I think WRG really missed the boat here by using scans instead of the actual crew we own to venture out exploring for Polestars & Constellations etc.
1. I want to get use out of the 100s of crew I own, not just be able to get that last star on a 5* to freeze 'em. (see my Legacy legendaries posts in the Ready Room).
This! I already have a lot of crew, and there's not any card I really need, nor is there any one I specifically want for sentimental reasons. I had hoped this feature would be something to do with my crew. Is STT really only going to focus on card collecting from now on? How about focusing a bit more on making an enjoyable game?
Watching timelines talk and saw that 1/1 torres oop up for the cost of credits worth 14.4k dilitium....
That would make me rage quit.
Even afully frozen would at least give some honor.
Saving credits (or god forbid that amount of dil) for months and than that happens...
Maybe there should be polestars to EXCLUDE certain rarities.
I rewatched the stream and this might actually not be correct.
Ben said something like at least not using the credits after this torres came up.
I think we need some clarification of when that credit cost mentioned on screen is used up.
Do maybe if he had selected torres in the pool it would have said a lot less
I think you should be able to get any crew in game with crew retrieval. At the least there should be a polestar for gauntlet crew, one for Crew not in portal etc.
Overall "Crew Retrieval" seems like a positive addition that doesn't impact any other part of your game.
Don't like it? Don't use it.
That’s a rather shallow dismissal of the concerns.
I don’t think people are taking issue with the feature being introduced as such. It seems of limited value, but it’ll be nice to be able to grab a targeted crew once a month or so. In isolation, that’s all well and good.
The problem is that the game is very stale for many people, and this is a feature which has consumed a huge amount of development time and was hyped as being a significant addition to the game. It’s unsurprising that some are disappointed and concerned about the game’s future.
I totally agree that more to do, with the crew/ships we already have, is something that definitely needs to be at the top of the dev teams "To Do List".
BUT...
People are blurring the lines here. Crew retrieval is a positive thing. Just because it's not the positive thing that the individual wants, doesn't make Crew retrieval a bad thing.
Considering that many players want many different things. Slots, Re-pulls, Sales etc. and that this is primarily a card collecting game. It feels like a positive to me.
There will always be disappointment & concerns. People will continue to leave no matter what the dev team do, but others will join.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
It resets with success only as far as I understood.
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.
If we need a couple different polestars to get any good chance of crew we want and there are many different polestars including throwaways like uncommon and rare crew polestars, then the drop rate of constellations that give you polestars needs to be significantly higher or we are just gonna be sitting around for weeks not using this new feature.
If we need a couple different polestars to get any good chance of crew we want and there are many different polestars including throwaways like uncommon and rare crew polestars, then the drop rate of constellations that give you polestars needs to be significantly higher or we are just gonna be sitting around for weeks not using this new feature.
I got that each specific of a card has the same drop chance. So we will get plenty of Federation and Starfleet too which narrow down basically nothing.
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.
Watching timelines talk and saw that 1/1 torres oop up for the cost of credits worth 14.4k dilitium....
That would make me rage quit.
Even afully frozen would at least give some honor.
Saving credits (or god forbid that amount of dil) for months and than that happens...
Maybe there should be polestars to EXCLUDE certain rarities.
I rewatched the stream and this might actually not be correct.
Ben said something like at least not using the credits after this torres came up.
I think we need some clarification of when that credit cost mentioned on screen is used up.
Do maybe if he had selected torres in the pool it would have said a lot less
I believe the "not using the credits" came from it being the initial "free pull" that we'll all get.
Watching the video made me significantly more interested in the feature than the wall of text in the forum. I don't think it's something I'll be going way out of my way to accumulate the multitude of required currencies to be able to use, but I'll be happy to use it when they all build up.
On a scale of "WTF" to "THIS IS AMAZING", I'm somewhere around "Well that's nice."
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
It resets with success only as far as I understood.
Do you mean after getting a constellation? I was talking about the daily reset, not the price reset after obtaining a constellation. Given that the price in (what was the currency called again? ) rises quite steeply, it doesn't sounds like a feasible thing to keep purchasing scans until a constellation drops. So, assuming I purchase two or three scans and my success rate goes up to 4% or 6%, will it still be at 4% or 6% on the next day or will it be back to 2%?
