After my own experiences with the event and reading about everyone else’s, I’ve come to the following conclusions:
-keep the intro/outro skips
-for events only, remove auto-play and the speed-up options
I still really like both of those things in the Arena. They help reduce the time spent on perhaps the most onerous and least productive of the daily missions, particularly for someone like me who only does Arena battles to complete dailies and is unconcerned with rank thanks to the choice of schematics for each month.
For Skirmish events, however, it does take away from one of the things I liked best about events: being able to play while doing something else in a relaxing manner. If only the auto-complete system is removed, running battles at 3x speed is no longer relaxing - you have to pay constant attention like a Galaxy or Expedition event. And without the speed boost, why bother having automation at all?
I don’t imagine it would be easy to have different code running battle interfaces for events and for the Arena or regular ship battles. And if that’s the case, I would rather give up automated Arena battles than stop enjoying Skirmish events.
I can't duplicate your personal experience, and I won't argue it. However, I point out that it is the intros and ending sequence that make playing while watching easy. The speed up and automation of the actual battle makes watching something easier, since you don't need to look down and carefully guard the timing. Most of us always had to carefully ensure that timing was perfect. That takes a degree of concentration that is minimized with auto and speed up. I still managed to watch some television by simply not playing as rapidly as possible. But I also listened to several fascinating history lectures on YouTube while playing at full speed.
After my own experiences with the event and reading about everyone else’s, I’ve come to the following conclusions:
-keep the intro/outro skips
-for events only, remove auto-play and the speed-up options
I still really like both of those things in the Arena. They help reduce the time spent on perhaps the most onerous and least productive of the daily missions, particularly for someone like me who only does Arena battles to complete dailies and is unconcerned with rank thanks to the choice of schematics for each month.
For Skirmish events, however, it does take away from one of the things I liked best about events: being able to play while doing something else in a relaxing manner. If only the auto-complete system is removed, running battles at 3x speed is no longer relaxing - you have to pay constant attention like a Galaxy or Expedition event. And without the speed boost, why bother having automation at all?
I don’t imagine it would be easy to have different code running battle interfaces for events and for the Arena or regular ship battles. And if that’s the case, I would rather give up automated Arena battles than stop enjoying Skirmish events.
Some good points. I think I would be comfortable with this, but for different reasons. The 3x speed makes my Killy less valuable. It used to be a significant advantage in skirmishes to be able to earn VP more quickly with Killy immortalized. That is no longer the case. Now Killy only shaves off one, maybe two, seconds each round. I got my use out of her up to this point, but now that class of skirmish crew just isn't needed anymore.shaving off the intro/end animation and taking away 3x speed would make Killy and others even more valuable than before.
I don't have Killy. I think your point is good, but she still would help a battle go faster. It would just be less faster. But the competitive advantage of her, it seems, is only for those who are fighting as much as possible for rank or trying to get just enough for top 1500. I always aim for top 1000, so my experience is that the difference is minimal for me. But ask again if I ever get Killy.
I didn't like Skirmish's before, I like them even less now. The only fix is to make crew have more of a difference. The problem is that ONE event crew, which everyone gets free, provides MAX event points.
After my own experiences with the event and reading about everyone else’s, I’ve come to the following conclusions:
-keep the intro/outro skips
-for events only, remove auto-play and the speed-up options
I still really like both of those things in the Arena. They help reduce the time spent on perhaps the most onerous and least productive of the daily missions, particularly for someone like me who only does Arena battles to complete dailies and is unconcerned with rank thanks to the choice of schematics for each month.
For Skirmish events, however, it does take away from one of the things I liked best about events: being able to play while doing something else in a relaxing manner. If only the auto-complete system is removed, running battles at 3x speed is no longer relaxing - you have to pay constant attention like a Galaxy or Expedition event. And without the speed boost, why bother having automation at all?
I don’t imagine it would be easy to have different code running battle interfaces for events and for the Arena or regular ship battles. And if that’s the case, I would rather give up automated Arena battles than stop enjoying Skirmish events.
I can appreciate that, but from my POV, this is the first time I've been engaged somewhat in a skirmish event for some time. I found it a lot less effort to hit thresholds, and do a little beyond that to farm some honour.
Maybe allow auto up to a points level, after that it switches off? Or even just in phase 1?
