It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason I went deep was to get Krem and to try for Bashir. It probably used more resources than I should have spent to finish in the 200s.
"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason anyone claims to like skirmish events is the chron and honor drops during the event. Take that away and I can't imagine anyone slogging through all those repetitive battles.
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason anyone claims to like skirmish events is the chron and honor drops during the event. Take that away and I can't imagine anyone slogging through all those repetitive battles.
Don't get me wrong; I look forward to the loot. But I do actually get more enjoyment out of Skirmishes than pretty much anything else in this game. I cycle through and pick different ships. Use different crew who've been collecting digital dust. That was part of what I dug about Expeditions: actually doing something with my crew. I get that if you're competing hardcore, you need to win a ton of battles and don't have time to monkey around with ships and crew. But if you're taking it easy, I've found it satisfying and recommend it.
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason anyone claims to like skirmish events is the chron and honor drops during the event. Take that away and I can't imagine anyone slogging through all those repetitive battles.
+ farming for Galaxy events + farming for leveling up crew + credits for crew retrieval
Pure Skirmish events are a breath of air. Without this farming items for galaxy events, it takes a lot of chrons to get at least 1 copy of legendary crew in Galaxy events. Skirmish events return ~ 60% of chrons. Honor get from skirmish helps in honor sales (not only).
What is the purpose to hunt only 4* crew from Galaxy community rewards if it will be hard to immortalize legendary crew got from event rewards? 4* crew citations can be get from Objective event, so even if we return to old way with pur Skirmish event, we have the possibility to immortalize 4* crew.
Other aspect, even if we have pure Skirmish like in the past we can not immortalize all 5* got from different events. It is only a breath of air. With $ we can keep pace with Galaxy events exclusive, but lets think at new players. How many will remain if they observe that without $ it is hard to advance in game?
And yes, we do not have to be Einstein to play Skirmish. It is not cuantic physics. We have a challenge for our brain with filling nodes in the FBB battles.
That was part of what I dug about Expeditions: actually doing something with my crew.
I'd love to see them come back just for that reason. It was fun actually having to dig into my bench and use characters that otherwise never see the light of day. I realize they're not going to make any more new ones, but it would be nice to get a rerun here or there.
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The reason above for liking Galaxy events is currently mute for long term players, as we are getting super-rare cites thrown at us, far more than we need for non-Galaxy events.
What I like about Galaxy and Skirmish events, is I can do them in my own time, at my own pace, at the time I want.
Faction events I have to be on and off the phone all weekend, I have to be regularly thinking about when I next need to send shuttles out.
I do like a mixture of different events, but I prefer straight events now, rather than a mix.
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason anyone claims to like skirmish events is the chron and honor drops during the event. Take that away and I can't imagine anyone slogging through all those repetitive battles.
Don't get me wrong; I look forward to the loot. But I do actually get more enjoyment out of Skirmishes than pretty much anything else in this game. I cycle through and pick different ships. Use different crew who've been collecting digital dust. That was part of what I dug about Expeditions: actually doing something with my crew. I get that if you're competing hardcore, you need to win a ton of battles and don't have time to monkey around with ships and crew. But if you're taking it easy, I've found it satisfying and recommend it.
Agreed. I enjoyed expeditions and having to think about the crew I was going to use, as well as breaking out my dusty crew members. It felt like at least some semblance of strategy. I wish we would get a new event that actually required some thought instead of mindless tapping.
“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...
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason anyone claims to like skirmish events is the chron and honor drops during the event. Take that away and I can't imagine anyone slogging through all those repetitive battles.
Don't get me wrong; I look forward to the loot. But I do actually get more enjoyment out of Skirmishes than pretty much anything else in this game. I cycle through and pick different ships. Use different crew who've been collecting digital dust. That was part of what I dug about Expeditions: actually doing something with my crew. I get that if you're competing hardcore, you need to win a ton of battles and don't have time to monkey around with ships and crew. But if you're taking it easy, I've found it satisfying and recommend it.
Agreed. I enjoyed expeditions and having to think about the crew I was going to use, as well as breaking out my dusty crew members. It felt like at least some semblance of strategy. I wish we would get a new event that actually required some thought instead of mindless tapping.
To be clear, I don't think the old expedition events work as is with modern rosters. They were written for much smaller rosters, weaker crew, and without voyages running during the event.