If the success rate resets every day, then with the low drop rates and steep price increase it makes no sense to purchase additional scans. And at one free scan a day (the success rate of which is 2% if I remember well) it would take approximately 50 days to get a constellation.
So what i take from this is TP's strategy is basically to monetise credits.
They change the cost to buy with Dil, tempt us to spend millions of naughty hoarded credits with a over inflated costing rigged dabo board in an apparent "celebration" of an anniversary.
They then introduce a credits portal for a micro payment and then this all leads to an anti climatic unveiling of a feature that just happens to need millions of credits.
I admit it's a nice idea but its convoluted way to target crew you need, but to wait potentially months to limit a field small enough and then not get who you want is beyond stupid, as just going to lead to more and more frustration.
And for those who say just dont use it, thats very patronising because when every other potential improvement has been put on ice for a system that has the potential to be rarely used depending on what stage you're at the the game is very disappointing and underwhelming.
I would have much preferred mini events that say take no more then 20 minutes to complete, timed bonus events, open ended events that leads to something good that will take a bit of time to complete similar to the collection prizes, new missions. There is so much potential that will earn TP money but not because they are trying to squeeze it out of us but because there is so much content that you enjoy playing it.
Its just another feature you got to save up for and gamble at the end of it to see if its paid off or not.
Or does the free scan always drop a constellation? My understanding was that that would only be true for the very first one when the feature goes live.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
It resets with success only as far as I understood.
Do you mean after getting a constellation? I was talking about the daily reset, not the price reset after obtaining a constellation. Given that the price in (what was the currency called again? ) rises quite steeply, it doesn't sounds like a feasible thing to keep purchasing scans until a constellation drops. So, assuming I purchase two or three scans and my success rate goes up to 4% or 6%, will it still be at 4% or 6% on the next day or will it be back to 2%?
If the success rate resets every day, then with the low drop rates and steep price increase it makes no sense to purchase additional scans. And at one free scan a day (the success rate of which is 2% if I remember well) it would take approximately 50 days to get a constellation.
I meant that it will increase as long as no constellation drops. It will not reset with the daily reset. 50 days would be the very worst case if you only do the daily free scan. But with each ISM scan which we will do one per day at least I assume it increases too, and a constellation can drop at 2% chance already too.
I am too lazy to calculate the expectation value, but maybe we can expect one every 10 days with 1 ISM scan per day?
/edit: We will have to check out the sweet spot between spending ISM on scans and saving for opening constellations. That is pricey too.
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.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
It resets with success only as far as I understood.
Do you mean after getting a constellation? I was talking about the daily reset, not the price reset after obtaining a constellation. Given that the price in (what was the currency called again? ) rises quite steeply, it doesn't sounds like a feasible thing to keep purchasing scans until a constellation drops. So, assuming I purchase two or three scans and my success rate goes up to 4% or 6%, will it still be at 4% or 6% on the next day or will it be back to 2%?
If the success rate resets every day, then with the low drop rates and steep price increase it makes no sense to purchase additional scans. And at one free scan a day (the success rate of which is 2% if I remember well) it would take approximately 50 days to get a constellation.
I meant that it will increase as long as no constellation drops. It will not reset with the daily reset. 50 days would be the very worst case if you only do the daily free scan. But with each ISM scan which we will do one per day at least I assume it increases too, and a constellation can drop at 2% chance already too.
I am too lazy to calculate the expectation value, but maybe we can expect one every 10 days?
That would be great. I hope you're right! I honestly can't remember what they said on this topic in the stream or if they mentioned it at all, but if you're sure about it, then the whole feature sounds a lot better than I initially expected it to be.
There appears to be a disconnect between the dev side view and the play side view (maybe they play, but they don't seem to play for the reasons most do). For example, do they see this as collecting baseball cards or more like MTG? They seem to consider the weight of participation in the game to be simply on collecting the cards. I would say, from the comments at least, that people who only play have a mindset more towards deckbuilding and table play, to reference MTG. The development side only seems to develop or consider the environment as a way to collect.
