Newbie time in the Arena ....

Cuttysark

You've got it: some really dumb questions about how the Arena works LOL

I've read the Wiki page already but still have a few questions. (alright!~ A lot of questions)

1. Is the Arena basically 'plug and play' or does one have to be there and babysit it constantly?
2. Does it cost me anything?
3. How does the 'start' time work for this?
4. The wiki says the assigned crew can still be used in regular 'missions' but does that also apply to using the same crew for Journeys?
5. Along the same lines as above: is the ship one uses totally pulled from other uses such as missions, battles, etc ?
6. Last but most importantly: Will anybody be rolling on the floor laughing at me when I get my butt kicked???

I think that about covers it.

Data1001

Cuttysark wrote: »

1. Is the Arena basically 'plug and play' or does one have to be there and babysit it constantly?

Not quite sure what you're asking here. If you played the last Skirmish event, it's basically the same. Except with Arena, you open it, choose your division (Commander, Captain, or Admiral), choose your opponent (refreshing the choices if necessary, until you find a good match you think you can win), and battle.

If you want to make the game play simple, either tap the ship abilities and crew abilities as soon as they become available, or wait until your opponent activates theirs to activate yours.

Cuttysark wrote: »

2. Does it cost me anything?
3. How does the 'start' time work for this?

You get 10 free battles each day. They cost nothing. You can buy more, but this would be one of the worst ways to spend Dilithium in the entire game, imo.

Your 10 free battles reset with the normal game reset. If you had any remaining, they wouldn't carry over to the next day. However, for some odd reason, the end of the Arena "day" is 55 minutes after the end of the day for all other purposes in the game. Thus, you can spend those 10 new battles after the daily game reset and use them to try to rank high enough to get more schematics as rewards.

Cuttysark wrote: »

4. The wiki says the assigned crew can still be used in regular 'missions' but does that also apply to using the same crew for Journeys?
5. Along the same lines as above: is the ship one uses totally pulled from other uses such as missions, battles, etc ?

You can use the crew you put in Arena anywhere else in the game. Same with the ship — Arena is not an "exclusive" usage of either.

Cuttysark

@Data1001
"Not quite sure what you're asking here. If you played the last Skirmish event, it's basically the same."

The Wiki makes it sound like it's all AI after you set your ship and crew and you just walk away and do your other stuff. If it is something I have to be fussing with all the time like a skirmish I probably wouldn't be interested in participating. I'm not bored and really don't need some extra thingy to burn up my "spare time" LOL

(I'm also really not interested in doing 'real-time' PvP stuff ... that's where one gets laughed at or worse yet picked on ... "Hey, let's go whoop on Cuttysark's bum! He's easy!" . )

Data1001

Well, I mean, you battle against an AI, like in a Skirmish. But each battle you do, you have to do manually — meaning, start it, then activate the ship abilities/crew abilities. But each battle takes less than a minute to run, depending on the strength of your ship and your crew on that ship — and with there being no wait time between battles any more, you can now do all 10 of the Arena battles in a very short period of time. So it's not anything you need to fuss with "all the time"... it's like any other ship battle you might do in the Galaxy Map, except for these you are battling for rank and schematics.

Cuttysark

Thanks all. I really wasn't sure how it worked. If it's not competing against an actual person I might only give it a shot just for giggles ... at least once or twice. I have some new crew that I thought might be fun to use ...

Data1001

No, there's nothing in the game that is direct player-vs-player.

And you should at least do enough Arena battles each day so that you complete your required Daily Missions, which not only are worth valuable rewards, but also contribute to your Campaign, which has even more valuable rewards. At first, you may lose every battle you do, but that's okay. You still tick off the Daily Mission requirements no matter if you win or lose. The best advice for choosing a ship and crew is to look at the leaderboards for each division, and see who the top players are using for their ship & crew. There tend to be the same ones used again and again.

Cuttysark

@Data1001 Thanks.

Synthetic Commander

I'd like to add that the first two tiers of arena are really just for "fun", but admiral gives you schematics for ships that are useful in voyages (and a few of them for skirmish events). It's useful to have a ship complete for each of the possible voyage ship types (scout, klingon, etc etc), so arena is certainly worth keeping up daily.

Cuttysark

I gave it a shot ...


... and I hate to admit it but it was sorta fun. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone!
I swam with the guppies, didn't pick on anyone ranked too far better than me, and won 20 outta 20!

And yes, it was good for the daily missions and Campaign too!

I've had a good week so far: immortalized my 10th crew member, got 5 or 6 new good cards, got 'the clown' and 'assimilated tuvok' today also as 'novelty' cards, picked up a 3rd shuttle, learned a bunch of cool stuff (thanks loads gang!!!), and generally had a good time playing!

[10F]risky Dingo

1. Is the Arena basically 'plug and play' or does one have to be there and babysit it constantly?

To add a little bit to what's already been said: Arena is both 'plug and play' and 'babysit'. Meaning, you play each battle manually, but the computer also plays your ship setup when someone goes up against you.

Unlike a skirmish, ALL of the ship battles, when you're playing manually, are ship setups made by other players. This has a unique challenge in that what does well for you, manually, may not do well when the computer is playing your setup (the computer AI is very dumb and predictable).

(I hope that made sense. ;-D)

Cuttysark

I've found out I like it because it's just 15-20 minutes and it's done for the day! And it gives me good practice time for the 'real' stuff...

(and yes: you made sense )

ShadowPresence

If you have a ship that can enter the Admiral division, I'd recommend setting one up and adding crew to it. Even if you lose most of those battles, that's ok, you'll eventually get better. But the huge advantage to setting up the Admiral division is the daily reward! You've probably already earned some 3* and 4* ship schematics, but the Admiral division earns 5* ship schematics! So you can start building up your stronger ships, which will help increase your voyages also.

Have fun with it! I think most of us enjoy seeing players get better over time.

guest_1205213477626880

Agree with comment above me.