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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed out, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
I have a theory, and it is only that, but it might be able to explain some of the discrepancies involved between different people's experiences.
I haven't had nearly as many issues as some with getting common polestars like human, Federation, Starfleet, etc. I also haven't found the ones I have gotten too limiting, and in fact, have used some of them to eliminate unwanted crew, but that is a topic for a different time. Maybe it's RNGesus being extraordinarily kind to me, but I have a different thought.
I have a much larger crew range than it seems most do. While others tend to airlock lower tier crew, and others even golds, I tend to keep every crew I get, barring ones I've already immortalised. I'm a 100% completionist, and while that hindered me at times, it's also been greatly beneficial at others, like events.
I've taken new crew in beholds over adding stars to existing crew, probably more often than others. My philosophy is that you can't cite what you don't have. This has allowed me to get all crew levels 1-3 frozen, and many 4* as well. I also only need 16 purples, with only 5 of those currently in the portal.
I don't have nearly as many crew slots as a lot of others, but enough to make this work. I'm probably somewhere in the middle I'd imagine. Because of this, and my desire to accumulate and freeze all crew, I've had to be very focused and diligent in getting crew FFFE. Once they are, they go off to the freezer to make room for others.
My point, (and I promise there is one 🤪) is that this has allowed me to get at least 1 star on just shy of 700 crew. This will become important in a minute.
It could be entirely coincidental, but every constellation I've received has been of a crew I already have. This has led to me getting a lot of constellations others don't seem to be getting, often with rare polestars that help me narrow down retrievals even more.
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
I had no idea some players loved the crates so much. I never found them helpful. But if some players want them maybe we can work em in somewhere, but not at the cost of the ism.
I have a theory, and it is only that, but it might be able to explain some of the discrepancies involved between different people's experiences.
I haven't had nearly as many issues as some with getting common polestars like human, Federation, Starfleet, etc. I also haven't found the ones I have gotten too limiting, and in fact, have used some of them to eliminate unwanted crew, but that is a topic for a different time. Maybe it's RNGesus being extraordinarily kind to me, but I have a different thought.
I have a much larger crew range than it seems most do. While others tend to airlock lower tier crew, and others even golds, I tend to keep every crew I get, barring ones I've already immortalised. I'm a 100% completionist, and while that hindered me at times, it's also been greatly beneficial at others, like events.
I've taken new crew in beholds over adding stars to existing crew, probably more often than others. My philosophy is that you can't cite what you don't have. This has allowed me to get all crew levels 1-3 frozen, and many 4* as well. I also only need 16 purples, with only 5 of those currently in the portal.
I don't have nearly as many crew slots as a lot of others, but enough to make this work. I'm probably somewhere in the middle I'd imagine. Because of this, and my desire to accumulate and freeze all crew, I've had to be very focused and diligent in getting crew FFFE. Once they are, they go off to the freezer to make room for others.
My point, (and I promise there is one 🤪) is that this has allowed me to get at least 1 star on just shy of 700 crew. This will become important in a minute.
It could be entirely coincidental, but every constellation I've received has been of a crew I already have. This has led to me getting a lot of constellations others don't seem to be getting, often with rare polestars that help me narrow down retrievals even more.
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
🖖
I have over 675 immortal crew and approximately 250 unfused crew.
I've gotten good Constellations, i just don't get good Polestars from more than 50% of them. I'm not sure exactly how many Constellations I've opened at this point, but probably 15-20? I have 5 Human Polestars. My luck hasn't been quite as bad with Federation and Starfleet yet, but all my remaining unopened Constellations have at least 2 of those Big 3 traits present.
The other Polestar I've gotten multiples of is Costumed, sitting at 3. One may actually help me get my white whale eventually, but the other two are superfluous for my purposes.
Maybe there are new facets of the feature that down the line will increase the value of multiple common Polestars (like an exclude option), but for my roster and style of gameplay, this is not that moment. Instead it reminds me what I hate most about the game: the crappy pRNG algo.
Still, I'm not mad, just meh. I think the new feature is a good one in theory, and overall I'm glad that TP/WRG put this much thought into it. But they also over-thought it and it's not particularly helpful to me at this time. By all means, TP/WRG can hype the new thing... just don't take things away to do that.
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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And if even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And if even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy. An additional gold star in a month is largely meaningless if you can't target a useful card. I'm nearing the Quantum limit and still don't have a path to a star that isn't a roll of the dice on maybe winding up with an already immorted card or worse yet... a non-gold. Having had that happen on one of my two non-tutorial retrieves, I can assure you that risk is not worth my consideration or resources. If I can target an exact card, cool. If not, well then I might as well buy honor begolds at full price.
The amount of ISM I would need for the new feature to be consistently useful in the short term is so ridiculous I'm not sweating the Quantum bottleneck (aside from missing out on the regen - but again, it doesn't matter if there are no good retrieve candidates). I certainly don't find the amount added to the campaign nearly sufficient to justify the damage to my farming strategy. Now if I could use ISM to craft specific Polestars instead of RNG everything, THAT would catch my interest.
