I'm a pretty new player, just a couple months in. Losing the crates for ISM is a bummer. I have plenty of crew I need to FE that crates always help with. I've still got a lot of uncommon and rare crew that I need to immortalize for the collections. With crew spots limited I'd much rather focus on finishing the ones I have so I can pop them in the freezer than getting new ones that I won't be able to FF/FE for ages.
I have the polestars for the next crew I want to retrieve, but not the quantum or credits. Once I'm done with the scanning achievement I've got no reason to scan more than the daily freebies, since it will be ages before I can even afford another crew retrieval past the one I've got on deck, so I don't care about getting more constellations right now.
I don't know if it's a 'stop getting the paid campaign tier' bummer, but it's at least a 'hold off on getting the paid campaign tier and see if I miss it' bummer.
I'm a pretty new player, just a couple months in. Losing the crates for ISM is a bummer. I have plenty of crew I need to FE that crates always help with. I've still got a lot of uncommon and rare crew that I need to immortalize for the collections. With crew spots limited I'd much rather focus on finishing the ones I have so I can pop them in the freezer than getting new ones that I won't be able to FF/FE for ages.
I have the polestars for the next crew I want to retrieve, but not the quantum or credits. Once I'm done with the scanning achievement I've got no reason to scan more than the daily freebies, since it will be ages before I can even afford another crew retrieval past the one I've got on deck, so I don't care about getting more constellations right now.
I don't know if it's a 'stop getting the paid campaign tier' bummer, but it's at least a 'hold off on getting the paid campaign tier and see if I miss it' bummer.
I don't get why anyone would want to stop getting constellations/polestars. There is no item cap on them, the more you get the easier it will be to get a crew you want when you want it.
Once the ISM starts rolling in I will scan more than I ever scanned before.
I'm a pretty new player, just a couple months in. Losing the crates for ISM is a bummer. I have plenty of crew I need to FE that crates always help with. I've still got a lot of uncommon and rare crew that I need to immortalize for the collections. With crew spots limited I'd much rather focus on finishing the ones I have so I can pop them in the freezer than getting new ones that I won't be able to FF/FE for ages.
I have the polestars for the next crew I want to retrieve, but not the quantum or credits. Once I'm done with the scanning achievement I've got no reason to scan more than the daily freebies, since it will be ages before I can even afford another crew retrieval past the one I've got on deck, so I don't care about getting more constellations right now.
I don't know if it's a 'stop getting the paid campaign tier' bummer, but it's at least a 'hold off on getting the paid campaign tier and see if I miss it' bummer.
I don't get why anyone would want to stop getting constellations/polestars. There is no item cap on them, the more you get the easier it will be to get a crew you want when you want it.
Once the ISM starts rolling in I will scan more than I ever scanned before.
Exactly. Especially if there is a cap on quantum, the moment you have enough you want to be able to crew retrieve so that the quantum never stops filling.
If this stays i will no longer be purchasing campaigns. With an active fleet I am drowning in ISM and since quantum is so slow to charge I see zero point in having more. The crates helped me massively early on and my account would be a lot weaker without them. For late game players I can see that they lose utility but to keep a game active you need to make sure new players have the best experience possible and this change will not be good for that.
The crates were nice in theory. In practice, like others here, I dreaded opening them because they meant immediately going to my equipment inventory to delete useless items.
They've swapped equipment that I'll never use for ISM that I'll never need. 18K per month (36K with the premium track) is more than anyone will ever need, unless you're spending 1000s of dilithium on extra quantum.
While definitely not a fan of the crates, I do hope they pair all this extra ISM with a way to more directly get Constellations. Scanning alone won't be enough.
Now, this is likely another test of their's to see how players respond to a change. So I would not be surprised if they change things in the campaign after this one.
Interesting difference of opinion. One of you seems to be saying that constellations drop too frequently given recharge rates on quantum, the other that they don’t do frequently enough. I don’t have a great feel for it yet, but it does seem to me that to get what you want, you’ll need to get a lot of polestars, most of which will go unused. And that seems fine.
I guess roughly 50% of polestars will be useless. I already have multiple Federation, Starfleet and Human polestars, which hardly narrow down the crew. If all three are selected then I get 293 crew.
Interesting that you said this. I just used one of the "useless" polestars to guarantee getting the number 1 voyager in the game. Captain Braxton, for those who aren't familiar.
I think a lot of people are trapped in a way of thinking that keeps them from seeing outside of the box. You see Federation as useless. I've already found multiple ways to use it to get a specific crew, including the Braxton I just got.
Just want to give perspective from the other side of the coin. 🖖
I just got my third Federation polestar. It came from a Gabrielle Burnham polestar. Two things:
1) There was a 77% chance to get a polestar that I wanted, but I got Federation.
