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Why am I losing sleep over this game again...?

Shy KhanShy Khan ✭✭✭✭✭
Second Close but No Cigar weekend in a row, after spending an inordinate amount of time on events each week.

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This past weekend was one of my most efficient faction events ever; spent 40 shuttle tokens, burned all my 3-star time boosts, set timers, even woke up and launched shuttles. Had so many 93%+ success shuttles just fail on me over the weekend. Was in the 1300s with 15 minutes left in the event. What. the. #*&#$^.

Similar situation last weekend. Burned out in the last couple of minutes of the event.

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Just not "fun" anymore....
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Comments

  • DavideBooksDavideBooks ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm curious: what was the VP total for 1500?

    I've been in your situation. It *****. I wish you the best.
  • Shy KhanShy Khan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    I'm curious: what was the VP total for 1500?

    I've been in your situation. It *****. I wish you the best.

    Looks like 1500th was 617838. Mine was 616654 for 1508.
    Come join the Steeler Nation Fleet!
  • SoupKitchen RikerSoupKitchen Riker ✭✭✭✭✭
    Shy Khan wrote: »
    I'm curious: what was the VP total for 1500?

    I've been in your situation. It *****. I wish you the best.

    Looks like 1500th was 617838. Mine was 616654 for 1508.

    It always bites being right at the edge. It’s not any consolation, but this event seemed to have more competition. If I am not mistaken, a player can usually do 1500 with somewhere around 500-550K during a Faction event.

    “A committee is a cul-de-sac, down which good ideas are lured and quietly strangled.” —Mark TwainMEMBER: [BoB] Barrel of Bloodwine... We are recruiting and putting the “curv” in scurvy! Best Event Finish: #3 Honor Debt: Inconceivable...Honor Bank Account: Slowly building...
  • (HGH)Apollo(HGH)Apollo ✭✭✭✭✭
    Are you using 4 shuttles and doing the kickstart?
    Let’s fly!
  • This makes me wonder if people are using a strategy similar to galaxy events in faction events now. You can't hoard rare items and turn them in at the last minute, but you can send out 10 requisition shuttles and claim them just before the event ends. Going from rank 1300 to 1500 in 15 minutes sounds like the kind of thing that always happens at the end of galaxy events.
  • Múspell[BAD]Múspell[BAD] ✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    Yes, more and more people do that since last year imo. I do the same since a few months and have around 12-16 shuttles incoming in the last hour and open them not before the last 5 minutes.

    I don't want to loose ranks in the last minutes to people who use Dil at the end, after 4 days of playing without Dil.

    But honestly, with 40 shuttle tokens and a lot of 3* timeboosts you should have no problem to rank top1500 without setting an alarm in the middle of the night. If you have the crew to have an average of at least 80% successrate.
  • KanonKanon ✭✭✭✭✭
    My experience on this event:

    Rank: 1076
    * Kickstarted: yes
    * For most of the event, I had 3 or 4 extra shuttles. I must have used around 50-60 requisition tokens.
    * Some boosts, just like any event, I think 4 2x at the end. Rewards boost at night (no need to wake up every 3 hours)
    * No dillithium speed ups (And I think I'll never do it again, I'd rather try my luck in event packs)
    * I was lucky enough to have some bonus crew that really helped for the extra shuttles (Torpedo McCoy, Katra McCoy, Fugitive Spock, 1701 Jadzia, Bajoran Culber). I think this is what really makes a difference.

    I don't normally rank even for 3 copies of the 4* in faction events, so I don't think I'm going to repeat this performance, unless I have a lot of requisition tokens, and bonus crew (like a very popular character like Bones, and a very popular trait like Exobiology)
  • IvanstoneIvanstone ✭✭✭✭✭
    Rank:1289
    Kickstarted.
    No tokens spent. No dilithium.
    Sent out 2x3 Seat, 2x4 Seat shuttles every time.
    Used 9 hour shuttles each night.
    Used 4x 90 minute shuttles the rest of the event. Excluding Saturday evening since I didn't want to interrupt my WOW raid. I probably lost 8-12 shuttle opportunities due to sloppy game play.
    Crew: Ok. I may have had an advantage here. I failed to get a 4/4 Larkin from 5 event packs. Those event packs did give me 2xMcCoy though. I had a 4/5 McCoy, 5/5 Human Saru, 5/5 VSaru, 5/5 Glad Spock, 4/5 TQuark, 5/5 TQuark (from Squad Leader), 5/5 DAMcCoy, 4/5 BonesMcCoy, 5/5 EVSpock, 5/5 KoSpock, 5/5 CapSpock, 4/5 SOSpock, 4/5 LabSpock. Ok, I have a lot of Spocks. He's a cool character.

    Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed. I used a similar strategy in another event and had better results. I guess people really like Tribbles although there's more benefit to getting a bonus crew early. I was still hoping for less competition because she's only in one collection and has unremarkable stats.
    VIP 13 - 305 Crew Slots - 915 Immortals
  • PeetsPeets ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    Factions I don't even try to get top 1500.
    I have more chance with Galaxy and Skirmish.
  • This Sisko1This Sisko1 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    On average it was about 10% higher points than other shuttle events. People had extra to burn. No shame in coming up below your average.
  • cmdrworfcmdrworf ✭✭✭✭✭
    Peets wrote: »
    Factions I don't even try to get top 1500.
    I have more chance with Galaxy and Skirmish.

    I'm the otherway. I only place in Factions. I don't have the time to burn for the others.
    Sir, I protest! I am NOT a merry man!
  • WaldoMagWaldoMag ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    Ivanstone wrote: »
    Rank:1289
    Kickstarted.
    No tokens spent. No dilithium.
    Sent out 2x3 Seat, 2x4 Seat shuttles every time.
    Used 9 hour shuttles each night.
    Used 4x 90 minute shuttles the rest of the event. Excluding Saturday evening since I didn't want to interrupt my WOW raid. I probably lost 8-12 shuttle opportunities due to sloppy game play.
    Crew: Ok. I may have had an advantage here. I failed to get a 4/4 Larkin from 5 event packs. Those event packs did give me 2xMcCoy though. I had a 4/5 McCoy, 5/5 Human Saru, 5/5 VSaru, 5/5 Glad Spock, 4/5 TQuark, 5/5 TQuark (from Squad Leader), 5/5 DAMcCoy, 4/5 BonesMcCoy, 5/5 EVSpock, 5/5 KoSpock, 5/5 CapSpock, 4/5 SOSpock, 4/5 LabSpock. Ok, I have a lot of Spocks. He's a cool character.

    Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed. I used a similar strategy in another event and had better results. I guess people really like Tribbles although there's more benefit to getting a bonus crew early. I was still hoping for less competition because she's only in one collection and has unremarkable stats.

    I had similar resource use on my main account. I use 3 hr. x2 rewards when I need more time then 1:30. I probably had less slop.

    My QuickStart is a resource saving one. It is open all shuttles, send 4, complete 3, open and send 3 with 10 minute time reduction (base) , complete one more, open and send 1 with 10 minute time reduction. Then complete the other 3. Open and send 3 with 30 minute time reduction (common).
    At this point the 4 shuttles will return in 10 minutes.
    Complete and send all as they come in.

    Now I will use 1:30 time reduction, overnight I will use 9hr double rewards.
    Edit2: if I am not concerned with making top 1500, once I reach 4000 VP shuttles I stop using time reducers

    Difference less slop. When I needed more time I used the 3hr x2 rewards. However, I saw I was in the running for topping the threshold of 750.
    So on Monday I sent 3 sets of 4 shuttles with 2hr time reduction.

    z1j3h5ya7oyt.png


    I realized that I could get a screenshot of where 750 rank was.
    i3sh7n20wu1k.png

    Edit: you can see if I had one less success , I would have not made it above 750.

    Edit3: I could tell watching the rankings on Monday that 750k VP points would make the 750 threshold. So when my final shuttles came in I felt safe that I would make the cutoff and did not need to send anymore (these would have needed dil. to complete if I did) When my last shuttles came in there was less than 4 minutes. My rank was not dropping fast enough to be below the 750 threshold.
  • IvanstoneIvanstone ✭✭✭✭✭
    WaldoMag wrote: »
    My QuickStart is a resource saving one. It is open all shuttles, send 4, complete 3, open and send 3 with 10 minute time reduction (base) , complete one more, open and send 1 with 10 minute time reduction. Then complete the other 3. Open and send 3 with 30 minute time reduction (common).
    At this point the 4 shuttles will return in 10 minutes.
    Complete and send all as they come in.