Farming from crates is not an academic issue - many players have farm strategies, and even if it's not deliberately developed by a player, it's (usually) a very beneficial feature to all but late-stage players that have FE'd all crew.
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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And if even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy.
🖖
I get crates. Up until last week I reliably placed in the top 20 on most gauntlets. I spend a little but of DIL on the Dabo. I sometimes buy Campaigns. This is why I know crates are not worth it. More chrons and more credits are worth it because they can be usefully transformed into something else.
Well, that's certainly true but more loot is more loot even if its from a somewhat opaque hoop jumping system that can be short circuited by looking up stuff online. If you think Retrieval is still goofy than maybe instead of crates we could get cadet tickets, honour or voyage tokens from campaigns instead?
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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And if even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy.
🖖
I get crates. Up until last week I reliably placed in the top 20 on most gauntlets. I spend a little but of DIL on the Dabo. I sometimes buy Campaigns. This is why I know crates are not worth it. More chrons and more credits are worth it because they can be usefully transformed into something else.
Well, that's certainly true but more loot is more loot even if its from a somewhat opaque hoop jumping system that can be short circuited by looking up stuff online. If you think Retrieval is still goofy than maybe instead of crates we could get cadet tickets, honour or voyage tokens from campaigns instead?
Genuinely curious, when you've tried to make crates useful how many unequipped items did you have available and how many at each rarity?
Ironically, I realize I'm defending the value of a somewhat opaque hoop jump system in favor of another one. Once again I am reminded how much of this game is in the margins.
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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And if even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy.
🖖
I get crates. Up until last week I reliably placed in the top 20 on most gauntlets. I spend a little but of DIL on the Dabo. I sometimes buy Campaigns. This is why I know crates are not worth it. More chrons and more credits are worth it because they can be usefully transformed into something else.
Well, that's certainly true but more loot is more loot even if its from a somewhat opaque hoop jumping system that can be short circuited by looking up stuff online. If you think Retrieval is still goofy than maybe instead of crates we could get cadet tickets, honour or voyage tokens from campaigns instead?
Genuinely curious, when you've tried to make crates useful how many unequipped items did you have available and how many at each rarity?
Ironically, I realize I'm defending the value of a somewhat opaque hoop jump system in favor of another one. Once again I am reminded how much of this game is in the margins.
I have 26 unequipped items across 12 crew. Mostly 4* and 5*. Some of those slots have been sitting empty for years. For the daily I partially level one crew a day in the following steps : 1-50, 51-60, 61-70, etc. I power level all event and bonus crew after obtaining some items from thresholds. I could instantly level and finish all of them if I wanted to. I have gotten useful gear from crates. I would rather have something else. Like credits, chrons, honour or ISM. Again crates are just a dumb replacement for something else. There are certainly things in a Campaign that are much, much useful.
Its a game. Some hoop jumping is expected. I don't mind the change to scanning though. It feels like its doing something for a change.
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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And if even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy.
🖖
I get crates. Up until last week I reliably placed in the top 20 on most gauntlets. I spend a little but of DIL on the Dabo. I sometimes buy Campaigns. This is why I know crates are not worth it. More chrons and more credits are worth it because they can be usefully transformed into something else.
Well, that's certainly true but more loot is more loot even if its from a somewhat opaque hoop jumping system that can be short circuited by looking up stuff online. If you think Retrieval is still goofy than maybe instead of crates we could get cadet tickets, honour or voyage tokens from campaigns instead?
Genuinely curious, when you've tried to make crates useful how many unequipped items did you have available and how many at each rarity?
Ironically, I realize I'm defending the value of a somewhat opaque hoop jump system in favor of another one. Once again I am reminded how much of this game is in the margins.
I have 26 unequipped items across 12 crew. Mostly 4* and 5*. Some of those slots have been sitting empty for years. For the daily I partially level one crew a day in the following steps : 1-50, 51-60, 61-70, etc. I power level all event and bonus crew after obtaining some items from thresholds. I could instantly level and finish all of them if I wanted to. I have gotten useful gear from crates. I would rather have something else. Like credits, chrons, honour or ISM. Again crates are just a dumb replacement for something else. There are certainly things in a Campaign that are much, much useful.
Its a game. Some hoop jumping is expected. I don't mind the change to scanning though. It feels like its doing something for a change.
5-7x those numbers and you'll be in the ballpark for a good farming foundation. Ideally you want 10+ high value options at every rarity level.
There's invariably gear that we all dislike to see pop up as an equip item. Imagine the game handing you a dozen plus of those items over the span of a few weeks/months. It doesn't just benefit the crew you're currently building, but other crew for months down the line. All without impact to your existing resources.
There's really no point to leveling crew you don't have an immediate use for. Event and bonus crew can usually be slow-walked enough to meet daily reqs. Anything more is a waste in my opinion.
A developed roster will usually have FF/FE purples that have numbers similar to a lot of 1/5 golds. At a certain point, most 1/5's become a burned crew slot more than a useful asset... but if you don't power level them, they can be useful contributors to a farm strategy. I have had some golds unleveled for years because they're more valuable on the farm than they are leveled. I can use these same crew for burning replicator uses. And it dovetails nicely with shuttle fails.