Yes there are a few bits that look like play, but they are crafted as a means of getting cards rather than using them. Events are just grinding for cards. The gauntlet is grinding for cards. The arena is grinding for ships. Voyaging is grinding for cards and the honor to cite them. I don't need to be cash trolled, yes it's to make money. But at a certain point without a strong way to use them to back it up, collecting starts to get or feel pointless. People who make TCGs certainly want to make money, but a lot of the development goes into aspects that don't directly generate cash. The game has to be engaging or there is no point in collecting. You can't expect to nickel and dime everything the people collecting do with them.
I'm also not convinced the people developing and organizing the game can see engagement from the play side. What's the point of putting constellations or poledancers in the rank rewards? This is a well trod road. Adding more to the ranks above 1500 isn't likely to increase income. There may be a small bump, but in a month when everyone realizes the same whales are winning everything they will return to old habits rather than engage in a battle of credit cards they accepted long ago they couldn't afford.
Everything keeps getting paywalled by the same global melee model. Don't mistake me, I'm not knocking it. But people know what they can afford and what they can't. Many players may be able to afford a smaller investment but don't because the smaller investment is very unlikely to get them into a place in the global melee they want. Place a gold polestar/cite/card at a million in skirmishes and a SR polestar/cite at 400k in Faction events and more people would push VP for them. Drop the rank rewards by -1. People who choose avoid likely waste of investment in the rank reward are likely to drop a more modest amount for their own threshold. Too much of the design is global melee. People may enjoy more personal play or with a small group, they don't want to always be fighting the entire world. Target tapping (shooting) in something that resembles/recalls Worf and Guinan in holodeck, with a selected card modifying outcome with small payouts that would help equip the card. It would feel like training the card (and perhaps a global/fleet/squad ranking that is only there as a reference) on holodeck rations. A holodeck could be used for tonnes of mini game things. Create something and call it Timelines OG Stratagem. No, there might not be an immediate cash transaction, but you might see more in other places if thw cards that access those minigames have to be trait accessed. Marksman for a target shooting, pilot for a fighter game.
I don't want to harp on something that clearly belongs in a different section. The point is, I don't see this generating value long term. Rather than spending more or engaging new spending, the same people will keep doing want they always do. Grinding scans is going to feel like work rather than play. People will certainly use the new "feature". Even if they don't care for it they aren't going to ignore a way to get cards. It's just not going to be a very large impact. The people who get everything already will benefit and the rest will do whatever they can with the scraps. The global melee model is the limiting factor in the game. You aren't going to see strong long-term gains in income or engagement unless you disrupt that dynamic.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
It resets with success only as far as I understood.
Do you mean after getting a constellation? I was talking about the daily reset, not the price reset after obtaining a constellation. Given that the price in (what was the currency called again? ) rises quite steeply, it doesn't sounds like a feasible thing to keep purchasing scans until a constellation drops. So, assuming I purchase two or three scans and my success rate goes up to 4% or 6%, will it still be at 4% or 6% on the next day or will it be back to 2%?
If the success rate resets every day, then with the low drop rates and steep price increase it makes no sense to purchase additional scans. And at one free scan a day (the success rate of which is 2% if I remember well) it would take approximately 50 days to get a constellation.
I meant that it will increase as long as no constellation drops. It will not reset with the daily reset. 50 days would be the very worst case if you only do the daily free scan. But with each ISM scan which we will do one per day at least I assume it increases too, and a constellation can drop at 2% chance already too.
I am too lazy to calculate the expectation value, but maybe we can expect one every 10 days?
That would be great. I hope you're right! I honestly can't remember what they said on this topic in the stream or if they mentioned it at all, but if you're sure about it, then the whole feature sounds a lot better than I initially expected it to be.
Pretty sure, but not 100%.
A pity counter with a daily reset would be a slap in the face.
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 see the complaints that this is something you would only manage once or twice a month. I actually like that this is a rare thing. If you save to do this and prep in such a way that you are likely to get a targeted gold, it would totally unbalance the game to do that several times a week.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
It resets with success only as far as I understood.
Do you mean after getting a constellation? I was talking about the daily reset, not the price reset after obtaining a constellation. Given that the price in (what was the currency called again? ) rises quite steeply, it doesn't sounds like a feasible thing to keep purchasing scans until a constellation drops. So, assuming I purchase two or three scans and my success rate goes up to 4% or 6%, will it still be at 4% or 6% on the next day or will it be back to 2%?