So, in your case it'd be like doing the shuttle bootstrap in a faction, and for those of us not wishing to manually do it, we get a timeframe where we can do.
After my own experiences with the event and reading about everyone else’s, I’ve come to the following conclusions:
-keep the intro/outro skips
-for events only, remove auto-play and the speed-up options
I still really like both of those things in the Arena. They help reduce the time spent on perhaps the most onerous and least productive of the daily missions, particularly for someone like me who only does Arena battles to complete dailies and is unconcerned with rank thanks to the choice of schematics for each month.
For Skirmish events, however, it does take away from one of the things I liked best about events: being able to play while doing something else in a relaxing manner. If only the auto-complete system is removed, running battles at 3x speed is no longer relaxing - you have to pay constant attention like a Galaxy or Expedition event. And without the speed boost, why bother having automation at all?
I don’t imagine it would be easy to have different code running battle interfaces for events and for the Arena or regular ship battles. And if that’s the case, I would rather give up automated Arena battles than stop enjoying Skirmish events.
I can appreciate that, but from my POV, this is the first time I've been engaged somewhat in a skirmish event for some time. I found it a lot less effort to hit thresholds, and do a little beyond that to farm some honour.
Maybe allow auto up to a points level, after that it switches off? Or even just in phase 1?
So, in your case it'd be like doing the shuttle bootstrap in a faction, and for those of us not wishing to manually do it, we get a timeframe where we can do.
I didn't get the ranked reward, because it looks like the time investment for top 1500 is still more or less the same. Van Gogh is good, but not enough to get me to put that much time into something that I still find very boring.
But clearing thresholds is a lot less tedious now and it makes sense to keep playing for a while to farm some honor, given that it doesn't really look like the chron cost has risen significantly around rank 2500 (I still have more chrons than before the event started).
In general, I wonder how many people in Skirmishes get the ranked reward as an accident while farming honor and if there might be more of them now with these changes.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
Final Results
- Rank 1.337 - VP 1.4 million approx
- 19.108 Chrontions and about two more rounds of Intel.
--> "lost" 500 chronitons since the start of the event to hit the rank I did.
I can see the benefits of the new system ... I mean the grind today was really easy ... I had to almost double my VP since this morning to get into the top 1500, had to win around 700k VP, sheesh.
But, I'm left with a conflicted feeling that I don't really like the changes that much. I like some of the ideas others have put forward ... but to be honest, I would much prefer if the team worked on things that are broken (inventory search, cryostasis search etc.) in the game than work on these kinds of new features.
but hey, hope everybody reached their goals for the event.
I spent around a third of the time I usually did before and ranked around the same (747). My chron spendings were low but I was exceptionally lucky this time, and of course the 5 Intel purchases got my quite a way. Overall it was great for me. A toggle button to permanently remove animations would make it perfect.
For newer players this is a bad change though as limited chrons may not get you where you could get before. Skirmishes were my only events where I managed to rank for the first couple of months. I doubt that this is still possible. And for before named reasons it is bad for high rank hunters.
I guess that it totally payed off for TP, so I do not expect any steps backwards.
Wir, die Mirror Tribbles [MiT] haben freie Plätze zu vergeben. Kein Zwang und kein Stress, dafür aber Spaß, Discord und eine nette, hilfsbereite Gemeinschaft, incl. voll ausgebauter Starbase und täglich 700 ISM.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
I spent around a third of the time I usually did before and ranked around the same (747). My chron spendings were low but I was exceptionally lucky this time, and of course the 5 Intel purchases got my quite a way. Overall it was great for me. A toggle button to permanently remove animations would make it perfect.
For newer players this is a bad change though as limited chrons may not get you where you could get before. Skirmishes were my only events where I managed to rank for the first couple of months. I doubt that this is still possible. And for before named reasons it is bad for high rank hunters.
I finished 552, with 1.71M VP, and was almost chron neutral. Started with 223, and finished with about 50. So I think it is still possible to get top 1500 without a stockpile. But if you had to run on a lower difficulty and don't have the chrons from 8-10 hour voyages, it would be much harder. Still the best event type for newer players.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
Keep: Intro/outro skip - Change it back: Auto-play, Speed-up
Skirmishes used to be the one I had a good chance to make the 1.5k mark to get the legendary, a few times into the 1k. This time I just made under 1.7k. Because of the speed of play if felt there were a lot more people lurking and able to build up a lot of points in the last hours. I went from about 1250 with 4 hours to go to 1700 an hour or so later. Normally on a Monday you drop a a couple of hundred if not careful, but only in the last hour or so. This speed up will be a pain for those of use with work or other Monday commitments. It would be a pain to code, but a nice touch would be to stop the auto and speed plays once you hit the last threshold. So thresh holders get the comfortable ride you want and those going for rank get a challenge thats not just tap, tap tap.