Now again, if I can target an exact crew that I know will contribute something meaningful to my roster, there is value in using that feature. But others' useless equipment drops are my useless Polestar drops. The part of the equation that's meaningful to me is that I can somewhat control equipment drops. There's no controlling what Constellations or Polestars you get.
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.
:sighs, pinches bridge of nose, and tries to suppress the notoriously bad temper:
Why exactly would I invest in either of those? It would serve no purpose.
Four days a week you don't get any chronitons for the challenges except for the rewards from dailies and, after a certain point, the chroniton per minute average drops when you pass a specific point and have to factor in recall time for voyages. I'm close to a natural 10hr. I use a token or dilithium if I miss recall, but that is it.
Temporary problems, by definition, are not temporary when they have lasted two years. If it wasn't too dark, I would share a pic of my list of FF'D crew that needs finished and frozen. It covers one entire side of a page from a legal pad, six columns wide and is incomplete. I ran out of room and already had a different list on the back.
I have a fairly decent selection of golds- Gary Seven, Fury Kes, both 5* Renos, Away Team #1, et c. I just can't get them leveled. This event made Pah-Wraith Keiko a priority, so her and Chaotica make 28 immortal golds. The new Q will be 29. There are a handful I'd like to get more than others, but I have plenty to work on.
ISM will matter very little, if you can't get those new crew in. I have five, including Salia (who took all the chronitons I had to finish), that will go in stasis Monday at event finish. I have an EV Archer that will come in then. The 2* and 4* will take 2 slots, leaving 2. The lack of excessive event crew next week lets me work on my backlog at a chroniton conserving rate. Maybe I'll get someone else done.
You yourself stated why you got so little useful equipment from the crates. You have 26 items, mostly 5/4* rarity. The basics couldn't be and the premium ones had a low chance. That is the key difference between us.
You had 26 high options for RNG to work with.
I would not blink, if I counted twenty times that. I have 420 slots. 72 are filled by immortal/FE'd crew. That leaves 348 with, at minimum, one empty equipment slot. Some have all four empty. I would estimate a hundred to be 3* or less, all the way down to basic no star items. What are the odds I wouldn't get something useful, even if I had to build on it? A 2* outfit becomes a 4* a lot faster and cheaper than building it from scratch.
With that comparison, do you understand now? I couldn't really lose and you couldn't really win. I can understand why you would rather have something else you can use, but those 20, 30, 40+ items a month they took away make a huge difference to me. New crew are nice and, I never turn them down, but I need to equip what I have and they hit me hard there. I have immortalized random crew with a crate drop. Of course, I want them.
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*
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
🖖
I play almost exactly as you do. Keep them all and freeze as you can.
I know you can get constellations for crew you don't have, because I have/had them for Surak, 1701 Sisko, and Frederick la Rouque and I don't have those in my roster.
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*
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
🖖
I play almost exactly as you do. Keep them all and freeze as you can.
I know you can get constellations for crew you don't have, because I have/had them for Surak, 1701 Sisko, and Frederick la Rouque and I don't have those in my roster.
Ditto on playstyle. Also, I just pulled the cons. for EVS Nhan, and I don’t have her (pole.=Barzan).
"In the short run, the game defines the players. But in the long run, it's us players who define the game." — Nicky Case, The Evolution of Trust
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.
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And if even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy.
🖖
I get crates. Up until last week I reliably placed in the top 20 on most gauntlets. I spend a little but of DIL on the Dabo. I sometimes buy Campaigns. This is why I know crates are not worth it. More chrons and more credits are worth it because they can be usefully transformed into something else.
Well, that's certainly true but more loot is more loot even if its from a somewhat opaque hoop jumping system that can be short circuited by looking up stuff online. If you think Retrieval is still goofy than maybe instead of crates we could get cadet tickets, honour or voyage tokens from campaigns instead?
Genuinely curious, when you've tried to make crates useful how many unequipped items did you have available and how many at each rarity?
Ironically, I realize I'm defending the value of a somewhat opaque hoop jump system in favor of another one. Once again I am reminded how much of this game is in the margins.
I have 26 unequipped items across 12 crew. Mostly 4* and 5*. Some of those slots have been sitting empty for years. For the daily I partially level one crew a day in the following steps : 1-50, 51-60, 61-70, etc. I power level all event and bonus crew after obtaining some items from thresholds. I could instantly level and finish all of them if I wanted to. I have gotten useful gear from crates. I would rather have something else. Like credits, chrons, honour or ISM. Again crates are just a dumb replacement for something else. There are certainly things in a Campaign that are much, much useful.
Its a game. Some hoop jumping is expected. I don't mind the change to scanning though. It feels like its doing something for a change.
5-7x those numbers and you'll be in the ballpark for a good farming foundation. Ideally you want 10+ high value options at every rarity level.
There's invariably gear that we all dislike to see pop up as an equip item. Imagine the game handing you a dozen plus of those items over the span of a few weeks/months. It doesn't just benefit the crew you're currently building, but other crew for months down the line. All without impact to your existing resources.
