One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.
Very good point and I fear that we might not be able to use our frozen crew like arena, voyages, etc.
One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.[/quote
Very good point and I fear that we might not be able to use our frozen crew like arena, voyages, etc.
If we can't use frozen crew, that will decrease my level of participation in it, because I have limited crew space, and am not going to buy more spaces for this. My dil is limited, and I have other uses for it.
I see little of chance of using frozen crew. Imagine Khan's first appearance in "Space Seed" if all the people on Botany Bay were kept "frozen" in stasis for all the whole episode. They didn't do anything until they were "thawed" out. If you are in cryostasis, you aren't doing much of anything except existing at a very low level of life.
I'm hoping that they'll sort out some of the chat errors. As admiral of a low pressure international fleet that doesn't use Discord, I'd like to be able to coordinate a bit better with the in-game chat. I have a feeling we're going to need it.
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*
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I saw that. I'm wondering if this lower rarity restriction might not be a boon to fleets like mine. We welcome new players and low level players, not infrequently. (They often move on to other fleets, if they decide to be really competitive.)
Young players are more likely to have those crew out in quarters still and they will contribute well, in that case. There's also holding on to crew from Voyages for a couple extra hours, because it looks like once a crew is used, they be again.
Plus, I'm wondering if each player can only unlock one node per cycle. If so, hold your Voyage/Pack crew until you unlock your node and, then, airlock. See that X was already used on a node?, airlock and focus on the other ones. I can see a decent strategy that way. "Hey, the next node is Denobulan and, probably, Exobiology. Does anyone have a Phlox they can try?" This is why I'm hoping chat behaves. We have to have communication.
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*
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
They probably took the request of wanting more things to do with our crew, way way way too literally, and they are trying to create more merit burn to freeze/thaw.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
Presumably the boss will be harder in the harder levels and that's what it's referring to. Just like skirmish. Harder levels allows higher level ship and crew but have a harder boss and then higher rewards.
But if they're really going to be locked, then this needs to allow vaulted crew or it's DOA.
I keep 2x 3* unlocked (Smiley and Kang) for Arena. Otherwise it would just be whatever random crew that a Voyage dumped on me.
It would also be swell if some feature that allows to save crew for specific ships. Its a pain changing crew in this game and that's for ships I remember how to use. I can't even remember the last time I used a 3* ship. Its been years.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
Presumably the boss will be harder in the harder levels and that's what it's referring to. Just like skirmish. Harder levels allows higher level ship and crew but have a harder boss and then higher rewards.
But if they're really going to be locked, then this needs to allow vaulted crew or it's DOA.
Yes, I also think that the ship is going to be more powerful at the harder levels, but realistically it will be designed like skirmish from that point of view too, which means that it should be feasible for anyone with a maxed 5* ship and a couple of good arena crew options. So what really makes it hard is finding people who are willing to drain their merits and open up crew slots to try out low rarity crew to reach those levels.
At the higher difficulty levels the rewards will probably get a bit better (I didn't pay attention to those) and unfreezing legendary crew in most cases gives them some chance to be used on a shuttle or a voyage too. Plus we all have tons of non-FF legendaries in our quarters, so someone in the fleet will probably have the needed crew already in their quarters. That might also be true for super-rares, depending on how long a player has been around.
But having at least three difficulty levels that don't allow legendaries and two that require the use of 1*, 2* and 3* crew makes me think that the feature will be an annoying drain on resources and require a lot of complicated and frustrating fleet communications in the in-game chat, which will overshadow any fun that the harder levels could add to the game.
The idea of getting some use out of my about 300 legendaries and being able to have a certain degree of a shared strategy with my fleetmates sounds very appealing to me. But having to thaw out a bunch of random and possibly wrong 1* and 2* crew after hours of fruitless attempts to communicate with people in the fleet to figure out who has tried which crew in a chat where most of the time people don't see messages even if they're in the same time zone (which they're often not) just so that we can move on to the difficulty level where I'm allowed to do the same with 3* sounds horrible.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
That's a good screen grab; thanks for sharing it!