A modern expedition event should require you to pick 5-10 crew at the start and only use those crew for the ticket. And the mission nodes should be tricky enough that you need to pick crew based on skill combos and not just the strongest crew. And I'd be tempted to revisit the decision to keep nodes unlocked so you can't just run in reverse after that first ticket. Make people really think about their crew and order so the winners are players who plan the best instead of grinding all the crew to exhaustion.
It's a No for me, as when it is combined with a Galaxy (which I hate), you at least get a 4/4 card, rather than yet another 3/4. Skirmish are significantly faster and more fun than the click-click of Galaxy, plus have better rewards like 300 Honour.
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason anyone claims to like skirmish events is the chron and honor drops during the event. Take that away and I can't imagine anyone slogging through all those repetitive battles.
Man, you could not be more wrong (in my case anyway). I genuinely really like skirmish events. I don't watch a lot of tv or movies normally, so I plan to watch some during those weekends.
When the weekend is done I genuinely feel bereft that the skirmishes are over because I have usually had a really 'productive' weekend hobbywise. Why wouldn't you want to do two things at once? Skirmishes are absolutely amazing for game progression and you literally don't have to think about them in any meaningful way so it's all upside. Netflix and chill and blowing ships up!
i play skirmish to get more ship shards and i thrive on the "slog"
also, i am quite fond of the pew pew. it gives me some much needed ship shards.
unsure if it is mute or moot for long term players because i have only played for a year so far. i imagine some of my fleet members would prefer me to be mute.
If the developers actually played deeply enough to run a Fleet they would know how important Skirmishes are to the sustainability of player retention/engagement.
So let me be very clear and direct to the people making these decisions: indirectly, the lifeblood of your game is Skirmishes. Skirmishes are like an extravagant 5-course meal after spending weeks subsisting on little more than cabbage, without the hope of a future feast it is VERY difficult to stay motivated when you know all you have to look forward to is an endless buffet of cabbage.
Absolutely bring them back. The same three event types over and over is extremely stale. And no, hybrids don't count as their own type by my reckoning. A new event type entirely would be more welcome, but definitely bring back expeditions. We need the variety.
I used to really enjoy galaxy events. I’m well aware that it’s the casino effect. Pick crew, build item, and sometimes get a prize (the “rare” reward), and the prize helps you earn more prizes (via VP, eventually). Cool.
Then skirmish came along and made galaxy seem weak by comparison. In skirmish, the prizes are game loot, not just partial-VP-equivalencies, and you get them every time (ok, 4 out of 5 times). Sure they are random, but each one of them has value (although the 30 intel one does strain the boundaries of the word “value”), and collectively the prizes help in multiple areas of the game (not just in the event). Wonderful!
Galaxies still have their value (as noted, the community prizes are great), but give me a full skirmish every month and throw in a half-skirmish every two months too!
We've kinda gotten more into the merits of Expeditions, and I'd like to return to a point I made earlier in favor of a full Skirmish. It affords an opportunity to use my ships for actual game play. Ordinarily, there are only a few I dare use in the Arena. Their real value is basically to be the avatar for a Voyage. It's only a Skirmish where I really get to use my favorite ship in all of Star Trek, the Enterprise-A. Plus, since each ship has its own staffing set-up, there's a reason to play around and use different crew.
This can all still be done during a hybrid, yes, but the opportunity cost is much higher. When I have four days, I can afford to play around with all these things at a leisurely pace and remain competitive. When I only have two days, though, there's too much pressure to spend time on it because that will definitely make a difference in where I can rank. If the other half is Faction, the VP from the Skirmish phase will very likely determine how I'll rank in the overall event. If the other half is Galaxy, then I have to, y'know, spend two days going hard at half of a Galaxy event.
Dear God, no. Expedition events were unbelievably bad. They had that unique combination of being both incredibly repetitive and requiring concentration.
It always struck me that the anti-Expedition players were ultimately against having to actually play a game. I've been around long enough to remember the requests to be able to warp every completed mission because players didn't want to actually play through away missions. Outside events, I think that's prudent; it allows players pressed for time to squeeze in their dailies. During an event, though, I think it's entirely reasonable to put players through their paces.
No one I knew in game liked them, they were by far and away the least popular event.
There were three of us in this thread before your post alone.
I am not against bringing them back but not as a replacement for pure Skirmish.
None of us said anything about replacing Skirmishes with Expeditions. I'd be against that myself. Like everyone else who digs them, I enjoy the loot. Plus, I like to cycle through my 5* ships. Few of them ever see any game play action outside voyages, and let's face it; we're not really seeing those ships do anything.