There's really no point to leveling crew you don't have an immediate use for. Event and bonus crew can usually be slow-walked enough to meet daily reqs. Anything more is a waste in my opinion.
A developed roster will usually have FF/FE purples that have numbers similar to a lot of 1/5 golds. At a certain point, most 1/5's become a burned crew slot more than a useful asset... but if you don't power level them, they can be useful contributors to a farm strategy. I have had some golds unleveled for years because they're more valuable on the farm than they are leveled. I can use these same crew for burning replicator uses. And it dovetails nicely with shuttle fails.
Now again, if I can target an exact crew that I know will contribute something meaningful to my roster, there is value in using that feature. But others' useless equipment drops are my useless Polestar drops. The part of the equation that's meaningful to me is that I can somewhat control equipment drops. There's no controlling what Constellations or Polestars you get.
I don't even have roster space for those kind of numbers. Seriously 60-80 crew slots just because it might give me a few pieces from crates? More to the point, its still a trivial amount of resources.
I don't rush crew. I can if I like but every single crew was leveled for a purpose. Even within that constraint almost everything got leveled.
Again, you'll meet your equipment needs long before you meet your crew needs.
I certainly liked it, but I also undertand this could mean something negative to relative young player who would find items useful to level their crew roster.
In my case those items were pure space usage.
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
🖖
I play almost exactly as you do. Keep them all and freeze as you can.
I know you can get constellations for crew you don't have, because I have/had them for Surak, 1701 Sisko, and Frederick la Rouque and I don't have those in my roster.
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
🖖
I play almost exactly as you do. Keep them all and freeze as you can.
I know you can get constellations for crew you don't have, because I have/had them for Surak, 1701 Sisko, and Frederick la Rouque and I don't have those in my roster.
Ditto on playstyle. Also, I just pulled the cons. for EVS Nhan, and I don’t have her (pole.=Barzan).
Thank you both for that info. I guess that shoots a hole in my theory. Looks like it was just a coincidence.
To the best of my knowledge, it was never explained how constellations were chosen when you found them. Based on what I said and others experiences, it seemed like it was based on crew on your roster. Good to know that it's not.
I'm still happy with my play style. I never regret airlocking a crew I later needed, and am closer to my goal of every crew. Down to about 300 left, mostly gold and 20% of which aren't in the portal yet. One day, they will be mine 😅😉
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy.
🖖
I get crates. Up until last week I reliably placed in the top 20 on most gauntlets. I spend a little but of DIL on the Dabo. I sometimes buy Campaigns. This is why I know crates are not worth it. More chrons and more credits are worth it because they can be usefully transformed into something else.
Well, that's certainly true but more loot is more loot even if its from a somewhat opaque hoop jumping system that can be short circuited by looking up stuff online. If you think Retrieval is still goofy than maybe instead of crates we could get cadet tickets, honour or voyage tokens from campaigns instead?
Genuinely curious, when you've tried to make crates useful how many unequipped items did you have available and how many at each rarity?
Ironically, I realize I'm defending the value of a somewhat opaque hoop jump system in favor of another one. Once again I am reminded how much of this game is in the margins.
I have 26 unequipped items across 12 crew. Mostly 4* and 5*. Some of those slots have been sitting empty for years. For the daily I partially level one crew a day in the following steps : 1-50, 51-60, 61-70, etc. I power level all event and bonus crew after obtaining some items from thresholds. I could instantly level and finish all of them if I wanted to. I have gotten useful gear from crates. I would rather have something else. Like credits, chrons, honour or ISM. Again crates are just a dumb replacement for something else. There are certainly things in a Campaign that are much, much useful.
Its a game. Some hoop jumping is expected. I don't mind the change to scanning though. It feels like its doing something for a change.
5-7x those numbers and you'll be in the ballpark for a good farming foundation. Ideally you want 10+ high value options at every rarity level.
There's invariably gear that we all dislike to see pop up as an equip item. Imagine the game handing you a dozen plus of those items over the span of a few weeks/months. It doesn't just benefit the crew you're currently building, but other crew for months down the line. All without impact to your existing resources.
There's really no point to leveling crew you don't have an immediate use for. Event and bonus crew can usually be slow-walked enough to meet daily reqs. Anything more is a waste in my opinion.
A developed roster will usually have FF/FE purples that have numbers similar to a lot of 1/5 golds. At a certain point, most 1/5's become a burned crew slot more than a useful asset... but if you don't power level them, they can be useful contributors to a farm strategy. I have had some golds unleveled for years because they're more valuable on the farm than they are leveled. I can use these same crew for burning replicator uses. And it dovetails nicely with shuttle fails.
Now again, if I can target an exact crew that I know will contribute something meaningful to my roster, there is value in using that feature. But others' useless equipment drops are my useless Polestar drops. The part of the equation that's meaningful to me is that I can somewhat control equipment drops. There's no controlling what Constellations or Polestars you get.
I don't even have roster space for those kind of numbers. Seriously 60-80 crew slots just because it might give me a few pieces from crates? More to the point, its still a trivial amount of resources.
I don't rush crew. I can if I like but every single crew was leveled for a purpose. Even within that constraint almost everything got leveled.