2) I also have 3 Human polestars.
While there is some use for both of these polestars if you only have one or two, subsequent duplicates effectively become useless. We're what, two weeks in? If the trend continues, I'll have like 5 Human, Starfleet, and Federation polestars two weeks from now. While one may not seem useless, I think time will render them such by sheer numbers.
If this stays i will no longer be purchasing campaigns. With an active fleet I am drowning in ISM and since quantum is so slow to charge I see zero point in having more. The crates helped me massively early on and my account would be a lot weaker without them. For late game players I can see that they lose utility but to keep a game active you need to make sure new players have the best experience possible and this change will not be good for that.
The primary purpose for buying the campaign is the cite at the end. Not that the other stuff isn’t good but the 5* cite alone is worth the cost of admission.
Are you saying the value proposition is the crates in the campaign are more valuable than the 5* citation?
Regarding the crate vs ISM debate this is really a short term tactic vs long term strategy. It is much more costly and time consuming in the long term to acquire new crew or more stars. After you’ve been playing a few months or a year items become cheap. You’ll be drowning in component item stocks and chrons and credits and rep rations. So many you’ll never be able to use them all. I caution against sacrificing a long term scarce resource in exchange for something short term that is, or will soon be, abundant to you.
Imagine what the game was like when there wasn't any:
Campaigns
Starbases
Gauntlet
Voyages
Collections
Expanded Daily Rewards
Expanded Cadet Challenges
Honour
Merit Packs
Supply Kits
You don't need loot crates. You think you do but you really don't. What you actually need are credits and chronitons but that isn't what the game is about in the long view.
Getting proper crew is much, much more valuable. Previously you needed to get lucky. Then they added honour which allowed you to improve your crew very specifically. I used that honour to buy a lot of 4* citations which allowed me to ease congestion on crew space, made voyages easier and made me more competitive in events. The game became about honour farming.
Now we have another method to target crew. Its more efficient to get 5*s with Retrieval but you'll need a wide variety of Polestars which expanded ISM will provide.
They've swapped equipment that I'll never use for ISM that I'll never need. 18K per month (36K with the premium track) is more than anyone will ever need, unless you're spending 1000s of dilithium on extra quantum.
While definitely not a fan of the crates, I do hope they pair all this extra ISM with a way to more directly get Constellations. Scanning alone won't be enough.
Now, this is likely another test of their's to see how players respond to a change. So I would not be surprised if they change things in the campaign after this one.
Interesting difference of opinion. One of you seems to be saying that constellations drop too frequently given recharge rates on quantum, the other that they don’t do frequently enough. I don’t have a great feel for it yet, but it does seem to me that to get what you want, you’ll need to get a lot of polestars, most of which will go unused. And that seems fine.
I guess roughly 50% of polestars will be useless. I already have multiple Federation, Starfleet and Human polestars, which hardly narrow down the crew. If all three are selected then I get 293 crew.
Interesting that you said this. I just used one of the "useless" polestars to guarantee getting the number 1 voyager in the game. Captain Braxton, for those who aren't familiar.
I think a lot of people are trapped in a way of thinking that keeps them from seeing outside of the box. You see Federation as useless. I've already found multiple ways to use it to get a specific crew, including the Braxton I just got.
Just want to give perspective from the other side of the coin. 🖖
I just got my third Federation polestar. It came from a Gabrielle Burnham polestar. Two things:
1) There was a 77% chance to get a polestar that I wanted, but I got Federation.
2) I also have 3 Human polestars.
While there is some use for both of these polestars if you only have one or two, subsequent duplicates effectively become useless. We're what, two weeks in? If the trend continues, I'll have like 5 Human, Starfleet, and Federation polestars two weeks from now. While one may not seem useless, I think time will render them such by sheer numbers.
And I have 6 Federation polestars. There are so many humans and Federation people we will be drowning in them.
They've swapped equipment that I'll never use for ISM that I'll never need. 18K per month (36K with the premium track) is more than anyone will ever need, unless you're spending 1000s of dilithium on extra quantum.
While definitely not a fan of the crates, I do hope they pair all this extra ISM with a way to more directly get Constellations. Scanning alone won't be enough.
Now, this is likely another test of their's to see how players respond to a change. So I would not be surprised if they change things in the campaign after this one.
Interesting difference of opinion. One of you seems to be saying that constellations drop too frequently given recharge rates on quantum, the other that they don’t do frequently enough. I don’t have a great feel for it yet, but it does seem to me that to get what you want, you’ll need to get a lot of polestars, most of which will go unused. And that seems fine.