I'm hoping **fingers-crossed** that the unlocking is what the new currency/energy they will be introducing will do. I made the reference earlier to Rancor battles from SWGOH; if WRG is using that type of system, the raids are begun by a recharged currency/energy (can't remember exactly*) that is universal to the fleet. You can then use it to start a raid at whatever difficulty you want, rather than having to progress through the lower levels. That system makes the most sense for a fleet/guild job. It also helps with fleets of different sizes and skill levels. Again, hopefully that's what will be done here.
* - If I'm saying that wrong or misremembering, please someone correct me.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
That's a good screen grab; thanks for sharing it!
I'm hoping **fingers-crossed** that the unlocking is what the new currency/energy they will be introducing will do. I made the reference earlier to Rancor battles from SWGOH; if WRG is using that type of system, the raids are begun by a recharged currency/energy (can't remember exactly*) that is universal to the fleet. You can then use it to start a raid at whatever difficulty you want, rather than having to progress through the lower levels. That system makes the most sense for a fleet/guild job. It also helps with fleets of different sizes and skill levels. Again, hopefully that's what will be done here.
* - If I'm saying that wrong or misremembering, please someone correct me.
That leads to an interesting question: will the energy to start boss battles regenerate at the same level across fleets (e.g., will 50 player fleets and 5 player fleets have the same recharge time?)? Will running lower level boss battles take less energy to start?
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
That's a good screen grab; thanks for sharing it!
I'm hoping **fingers-crossed** that the unlocking is what the new currency/energy they will be introducing will do. I made the reference earlier to Rancor battles from SWGOH; if WRG is using that type of system, the raids are begun by a recharged currency/energy (can't remember exactly*) that is universal to the fleet. You can then use it to start a raid at whatever difficulty you want, rather than having to progress through the lower levels. That system makes the most sense for a fleet/guild job. It also helps with fleets of different sizes and skill levels. Again, hopefully that's what will be done here.
* - If I'm saying that wrong or misremembering, please someone correct me.
That leads to an interesting question: will the energy to start boss battles regenerate at the same level across fleets (e.g., will 50 player fleets and 5 player fleets have the same recharge time?)? Will running lower level boss battles take less energy to start?
With Rancor battles, a more active guild with more members doing their dailies would regenerate energy faster than a none active one. And, yes, higher level battles cost more energy (significantly more, as I recall, though I was never in an active guild).
Of course, all of this is assuming WRG would adopt the same or similar gameplay framework for BB. Nothing says they can't make changes to it.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
That's a good screen grab; thanks for sharing it!
I'm hoping **fingers-crossed** that the unlocking is what the new currency/energy they will be introducing will do. I made the reference earlier to Rancor battles from SWGOH; if WRG is using that type of system, the raids are begun by a recharged currency/energy (can't remember exactly*) that is universal to the fleet. You can then use it to start a raid at whatever difficulty you want, rather than having to progress through the lower levels. That system makes the most sense for a fleet/guild job. It also helps with fleets of different sizes and skill levels. Again, hopefully that's what will be done here.
* - If I'm saying that wrong or misremembering, please someone correct me.
That sounds a lot better! Honestly, I didn't even think of an option like that, but maybe I've been reading too much into that image on the screenshot.
From the teaser it looks like the lower difficulty levels will require us to only use 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* ships and crew. The idea of having to unfreeze random 1* and 2* crew is extremely unappealing, as is the thought of having to use weak ships when we all have an overabundance of 5* ones and unfused legendaries in our crew.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
That's a good screen grab; thanks for sharing it!
I'm hoping **fingers-crossed** that the unlocking is what the new currency/energy they will be introducing will do. I made the reference earlier to Rancor battles from SWGOH; if WRG is using that type of system, the raids are begun by a recharged currency/energy (can't remember exactly*) that is universal to the fleet. You can then use it to start a raid at whatever difficulty you want, rather than having to progress through the lower levels. That system makes the most sense for a fleet/guild job. It also helps with fleets of different sizes and skill levels. Again, hopefully that's what will be done here.