Again, you'll meet your equipment needs long before you meet your crew needs.
The resources you get from crates is not trivial if you know what you're doing. Play the game the way you want, but there's no need to devalue the way I, and many others, play the game. And there's absolutely no need to thump for a possible improvement for some players at the cost of a strategy that's evolved over 3+ years and is currently benefiting wide swaths of the player base.
I also don't understand why you're so insistent there's no value, when myself and others have highlighted the value multiple times. More accurately, you probably haven't done the math. Fine, here's an example:
Completely arbitrary choice, but let's work the process here: 935 Chrons for a piece of gold equipment. Imagine having a dozen on hand, for free. What would you do with ~10k chrons you saved? That's top 1500 in a Galaxy, from scratch. Probably close to top 1500 in a Skirmish.
How about at 4 stars?
A dozen at 454 chrons each? ~5k chrons is totally worthless to you and other players, I guess? 🤷
If you need an army of 1/5 golds to improve your crew, then getting one every 3 weeks if you get magical RNG is probably not going to make a meaningful difference. Most players should work on fully fusing their purples, not go chasing for gold.
As for crew "needs", once you enter the late game stage there's maybe 150 core cards, with another 100 that have niche value outside of their events. If you are a strategic collector and a modest spender, you will absolutely meet your crew needs long before you meet your equipment needs. Most new crew is a marginal improvement on existing crew, yet new crew are always created, and they always need new equipment. Conversely, most people probably don't "need" those new crew.
You know what's better than waiting 6+ months for a crew to be released to the portal, then going through 2-3 levels of RNG in the hopes of getting them? How about saving 10k chrons thanks to crate drops and placing top 1500 to get that crew in the first place?
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.
Yeah - these are the seven folks I have sitting on top of my roster:
I expanded it recently, originally it was just the Phloxes, plus my spare Garland for replication. I added the Ogawas recently, and Garland was 'promoted' to drop duty after I joined a fleet and got extra replicator uses. (Plus, I have more reason to save credits now.)
Six degrees in Inter-species Veterinary Medicine. Treating all manner of critters, from Tribbles to Humans.
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
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I play almost exactly as you do. Keep them all and freeze as you can.
I know you can get constellations for crew you don't have, because I have/had them for Surak, 1701 Sisko, and Frederick la Rouque and I don't have those in my roster.
80, it just rolled over after I did a couple space battles to finish dailies. I had about that after being out most of today, got the freebies before the window closed, got ten from the ad, and spent those 30 to finish my last task. Have a voyage out to start the build up for Thursday. I scratch by most of the time.
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
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I play almost exactly as you do. Keep them all and freeze as you can.
I know you can get constellations for crew you don't have, because I have/had them for Surak, 1701 Sisko, and Frederick la Rouque and I don't have those in my roster.
How many Chronitons do you have right now?
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*
As for crew "needs", once you enter the late game stage there's maybe 150 core cards, with another 100 that have niche value outside of their events. If you are a strategic collector and a modest spender, you will absolutely meet your crew needs long before you meet your equipment needs. Most new crew is a marginal improvement on existing crew, yet new crew are always created, and they always need new equipment. Conversely, most people probably don't "need" those new crew.
This is such a good point. If the power creep in the game was an order of magnitude faster, it wouldn't apply, but the top cards in the game generally maintain their value for a very long time.
The only reason I can think of for constantly "needing" crew is if you're chasing 12 hour voyages, in which case the marginal improvements in overall voyage score from certain new cards is worth pursuing, and a whole load of otherwise uninspiring 5*s become valuable if they happen to be Diplomats or Klingons because their collections will eventually give you stat boosts.
But deciding to pursue that sort of thing is just as much an individual player choice as aiming to finish all the collections, just because, or wanting to stay on top of the Arena with an obscure ship build. Once you can run 10 hr voyages and 80%+ chance shuttles at the same time, and place top 1500 in an event if you decide you want to, there's no right or wrong about what you choose to focus on. The different values of different aspects of the game depends hugely on playstyle and goals.
I have the same experience as many here ..
The packs hardly ever game me usefull items , and mostly equipment for crew i either did not have, or already have immortalized, instead of for the ones i was currently working on.
It is a good start, but I do however think the amount of ISM we are currently getting in the game is too low , both from dailies, campaigns and other ways.
Yes the lootboxes just droped stuff for crew I didnt own and clogged up my inventory. ISM is pretty useless without being able to cash them in, but at least it doesn't fill my inventory up.
I dont think this has been brought up yet, but the thing I like best about ISM is that I can do my daily scans in less than 30 seconds after logging in. Before then, if I ever missed finishing my dailies it was because I could only log in twice that day and missed the final scan.
They changed the scan requirements, before they changed the campaign. The two are not connected. I haven't bought this campaign and I don't notice anything different in my game play, except I get no crates! Not happy and never will be.
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*
They changed the scan requirements, before they changed the campaign. The two are not connected. I haven't bought this campaign and I don't notice anything different in my game play, except I get no crates! Not happy and never will be.
They are connected in that it is supports the position that ISM > crates.
