Skill constellations are really useful, but the rarity one is just straight trash, at least make it just a straight polestar drop, 3/5ths to 4/5ths of the time the rarity one is junk. I also would much prefer a trait one. Or even better, how about the polestar tied to the event, say Scoundrel, or romantic, something that is thematic. That would be awesome
I am quite amazed how so many completely right off 75 dil like it is nothing because you miss out on a little bit of honour. For a a game which had no source of gaining the premium currency for so long i feel some have lost touch with how things were. Not everyone does the daily dil and premium campaign.
I do wonder if the honour sale didnt exist then people might not be worrying about every last drop of it.
However i dont believe the constellation rewards are particularly good, there needs to be a source of rarity and skill polestars for the vast majority of players and currently there isn't none.
Furthermore off topic but eventually if not already the availability of the desired polestars will be the limiting factor of the feature, I'm quite content with the refresh rate but getting the polestars i need is going to be a frustrating experience.
- about the 3-star crew: I'd like to catch them, when they are introduced into the game. We haven't had this situation so far. Maybe they have a solution prepared - in the threshold rewards instead of the 2-star crew eg.
- the honor: would have been a chance to upgrade the squad rewards. I think it would fit as a third reward additional to the replicators and the credits.
- the ISM and the constellations are good. I didn't get any constellation because I didn't rank high enough. so the newer and weaker players must put up without the constellations. is it fair?
- I had always loved the portal pulls. It's such a thrill.
In general I think they could easily be a bit more generous. Why swap the rewards and not add the ISM and constellations?
What would I really like as a reward? the 4th star of the 4-star crew (or a citation) and ship schematics
One point that seems to be missed, with every portal update the crew retrieval will be much harder to limit to one crew. It will become a crap shoot whether you get the crew you want. Also the rare polestars will become harder to get.
Edit: should have mentioned crew retrieval will then become honor with occasional good luck in getting the crew you want. So I look at crew retrieval as a convoluted way to get honor. And as the portal grows, it will be even more true.
One point that seems to be missed, with every portal update the crew retrieval will be much harder to limit to one crew. It will become a crap shoot whether you get the crew you want. Also the rare polestars will become harder to get.
Edit: should have mentioned crew retrieval will then become honor with occasional good luck in getting the crew you want. So I look at crew retrieval as a convoluted way to get honor. And as the portal grows, it will be even more true.
I'm not so sure about that. The crew that are currently easy to narrow down to 1 option because of their rare polestars or unusal combinations of traits/skills will probably remain relatively easy to narrow down for a while. At least for a couple of years, I would guess.
But I agree that when it comes to crew with common traits, obtaining them through crew retrieval will become even more difficult with every portal update.
It all comes down to the fact that this isn't really a feature to target crew of our choice (it's way too RNG heavy for that) and portal updates will only make this aspect more obvious.
Unless they add more options, not just to obtain constellations, but also to target polestars or narrow down crew. Someone suggested "negative polestars" that can be used to remove crew with a certain trait from the pool. That would be a nice addition, but I don't think it's likely to happen.
One point that seems to be missed, with every portal update the crew retrieval will be much harder to limit to one crew. It will become a crap shoot whether you get the crew you want. Also the rare polestars will become harder to get.
Edit: should have mentioned crew retrieval will then become honor with occasional good luck in getting the crew you want. So I look at crew retrieval as a convoluted way to get honor. And as the portal grows, it will be even more true.
I'm not so sure about that. The crew that are currently easy to narrow down to 1 option because of their rare polestars or unusal combinations of traits/skills will probably remain relatively easy to narrow down for a while. At least for a couple of years, I would guess.
But I agree that when it comes to crew with common traits, obtaining them through crew retrieval will become even more difficult with every portal update.
It all comes down to the fact that this isn't really a feature to target crew of our choice (it's way too RNG heavy for that) and portal updates will only make this aspect more obvious.
Unless they add more options, not just to obtain constellations, but also to target polestars or narrow down crew. Someone suggested "negative polestars" that can be used to remove crew with a certain trait from the pool. That would be a nice addition, but I don't think it's likely to happen.