If the success rate resets every day, then with the low drop rates and steep price increase it makes no sense to purchase additional scans. And at one free scan a day (the success rate of which is 2% if I remember well) it would take approximately 50 days to get a constellation.
One thing I forgot is the adwarp option. Does anyone know the ad cooldown for scans?
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.
Something I'd really love to see added is a kind of shuffle option to randomly combine 2-3-4 polestars that you own so you can see different combinations you can make with what you have. I'd sit there and press that button like a lab rat and probably get a bunch of combinations I'd never have thought of.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
The one question the guys didn't ask during the demo with WRG Ben was the rate at which the pity counter increases. They referenced galaxy events, how each build without a rare reward increased the next success rate by 5%, but Ben never mentioned whether every failed scan increased the success rate for the next scan by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or a sliding scale, etc...
If people only do the 1 free scan each day, what is the maximum number of days a player could go before they reach the 100% guaranteed successful scan? A week? A month? 100 days?
Given all the RNG and ISM already being a limiting factor, why not just make every scan successful? There are close to 900 constellations you might get each time, and each of them has a limited number of polestars to possibly get, so the odds are already severely stacked against you getting the 1-4 specific polestars you need to filter the pool enough to have a chance at getting the crew you actually want.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
The one question the guys didn't ask during the demo with WRG Ben was the rate at which the pity counter increases. They referenced galaxy events, how each build without a rare rewards increased the next success rate by 5%, but Ben never mentioned whether every failed scan increased the success rate for the next scan by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or a sliding scale, etc...
If people only do the 1 free scan each day, what is the maximum number of days a player could go before they reach the 100% guaranteed successful scan? A week? A month? 100 days?
Given all the RNG and ISM already being a limiting factor, why not just make every scan successful? There are close to 900 constellations you might get each time, and each of them has a limited number of polestars to possibly get, so the odds are already severely stacked against you getting the 1-4 specific polestars you need to filter the pool enough to have a chance at getting the crew you actually want.
Scan % does increase. Ben said it is similar to craft in galaxy events, % increase with each build until you get the rare. (Its at 1:36:00ish in the video)
Founding ADM - PoF family of fleets (POF, POF2 & POF3) - Dear TP: Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
The one question the guys didn't ask during the demo with WRG Ben was the rate at which the pity counter increases. They referenced galaxy events, how each build without a rare rewards increased the next success rate by 5%, but Ben never mentioned whether every failed scan increased the success rate for the next scan by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or a sliding scale, etc...
If people only do the 1 free scan each day, what is the maximum number of days a player could go before they reach the 100% guaranteed successful scan? A week? A month? 100 days?
Given all the RNG and ISM already being a limiting factor, why not just make every scan successful? There are close to 900 constellations you might get each time, and each of them has a limited number of polestars to possibly get, so the odds are already severely stacked against you getting the 1-4 specific polestars you need to filter the pool enough to have a chance at getting the crew you actually want.
Scan % does increase. Ben said it is similar to craft in galaxy events, % increase with each build until you get the rare. (Its at 1:36:00ish in the video)
It is there at 1:36:00 in the video. It is 2% fixed per failed scan.
/edit: Too slow.
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.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
The one question the guys didn't ask during the demo with WRG Ben was the rate at which the pity counter increases. They referenced galaxy events, how each build without a rare rewards increased the next success rate by 5%, but Ben never mentioned whether every failed scan increased the success rate for the next scan by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or a sliding scale, etc...
If people only do the 1 free scan each day, what is the maximum number of days a player could go before they reach the 100% guaranteed successful scan? A week? A month? 100 days?
Given all the RNG and ISM already being a limiting factor, why not just make every scan successful? There are close to 900 constellations you might get each time, and each of them has a limited number of polestars to possibly get, so the odds are already severely stacked against you getting the 1-4 specific polestars you need to filter the pool enough to have a chance at getting the crew you actually want.
Scan % does increase. Ben said it is similar to craft in galaxy events, % increase with each build until you get the rare. (Its at 1:36:00ish in the video)
Yes, but at what rate? If I fail a 1% chance scan today, does that mean tomorrow is 2% or 6% or 11%?
If it only increases by 1 each day, then it could theoretically take up to 100 days to have a successful scan to get a single constellation (from a pool of close to 900), which may have a selection of polestars that are completely useless (ie: human, federation, Starfleet).