Comments
A 5* every 3 weeks that needs to be uber targeted is less useful than being able to generate enough honor for a cite every 4-5 weeks. Especially so if you don't have interest in many of the 5*'s you don't already own.
There is value to being able to target a particular new 5* to unlock, but good luck getting the Polestar combos. About all that more ISM means is getting more Human, Starfleet, and Federation Polestars at a faster pace. And even if you have great polestar RNG and are able to get new 5*'s every 3 weeks, good luck keeping up on crew slots for your new army of 1/5 golds.
Meanwhile, a robust farm system to maximize the benefits of equipment drops from Gauntlet, Dabo, and Campaign Crates will always get very useful, high-chron and/or faction item -cost equipment from crates. It's not trivial if you think it through and have a smart strategy.
But as others have pointed out, the dichotomy of crates vs ISM is a false one. The smart solution was to either add more tiers, or more strategically audit Campaign Rewards.
Honestly, I don't even understand the point of Constellations other than to have yet another RNG frustration point. Just have the Polestars drop from scans. I'd rather they all have equal chance to drop than get a "good collection" in a Constellation that inevitably gives me another Human Polestar.
I haven't had nearly as many issues as some with getting common polestars like human, Federation, Starfleet, etc. I also haven't found the ones I have gotten too limiting, and in fact, have used some of them to eliminate unwanted crew, but that is a topic for a different time. Maybe it's RNGesus being extraordinarily kind to me, but I have a different thought.
I have a much larger crew range than it seems most do. While others tend to airlock lower tier crew, and others even golds, I tend to keep every crew I get, barring ones I've already immortalised. I'm a 100% completionist, and while that hindered me at times, it's also been greatly beneficial at others, like events.
I've taken new crew in beholds over adding stars to existing crew, probably more often than others. My philosophy is that you can't cite what you don't have. This has allowed me to get all crew levels 1-3 frozen, and many 4* as well. I also only need 16 purples, with only 5 of those currently in the portal.
I don't have nearly as many crew slots as a lot of others, but enough to make this work. I'm probably somewhere in the middle I'd imagine. Because of this, and my desire to accumulate and freeze all crew, I've had to be very focused and diligent in getting crew FFFE. Once they are, they go off to the freezer to make room for others.
My point, (and I promise there is one 🤪) is that this has allowed me to get at least 1 star on just shy of 700 crew. This will become important in a minute.
It could be entirely coincidental, but every constellation I've received has been of a crew I already have. This has led to me getting a lot of constellations others don't seem to be getting, often with rare polestars that help me narrow down retrievals even more.
Now again, I could be totally wrong with my theory. But it seems like players who have been airlocking more and has a smaller crew range are running into problems I'm not. I think this is in large part due to any found constellations being pulled from your existing roster.
Not sure if anyone has had a different experience or not, but I'm interested to hear input from others. Particularly on whether this theory is accurate or not.
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I have over 675 immortal crew and approximately 250 unfused crew.
I've gotten good Constellations, i just don't get good Polestars from more than 50% of them. I'm not sure exactly how many Constellations I've opened at this point, but probably 15-20? I have 5 Human Polestars. My luck hasn't been quite as bad with Federation and Starfleet yet, but all my remaining unopened Constellations have at least 2 of those Big 3 traits present.
The other Polestar I've gotten multiples of is Costumed, sitting at 3. One may actually help me get my white whale eventually, but the other two are superfluous for my purposes.
Maybe there are new facets of the feature that down the line will increase the value of multiple common Polestars (like an exclude option), but for my roster and style of gameplay, this is not that moment. Instead it reminds me what I hate most about the game: the crappy pRNG algo.
Still, I'm not mad, just meh. I think the new feature is a good one in theory, and overall I'm glad that TP/WRG put this much thought into it. But they also over-thought it and it's not particularly helpful to me at this time. By all means, TP/WRG can hype the new thing... just don't take things away to do that.
Honour is more useful than ISM. ISM and Honour is more useful than either. No one's saying you have to target a 5* you don't own. My next ISM target will probably be a 4/5* with useful stats in a useful collection (ex Tenavik).
I'm one week away from getting enough Quantum for my next pull. I don't appear to have the Polestars I need but I have a week. More if I let it tick up more. Eventually this won't be a problem at all.
Crates are not reliable. Dabo and Gauntlet less so. Reliably farming Chrons and Credits is better. Eventually equipment ceases to be a concern. Chrons and Credits can be turned into useful items. Crates become replicator fodder.
More tiers would be pretty. Last Campaign I bought I broke a personal rule because it was 120 tiers.
Constellations are.... an annoyance. I have a Seska constellation and I'm terrified of popping it because a Kazon Polestar would pollute my inventory. I still have a decent variety of polestars.
I am a 5 year player, I assure you crates can be reliably farmed if you take the time to work on it. It's been a useful strategy both as a low-spender, non-spender, and porpoise-level-spender. Thanks in part to farming, I can power level any crew at any time without taking a hit to chron and inventory levels, thus setting me up better for Galaxy and Skirm events. I also don't need to visit faction stores or worry about running shuttles endlessly. Almost all my credits and merits go to honor conversion, which is way more valuable than items (and hey, I get both with credit packs).