    Now I will use 1:30 time reduction, overnight I will use 9hr double rewards.
    Edit2: if I am not concerned with making top 1500, once I reach 4000 VP shuttles I stop using time reducers

    Difference less slop. When I needed more time I used the 3hr x2 rewards. However, I saw I was in the running for topping the threshold of 750.
    So on Monday I sent 3 sets of 4 shuttles with 2hr time reduction.

    My QuickStart is open 24 1min shuttles.
    run 3x1min shuttles, open 3x10min shuttles and run them with reduction, run 5x1 min shuttles.
    This is eleven completed shuttles and puts me at 90min shuttles. I open 8x90min, reduce them and then run the 16 remaining 1min shuttles. This puts me at 2750VP shuttles.
    I do this because the quick start is contained within a single faction. Faction events start when I’m at work and it makes things simpler. It also means I only need 90min reducers.

    Judging by your score I would’ve had to play almost perfectly with no failures. I did want top 750 although a few early whiffs meant I would have to use tokens, reward doublers or larger reducers and I would prefer to bank those.

    Last time I went large was for Human Saru. I blew my stash and got 75th. Well worth it and I’m almost ready for the next big one.
    VIP 13 - 305 Crew Slots - 915 Immortals
  • WaldoMagWaldoMag ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    Ivanstone wrote: »
    WaldoMag wrote: »
    My QuickStart is a resource saving one. It is open all shuttles, send 4, complete 3, open and send 3 with 10 minute time reduction (base) , complete one more, open and send 1 with 10 minute time reduction. Then complete the other 3. Open and send 3 with 30 minute time reduction (common).
    At this point the 4 shuttles will return in 10 minutes.
    Complete and send all as they come in.

    Now I will use 1:30 time reduction, overnight I will use 9hr double rewards.
    Edit2: if I am not concerned with making top 1500, once I reach 4000 VP shuttles I stop using time reducers

    Difference less slop. When I needed more time I used the 3hr x2 rewards. However, I saw I was in the running for topping the threshold of 750.
    So on Monday I sent 3 sets of 4 shuttles with 2hr time reduction.

    My QuickStart is open 24 1min shuttles.
    run 3x1min shuttles, open 3x10min shuttles and run them with reduction, run 5x1 min shuttles.
    This is eleven completed shuttles and puts me at 90min shuttles. I open 8x90min, reduce them and then run the 16 remaining 1min shuttles. This puts me at 2750VP shuttles.
    I do this because the quick start is contained within a single faction. Faction events start when I’m at work and it makes things simpler. It also means I only need 90min reducers.

    Judging by your score I would’ve had to play almost perfectly with no failures. I did want top 750 although a few early whiffs meant I would have to use tokens, reward doublers or larger reducers and I would prefer to bank those.

    Last time I went large was for Human Saru. I blew my stash and got 75th. Well worth it and I’m almost ready for the next big one.

    On my second account I had slightly over 200 shuttle tokens. I used them all and made 9th. I wait until I have 200 before trying for top 30.

    I too will not use shuttle tokens when not going for top 30.

    Edit: the most frustrating thing was getting all my bonus crew out of the freezer. It meant freezing many of my non bonus legendaries. I only had 13 non bonus legendaries. They had the highest skill of my non bonus crew in CMD and SEC.
    I only had 11 other immortalized legendaries that were bonus crew. I brought in 27 superrares bonus crew that had higher stats then all my non bonus legendaries. All my bonus crew were on shuttles as well as all my immortalized legendaries. And I still needed other non immortalized crew. My lowest shuttle was 62% success 5 seater. that I dropped for the last three runs. Because I only had shuttle tokens for three runs of 19 shuttles at the end.