I’m someone whose first honor project was a a Killy that showed up in a merit pull. She has served me well, but she and her ilk are now less valuable in Skirmishes. I’m fine with that! There’s little reason just a few cards should provide such huge time advantages IMHO. I’m also fine with chrons playing a larger role in Skirmish finishes going forward - you should be somewhat rewarded in each event for crew depth/diversity, in this case for ability to gain chrons from voyages. I have spent more time on Skirmishes in the past and not finished nearly as high. As the game ages, honor should be easier for strong crews to come by: these Skirmish changes help with that. I don’t get the complaints that the changes make it less of a game - when I was punching buttons in previous Skimishes, my brain was already on auto-mode. I’m very happy to have that just a hair easier (and much quicker) for a little loss of control. I’m quite happy with the changes and hope they keep them.
Keep: Intro/outro skip - Change it back: Auto-play, Speed-up
I stand by my earlier impression - I don't care for auto/speed simply because it means I/we are no longer playing the game. However...
The cross-section of comments in this thread is revealing, and I am willing to concede that these changes are beneficial to a wide range of players, so I voted my own feelings, but yield to the "keep it as is" crowd.
As I noted earlier, no lead is safe. (Well, one players' lead was safe.) I logged in at 10 min left in the event and found myself at rank 203 and ~35k points below the next tier. That was close enough to the incremental prize gains that I could not allow it to stand, so I added ~75k points in the next 10 min and ranked 194. My apologies to whomever ranked 201, but under the old system, I never would have been able to catch up that fast. Good for me, sorrow for someone else. It is what it is.
For the record-keepers among us - rank 194 was 2,424,300 vp. I had a net loss of 3.1K chrons (with all concurrent game activities; no offer buys).
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
I like the reduced VP idea, not sure about the need to drop it for speed-up - unless you're an android, a bot or have taken an enormous amount of recreational drugs, you'll only be using the speed up with auto. Of course, I'm in my 40's, so maybe I'm being presumptuous on that.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
Yeah. Punish the people who like it for MEDICAL REASONS. But, my input has already been poo-pooed anyway, so everyone enjoy your selves.
"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
Yeah. Punish the people who like it for MEDICAL REASONS. But, my input has already been poo-pooed anyway, so everyone enjoy your selves.
The new features are just as much clicking. 1 to skip animation, 1 to turn on auto, 2 for speed up, and 1 to skip animation. That's 5 click totals. You were using 5 or fewer clicks in the old setup. Now for threshold you're doing those clicks in a shorter period of time. And if you want to rank, you're doing a lot more clicks because of the VP inflation. So it'll make your carpal tunnel even worse.
Much better than what it was, I had thought once your choice was choosen it would stay locked in that way throughout until you chose not to speed through. Had to learn to tap the auto on choice and then the speed up, that only took a "few" 😂 rounds to figure out.
Oh and the Poll choices...???🙃
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
Yeah. Punish the people who like it for MEDICAL REASONS. But, my input has already been poo-pooed anyway, so everyone enjoy your selves.
The new features are just as much clicking. 1 to skip animation, 1 to turn on auto, 2 for speed up, and 1 to skip animation. That's 5 click totals. You were using 5 or fewer clicks in the old setup. Now for threshold you're doing those clicks in a shorter period of time. And if you want to rank, you're doing a lot more clicks because of the VP inflation. So it'll make your carpal tunnel even worse.
I disagree. As the hand needs to move around far less now it was less discomforting, at least for me. I use to play singlehanded with a pen.
Wir, die Mirror Tribbles [MiT] haben freie Plätze zu vergeben. Kein Zwang und kein Stress, dafür aber Spaß, Discord und eine nette, hilfsbereite Gemeinschaft, incl. voll ausgebauter Starbase und täglich 700 ISM.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
Yeah. Punish the people who like it for MEDICAL REASONS. But, my input has already been poo-pooed anyway, so everyone enjoy your selves.