I guess roughly 50% of polestars will be useless. I already have multiple Federation, Starfleet and Human polestars, which hardly narrow down the crew. If all three are selected then I get 293 crew.
Interesting that you said this. I just used one of the "useless" polestars to guarantee getting the number 1 voyager in the game. Captain Braxton, for those who aren't familiar.
I think a lot of people are trapped in a way of thinking that keeps them from seeing outside of the box. You see Federation as useless. I've already found multiple ways to use it to get a specific crew, including the Braxton I just got.
Just want to give perspective from the other side of the coin. 🖖
I just got my third Federation polestar. It came from a Gabrielle Burnham polestar. Two things:
1) There was a 77% chance to get a polestar that I wanted, but I got Federation.
2) I also have 3 Human polestars.
While there is some use for both of these polestars if you only have one or two, subsequent duplicates effectively become useless. We're what, two weeks in? If the trend continues, I'll have like 5 Human, Starfleet, and Federation polestars two weeks from now. While one may not seem useless, I think time will render them such by sheer numbers.
And I have 6 Federation polestars. There are so many humans and Federation people we will be drowning in them.
3* trainers....
Founding ADM - PoF family of fleets (POF, POF2 & POF3) - Dear TP: Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated.
I thought it sounded like the addition of ISM to campaigns would be a permanent change, though I suppose the item(s) being replaced by ISM could be altered for future campaigns if the feedback to TP is significant enough.
Would have gotten a basic crate yesterday and a premium today. Not liking this at all.
The ISM is of no use to me. I have enough Polestars to get good pulls through June, at least, given the recharge rate of Quantum.
Not that I have anywhere to put crew right now. Working on the Rocker to get EV Archer in from a surprise begold. Luckily, I finished Sulu from the discount packs or the Rocker would be waiting for Monday, when Scoundrels hit stasis, too.
By the time I get to the point where Polestars are more important than crates, the game probably won't exist anymore.
Oh, this is what my normal Dabo table looks like.
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
W.W. CarlislePlayed since January 20, 2019Captain Level- 99 (May 9, 2022)VIP 14Crew Quarters: 485/485Most recent/Lowest- Anbo-jyutsu Kyle Riker (1/5* Lvl 30) 5/29/23Immortalized x-866 5* x184, 4* x 490, 3* x91, 2* x62, and 1* x27Most recent Immortal - Tearful Janeway 4* 5/25/23Current non-event project- Improving my Science base skill. Retrieval Project- Mestral 1/5*
Would have gotten a basic crate yesterday and a premium today. Not liking this at all.
The ISM is of no use to me. I have enough Polestars to get good pulls through June, at least, given the recharge rate of Quantum.
Not that I have anywhere to put crew right now. Working on the Rocker to get EV Archer in from a surprise begold. Luckily, I finished Sulu from the discount packs or the Rocker would be waiting for Monday, when Scoundrels hit stasis, too.
By the time I get to the point where Polestars are more important than crates, the game probably won't exist anymore.
Oh, this is what my normal Dabo table looks like.
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
Same here. I have less to look forward to in the days between the portal pulls and crew in the campaign now.
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
You have 3.5 million credits, a running supply kit and 10k dil. For a player like you Equipment Crates are worthless. All you're doing is gambling that the game will save you a trivial amount of chrons and credits. That's it.
Trivial amount? 10 basic and 10 premium crates were a minimum of 30, maybe as many as sixty or more, pieces of equipment that don't get equipped every month. That's an entire crew almost, at minimum, that doesn't get equipped each month now.
The problem is the idea of "gambling". So long as I didn't have crew in the reenlistment area and hadn't missed dismissing a duplicate, it was all good. The crates worked well with my playing style. They might be useless to you, but I suspect people will drown in Polestars and the ISM won't be of much use at all then.
Do I like the idea of crew retrieval? Sure. But I'm not trying to track down those last five, ten, fifteen crew I really want. I still need close to 300 to have them all and I have around 370 to equip at any given time.
Was what I got something directly equipable every time? No. But it was useful and it was kind of fun to see what I'd get. Will I get the basic outfit for that new purple out of that voyage from the basic crate? I'm not working on them because of this event or need slots, but I'd like to start them along. Or hey it was a 2* this or that, which I can throw this in with and build that for X. Could the thing I really dread building be in that gold crate or will it be the last bit for someone else?
I need to equip crew far more than I need more crew. I have combos I could use right now to retrieve with pools of 12 or fifteen crew that would ALL be useful to me, either new or another star.
This has ruined Campaigns for me. I think I missed finishing my dailies by one space battle today and I don't care. My fleet never gets ISM from the achievement. I'll make up one tier in a couple days from the VIP bonus. I'm not worried about buying it until March now. There is nothing in there I'm likely to need before then. The free track will finish my Bell so I can freeze him next weekend, or there about.