My point about ISM is that's it's largely superfluous to the existing honor economy. An additional gold star in a month is largely meaningless if you can't target a useful card. I'm nearing the Quantum limit and still don't have a path to a star that isn't a roll of the dice on maybe winding up with an already immorted card or worse yet... a non-gold. Having had that happen on one of my two non-tutorial retrieves, I can assure you that risk is not worth my consideration or resources. If I can target an exact card, cool. If not, well then I might as well buy honor begolds at full price.
The amount of ISM I would need for the new feature to be consistently useful in the short term is so ridiculous I'm not sweating the Quantum bottleneck (aside from missing out on the regen - but again, it doesn't matter if there are no good retrieve candidates). I certainly don't find the amount added to the campaign nearly sufficient to justify the damage to my farming strategy. Now if I could use ISM to craft specific Polestars instead of RNG everything, THAT would catch my interest.
Farming from crates is not an academic issue - many players have farm strategies, and even if it's not deliberately developed by a player, it's (usually) a very beneficial feature to all but late-stage players that have FE'd all crew.
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I get crates. Up until last week I reliably placed in the top 20 on most gauntlets. I spend a little but of DIL on the Dabo. I sometimes buy Campaigns. This is why I know crates are not worth it. More chrons and more credits are worth it because they can be usefully transformed into something else.
Well, that's certainly true but more loot is more loot even if its from a somewhat opaque hoop jumping system that can be short circuited by looking up stuff online. If you think Retrieval is still goofy than maybe instead of crates we could get cadet tickets, honour or voyage tokens from campaigns instead?
Genuinely curious, when you've tried to make crates useful how many unequipped items did you have available and how many at each rarity?
Ironically, I realize I'm defending the value of a somewhat opaque hoop jump system in favor of another one. Once again I am reminded how much of this game is in the margins.
I have 26 unequipped items across 12 crew. Mostly 4* and 5*. Some of those slots have been sitting empty for years. For the daily I partially level one crew a day in the following steps : 1-50, 51-60, 61-70, etc. I power level all event and bonus crew after obtaining some items from thresholds. I could instantly level and finish all of them if I wanted to. I have gotten useful gear from crates. I would rather have something else. Like credits, chrons, honour or ISM. Again crates are just a dumb replacement for something else. There are certainly things in a Campaign that are much, much useful.
Its a game. Some hoop jumping is expected. I don't mind the change to scanning though. It feels like its doing something for a change.
5-7x those numbers and you'll be in the ballpark for a good farming foundation. Ideally you want 10+ high value options at every rarity level.
There's invariably gear that we all dislike to see pop up as an equip item. Imagine the game handing you a dozen plus of those items over the span of a few weeks/months. It doesn't just benefit the crew you're currently building, but other crew for months down the line. All without impact to your existing resources.
There's really no point to leveling crew you don't have an immediate use for. Event and bonus crew can usually be slow-walked enough to meet daily reqs. Anything more is a waste in my opinion.
A developed roster will usually have FF/FE purples that have numbers similar to a lot of 1/5 golds. At a certain point, most 1/5's become a burned crew slot more than a useful asset... but if you don't power level them, they can be useful contributors to a farm strategy. I have had some golds unleveled for years because they're more valuable on the farm than they are leveled. I can use these same crew for burning replicator uses. And it dovetails nicely with shuttle fails.
Now again, if I can target an exact crew that I know will contribute something meaningful to my roster, there is value in using that feature. But others' useless equipment drops are my useless Polestar drops. The part of the equation that's meaningful to me is that I can somewhat control equipment drops. There's no controlling what Constellations or Polestars you get.
:sighs, pinches bridge of nose, and tries to suppress the notoriously bad temper:
Why exactly would I invest in either of those? It would serve no purpose.
Four days a week you don't get any chronitons for the challenges except for the rewards from dailies and, after a certain point, the chroniton per minute average drops when you pass a specific point and have to factor in recall time for voyages. I'm close to a natural 10hr. I use a token or dilithium if I miss recall, but that is it.
Temporary problems, by definition, are not temporary when they have lasted two years. If it wasn't too dark, I would share a pic of my list of FF'D crew that needs finished and frozen. It covers one entire side of a page from a legal pad, six columns wide and is incomplete. I ran out of room and already had a different list on the back.
I have a fairly decent selection of golds- Gary Seven, Fury Kes, both 5* Renos, Away Team #1, et c. I just can't get them leveled. This event made Pah-Wraith Keiko a priority, so her and Chaotica make 28 immortal golds. The new Q will be 29. There are a handful I'd like to get more than others, but I have plenty to work on.
ISM will matter very little, if you can't get those new crew in. I have five, including Salia (who took all the chronitons I had to finish), that will go in stasis Monday at event finish. I have an EV Archer that will come in then. The 2* and 4* will take 2 slots, leaving 2. The lack of excessive event crew next week lets me work on my backlog at a chroniton conserving rate. Maybe I'll get someone else done.