The new features are just as much clicking. 1 to skip animation, 1 to turn on auto, 2 for speed up, and 1 to skip animation. That's 5 click totals. You were using 5 or fewer clicks in the old setup. Now for threshold you're doing those clicks in a shorter period of time. And if you want to rank, you're doing a lot more clicks because of the VP inflation. So it'll make your carpal tunnel even worse.
I disagree. As the hand needs to move around far less now it was less discomforting, at least for me. I use to play singlehanded with a pen.
And manually tripping SEVEN buttons, some more than once sometimes, IS more than 5......
"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
I loved being able to crank out 60-100k VP in just a few minutes to maintain rank. Overall, I don't feel like I had to play more, in real time, to reach the same goal. Now we just need Warp 10 for galaxy events so we can threshold and out in just over an hour.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
Yeah. Punish the people who like it for MEDICAL REASONS. But, my input has already been poo-pooed anyway, so everyone enjoy your selves.
Not really sure how you came to that conclusion...rather than get rid of the speed-up and automation, I figured that they could remain while also eliminating the effect they have on inflating the VP accumulation rate and restoring the previous balance the player base had found. If you’re upset that you’re losing an advantage (understandable), then maybe this isn’t just about carpal tunnel?
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
Yes it works much better for me and my carpal tunnel. I can auto and just hit one button each battle instead of multiple when carpal tunnels acts up which is very nice. I like it.
I like the changes because it gives players more options. You can play slow and play longer or play fast but have to do much more clicking. I like to get about 400k a day but was much busier this skirmish than usual. The speed ups allowed me to still get my 400k a day. Due to my carpal tunnel I can not run the speed up version constantly but I can run it a half hour and stay on schedule for points when I run behind. Most players seemed to just want to do threshold and out and could do that quickly. I dropped some in rank from usual top 350 to top 600. If I had dropped more I might not like the changes but overall it worked well. It also allowed me to get the last few goodies quickly at the end of the event. I guess the real test will be the event in two weeks that is a hybrid galaxy/skirmish.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
Yes it works much better for me and my carpal tunnel. I can auto and just hit one button each battle instead of multiple when carpal tunnels acts up which is very nice. I like it.
This. One button. Turn on Auto is a lot easier than hitting four Crew and three built-ins. And, all the new stuff is in pretty much one spot.
If they disable everything else new, and leave the Auto, that would be great compromise for the hurty people. No time advantage that way.
I may be cranky sometimes. I apologise. I used to walk three miles to the library, work all day, and walk three miles home. Today I barely made it across the street to the 🍱🦁 and back home. Everything is getting worse.
I'm sorry.
"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
I didn't get the ranked reward, because it looks like the time investment for top 1500 is still more or less the same. Van Gogh is good, but not enough to get me to put that much time into something that I still find very boring.
But clearing thresholds is a lot less tedious now and it makes sense to keep playing for a while to farm some honor, given that it doesn't really look like the chron cost has risen significantly around rank 2500 (I still have more chrons than before the event started).
In general, I wonder how many people in Skirmishes get the ranked reward as an accident while farming honor and if there might be more of them now with these changes.
I'm not a big fan of skirmishes, and I honestly don't remember ever getting a high rank in one of them, sometimes I wouldn't even clear the thresh hold I would just do up to get the third SR and the gold item. At least with these changes I can clear thresh hold without it feeling like too much of a chore.
I think the time investment to place top 1500 is probably still the same, but you have to have who knows how many more battles in that time frame. Just my .0000000002 latinums
Liked the changes overall. A bit more attention is needed, so I can no longer read a book while playing, but managed to catch up on a couple seasons of Doctor Who (pffft) while playing MPQ and skirmishing at the same time. Quite a pleasant way to bring in ~100K honor.
I ended up in the office in the morning and afternoon on Saturday (I can't remember ever doing that before!) so I thought I wouldn't stand a chance of my usual top-50 skirmish placement, but for some reason it wasn't so competitive at the top. Even with a heap of cooking and baking over the weekend, I still placed in the top 15. Not sure if I just had the tapping down, or others didn't have the chrons stashed, but I'll be glad of the Doc if they extend the Physician and Innovator collections! Plus a Mutated Paris from the portal rewards - the last one needed to 10/5 my Evolved Janeway!