    Edit:
    @Travis S McClain makes an important point. When I make my run for top 30 I make that account Squadron leader.
  • Travis S McClainTravis S McClain ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    This was kind of a weird one. I jumped out to a solid start and cleared thresholds by early Friday. I was treading water easily enough to stay in the top ~600 by time each wave of shuttles returned. Then it seemed like on Sunday that competition spiked considerably. I was around #910-ish when I had a wave return around 10:20 AM Monday. Went ahead and used time reducers to send out one more 4-shuttle wave. Ended at #960. Didn't track resources used, but conservatively I'd say around 30-40 tokens; 40-50 3* time reducers; and maybe 20-30 2x multipliers.

    Edit to add
    Forgot to mention I'm squadron leader, and I got the kickback points for that.

    My reflexive theory is that a sizable number of players had been taking it easy, waiting until they cleared thresholds to decide whether to turn it up and go for rank. Any of y'all wanna confirm that theory?
  • GitssacGitssac ✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    Interesting strategies and some good tips in here! For my own part my goal was top 750 for two copies of Uhura, and I scraped through in 729th (Edit: I see I made it into @WaldoMag’s screengrab… fame at last!).

    Strategy / resource usage as follows:

    Roster - easily had enough bonus crew to send out 7+ shuttles at a time, but limited myself to 4 shuttles during day, with extras overnight
    Squad leader - yes (think I gained about 75k VP from this but may have been more, didn’t check in last few hours)
    Kickstart - yes, although disrupted by game outage
    Tokens used - 26 (all of these were spent on overnight legendary or super-rare 9-hour boosts, and all were successful)
    3* boosters used - approx 55, almost all in first two days of event (I was ranked in top 250 at that point). Maybe 5 of these were spent on Monday morning to keep my head above water
    Dil spent - approx 80 bringing my last four shuttles home before the end of the event (and this was required to ensure I beat the top 750 cut-off)
    Success rate - only failed 1 mission (all standard shuttles sent out were 98%+… overnights were 96%+ and thankfully all succeeded)
    Mitigating circumstances - I have a baby so get woken up a lot!

    I had to score 65k (edit: changed after double-checking) more VP than in the All For One faction event to get into top 750, so competition was definitely a bit hotter… but I’m not surprised given we’re in Tribble season. It will be interesting to see whether that holds true for next week’s event.

    Fundamentally, though, my strategy was score high early and manage the descent as best I could.

    I finished 1510th in a faction event in my early days in the game, when I had to have a work meeting and couldn’t call in my last batch of shuttles… so sympathise with those who’ve missed out this time!

    (Edit) Being squad leader is a massive boost. We share this amongst our squad based on who has the strongest crew to share.

    (Edit) Disclaimer: 3* booster usage is a guesstimate but feels about right judging by how many I have left
  • WaldoMagWaldoMag ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    I should mention the resource hog quickstarts I use to do.
    I believe it is 10 shuttles to get to the 1:30 shuttles

    So I open, send, and complete 10 shuttles.
    Then I open all 24 shuttles.
    I then will either:
    send and complete 1 more with the 1:30 time reducer and then open 1 more shuttle. Then send and complete two more shuttles with 1:30 time reducer. Then open, send , and complete 2 shuttles with 2:00 time reducer.
    Or:
    send and complete 3 shuttles with 1:30 time reducer. Then open, send and complete 3 more shuttles with 2:00 reducer.
    Finally send and complete 22 (or 21) with 1:30 time reducers.

    So I use to use on my QuickStart when there was a max of 24 shuttles open at one time, 25 (or 24) 1:30 time reducers and 2 (or 3) 2:00 time reducers.

    When I looked at the cost I did not get much VIP for the resources I used.
    The low resource method I used cost 10 more minutes in time (probably more like 13 minutes with all the minutes shuttles to send) But saves a good number of resources, with low resource method I start sending shuttles that take an hour half to return at the 2750 VP level. With the high resource method I start at the 4000 VP level.