* - If I'm saying that wrong or misremembering, please someone correct me.
Im guessing it will be similar to the unlocking of the objective events, where earlier challenges have to be completed to unlock the later ones.
This looks very cool. I like it's reliance on traits, which has the potentially to give a lot of existing crew a bump in usefulness. To that end, it's nice to see some traits aren't also used in voyages. And I'm not just saying that because of "Denobulan."
The bridge is unexpected, and looks quite interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
the screen seemed to imply that it was based on the damage you did (like a threshold reward).
This was my take away as well.
One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.
I disagree with this
We could never warp cadet missions for a long time & had to keep freezing/unfreezing crew. You knew the essential crew to keep(women/starfleet/aliens) all the time
Not to mention missions - which there haven't been any new ones in ages. About time for some more what with Disco/Picard/LD & now SNW
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It will bring a new challenge to the
This looks very cool. I like it's reliance on traits, which has the potentially to give a lot of existing crew a bump in usefulness. To that end, it's nice to see some traits aren't also used in voyages. And I'm not just saying that because of "Denobulan."
The bridge is unexpected, and looks quite interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
the screen seemed to imply that it was based on the damage you did (like a threshold reward).
This was my take away as well.
One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.
I disagree with this
We could never warp cadet missions for a long time & had to keep freezing/unfreezing crew. You knew the essential crew to keep(women/starfleet/aliens) all the time
Not to mention missions - which there haven't been any new ones in ages. About time for some more what with Disco/Picard/LD & now SNW
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It will bring a new challenge to the
Reposting this because I was logged out & signed in as a guest
This looks very cool. I like it's reliance on traits, which has the potentially to give a lot of existing crew a bump in usefulness. To that end, it's nice to see some traits aren't also used in voyages. And I'm not just saying that because of "Denobulan."
The bridge is unexpected, and looks quite interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
the screen seemed to imply that it was based on the damage you did (like a threshold reward).
This was my take away as well.
One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.
I disagree with this
We could never warp cadet missions for a long time & had to keep freezing/unfreezing crew. You knew the essential crew to keep(women/starfleet/aliens) all the time
Not to mention missions - which there haven't been any new ones in ages. About time for some more what with Disco/Picard/LD & now SNW
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It will bring a new challenge to the
Reposting this because I was logged out & signed in as a guest
The difference is we knew there were limited requirements. As long as we had 3 starfleet, 3 women, and 3 aliens we were good. This entire system seems based on trying different crew with different traits to figure out who unlocks the node. And if each boss battle uses the same traits that'll be boring fast, so I assume each battle will have different traits. So now it's not about finding the optimal 3 crew, it's about finding the correct crew among all of our crew. That's a lot more crew to keep active.
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It might be a challenge, but is it one which is remotely interesting, enjoyable or beneficial to the game?
Lack of crew slots is one of the more common gripes; a new feature which puts more pressure on crew slots and adds busywork in juggling crew is counterproductive in my view.
This looks very cool. I like it's reliance on traits, which has the potentially to give a lot of existing crew a bump in usefulness. To that end, it's nice to see some traits aren't also used in voyages. And I'm not just saying that because of "Denobulan."
The bridge is unexpected, and looks quite interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
the screen seemed to imply that it was based on the damage you did (like a threshold reward).
This was my take away as well.
One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.
I disagree with this
We could never warp cadet missions for a long time & had to keep freezing/unfreezing crew. You knew the essential crew to keep(women/starfleet/aliens) all the time
Not to mention missions - which there haven't been any new ones in ages. About time for some more what with Disco/Picard/LD & now SNW
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It will bring a new challenge to the
Reposting this because I was logged out & signed in as a guest
The difference is we knew there were limited requirements. As long as we had 3 starfleet, 3 women, and 3 aliens we were good. This entire system seems based on trying different crew with different traits to figure out who unlocks the node. And if each boss battle uses the same traits that'll be boring fast, so I assume each battle will have different traits. So now it's not about finding the optimal 3 crew, it's about finding the correct crew among all of our crew. That's a lot more crew to keep active.