However, 30 dilithium did vanish from my account on day four - I assumed from the Get More Rewards thingies, but I didn't notice it happen this time. Support has already reversed it and refunded me, but I wonder if anyone else lost a few without noticing? Pay attention to your dils in future skirmishes!
(Of course, it would be better if they could add that purchase confirmation box, like they have for other dil purchases.)
Comments
I can't duplicate your personal experience, and I won't argue it. However, I point out that it is the intros and ending sequence that make playing while watching easy. The speed up and automation of the actual battle makes watching something easier, since you don't need to look down and carefully guard the timing. Most of us always had to carefully ensure that timing was perfect. That takes a degree of concentration that is minimized with auto and speed up. I still managed to watch some television by simply not playing as rapidly as possible. But I also listened to several fascinating history lectures on YouTube while playing at full speed.
I don't have Killy. I think your point is good, but she still would help a battle go faster. It would just be less faster. But the competitive advantage of her, it seems, is only for those who are fighting as much as possible for rank or trying to get just enough for top 1500. I always aim for top 1000, so my experience is that the difference is minimal for me. But ask again if I ever get Killy.
I can appreciate that, but from my POV, this is the first time I've been engaged somewhat in a skirmish event for some time. I found it a lot less effort to hit thresholds, and do a little beyond that to farm some honour.
Maybe allow auto up to a points level, after that it switches off? Or even just in phase 1?
So, in your case it'd be like doing the shuttle bootstrap in a faction, and for those of us not wishing to manually do it, we get a timeframe where we can do.
That’s an idea I can get behind.
I didn't get the ranked reward, because it looks like the time investment for top 1500 is still more or less the same. Van Gogh is good, but not enough to get me to put that much time into something that I still find very boring.
But clearing thresholds is a lot less tedious now and it makes sense to keep playing for a while to farm some honor, given that it doesn't really look like the chron cost has risen significantly around rank 2500 (I still have more chrons than before the event started).
In general, I wonder how many people in Skirmishes get the ranked reward as an accident while farming honor and if there might be more of them now with these changes.
With carpal tunnel & arthritis, I seem to have been less uncomfortable playing this weekend.
________________________________________________
Anyone who does not like any, some, or all of the new features, I believe someone has already mentioned that the whole thing is manual. And has to be reactivated each battle. Don't like some of the new features? Don't use them. Don't like any of the new features? Don't use any of them. Those of us who find the game more enjoyable, because it is literally less painful, would like to continue to have access to the new features.........
Final Results
- Rank 1.337 - VP 1.4 million approx
- 19.108 Chrontions and about two more rounds of Intel.
--> "lost" 500 chronitons since the start of the event to hit the rank I did.
I can see the benefits of the new system ... I mean the grind today was really easy ... I had to almost double my VP since this morning to get into the top 1500, had to win around 700k VP, sheesh.
But, I'm left with a conflicted feeling that I don't really like the changes that much. I like some of the ideas others have put forward ... but to be honest, I would much prefer if the team worked on things that are broken (inventory search, cryostasis search etc.) in the game than work on these kinds of new features.
but hey, hope everybody reached their goals for the event.
For newer players this is a bad change though as limited chrons may not get you where you could get before. Skirmishes were my only events where I managed to rank for the first couple of months. I doubt that this is still possible. And for before named reasons it is bad for high rank hunters.
I guess that it totally payed off for TP, so I do not expect any steps backwards.
No one doesn't like the feature on its own. People who don't like the feature, don't like the VP inflation caused by the changes. Sure I'd love to run the speedup myself, while everyone else ran the old system and we got the old VP. But that's not what happens, everyone runs the new features, VPs are massively inflated, and to have a shot at ranking you need to run the new feature.
I finished 552, with 1.71M VP, and was almost chron neutral. Started with 223, and finished with about 50. So I think it is still possible to get top 1500 without a stockpile. But if you had to run on a lower difficulty and don't have the chrons from 8-10 hour voyages, it would be much harder. Still the best event type for newer players.
This. The first idea that came to mind as a potential solution would be to institute a VP penalty for using the automation or speed-up features. For example, activating the automation at any point in the battle (even if it is later turned off) drops the awarded VP by a third and using the speed-up feature (whether at 2x or 3x and even if set back to 1x later) drops VP by another third. It would mean that threshold-and-out players will go back to the regular amount of time required to play in a weekend while VP doesn’t get artificially inflated while trying to make the game more physically accessible.