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
The one question the guys didn't ask during the demo with WRG Ben was the rate at which the pity counter increases. They referenced galaxy events, how each build without a rare rewards increased the next success rate by 5%, but Ben never mentioned whether every failed scan increased the success rate for the next scan by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or a sliding scale, etc...
If people only do the 1 free scan each day, what is the maximum number of days a player could go before they reach the 100% guaranteed successful scan? A week? A month? 100 days?
Given all the RNG and ISM already being a limiting factor, why not just make every scan successful? There are close to 900 constellations you might get each time, and each of them has a limited number of polestars to possibly get, so the odds are already severely stacked against you getting the 1-4 specific polestars you need to filter the pool enough to have a chance at getting the crew you actually want.
Scan % does increase. Ben said it is similar to craft in galaxy events, % increase with each build until you get the rare. (Its at 1:36:00ish in the video)
Yes, but at what rate? If I fail a 1% chance scan today, does that mean tomorrow is 2% or 6% or 11%?
If it only increases by 1 each day, then it could theoretically take up to 100 days to have a successful scan to get a single constellation (from a pool of close to 900), which may have a selection of polestars that are completely useless (ie: human, federation, Starfleet).
2%
Founding ADM - PoF family of fleets (POF, POF2 & POF3) - Dear TP: Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but does the success chance for scans reset too when the price resets every day? That is, the first scan will be free again, but will it also have a 2% success chance again or will it keep the success rate reached on the day before?
The one question the guys didn't ask during the demo with WRG Ben was the rate at which the pity counter increases. They referenced galaxy events, how each build without a rare rewards increased the next success rate by 5%, but Ben never mentioned whether every failed scan increased the success rate for the next scan by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or a sliding scale, etc...
If people only do the 1 free scan each day, what is the maximum number of days a player could go before they reach the 100% guaranteed successful scan? A week? A month? 100 days?
Given all the RNG and ISM already being a limiting factor, why not just make every scan successful? There are close to 900 constellations you might get each time, and each of them has a limited number of polestars to possibly get, so the odds are already severely stacked against you getting the 1-4 specific polestars you need to filter the pool enough to have a chance at getting the crew you actually want.
Scan % does increase. Ben said it is similar to craft in galaxy events, % increase with each build until you get the rare. (Its at 1:36:00ish in the video)
Yes, but at what rate? If I fail a 1% chance scan today, does that mean tomorrow is 2% or 6% or 11%?
If it only increases by 1 each day, then it could theoretically take up to 100 days to have a successful scan to get a single constellation (from a pool of close to 900), which may have a selection of polestars that are completely useless (ie: human, federation, Starfleet).
2%
Yikes. I'm curious to discover how long it takes to actually be able to target a crew that I want, in as close to a guaranteed pull as possible (otherwise it's a glorified Tuesday pack for $5 million credits & 900 quantum). Considering constellation drop rates, polestar rarity, and the likelihood of crew having a unique enough set of skills & traits to give me more than a hail-mary chance, I feel like it would be lucky to have more than 1 or 2 high % retrievals a year.
Plus, it sounds like the best polestars that would filter crew the most like crew rarity (ie: 5*) and key skills (ie: ENG), will only be available via top-1000 finishes in events. Or maybe from a single rarity/skill constellation, which you have about a 1/900 chance of getting from a successful scan, which starts out with only a 1% chance of even being successful!
I see the complaints that this is something you would only manage once or twice a month. I actually like that this is a rare thing. If you save to do this and prep in such a way that you are likely to get a targeted gold, it would totally unbalance the game to do that several times a week.
I agree with you, but I think you're missing the point of their complaints-- we have heard of some many new things or QoL improvements that have been bumped, specifically because they were working so hard on the new feature.
Except the new feature has really low overall engagement.
It might be a great addition once players learn the system, but does it feel like a significant improvement when youre only going to it once a month?
The disappointment seems to stem from, TP unsurprisingly raising expectations beyond what needed to be done. When Ben goes on about how its the most significant new feature to the game since Voyages, its understandable that people assume new feature = new game mode to engage with on a daily basis and play the game.
While the mechanics are obviously new, I think itd be better called an improvement than a feature.