You needed more than 3 starfleet, 3 women & 3 aliens back then. You forget about weekends plus some were very iffy. You had to GET the women first. There was a lot of freezing & unfreezing going on, which can be done here too
This game has devolved to one thing: voyages.
You say we will have to try different crew based on their traits. Isn't that what we did in missions & cadet missions?
This looks very cool. I like it's reliance on traits, which has the potentially to give a lot of existing crew a bump in usefulness. To that end, it's nice to see some traits aren't also used in voyages. And I'm not just saying that because of "Denobulan."
The bridge is unexpected, and looks quite interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
the screen seemed to imply that it was based on the damage you did (like a threshold reward).
This was my take away as well.
One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.
I disagree with this
We could never warp cadet missions for a long time & had to keep freezing/unfreezing crew. You knew the essential crew to keep(women/starfleet/aliens) all the time
Not to mention missions - which there haven't been any new ones in ages. About time for some more what with Disco/Picard/LD & now SNW
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It will bring a new challenge to the
Reposting this because I was logged out & signed in as a guest
The difference is we knew there were limited requirements. As long as we had 3 starfleet, 3 women, and 3 aliens we were good. This entire system seems based on trying different crew with different traits to figure out who unlocks the node. And if each boss battle uses the same traits that'll be boring fast, so I assume each battle will have different traits. So now it's not about finding the optimal 3 crew, it's about finding the correct crew among all of our crew. That's a lot more crew to keep active.
You needed more than 3 starfleet, 3 women & 3 aliens back then. You forget about weekends plus some were very iffy. You had to GET the women first. There was a lot of freezing & unfreezing going on, which can be done here too
This game has devolved to one thing: voyages.
You say we will have to try different crew based on their traits. Isn't that what we did in missions & cadet missions?
Once you had the missions you wanted finished, 6 cadets were all you needed though. If we had unlimited slots, what you propose would totally work. However, with 1200 crew and 300 or less slots, it becomes a lot of work for not a huge amount of gain based on the rewards we saw in the video.
This looks very cool. I like it's reliance on traits, which has the potentially to give a lot of existing crew a bump in usefulness. To that end, it's nice to see some traits aren't also used in voyages. And I'm not just saying that because of "Denobulan."
The bridge is unexpected, and looks quite interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
the screen seemed to imply that it was based on the damage you did (like a threshold reward).
This was my take away as well.
One thing I hope they consider, allow us to use frozen crew. We have so many frozen crew with a variety of traits. I don't want to have to guess trait matches, search the vault for my frozen crew, unfreeze them, try them out, and then freeze them again to try a different crew. If this is truly about utilizing our crew depth, it should be the full depth and not just the crew we have active.
I disagree with this
We could never warp cadet missions for a long time & had to keep freezing/unfreezing crew. You knew the essential crew to keep(women/starfleet/aliens) all the time
Not to mention missions - which there haven't been any new ones in ages. About time for some more what with Disco/Picard/LD & now SNW
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It will bring a new challenge to the
Reposting this because I was logged out & signed in as a guest
The difference is we knew there were limited requirements. As long as we had 3 starfleet, 3 women, and 3 aliens we were good. This entire system seems based on trying different crew with different traits to figure out who unlocks the node. And if each boss battle uses the same traits that'll be boring fast, so I assume each battle will have different traits. So now it's not about finding the optimal 3 crew, it's about finding the correct crew among all of our crew. That's a lot more crew to keep active.
You needed more than 3 starfleet, 3 women & 3 aliens back then. You forget about weekends plus some were very iffy. You had to GET the women first. There was a lot of freezing & unfreezing going on, which can be done here too
This game has devolved to one thing: voyages.
You say we will have to try different crew based on their traits. Isn't that what we did in missions & cadet missions?
Once you had the missions you wanted finished, 6 cadets were all you needed though. If we had unlimited slots, what you propose would totally work. However, with 1200 crew and 300 or less slots, it becomes a lot of work for not a huge amount of gain based on the rewards we saw in the video.