I am sure holes can be poked in this idea with ease...have at it!
The cross-section of comments in this thread is revealing, and I am willing to concede that these changes are beneficial to a wide range of players, so I voted my own feelings, but yield to the "keep it as is" crowd.
As I noted earlier, no lead is safe. (Well, one players' lead was safe.) I logged in at 10 min left in the event and found myself at rank 203 and ~35k points below the next tier. That was close enough to the incremental prize gains that I could not allow it to stand, so I added ~75k points in the next 10 min and ranked 194. My apologies to whomever ranked 201, but under the old system, I never would have been able to catch up that fast. Good for me, sorrow for someone else. It is what it is.
For the record-keepers among us - rank 194 was 2,424,300 vp. I had a net loss of 3.1K chrons (with all concurrent game activities; no offer buys).
I like the reduced VP idea, not sure about the need to drop it for speed-up - unless you're an android, a bot or have taken an enormous amount of recreational drugs, you'll only be using the speed up with auto. Of course, I'm in my 40's, so maybe I'm being presumptuous on that.
Yeah. Punish the people who like it for MEDICAL REASONS. But, my input has already been poo-pooed anyway, so everyone enjoy your selves.
2. Immortalized - Fenris Seven, Tholian Prisoner, M-113 Creature, K'mtar, Pel, Captain Janeway, Grandmother Kes, Changeling Bashir, Chef Sisko, Captain T'Pol
3. FEed - Klingon Bride Jadzia, Torpedo Surgeon McCoy and Edward Jellico
4. Won Doctor Van Gogh without even caring about ranking!
The new features are just as much clicking. 1 to skip animation, 1 to turn on auto, 2 for speed up, and 1 to skip animation. That's 5 click totals. You were using 5 or fewer clicks in the old setup. Now for threshold you're doing those clicks in a shorter period of time. And if you want to rank, you're doing a lot more clicks because of the VP inflation. So it'll make your carpal tunnel even worse.
Oh and the Poll choices...???🙃
I disagree. As the hand needs to move around far less now it was less discomforting, at least for me. I use to play singlehanded with a pen.
And manually tripping SEVEN buttons, some more than once sometimes, IS more than 5......
Not really sure how you came to that conclusion...rather than get rid of the speed-up and automation, I figured that they could remain while also eliminating the effect they have on inflating the VP accumulation rate and restoring the previous balance the player base had found. If you’re upset that you’re losing an advantage (understandable), then maybe this isn’t just about carpal tunnel?
Yes it works much better for me and my carpal tunnel. I can auto and just hit one button each battle instead of multiple when carpal tunnels acts up which is very nice. I like it.
This. One button. Turn on Auto is a lot easier than hitting four Crew and three built-ins. And, all the new stuff is in pretty much one spot.
If they disable everything else new, and leave the Auto, that would be great compromise for the hurty people. No time advantage that way.
I may be cranky sometimes. I apologise. I used to walk three miles to the library, work all day, and walk three miles home. Today I barely made it across the street to the 🍱🦁 and back home. Everything is getting worse.
I'm sorry.
I'm not a big fan of skirmishes, and I honestly don't remember ever getting a high rank in one of them, sometimes I wouldn't even clear the thresh hold I would just do up to get the third SR and the gold item. At least with these changes I can clear thresh hold without it feeling like too much of a chore.
I think the time investment to place top 1500 is probably still the same, but you have to have who knows how many more battles in that time frame. Just my .0000000002 latinums
I ended up in the office in the morning and afternoon on Saturday (I can't remember ever doing that before!) so I thought I wouldn't stand a chance of my usual top-50 skirmish placement, but for some reason it wasn't so competitive at the top. Even with a heap of cooking and baking over the weekend, I still placed in the top 15. Not sure if I just had the tapping down, or others didn't have the chrons stashed, but I'll be glad of the Doc if they extend the Physician and Innovator collections! Plus a Mutated Paris from the portal rewards - the last one needed to 10/5 my Evolved Janeway!
However, 30 dilithium did vanish from my account on day four - I assumed from the Get More Rewards thingies, but I didn't notice it happen this time. Support has already reversed it and refunded me, but I wonder if anyone else lost a few without noticing? Pay attention to your dils in future skirmishes!
(Of course, it would be better if they could add that purchase confirmation box, like they have for other dil purchases.)