    With my low resource method. I need one more success to proceed to the next VP level. This allows me to complete just one shuttle that succeeds to open the next level VP shuttle. Some methods you need to complete more than one success before you can open shuttles at the next VP level. This works well for sending the same faction shuttle missions. (Such as the same 3 seater missions for a faction)

    Though my crew now is good enough that only on the 4000 VP level I have to worry about sending the same shuttle missions over and over again. (This is not true for my recent 3rd account, it needs to send the same missions over again immediately. So I need to find the best mission for highest success, usually 3 seaters)

    There is a advantage to sending the same shuttle missions. Once you have finalized the crew that give you the best success for those missions, you will not need any of your other crew. Making all your other crew available for voyages.

    Edit if ever I choose to make a run for 1st. I would need 460 shuttle tokens and 380 x2 rewards. Those would all be used on shuttle tokens. The overnighters would all be 9 hour double rewards. I would need as many 2:30 and 2:00 time reducers that I could accumulate. I most likely would not have enough of those to cover my regular 4 shuttles . So, I would most likely want to have 142 1:30 time reducers. I would most certainly use the high resource QuickStart. I assume I would at least have 24 2:30 and 47 2:00 time reducers
    Most importantly I want to have a lot of bonus event crew to fill those shuttles.

    Edit: Doing the quick calculation ( about 4.6M VP) looks like I would not have enough VP to have won the current event (if all succeeded) I would need more 2:30 and 2:00 time reducers than my minimum numbers listed. Or use dil. I have to say I just does not look like it is worth the resources or the time effort. I would most certainly be doing nothing else during those 5 days of the event but playing the game.

    Looking back it would have been enough for Fool's Gold but I doubt that there was 24 total missions available. So again it would fall short, but I would be using less resources (x2 rewards and shuttle tokens)
  • Shy KhanShy Khan ✭✭✭✭✭
    Are you using 4 shuttles and doing the kickstart?

    Yes and yes.
    Come join the Steeler Nation Fleet!
  • Shy KhanShy Khan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    Yes, more and more people do that since last year imo. I do the same since a few months and have around 12-16 shuttles incoming in the last hour and open them not before the last 5 minutes.

    I don't want to loose ranks in the last minutes to people who use Dil at the end, after 4 days of playing without Dil.

    But honestly, with 40 shuttle tokens and a lot of 3* timeboosts you should have no problem to rank top1500 without setting an alarm in the middle of the night. If you have the crew to have an average of at least 80% successrate.

    None of my shuttles, with a very rare exception 88% I sent out once in a while, had under a 90% success rate. I believe my average was around 93%. I DID have an unusually HIGH number of failures this event, which was frustrating to say the least.
    Come join the Steeler Nation Fleet!
  • Mirror CartmanMirror Cartman ✭✭✭✭✭
    The faction event in just over a week, I intend to get Tribble Chekov. I may only aim for one copy.

    If I make a push for him, then I will win at least one copy. This is because I have the resources to get him, and spending them will only put a small dent in my resources. This is because I hoard those resources for most faction events because I don't want the legendary.

    I know how hard I will need to work, and will not be panicking at the last minute.
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    The faction event in just over a week, I intend to get Tribble Chekov. I may only aim for one copy.

    If I make a push for him, then I will win at least one copy. This is because I have the resources to get him, and spending them will only put a small dent in my resources. This is because I hoard those resources for most faction events because I don't want the legendary.

    I know how hard I will need to work, and will not be panicking at the last minute.

    Yep. On faction events I don't care about I don't use any speed boosts or shuttle tokens. I don't even bother with a kick start other than open all and send all at 1min. Even on hybrid events I don't use boosts because I can make up the difference in the galaxy half. That way I always have plenty of resources for a full faction when I want the 5*.
  • Mr. HobbsMr. Hobbs ✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    .
  • AviTrek wrote: »
    This seems like a good thread to add my worthless 2 cents.

    IMVHO, all ranked rewards need to be expanded by two spaces. (At the very least all ranked rewards, with the 5* in them, need to be expanded by two spaces.)

    What I mean is:
    Ranks 1-5 should get you a 5/5 card
    Ranks 6-50 should get you a 4/5 card
    Ranks 51-200 should get you a 3/5 card
    Ranks 201-1250 should get you a 2/5 card
    Ranks 1251-2500 should get you a 1/5 card
    Etc.