I see the complaints that this is something you would only manage once or twice a month. I actually like that this is a rare thing. If you save to do this and prep in such a way that you are likely to get a targeted gold, it would totally unbalance the game to do that several times a week.
Once or twice a month is perfectly fine as long as it actually allows me to target crew that I want. But if it should take me three or fours months to have a combination of polestars that actually allow me to target a crew that I want then this feature doesn't add much to my experience. That depends on how many polestars exist, on how many scans are possible and on whether or not the success rate for them resets every day (it seems like it won't).
For example, if I have polestars for human, costumed, resourceful and 5*, then I can target Arachnia and Merry Men Crusher, with a chance of getting a third star on Gunslinger Uhura instead. But if it takes me three years to put those four polestars together, then I won't spend resources on a crew retrieve just to have a very tiny chance at a character I want (with, say, human and costumed only).
This is just an example. There are a lot of other possible trait combinations, but not knowing how many polestars there are and how easy/difficult it will be to obtain them, it's hard to guess how much of an impact this feature will actually have for long-time players, since most of them don't need or want most of the crew in the portal, but only a few specific cards.
There appears to be a disconnect between the dev side view and the play side view (maybe they play, but they don't seem to play for the reasons most do). For example, do they see this as collecting baseball cards or more like MTG? They seem to consider the weight of participation in the game to be simply on collecting the cards. I would say, from the comments at least, that people who only play have a mindset more towards deckbuilding and table play, to reference MTG. The development side only seems to develop or consider the environment as a way to collect.
The thing that baffles me is that WRG doesn't seem to understand that if they drive engagement in the game by having more stuff for cards to do, they're also driving the card collecting aspect!. Seems to me like regular engagement and card collecting aspects can both be monitized. Both new players with young rosters and veteran players with extensive rosters benefit by having more options to use their cards for, and more interesting choices also let players play with the aspect of the game they enjoy the most, which keeps them engaged (and possibly spending $). From a pragmatic standpoint, what's done is done, and this quantum/ISM/constellations/polestars is the new feature - I really hope WRG will put serious time/$ into brand new event types (yes plural) and new modes/areas to use crew cards in differently than what we do today. They'll make $ IMHO.
Comments
This! I already have a lot of crew, and there's not any card I really need, nor is there any one I specifically want for sentimental reasons. I had hoped this feature would be something to do with my crew. Is STT really only going to focus on card collecting from now on? How about focusing a bit more on making an enjoyable game?
I rewatched the stream and this might actually not be correct.
Ben said something like at least not using the credits after this torres came up.
I think we need some clarification of when that credit cost mentioned on screen is used up.
Do maybe if he had selected torres in the pool it would have said a lot less
I totally agree that more to do, with the crew/ships we already have, is something that definitely needs to be at the top of the dev teams "To Do List".
BUT...
People are blurring the lines here. Crew retrieval is a positive thing. Just because it's not the positive thing that the individual wants, doesn't make Crew retrieval a bad thing.
Considering that many players want many different things. Slots, Re-pulls, Sales etc. and that this is primarily a card collecting game. It feels like a positive to me.
There will always be disappointment & concerns. People will continue to leave no matter what the dev team do, but others will join.
It resets with success only as far as I understood.
I got that each specific of a card has the same drop chance. So we will get plenty of Federation and Starfleet too which narrow down basically nothing.
I believe the "not using the credits" came from it being the initial "free pull" that we'll all get.
Watching the video made me significantly more interested in the feature than the wall of text in the forum. I don't think it's something I'll be going way out of my way to accumulate the multitude of required currencies to be able to use, but I'll be happy to use it when they all build up.
On a scale of "WTF" to "THIS IS AMAZING", I'm somewhere around "Well that's nice."
Do you mean after getting a constellation? I was talking about the daily reset, not the price reset after obtaining a constellation. Given that the price in (what was the currency called again?
If the success rate resets every day, then with the low drop rates and steep price increase it makes no sense to purchase additional scans. And at one free scan a day (the success rate of which is 2% if I remember well) it would take approximately 50 days to get a constellation.
They change the cost to buy with Dil, tempt us to spend millions of naughty hoarded credits with a over inflated costing rigged dabo board in an apparent "celebration" of an anniversary.