Enjoy you ISM before the shiny wears off and you have to beg or buy quantum. They might lose my money, but yours will do just as well.
W.W. CarlislePlayed since January 20, 2019Captain Level- 99 (May 9, 2022)VIP 14Crew Quarters: 485/485Most recent/Lowest- Anbo-jyutsu Kyle Riker (1/5* Lvl 30) 5/29/23Immortalized x-866 5* x184, 4* x 490, 3* x91, 2* x62, and 1* x27Most recent Immortal - Tearful Janeway 4* 5/25/23Current non-event project- Improving my Science base skill. Retrieval Project- Mestral 1/5*
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
You have 3.5 million credits, a running supply kit and 10k dil. For a player like you Equipment Crates are worthless. All you're doing is gambling that the game will save you a trivial amount of chrons and credits. That's it.
Your argument misses out on the fun factor of crates. Apart from the portal packs the whole campaign became 100% predictable with the change. In other terms: It became even more boring than it already was.
I would plead for a mix of crates, trainers, rep rations, chrons, credits and merits to be replaced instead of only one thing that created enjoyment for many people. Taking a little share of many different ressources instead will not harm anyone.
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.
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
You have 3.5 million credits, a running supply kit and 10k dil. For a player like you Equipment Crates are worthless. All you're doing is gambling that the game will save you a trivial amount of chrons and credits. That's it.
I think in all honesty that you're overvaluing the ISM that's been added in place of the crates. That's even more of a gamble in the end: once you factor in the escalating cost of scans to get constellations, the RNG of getting a constellation that's worth opening when one does drop, and then the RNG of getting a really useful polestar out of it when you do, the 18k in each track probably comes down to one polestar a month that isn't from the Human/Federation/Starfleet trifecta that we're all going to be drowning in soon enough.
Considering that retrieval is locked by Quantum to once or twice a month unless you're looking to spend fairly eyewatering amounts of dil on it, one(/two if you buy premium) extra polestar(s) to play with for making combinations when it comes back around is not really that big a deal. And considering that retrieval is also locked by credits, people are going to be doing way less replication than before - which further suggests that replacing the rations (which only very new players need) would have been the better move than something that some of us find useful (and as @Mirror Sanoa points out, enjoyable).
Personally, I place more value on the ISM. But the solution seems to be in the middle. Replace a few equipment crates, most of the replicator rations, maybe a couple trainers, and some merits with ISM. I think it would be best to not replace them outright, but shift the drops, so that the totals stay close to static. Maybe take out 40 trainers, then add 10 trainers to 4 other drops, or take out 1200 merits and add 300 to 4 other drops, or take out a loot chest and move the next crate up one rarity level - stuff like that. Hopefully they continue to tweak some of these new things to help us out and keep everyone happy.
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
You have 3.5 million credits, a running supply kit and 10k dil. For a player like you Equipment Crates are worthless. All you're doing is gambling that the game will save you a trivial amount of chrons and credits. That's it.
Your argument misses out on the fun factor of crates. Apart from the portal packs the whole campaign became 100% predictable with the change. In other terms: It became even more boring than it already was.
I would plead for a mix of crates, trainers, rep rations, chrons, credits and merits to be replaced instead of only one thing that created enjoyment for many people. Taking a little share of many different ressources instead will not harm anyone.
Exactly! I lost any incentive to buy it for any other reason than the crew and that means I will wait to the end (barring her popping up as event crew between now and the end) when she will start off at 4/5 and be a little better out of the gate. I will get a boost to my hoards then, and a new crew to work on, but the reason I bought early was for the crates.
Opening them one by one with my crew primed (everyone not fully equipped with at least one unlocked equipment slot and no one available for real list ment) meant they acted as they should. I have several newish crew either at a low level or waiting to come in and that first crate would have probably did Adm. Clancy and someone else with low level gear and the gold would have been much more valuable. I have way more open upper rarity equipment slots and it could have filled any it wanted. I will miss up to FIVE 3*-5* equipment slots a go. That is not "trivial" when you are waiting to get a third chroniton to try again to get something.
W.W. CarlislePlayed since January 20, 2019Captain Level- 99 (May 9, 2022)VIP 14Crew Quarters: 485/485Most recent/Lowest- Anbo-jyutsu Kyle Riker (1/5* Lvl 30) 5/29/23Immortalized x-866 5* x184, 4* x 490, 3* x91, 2* x62, and 1* x27Most recent Immortal - Tearful Janeway 4* 5/25/23Current non-event project- Improving my Science base skill. Retrieval Project- Mestral 1/5*
Trivial amount? 10 basic and 10 premium crates were a minimum of 30, maybe as many as sixty or more, pieces of equipment that don't get equipped every month. That's an entire crew almost, at minimum, that doesn't get equipped each month now.