    I mean, the top 5 netting you a 5/5 just makes symmetric sense. Bottom line, the competition for the 5* has risen, so the ranked rewards should be adjusted accordingly. The game is becoming increasingly a pay to win. Not only is this not healthy for the game's player ecosystem, it makes the game hard for new players to get into.

    WRG, I appreciate the increased to the ranked rewards, I do. However, I also feel like you did not do enough to keep the rewards balanced, so that more players can, you know, win them.

    Every time they expand the rewards it creates more competition. I'd love extra rewards for my similar effort assuming no other player changes their strategy. But in reality if 200 now yields a 3/5, there will be more than 100 players who said they can never reach 100, but will now try for 200, so the VP needed will end up increasing. Similarly, there will be more than 1k players who now push for the 1/5 that they never could have reached before.

    I'd love to see rewards increased, but I'm happy they are taking it slow and considering balance and side effects before increasing things.

    You're right, the proposal wouldn't eliminate the bottleneck. However, it would make the neck larger, so more players could get through. Metaphorically speaking. (-;
  • Ishmael MarxIshmael Marx ✭✭✭✭✭
    I agree with @AviTrek on this one. There have only been 25 events since the rewards tiers were expanded (vs 270 events in the history of STT, if my count is accurate). I think it's worth letting it ride for a while before altering the reward structure again.

    Personal data anecdote follows... YMMV.

    Over the past 100 events, 33 of them have been full-faction. Of those, 6 have occurred since the reward tier expansion. Honestly, 6 is not a large enough sample size for this discussion, but it feels like it captures the point well enough.

    In 33 events, my average full-faction results have gone from 676,000 VP / rank 585 (27 events) to 751,000 VP / rank 685 (6 events). Higher VP, worse rank.

    If I remove the 2 events (one each from the pre/post expansion datasets) in which I chose not to rank for the legendary, the numbers become 686,000 VP / 539 rank (26 events) versus 803,000 VP / 506 rank (5 events). Much higher VP, similar rank.

    My (tentative) conclusion is that the expanded reward tiers have made it more competitive to achieve the same outcomes. (I do not use dilithium to quick-return shuttles, but I do buy the campaign most of the time which gives me extra shuttle tokens. I don't know if that qualifies me as "pay to win" in this context, but I don't view it that way.)
  • Tokens are the biggest change for me along with the reward expansion. I've reached point, at least for now, where if I want the gold, then I'm pushing for the 2 cpoies at 750 threshold. Before the expansion, pushing for more than 1 copy was way too time consuming for me.
  • (HGH)Apollo(HGH)Apollo ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2021
    I think that there is another factor that is not being talked about.

    The offer wall has made it possible for people to acquire mountains of dilithium for free. I think that the influx of dilithium into the games economy is also at least partly responsible for the perceived increase in competitiveness with faction events.

    I wouldn’t call it free. Offer wall can be a good way to get dilithium especially when there is a double or quadruple rewards weekend but the bigger amounts of dilithium usually require lots of effort or some money. For example the WWE champions game offered dilithium when I downloaded it and joined a faction. Well that sounds easy. I downloaded it and tried to join a faction but I had to be lvl 5 to join a faction. Ok, played the game for a week and then was lvl 5 and tried to join a faction. No luck, I checked the fine print. You have to be league lvl 5 to join a faction not player lvl 5. So I had to play the game another two weeks every day to get to league lvl 5 to join a faction to get the dilithium. Along the way I also spent $5 to get a better crew person, Andre the Giant. Part of that was an impulse buy caused I loved him in the Princess Bride. I could have probably completed this offer without spending that money but it would have taken another week or two because my starting crew were bad and there was a learning curve to the game. I might not have completed it in the time allotted without the purchase.

    The casino ones don’t necessarily require much effort but if you are unlucky they will require money. One I was able to do for free on auto spin. The second required money. But the second one didn’t pay out any dilithium. Some issue with the install. Contacted that casino game support and Ironsource and both are still giving me the runaround. Other games you download but find it nearly impossible or crazy hard to complete. There are many offers that players can pick and choose from but I wouldn’t simply describe the dilithium as free.
    Let’s fly!
  • This Sisko1This Sisko1 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I've done tons of offers. Spent money for some, put in some work for others. That WWE one was terribly long.
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