I agree. Interesting thing is i have the nurse polestar on one of my accounts. There is no legendary crew in the portal yet. But one exists.
I also think if they can have Tuesday and Saturday female cadet missions they should be able to add a polestar for gender.
I wish they added new 2 and 3 star crew all the time. I liked that. As for the existing 3*, it is nice for new players, but not a real loss. I echo the desire for the honor to be increased to 300 to make up for it. Yes, the rarity constellations should never drop 1 or 2 or 3 star choices if they are that hard to obtain. If they were much easier to get, then I say take your chances. But no one should earn a million VP and be rewarded with a 1*. It will make competition far more intense, which means faction events will be nearly impossible without long-term saving or spending.
But the question is do we like the change. Overall, I like it.
I wish they added new 2 and 3 star crew all the time. I liked that. As for the existing 3*, it is nice for new players, but not a real loss. I echo the desire for the honor to be increased to 300 to make up for it. Yes, the rarity constellations should never drop 1 or 2 or 3 star choices if they are that hard to obtain. If they were much easier to get, then I say take your chances. But no one should earn a million VP and be rewarded with a 1*. It will make competition far more intense, which means faction events will be nearly impossible without long-term saving or spending.
But the question is do we like the change. Overall, I like it.
I am not going to have as much ISM as others. I cannot afford to throw away 1000 ISM on the chance of getting a Legendary polestar. At the very least the cost to open them should be lower.
I am quite amazed how so many completely right off 75 dil like it is nothing because you miss out on a little bit of honour. For a a game which had no source of gaining the premium currency for so long i feel some have lost touch with how things were. Not everyone does the daily dil and premium campaign.
I do wonder if the honour sale didnt exist then people might not be worrying about every last drop of it.
Well, I too am free to play, and I agree a regular bit of dilithium is a great addition. Monthly, with the basic tract of the campaign already being 261 dil, this additional (300 dil) amount more than doubled that, provided you take a stab at the event to get like top 10k. This is great. But it did cost you, because players in this position might have needed those 3*s and the pulls for schematics to actually use. After a certain point, when you’ve bought the extra shuttle and a few extra crew slots, the dilithium is a fun way to get packs... which at that point mostly net you honor.
But honor is vital to Star up your legendary crew, so, yes, every drop counts. Further, if the sales DIDN’T occur honor would be even MORE important, because citations are expensive as heck!
So despite the bit of dilithium, I think this changes aren’t great for new players, or even F2P players who have really established rosters already...
The jury is still out for me. I’ve been calling for more differentiation in ranked rewards in that 750ish to 1500ish range (to smooth out the huge mass of people clumped around 1500th place every week) and we did get that. On the flip side, losing 300 honor a week in 3* crew (from consistently ranking in the top 7500) adds up to 15,600 less honor per year. Not enough for even a 4* citation, but nothing to sneeze at.
On the other hand, I wonder how much of the VP inflation we saw in this last event is due to excitement over Wyatt Earp and how much comes from the changes to the ranks. We all thought that expanding the 5* reward from the top 1000 to the top 1500 would make it super easy to get that crew, and then VP values to get that rank exploded (at least for Skirmish and Galaxy events).
On the other other hand, the changes maybe don’t affect me as much as other players in a similarly advanced state. I detest full or hybridized Galaxy (and Expedition) events and usually end up somewhere between 8,000th and 15,000th place after reaching either the 130k or 160k VP thresholds. And even in the full Skirmish and Faction events that I enjoy, I have only made a top-1500 push twice in the last three months - 2,000-4,000 is my usual rank for these types.
On the whole, it would seem that events are a little less value-added for me. We’ll see how things go with the events where I do want to push for rank, and how Crew Retrieval affects my play strategy going forward.
they need to re-add the 3* crew. When i started, the only way to climb up was FF 3*'s. Yes i had duplicates, yes they did give an edge during faction events. At some point that obiviously changes, but it isn't a great change for starting players.