I dont see anyyhing strategic or exciting about freezing and unfreezing crew (burning merits) to get through low level challenges on my way to a more difficult challenge, then rinsing and repeating until i finally get to the last node only to find that the only way i can unlock the node is with the webstore exclusive crew offer for $99.99. I see you coming from a mile away wrg.
Comments
Very good point and I fear that we might not be able to use our frozen crew like arena, voyages, etc.
If it wasn't for that aspect, the feature would look nice to me, but with the locked difficulty levels I can only imagine two scenarios:
1) If one person can complete a difficulty level for the entire fleet, then it will be a matter of waiting for people to sacrifice their merits and boss battle tickets, which seems hard to negotiate.
2) If every player has to complete all difficulty levels for themselves there won't be any hurt feelings, but it will be a pointless and annoying grind for everyone.
Also, in case of 1) I really hope that these won't last 24 or 48 hours and end at the usual reset time, or players in "less fortunate" time zones might never even get to see anything beyond the second or third difficulty level.
Young players are more likely to have those crew out in quarters still and they will contribute well, in that case. There's also holding on to crew from Voyages for a couple extra hours, because it looks like once a crew is used, they be again.
Plus, I'm wondering if each player can only unlock one node per cycle. If so, hold your Voyage/Pack crew until you unlock your node and, then, airlock. See that X was already used on a node?, airlock and focus on the other ones. I can see a decent strategy that way. "Hey, the next node is Denobulan and, probably, Exobiology. Does anyone have a Phlox they can try?" This is why I'm hoping chat behaves. We have to have communication.
I hadn't even thought of that. I had no 1-3* crew unfrozen and I only have non-ff 4* crew. If I'm going to need to unfreeze a bunch of lower level crew and keep them active just to get past a forced level system this entire feature is a non-starter. We should be able to start at the hardest level using are 5* ships and crew.
I’d be shocked if they did that. I assumed that was a basic roster for demo purposes only. If I’m wrong, this decision would be a complete 180 from DB’s introduction of warping cadet missions so we could save crew slots by freezing all our 1-3* crew. A reversal like that would be proof that all new features are nothing more than veiled resource drainers to encourage spending.
This is a screenshot from the gameplay video:
It definitely looks like it's planned to use locked levels with different requirements for each: Easy will be 1* and 2* crew and ships only, Normal 1*, 2* and 3* crew and ships, Hard 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* crew and 2*, 3* and 4* ships, and the next one will presumably allow 3*, 4* and 5* ships and all crew. And they are locked in the screenshot.
The weird thing about it is that with this setup the actual difficulty levels are reversed if compared to their name. If I can use the entire pool of 4* and 5* for the highest difficulty level, unless they will use traits like "Antedian" and "Argelian" for it, then it's definitely going to be a matter of whether or not people have the ability (or willingness) to spend merits and open up crew slots all the way through to that level. Or at least that's how it's going to be for anyone that has been playing Timelines for more than 6 months.
Presumably the boss will be harder in the harder levels and that's what it's referring to. Just like skirmish. Harder levels allows higher level ship and crew but have a harder boss and then higher rewards.
But if they're really going to be locked, then this needs to allow vaulted crew or it's DOA.
It would also be swell if some feature that allows to save crew for specific ships. Its a pain changing crew in this game and that's for ships I remember how to use. I can't even remember the last time I used a 3* ship. Its been years.
Yes, I also think that the ship is going to be more powerful at the harder levels, but realistically it will be designed like skirmish from that point of view too, which means that it should be feasible for anyone with a maxed 5* ship and a couple of good arena crew options. So what really makes it hard is finding people who are willing to drain their merits and open up crew slots to try out low rarity crew to reach those levels.
At the higher difficulty levels the rewards will probably get a bit better (I didn't pay attention to those) and unfreezing legendary crew in most cases gives them some chance to be used on a shuttle or a voyage too. Plus we all have tons of non-FF legendaries in our quarters, so someone in the fleet will probably have the needed crew already in their quarters. That might also be true for super-rares, depending on how long a player has been around.