The problem is the idea of "gambling". So long as I didn't have crew in the reenlistment area and hadn't missed dismissing a duplicate, it was all good. The crates worked well with my playing style. They might be useless to you, but I suspect people will drown in Polestars and the ISM won't be of much use at all then.
Do I like the idea of crew retrieval? Sure. But I'm not trying to track down those last five, ten, fifteen crew I really want. I still need close to 300 to have them all and I have around 370 to equip at any given time.
Was what I got something directly equipable every time? No. But it was useful and it was kind of fun to see what I'd get. Will I get the basic outfit for that new purple out of that voyage from the basic crate? I'm not working on them because of this event or need slots, but I'd like to start them along. Or hey it was a 2* this or that, which I can throw this in with and build that for X. Could the thing I really dread building be in that gold crate or will it be the last bit for someone else?
I need to equip crew far more than I need more crew. I have combos I could use right now to retrieve with pools of 12 or fifteen crew that would ALL be useful to me, either new or another star.
This has ruined Campaigns for me. I think I missed finishing my dailies by one space battle today and I don't care. My fleet never gets ISM from the achievement. I'll make up one tier in a couple days from the VIP bonus. I'm not worried about buying it until March now. There is nothing in there I'm likely to need before then. The free track will finish my Bell so I can freeze him next weekend, or there about.
Enjoy you ISM before the shiny wears off and you have to beg or buy quantum. They might lose my money, but yours will do just as well.
Its a trivial amount. Any time I get a new crew I can have it leveled in less than 5 minutes. That's what the game becomes. You'll be drowning in inventory long before you'll have new crew. You're probably already there.
The fun factor of campaigns is getting a token at the end of it. I almost never buy the campaign but when I do its strictly because I like the 5*.
ISM at least allows me to get a new 5* every 3 weeks. Eventually I'll be drowning in Polestars but I'm already drowning in inventory.
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
You have 3.5 million credits, a running supply kit and 10k dil. For a player like you Equipment Crates are worthless. All you're doing is gambling that the game will save you a trivial amount of chrons and credits. That's it.
I think in all honesty that you're overvaluing the ISM that's been added in place of the crates.
I'm not. Do I need to link my inventory? How about the hoarding thread?
I had already finished my crew leveling needs before Voyages were put into the game and after that my inventory exploded. The game back then lacked many of the conveniences that exist now.
A fresh player might need crates (I didn't) but crates are just a substitute for chrons and credits. You'll likely get more bang for your buck by buying extra cadet tokens.
Eventually the game will give you all the inventory you need.
Eventually the game will give you also all the crew you need.
The latter happens much, much later than the former.
Currently I need to freeze 80 Klingons. I need to find 16 Klingons to even get to 80 never mind fully fusing them. I have 1 Klingon Polestar. Somehow I don't think I have enough ISM.
There is a fun factor, but as I said, even with more than a dozen crew with open equipment, AND being extremely cautious to only claim when no crew aenin overflow, almost half of the items are nor useful. This is even more so for the basic crates. Most of the basic crate drops are for things that are very cheap, anyway. This is not to say the crates are not good. I just think in the long run that a better chance at more valuable, targeted crew is a bit better.
I'm about 45 items over the cap all the time, but my inventory stays in constant motion, so I don't worry about it. I'll either get it in before the week is up or use it, so why bother. It exists, that's all i care about. Next week's Galaxy will get me down close to the cap for awhile. It like hauling a ton of canaries with a 1000lb limit. Keep half of them moving.
Trivial implies that each crate wasn't saving me, on average, around a day's worth of chronitons. Each campaign let me essentially double my equipping each month. It cost me a voyage worth of chronitons to do around two items on Lothario Q yesterday.
You said it yourself. YOU can level a new crew in five minutes. I haven't even finished the Punk Rocker in nearly a day. I still need five pieces of equipment on the new Q (similar with Salia) and I've had him two weeks. I'll get them finished in the next couple days, probably, but it will cost me.
I had 133 chronitons built up since last night and added 25 more from hitting 5 Cadet challenges.
I spent 75 to get 8 components to add to what I had to build Q's robes at lvl90.
I spent another 77, leaving 4, working on the 5* ID codes and will have to wait for more to finish. Haven't worked on Salia or the Punk yet today.
Time and a returning voyage will, hopefully, let me finish Q and, maybe, work on the others a bit. I'd like to put Salia and the Rocker in come Monday, along with a handful of scoundrels, but we will have to see.
