the same number of points.
Yes, hence my saying if all the other pain points are gone, we lobby DB to replace ticketing with away team intel similar to skirmishes. As the current rules apply, tickets are still unlimited if you want to buy them and rank higher. I don’t like it, you don’t like it, but that it doesn’t change the fact they can be obtained in any quantity a play wants for currency so to infer the tickets are truly limited is skewing the truth a little. To be perfectly clear, I’m not in favor of the current system, but I’d love to see it reworked and based on ingame currency like skirms and not on cash tickets as it sits. I believe the other pain points in expeditions may be alleviated with QoL changes to Timelines over the last 2 years, so maybe after this run the community may feel more collectively positive about fighting for that change and embracing this event style more so than in the past.
Comments
(Says the guy who's been unsuccessfully chasing Detective Data since the first event)
Made me laugh so hard, thanks I needed that today
Finally I can get those 6 tickets out of my mailbox! I think they’ve been getting dusty since Mirror Bev? Wow
The answer to that question could greatly influence my target ranking for the current event, as to whether or not I aim for a top-1500 finish to get a copy of The Professor.
I'm reserving praise. An event called a flashback with a lot of open questions on how that's possible. And the answer of "you'll find out on Wednesday" or "I need to clarify". This has classic avoidable shipwreck written all over it.
I hope I'm wrong. But these are questions we were identifying last week. DB should have considered all of these and provided Shan with answers and a longer write-up before announcing the event. That they didn't has me afraid that they haven't considered the issues and we're in for a rough ride.
My Holodeck Enthusiasts collection is one star for Doctor La Forge short of reaching next milestone goal, Detective Data has been sitting idle waiting for some action and I'm flying for 3rd star for the Professor.
Thank you for answering the question about rewards. It's not definitive, but some of us paid attention.
🤞Four Detective Data's, four Detective Data's!! 🤞
https://stt.wiki/wiki/The_Game's_Afoot_2
The Robin Hood ones usually cause problems with some of the Crew. La Forge is Alan-A-Dale? Data is Friar Tuck. But his says "Friar Tuck Data".
Frank Hollander (Data) and Alan-a-Dale (La Forge)
Alan a dale & frank hollander
For threshold yes. But those tickets have a fixed number of VP unless you mindlessly grind for each 100 VP at the end of each ticket.
So you now have thousands of players all getting basically the same VP and all trying for the limited 1500 slots that get the 5*. There is going to massive grouping and massive swings in rank. Unless you buy extra tickets rank placement is going to be a disaster.
Expeditions are basically Skirmishes for crew instead of ships. (Or, rather, Skirmishes are Expeditions for ships instead of crew.) The most notable difference is that you cannot use a crew member in the event if they are assigned to a shuttle or a Voyage, so plan accordingly. My personal strategy is to complete a ticket, then send out shuttles. Leave the game alone until the shuttles return, then complete another ticket. This helps me stave off event burnout, too.
Your crew will fatigue after each use, as they do in the Gauntlet. Featured and Bonus crew (The Professor, Data & La Forge variants) will fatigue five percent per node. Everyone else will fatigue at twice that pace. Ergo, you can use Featured & Bonus crew twenty times per ticket and everyone else just ten times.
As they fatigue, their stats will decrease, both base and proficiency. So too will the value of trait bonuses per node.
You have to complete the first mission to unlock the next, and on each difficulty to unlock the next highest. Once you have unlocked a mission/difficulty, it will remain unlocked for the duration of the event, so you only have to start from the bottom once. The best approach is to unlock everything with your first ticket, and on subsequent tickets, start with Mission 5 on Epic and work your way backward. That way as your crew fatigues, they're facing less difficult node skill levels.
You must crit a node in order to earn VP; just clearing it is insufficient. During the original run of this event, only Featured Crew were guaranteed VP for crits. Bonus crew had a higher chance of earning VP. In subsequent Expeditions, all crits were guaranteed VP. It remains to be seen which rules will be in place for this Flashback.
Just going through each ticket once for the max VP was usually sufficient to clear thresholds. However, that was before threshold rewards were expanded. It remains to be seen what the rewards table will look like. If the current schema is used, you will almost certainly have to grind it out for additional VP per ticket, or purchase additional tickets.
Most importantly, you will fatigue along with your crew! Pace yourself! Expeditions are the most accessible events for players to chase rank because a lot of players hate the format and will bail early. The key to competing is to repeat missions once you've claimed the maximum VP and grind it out to earn lesser VP per node. Most players are unwilling to do that, giving the advantage to those who will.
It's a flashback, so they shouldn't be in the threshold rewards.
I was expecting a rerun too, because, if I remember well, we already had a flashback after the last mega.
Since it's a flashback, the rewards should be left the same, but it would be nice to have Data in the ranked rewards, like a 4*. As Lorca said, a 4/5* Detective Data would be great
Those are all the rules from the last expedition events. When this event first ran nodes relocked after each ticket. There was a RNG check before the star was given even if you rolled high enough. There was a timer for how long you had per ticket. This particular event had vastly different VP in threshold.
We don't know how this flashback will work. And DB has apparently not told Shan yet either.
This is based on my understanding that the inclusion of The Professor establishes this as "The Game's Afoot 2", rather than the original run. That would also explain skipping "Holograms Are Forever" and "Ribbon of Joy", which were played under the original, harsher, conditions. From Shan's post in the old forum:
Actually, it is completely different. In a skirmish, you can play as many times as you like as long as you have the chrons to support intel gathering. In an expedition, you get a limited number of tickets each day (+ a few in thresholds). So, unless you buy extra tickets with dilithium, everyone has an equal number of chances to earn the same number of points.
Or am I being a bit simple?
Only particularly fussed as I have a 1/5 Detective Data looking nervously at the airlock at the moment...
Ha! The answer you receive could save his life!
Quite.
He's a fairly uninspiring card really, and I found those Sherlock episodes quite droll.
Yes, hence my saying if all the other pain points are gone, we lobby DB to replace ticketing with away team intel similar to skirmishes. As the current rules apply, tickets are still unlimited if you want to buy them and rank higher. I don’t like it, you don’t like it, but that it doesn’t change the fact they can be obtained in any quantity a play wants for currency so to infer the tickets are truly limited is skewing the truth a little. To be perfectly clear, I’m not in favor of the current system, but I’d love to see it reworked and based on ingame currency like skirms and not on cash tickets as it sits. I believe the other pain points in expeditions may be alleviated with QoL changes to Timelines over the last 2 years, so maybe after this run the community may feel more collectively positive about fighting for that change and embracing this event style more so than in the past.
Thanks for your basic synopsis on 'Expeditions' ... it is nice that somebody remembers us hopeless newbies from time to time!
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