But having at least three difficulty levels that don't allow legendaries and two that require the use of 1*, 2* and 3* crew makes me think that the feature will be an annoying drain on resources and require a lot of complicated and frustrating fleet communications in the in-game chat, which will overshadow any fun that the harder levels could add to the game.
The idea of getting some use out of my about 300 legendaries and being able to have a certain degree of a shared strategy with my fleetmates sounds very appealing to me. But having to thaw out a bunch of random and possibly wrong 1* and 2* crew after hours of fruitless attempts to communicate with people in the fleet to figure out who has tried which crew in a chat where most of the time people don't see messages even if they're in the same time zone (which they're often not) just so that we can move on to the difficulty level where I'm allowed to do the same with 3* sounds horrible.
That's a good screen grab; thanks for sharing it!
I'm hoping **fingers-crossed** that the unlocking is what the new currency/energy they will be introducing will do. I made the reference earlier to Rancor battles from SWGOH; if WRG is using that type of system, the raids are begun by a recharged currency/energy (can't remember exactly*) that is universal to the fleet. You can then use it to start a raid at whatever difficulty you want, rather than having to progress through the lower levels. That system makes the most sense for a fleet/guild job. It also helps with fleets of different sizes and skill levels. Again, hopefully that's what will be done here.
* - If I'm saying that wrong or misremembering, please someone correct me.
That leads to an interesting question: will the energy to start boss battles regenerate at the same level across fleets (e.g., will 50 player fleets and 5 player fleets have the same recharge time?)? Will running lower level boss battles take less energy to start?
With Rancor battles, a more active guild with more members doing their dailies would regenerate energy faster than a none active one. And, yes, higher level battles cost more energy (significantly more, as I recall, though I was never in an active guild).
Of course, all of this is assuming WRG would adopt the same or similar gameplay framework for BB. Nothing says they can't make changes to it.
That sounds a lot better! Honestly, I didn't even think of an option like that, but maybe I've been reading too much into that image on the screenshot.
Im guessing it will be similar to the unlocking of the objective events, where earlier challenges have to be completed to unlock the later ones.
I disagree with this
We could never warp cadet missions for a long time & had to keep freezing/unfreezing crew. You knew the essential crew to keep(women/starfleet/aliens) all the time
Not to mention missions - which there haven't been any new ones in ages. About time for some more what with Disco/Picard/LD & now SNW
Not being able to use frozen crew will add a new challenge & strategy to the game
It will bring a new challenge to the
Reposting this because I was logged out & signed in as a guest
The difference is we knew there were limited requirements. As long as we had 3 starfleet, 3 women, and 3 aliens we were good. This entire system seems based on trying different crew with different traits to figure out who unlocks the node. And if each boss battle uses the same traits that'll be boring fast, so I assume each battle will have different traits. So now it's not about finding the optimal 3 crew, it's about finding the correct crew among all of our crew. That's a lot more crew to keep active.
It might be a challenge, but is it one which is remotely interesting, enjoyable or beneficial to the game?
Lack of crew slots is one of the more common gripes; a new feature which puts more pressure on crew slots and adds busywork in juggling crew is counterproductive in my view.
You needed more than 3 starfleet, 3 women & 3 aliens back then. You forget about weekends plus some were very iffy. You had to GET the women first. There was a lot of freezing & unfreezing going on, which can be done here too
This game has devolved to one thing: voyages.
You say we will have to try different crew based on their traits. Isn't that what we did in missions & cadet missions?
Once you had the missions you wanted finished, 6 cadets were all you needed though. If we had unlimited slots, what you propose would totally work. However, with 1200 crew and 300 or less slots, it becomes a lot of work for not a huge amount of gain based on the rewards we saw in the video.
I dont see anyyhing strategic or exciting about freezing and unfreezing crew (burning merits) to get through low level challenges on my way to a more difficult challenge, then rinsing and repeating until i finally get to the last node only to find that the only way i can unlock the node is with the webstore exclusive crew offer for $99.99. I see you coming from a mile away wrg.