Comments
I do wonder if the honour sale didnt exist then people might not be worrying about every last drop of it.
However i dont believe the constellation rewards are particularly good, there needs to be a source of rarity and skill polestars for the vast majority of players and currently there isn't none.
Furthermore off topic but eventually if not already the availability of the desired polestars will be the limiting factor of the feature, I'm quite content with the refresh rate but getting the polestars i need is going to be a frustrating experience.
my 2 cents on this topic.
- about the 3-star crew: I'd like to catch them, when they are introduced into the game. We haven't had this situation so far. Maybe they have a solution prepared - in the threshold rewards instead of the 2-star crew eg.
- the honor: would have been a chance to upgrade the squad rewards. I think it would fit as a third reward additional to the replicators and the credits.
- the ISM and the constellations are good. I didn't get any constellation because I didn't rank high enough. so the newer and weaker players must put up without the constellations. is it fair?
- I had always loved the portal pulls. It's such a thrill.
In general I think they could easily be a bit more generous. Why swap the rewards and not add the ISM and constellations?
What would I really like as a reward? the 4th star of the 4-star crew (or a citation) and ship schematics
Edit: should have mentioned crew retrieval will then become honor with occasional good luck in getting the crew you want. So I look at crew retrieval as a convoluted way to get honor. And as the portal grows, it will be even more true.
I'm not so sure about that. The crew that are currently easy to narrow down to 1 option because of their rare polestars or unusal combinations of traits/skills will probably remain relatively easy to narrow down for a while. At least for a couple of years, I would guess.
But I agree that when it comes to crew with common traits, obtaining them through crew retrieval will become even more difficult with every portal update.
It all comes down to the fact that this isn't really a feature to target crew of our choice (it's way too RNG heavy for that) and portal updates will only make this aspect more obvious.
Unless they add more options, not just to obtain constellations, but also to target polestars or narrow down crew. Someone suggested "negative polestars" that can be used to remove crew with a certain trait from the pool. That would be a nice addition, but I don't think it's likely to happen.
I agree. Interesting thing is i have the nurse polestar on one of my accounts. There is no legendary crew in the portal yet. But one exists.
I also think if they can have Tuesday and Saturday female cadet missions they should be able to add a polestar for gender.
But the question is do we like the change. Overall, I like it.
I am not going to have as much ISM as others. I cannot afford to throw away 1000 ISM on the chance of getting a Legendary polestar. At the very least the cost to open them should be lower.
Well, I too am free to play, and I agree a regular bit of dilithium is a great addition. Monthly, with the basic tract of the campaign already being 261 dil, this additional (300 dil) amount more than doubled that, provided you take a stab at the event to get like top 10k. This is great. But it did cost you, because players in this position might have needed those 3*s and the pulls for schematics to actually use. After a certain point, when you’ve bought the extra shuttle and a few extra crew slots, the dilithium is a fun way to get packs... which at that point mostly net you honor.
But honor is vital to Star up your legendary crew, so, yes, every drop counts. Further, if the sales DIDN’T occur honor would be even MORE important, because citations are expensive as heck!
So despite the bit of dilithium, I think this changes aren’t great for new players, or even F2P players who have really established rosters already...
On the other hand, I wonder how much of the VP inflation we saw in this last event is due to excitement over Wyatt Earp and how much comes from the changes to the ranks. We all thought that expanding the 5* reward from the top 1000 to the top 1500 would make it super easy to get that crew, and then VP values to get that rank exploded (at least for Skirmish and Galaxy events).
On the other other hand, the changes maybe don’t affect me as much as other players in a similarly advanced state. I detest full or hybridized Galaxy (and Expedition) events and usually end up somewhere between 8,000th and 15,000th place after reaching either the 130k or 160k VP thresholds. And even in the full Skirmish and Faction events that I enjoy, I have only made a top-1500 push twice in the last three months - 2,000-4,000 is my usual rank for these types.
On the whole, it would seem that events are a little less value-added for me. We’ll see how things go with the events where I do want to push for rank, and how Crew Retrieval affects my play strategy going forward.