They then introduce a credits portal for a micro payment and then this all leads to an anti climatic unveiling of a feature that just happens to need millions of credits.
I admit it's a nice idea but its convoluted way to target crew you need, but to wait potentially months to limit a field small enough and then not get who you want is beyond stupid, as just going to lead to more and more frustration.
And for those who say just dont use it, thats very patronising because when every other potential improvement has been put on ice for a system that has the potential to be rarely used depending on what stage you're at the the game is very disappointing and underwhelming.
I would have much preferred mini events that say take no more then 20 minutes to complete, timed bonus events, open ended events that leads to something good that will take a bit of time to complete similar to the collection prizes, new missions. There is so much potential that will earn TP money but not because they are trying to squeeze it out of us but because there is so much content that you enjoy playing it.
Its just another feature you got to save up for and gamble at the end of it to see if its paid off or not.
Quatloos.
If they're not called that, they should be.
I meant that it will increase as long as no constellation drops. It will not reset with the daily reset. 50 days would be the very worst case if you only do the daily free scan. But with each ISM scan which we will do one per day at least I assume it increases too, and a constellation can drop at 2% chance already too.
I am too lazy to calculate the expectation value, but maybe we can expect one every 10 days with 1 ISM scan per day?
/edit: We will have to check out the sweet spot between spending ISM on scans and saving for opening constellations. That is pricey too.
That would be great. I hope you're right! I honestly can't remember what they said on this topic in the stream or if they mentioned it at all, but if you're sure about it, then the whole feature sounds a lot better than I initially expected it to be.
Yes there are a few bits that look like play, but they are crafted as a means of getting cards rather than using them. Events are just grinding for cards. The gauntlet is grinding for cards. The arena is grinding for ships. Voyaging is grinding for cards and the honor to cite them. I don't need to be cash trolled, yes it's to make money. But at a certain point without a strong way to use them to back it up, collecting starts to get or feel pointless. People who make TCGs certainly want to make money, but a lot of the development goes into aspects that don't directly generate cash. The game has to be engaging or there is no point in collecting. You can't expect to nickel and dime everything the people collecting do with them.
I'm also not convinced the people developing and organizing the game can see engagement from the play side. What's the point of putting constellations or poledancers in the rank rewards? This is a well trod road. Adding more to the ranks above 1500 isn't likely to increase income. There may be a small bump, but in a month when everyone realizes the same whales are winning everything they will return to old habits rather than engage in a battle of credit cards they accepted long ago they couldn't afford.
Everything keeps getting paywalled by the same global melee model. Don't mistake me, I'm not knocking it. But people know what they can afford and what they can't. Many players may be able to afford a smaller investment but don't because the smaller investment is very unlikely to get them into a place in the global melee they want. Place a gold polestar/cite/card at a million in skirmishes and a SR polestar/cite at 400k in Faction events and more people would push VP for them. Drop the rank rewards by -1. People who choose avoid likely waste of investment in the rank reward are likely to drop a more modest amount for their own threshold. Too much of the design is global melee. People may enjoy more personal play or with a small group, they don't want to always be fighting the entire world. Target tapping (shooting) in something that resembles/recalls Worf and Guinan in holodeck, with a selected card modifying outcome with small payouts that would help equip the card. It would feel like training the card (and perhaps a global/fleet/squad ranking that is only there as a reference) on holodeck rations. A holodeck could be used for tonnes of mini game things. Create something and call it Timelines OG Stratagem. No, there might not be an immediate cash transaction, but you might see more in other places if thw cards that access those minigames have to be trait accessed. Marksman for a target shooting, pilot for a fighter game.
I don't want to harp on something that clearly belongs in a different section. The point is, I don't see this generating value long term. Rather than spending more or engaging new spending, the same people will keep doing want they always do. Grinding scans is going to feel like work rather than play. People will certainly use the new "feature". Even if they don't care for it they aren't going to ignore a way to get cards. It's just not going to be a very large impact. The people who get everything already will benefit and the rest will do whatever they can with the scraps. The global melee model is the limiting factor in the game. You aren't going to see strong long-term gains in income or engagement unless you disrupt that dynamic.
Pretty sure, but not 100%.
A pity counter with a daily reset would be a slap in the face.