W.W. CarlislePlayed since January 20, 2019Captain Level- 99 (May 9, 2022)VIP 14Crew Quarters: 485/485Most recent/Lowest- Anbo-jyutsu Kyle Riker (1/5* Lvl 30) 5/29/23Immortalized x-866 5* x184, 4* x 490, 3* x91, 2* x62, and 1* x27Most recent Immortal - Tearful Janeway 4* 5/25/23Current non-event project- Improving my Science base skill. Retrieval Project- Mestral 1/5*
Trivial implies that each crate wasn't saving me, on average, around a day's worth of chronitons. Each campaign let me essentially double my equipping each month. It cost me a voyage worth of chronitons to do around two items on Lothario Q yesterday.
You said it yourself. YOU can level a new crew in five minutes. I haven't even finished the Punk Rocker in nearly a day. I still need five pieces of equipment on the new Q (similar with Salia) and I've had him two weeks. I'll get them finished in the next couple days, probably, but it will cost me.
I had 133 chronitons built up since last night and added 25 more from hitting 5 Cadet challenges.
I spent 75 to get 8 components to add to what I had to build Q's robes at lvl90.
So instead of fussing over crates why don't you re-direct some of that DIL stash into Cadet Challenges or Voyage extensions? Why not passionate advocacy for Cadet Tokens or Voyage Tokens to Campaigns?
The point is your argument relies heavily on the very temporary problem of not being able to level your crew. Crates are just a sort term band-aid. The level in power having an adequate selection of 5* crew is pretty immense actually. ISM addresses the latter.
Currently I need to freeze 80 Klingons. I need to find 16 Klingons to even get to 80 never mind fully fusing them. I have 1 Klingon Polestar. Somehow I don't think I have enough ISM.
I think this all just boils down to different playstyles and different things people are looking to get out of the game. But if you're aiming to finish the top tier of a difficult collection that was only just introduced, you're very clearly well into the endgame of the endgame. It feels a little like you're trying to tell everyone else that they have to adopt the same perspective because we'll get there eventually.
(I'd also note that there are plenty of ways to narrow down to various 5* Klingons without using a Klingon polestar specifically.)
Currently I need to freeze 80 Klingons. I need to find 16 Klingons to even get to 80 never mind fully fusing them. I have 1 Klingon Polestar. Somehow I don't think I have enough ISM.
I think this all just boils down to different playstyles and different things people are looking to get out of the game. But if you're aiming to finish the top tier of a difficult collection that was only just introduced, you're very clearly well into the endgame of the endgame. It feels a little like you're trying to tell everyone else that they have to adopt the same perspective because we'll get there eventually.
(I'd also note that there are plenty of ways to narrow down to various 5* Klingons without using a Klingon polestar specifically.)
The point I keep trying to make is that crew leveling is much more finite task than obtaining crew. The game just gives you tonnes of crap constantly. You'll eventually get there so taking a longer view of the game is better.
Furthermore, crates are the lesser way of crew leveling. They're not 100% reliable and do nothing for you after some point. Last time I opened a Gold Crate I ended up with two 4* equipment of which I only needed one of. The other crate source, the Gauntlet, almost always gives me the wrong loot.
I don't buy Cadet Tokens but if I did they can be turned into credits which are then turned into honour. Voyages directly give you more honour, chrons and credits as well as crew. Even the Gauntlet is better than equipment crates. Crates are just a poor substitute for a more flexible resource.
Comments
I have the polestars for the next crew I want to retrieve, but not the quantum or credits. Once I'm done with the scanning achievement I've got no reason to scan more than the daily freebies, since it will be ages before I can even afford another crew retrieval past the one I've got on deck, so I don't care about getting more constellations right now.
I don't know if it's a 'stop getting the paid campaign tier' bummer, but it's at least a 'hold off on getting the paid campaign tier and see if I miss it' bummer.
I don't get why anyone would want to stop getting constellations/polestars. There is no item cap on them, the more you get the easier it will be to get a crew you want when you want it.
Once the ISM starts rolling in I will scan more than I ever scanned before.
Exactly. Especially if there is a cap on quantum, the moment you have enough you want to be able to crew retrieve so that the quantum never stops filling.
I just got my third Federation polestar. It came from a Gabrielle Burnham polestar. Two things:
1) There was a 77% chance to get a polestar that I wanted, but I got Federation.
2) I also have 3 Human polestars.
While there is some use for both of these polestars if you only have one or two, subsequent duplicates effectively become useless. We're what, two weeks in? If the trend continues, I'll have like 5 Human, Starfleet, and Federation polestars two weeks from now. While one may not seem useless, I think time will render them such by sheer numbers.