You yourself stated why you got so little useful equipment from the crates. You have 26 items, mostly 5/4* rarity. The basics couldn't be and the premium ones had a low chance. That is the key difference between us.
You had 26 high options for RNG to work with.
I would not blink, if I counted twenty times that. I have 420 slots. 72 are filled by immortal/FE'd crew. That leaves 348 with, at minimum, one empty equipment slot. Some have all four empty. I would estimate a hundred to be 3* or less, all the way down to basic no star items. What are the odds I wouldn't get something useful, even if I had to build on it? A 2* outfit becomes a 4* a lot faster and cheaper than building it from scratch.
With that comparison, do you understand now? I couldn't really lose and you couldn't really win. I can understand why you would rather have something else you can use, but those 20, 30, 40+ items a month they took away make a huge difference to me. New crew are nice and, I never turn them down, but I need to equip what I have and they hit me hard there. I have immortalized random crew with a crate drop. Of course, I want them.
I know you can get constellations for crew you don't have, because I have/had them for Surak, 1701 Sisko, and Frederick la Rouque and I don't have those in my roster.
Ditto on playstyle. Also, I just pulled the cons. for EVS Nhan, and I don’t have her (pole.=Barzan).
I don't even have roster space for those kind of numbers. Seriously 60-80 crew slots just because it might give me a few pieces from crates? More to the point, its still a trivial amount of resources.
I don't rush crew. I can if I like but every single crew was leveled for a purpose. Even within that constraint almost everything got leveled.
Again, you'll meet your equipment needs long before you meet your crew needs.
In my case those items were pure space usage.
Thank you both for that info. I guess that shoots a hole in my theory. Looks like it was just a coincidence.
To the best of my knowledge, it was never explained how constellations were chosen when you found them. Based on what I said and others experiences, it seemed like it was based on crew on your roster. Good to know that it's not.
I'm still happy with my play style. I never regret airlocking a crew I later needed, and am closer to my goal of every crew. Down to about 300 left, mostly gold and 20% of which aren't in the portal yet. One day, they will be mine 😅😉
The resources you get from crates is not trivial if you know what you're doing. Play the game the way you want, but there's no need to devalue the way I, and many others, play the game. And there's absolutely no need to thump for a possible improvement for some players at the cost of a strategy that's evolved over 3+ years and is currently benefiting wide swaths of the player base.
I also don't understand why you're so insistent there's no value, when myself and others have highlighted the value multiple times. More accurately, you probably haven't done the math. Fine, here's an example:
Completely arbitrary choice, but let's work the process here: 935 Chrons for a piece of gold equipment. Imagine having a dozen on hand, for free. What would you do with ~10k chrons you saved? That's top 1500 in a Galaxy, from scratch. Probably close to top 1500 in a Skirmish.
How about at 4 stars?
A dozen at 454 chrons each? ~5k chrons is totally worthless to you and other players, I guess? 🤷
If you need an army of 1/5 golds to improve your crew, then getting one every 3 weeks if you get magical RNG is probably not going to make a meaningful difference. Most players should work on fully fusing their purples, not go chasing for gold.
As for crew "needs", once you enter the late game stage there's maybe 150 core cards, with another 100 that have niche value outside of their events. If you are a strategic collector and a modest spender, you will absolutely meet your crew needs long before you meet your equipment needs. Most new crew is a marginal improvement on existing crew, yet new crew are always created, and they always need new equipment. Conversely, most people probably don't "need" those new crew.
You know what's better than waiting 6+ months for a crew to be released to the portal, then going through 2-3 levels of RNG in the hopes of getting them? How about saving 10k chrons thanks to crate drops and placing top 1500 to get that crew in the first place?
I expanded it recently, originally it was just the Phloxes, plus my spare Garland for replication. I added the Ogawas recently, and Garland was 'promoted' to drop duty after I joined a fleet and got extra replicator uses. (Plus, I have more reason to save credits now.)
Starport
This is such a good point. If the power creep in the game was an order of magnitude faster, it wouldn't apply, but the top cards in the game generally maintain their value for a very long time.
The only reason I can think of for constantly "needing" crew is if you're chasing 12 hour voyages, in which case the marginal improvements in overall voyage score from certain new cards is worth pursuing, and a whole load of otherwise uninspiring 5*s become valuable if they happen to be Diplomats or Klingons because their collections will eventually give you stat boosts.
But deciding to pursue that sort of thing is just as much an individual player choice as aiming to finish all the collections, just because, or wanting to stay on top of the Arena with an obscure ship build. Once you can run 10 hr voyages and 80%+ chance shuttles at the same time, and place top 1500 in an event if you decide you want to, there's no right or wrong about what you choose to focus on. The different values of different aspects of the game depends hugely on playstyle and goals.
The packs hardly ever game me usefull items , and mostly equipment for crew i either did not have, or already have immortalized, instead of for the ones i was currently working on.
It is a good start, but I do however think the amount of ISM we are currently getting in the game is too low , both from dailies, campaigns and other ways.
Rations & Trainers should IMHO be replaced.
They are connected in that it is supports the position that ISM > crates.
I am sorry to hear that you will never be happy.