One thing I forgot is the adwarp option. Does anyone know the ad cooldown for scans?
The one question the guys didn't ask during the demo with WRG Ben was the rate at which the pity counter increases. They referenced galaxy events, how each build without a rare reward increased the next success rate by 5%, but Ben never mentioned whether every failed scan increased the success rate for the next scan by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or a sliding scale, etc...
If people only do the 1 free scan each day, what is the maximum number of days a player could go before they reach the 100% guaranteed successful scan? A week? A month? 100 days?
Given all the RNG and ISM already being a limiting factor, why not just make every scan successful? There are close to 900 constellations you might get each time, and each of them has a limited number of polestars to possibly get, so the odds are already severely stacked against you getting the 1-4 specific polestars you need to filter the pool enough to have a chance at getting the crew you actually want.
Scan % does increase. Ben said it is similar to craft in galaxy events, % increase with each build until you get the rare. (Its at 1:36:00ish in the video)
It is there at 1:36:00 in the video. It is 2% fixed per failed scan.
/edit: Too slow.
Yes, but at what rate? If I fail a 1% chance scan today, does that mean tomorrow is 2% or 6% or 11%?
If it only increases by 1 each day, then it could theoretically take up to 100 days to have a successful scan to get a single constellation (from a pool of close to 900), which may have a selection of polestars that are completely useless (ie: human, federation, Starfleet).
2%
Yikes. I'm curious to discover how long it takes to actually be able to target a crew that I want, in as close to a guaranteed pull as possible (otherwise it's a glorified Tuesday pack for $5 million credits & 900 quantum). Considering constellation drop rates, polestar rarity, and the likelihood of crew having a unique enough set of skills & traits to give me more than a hail-mary chance, I feel like it would be lucky to have more than 1 or 2 high % retrievals a year.
Plus, it sounds like the best polestars that would filter crew the most like crew rarity (ie: 5*) and key skills (ie: ENG), will only be available via top-1000 finishes in events. Or maybe from a single rarity/skill constellation, which you have about a 1/900 chance of getting from a successful scan, which starts out with only a 1% chance of even being successful!
I agree with you, but I think you're missing the point of their complaints-- we have heard of some many new things or QoL improvements that have been bumped, specifically because they were working so hard on the new feature.
Except the new feature has really low overall engagement.
It might be a great addition once players learn the system, but does it feel like a significant improvement when youre only going to it once a month?
The disappointment seems to stem from, TP unsurprisingly raising expectations beyond what needed to be done. When Ben goes on about how its the most significant new feature to the game since Voyages, its understandable that people assume new feature = new game mode to engage with on a daily basis and play the game.
While the mechanics are obviously new, I think itd be better called an improvement than a feature.
Once or twice a month is perfectly fine as long as it actually allows me to target crew that I want. But if it should take me three or fours months to have a combination of polestars that actually allow me to target a crew that I want then this feature doesn't add much to my experience. That depends on how many polestars exist, on how many scans are possible and on whether or not the success rate for them resets every day (it seems like it won't).
For example, if I have polestars for human, costumed, resourceful and 5*, then I can target Arachnia and Merry Men Crusher, with a chance of getting a third star on Gunslinger Uhura instead. But if it takes me three years to put those four polestars together, then I won't spend resources on a crew retrieve just to have a very tiny chance at a character I want (with, say, human and costumed only).
This is just an example. There are a lot of other possible trait combinations, but not knowing how many polestars there are and how easy/difficult it will be to obtain them, it's hard to guess how much of an impact this feature will actually have for long-time players, since most of them don't need or want most of the crew in the portal, but only a few specific cards.
The thing that baffles me is that WRG doesn't seem to understand that if they drive engagement in the game by having more stuff for cards to do, they're also driving the card collecting aspect!. Seems to me like regular engagement and card collecting aspects can both be monitized. Both new players with young rosters and veteran players with extensive rosters benefit by having more options to use their cards for, and more interesting choices also let players play with the aspect of the game they enjoy the most, which keeps them engaged (and possibly spending $). From a pragmatic standpoint, what's done is done, and this quantum/ISM/constellations/polestars is the new feature - I really hope WRG will put serious time/$ into brand new event types (yes plural) and new modes/areas to use crew cards in differently than what we do today. They'll make $ IMHO.