It's a big YES from my small fleet.
The primary purpose for buying the campaign is the cite at the end. Not that the other stuff isn’t good but the 5* cite alone is worth the cost of admission.
Are you saying the value proposition is the crates in the campaign are more valuable than the 5* citation?
Regarding the crate vs ISM debate this is really a short term tactic vs long term strategy. It is much more costly and time consuming in the long term to acquire new crew or more stars. After you’ve been playing a few months or a year items become cheap. You’ll be drowning in component item stocks and chrons and credits and rep rations. So many you’ll never be able to use them all. I caution against sacrificing a long term scarce resource in exchange for something short term that is, or will soon be, abundant to you.
If you have a lot of ISM do scans.
Campaigns
Starbases
Gauntlet
Voyages
Collections
Expanded Daily Rewards
Expanded Cadet Challenges
Honour
Merit Packs
Supply Kits
You don't need loot crates. You think you do but you really don't. What you actually need are credits and chronitons but that isn't what the game is about in the long view.
Getting proper crew is much, much more valuable. Previously you needed to get lucky. Then they added honour which allowed you to improve your crew very specifically. I used that honour to buy a lot of 4* citations which allowed me to ease congestion on crew space, made voyages easier and made me more competitive in events. The game became about honour farming.
Now we have another method to target crew. Its more efficient to get 5*s with Retrieval but you'll need a wide variety of Polestars which expanded ISM will provide.
And I have 6 Federation polestars. There are so many humans and Federation people we will be drowning in them.
3* trainers....
The ISM is of no use to me. I have enough Polestars to get good pulls through June, at least, given the recharge rate of Quantum.
Not that I have anywhere to put crew right now. Working on the Rocker to get EV Archer in from a surprise begold. Luckily, I finished Sulu from the discount packs or the Rocker would be waiting for Monday, when Scoundrels hit stasis, too.
By the time I get to the point where Polestars are more important than crates, the game probably won't exist anymore.
Oh, this is what my normal Dabo table looks like.
All usable, except the schematic bundles. My crates were the same way.
Same here. I have less to look forward to in the days between the portal pulls and crew in the campaign now.
You have 3.5 million credits, a running supply kit and 10k dil. For a player like you Equipment Crates are worthless. All you're doing is gambling that the game will save you a trivial amount of chrons and credits. That's it.
The problem is the idea of "gambling". So long as I didn't have crew in the reenlistment area and hadn't missed dismissing a duplicate, it was all good. The crates worked well with my playing style. They might be useless to you, but I suspect people will drown in Polestars and the ISM won't be of much use at all then.
Do I like the idea of crew retrieval? Sure. But I'm not trying to track down those last five, ten, fifteen crew I really want. I still need close to 300 to have them all and I have around 370 to equip at any given time.
Was what I got something directly equipable every time? No. But it was useful and it was kind of fun to see what I'd get. Will I get the basic outfit for that new purple out of that voyage from the basic crate? I'm not working on them because of this event or need slots, but I'd like to start them along. Or hey it was a 2* this or that, which I can throw this in with and build that for X. Could the thing I really dread building be in that gold crate or will it be the last bit for someone else?
I need to equip crew far more than I need more crew. I have combos I could use right now to retrieve with pools of 12 or fifteen crew that would ALL be useful to me, either new or another star.
This has ruined Campaigns for me. I think I missed finishing my dailies by one space battle today and I don't care. My fleet never gets ISM from the achievement. I'll make up one tier in a couple days from the VIP bonus. I'm not worried about buying it until March now. There is nothing in there I'm likely to need before then. The free track will finish my Bell so I can freeze him next weekend, or there about.
Enjoy you ISM before the shiny wears off and you have to beg or buy quantum. They might lose my money, but yours will do just as well.
Your argument misses out on the fun factor of crates. Apart from the portal packs the whole campaign became 100% predictable with the change. In other terms: It became even more boring than it already was.
I would plead for a mix of crates, trainers, rep rations, chrons, credits and merits to be replaced instead of only one thing that created enjoyment for many people. Taking a little share of many different ressources instead will not harm anyone.
I think in all honesty that you're overvaluing the ISM that's been added in place of the crates. That's even more of a gamble in the end: once you factor in the escalating cost of scans to get constellations, the RNG of getting a constellation that's worth opening when one does drop, and then the RNG of getting a really useful polestar out of it when you do, the 18k in each track probably comes down to one polestar a month that isn't from the Human/Federation/Starfleet trifecta that we're all going to be drowning in soon enough.
Considering that retrieval is locked by Quantum to once or twice a month unless you're looking to spend fairly eyewatering amounts of dil on it, one(/two if you buy premium) extra polestar(s) to play with for making combinations when it comes back around is not really that big a deal. And considering that retrieval is also locked by credits, people are going to be doing way less replication than before - which further suggests that replacing the rations (which only very new players need) would have been the better move than something that some of us find useful (and as @Mirror Sanoa points out, enjoyable).
Exactly! I lost any incentive to buy it for any other reason than the crew and that means I will wait to the end (barring her popping up as event crew between now and the end) when she will start off at 4/5 and be a little better out of the gate. I will get a boost to my hoards then, and a new crew to work on, but the reason I bought early was for the crates.
Opening them one by one with my crew primed (everyone not fully equipped with at least one unlocked equipment slot and no one available for real list ment) meant they acted as they should. I have several newish crew either at a low level or waiting to come in and that first crate would have probably did Adm. Clancy and someone else with low level gear and the gold would have been much more valuable. I have way more open upper rarity equipment slots and it could have filled any it wanted. I will miss up to FIVE 3*-5* equipment slots a go. That is not "trivial" when you are waiting to get a third chroniton to try again to get something.
Its a trivial amount. Any time I get a new crew I can have it leveled in less than 5 minutes. That's what the game becomes. You'll be drowning in inventory long before you'll have new crew. You're probably already there.
The fun factor of campaigns is getting a token at the end of it. I almost never buy the campaign but when I do its strictly because I like the 5*.
ISM at least allows me to get a new 5* every 3 weeks. Eventually I'll be drowning in Polestars but I'm already drowning in inventory.
I'm not. Do I need to link my inventory? How about the hoarding thread?
I had already finished my crew leveling needs before Voyages were put into the game and after that my inventory exploded. The game back then lacked many of the conveniences that exist now.
A fresh player might need crates (I didn't) but crates are just a substitute for chrons and credits. You'll likely get more bang for your buck by buying extra cadet tokens.
Eventually the game will give you all the inventory you need.
Eventually the game will give you also all the crew you need.
The latter happens much, much later than the former.
Currently I need to freeze 80 Klingons. I need to find 16 Klingons to even get to 80 never mind fully fusing them. I have 1 Klingon Polestar. Somehow I don't think I have enough ISM.
Trivial implies that each crate wasn't saving me, on average, around a day's worth of chronitons. Each campaign let me essentially double my equipping each month. It cost me a voyage worth of chronitons to do around two items on Lothario Q yesterday.
You said it yourself. YOU can level a new crew in five minutes. I haven't even finished the Punk Rocker in nearly a day. I still need five pieces of equipment on the new Q (similar with Salia) and I've had him two weeks. I'll get them finished in the next couple days, probably, but it will cost me.
I had 133 chronitons built up since last night and added 25 more from hitting 5 Cadet challenges.
I spent 75 to get 8 components to add to what I had to build Q's robes at lvl90.
I spent another 77, leaving 4, working on the 5* ID codes and will have to wait for more to finish. Haven't worked on Salia or the Punk yet today.
Time and a returning voyage will, hopefully, let me finish Q and, maybe, work on the others a bit. I'd like to put Salia and the Rocker in come Monday, along with a handful of scoundrels, but we will have to see.
So instead of fussing over crates why don't you re-direct some of that DIL stash into Cadet Challenges or Voyage extensions? Why not passionate advocacy for Cadet Tokens or Voyage Tokens to Campaigns?
The point is your argument relies heavily on the very temporary problem of not being able to level your crew. Crates are just a sort term band-aid. The level in power having an adequate selection of 5* crew is pretty immense actually. ISM addresses the latter.
I think this all just boils down to different playstyles and different things people are looking to get out of the game. But if you're aiming to finish the top tier of a difficult collection that was only just introduced, you're very clearly well into the endgame of the endgame. It feels a little like you're trying to tell everyone else that they have to adopt the same perspective because we'll get there eventually.
(I'd also note that there are plenty of ways to narrow down to various 5* Klingons without using a Klingon polestar specifically.)
The point I keep trying to make is that crew leveling is much more finite task than obtaining crew. The game just gives you tonnes of crap constantly. You'll eventually get there so taking a longer view of the game is better.
Furthermore, crates are the lesser way of crew leveling. They're not 100% reliable and do nothing for you after some point. Last time I opened a Gold Crate I ended up with two 4* equipment of which I only needed one of. The other crate source, the Gauntlet, almost always gives me the wrong loot.
I don't buy Cadet Tokens but if I did they can be turned into credits which are then turned into honour. Voyages directly give you more honour, chrons and credits as well as crew. Even the Gauntlet is better than equipment crates. Crates are just a poor substitute for a more flexible resource.