Skirmishes and Galaxies are mindless so you can do something else while you play them. If they weren't the game would just be a bad game. Factions are irritating because you have to remember to play, but otherwise they are low pain. Expeditions were bad because you solved them on the first playthrough, after that they were just tedious. Tedium is not the same as mindless. Tedium is way worse than mindless.
I don't know any of you. I did know my RL friends who I played with and I was more familiar with my other non-RL alliance acquaintances. To a man (and woman) they all disliked Expeditions. If the format had been popular DB/TP wouldn't have given up on it. I had one friend who didn't like the format, but did like that it was possible for him to get top 1000 because so many other regularly engaged people skipped Expeditions. I stayed engaged and got my legendary, but it was painful.
I liked expeditions but I do agree that they needed a better way of working.
Pure skirmishes are a grind. It takes a lot out of me and isn’t great for my carpal tunnel. I do like the extra honor but I prefer them in 2 days rather than 4.
Pure skirmishes are a grind. It takes a lot out of me and isn’t great for my carpal tunnel. I do like the extra honor but I prefer them in 2 days rather than 4.
Since Galaxy (shuttle missions) has 4 days allocated, I found it normal that Skirmish event to have 4 days too as in the past. Phase 1 starts on Thurdsay-> Thursday, Friday workdays or school days-> low availability. Skirmish allows us to choose background, to choose ships + rewards compared with Galaxy which is dull, repetitive, we are not using ships, not many options to bring a change etc
Maybe a good question is WHY has TP/WRG gone away from the pure skirm events? I have my suspicions, but interested in what others may think.
my theory has been that a pure squirimish puts undue stress on their servers because of the error messages and tremendous lag i receive whilst playing on the facebooks. i don't experience those error messages during the nefarious galaxy events.
IMO this is a problem with no solution other than the restoration of full Skirmishes.
I agree in principle that 2 days is enough time for most people who want to take advantage of all the goodness Skirmishes provide but the problem with the hybrid Skirmish events is we are not given the choice of when those 2 days happen. What if you have to work both days of the Skirmish half, that is a missed opportunity.
I'd be willing to sign off on Skirmish hybrid events if we got to choose the 48 hour window, I just really do not like having to move things around in my schedule/routines to accommodate Skirmish hybrid events which is why I greatly prefer full Skirmishes.
Comments
I've said for years the only reason anyone claims to like Galaxy events is because of the community rewards. Take away that free fourth star and I can't imagine anyone defending that resource-draining slog.
The only reason I went deep was to get Krem and to try for Bashir. It probably used more resources than I should have spent to finish in the 200s.
The only reason anyone claims to like skirmish events is the chron and honor drops during the event. Take that away and I can't imagine anyone slogging through all those repetitive battles.
At first I was like, "Who is Desmond?" and then I was like, "OHHH."
Don't get me wrong; I look forward to the loot. But I do actually get more enjoyment out of Skirmishes than pretty much anything else in this game. I cycle through and pick different ships. Use different crew who've been collecting digital dust. That was part of what I dug about Expeditions: actually doing something with my crew. I get that if you're competing hardcore, you need to win a ton of battles and don't have time to monkey around with ships and crew. But if you're taking it easy, I've found it satisfying and recommend it.
+ farming for Galaxy events + farming for leveling up crew + credits for crew retrieval
Pure Skirmish events are a breath of air. Without this farming items for galaxy events, it takes a lot of chrons to get at least 1 copy of legendary crew in Galaxy events. Skirmish events return ~ 60% of chrons. Honor get from skirmish helps in honor sales (not only).
What is the purpose to hunt only 4* crew from Galaxy community rewards if it will be hard to immortalize legendary crew got from event rewards? 4* crew citations can be get from Objective event, so even if we return to old way with pur Skirmish event, we have the possibility to immortalize 4* crew.
Other aspect, even if we have pure Skirmish like in the past we can not immortalize all 5* got from different events. It is only a breath of air. With $ we can keep pace with Galaxy events exclusive, but lets think at new players. How many will remain if they observe that without $ it is hard to advance in game?
And yes, we do not have to be Einstein to play Skirmish. It is not cuantic physics. We have a challenge for our brain with filling nodes in the FBB battles.
I'd love to see them come back just for that reason. It was fun actually having to dig into my bench and use characters that otherwise never see the light of day. I realize they're not going to make any more new ones, but it would be nice to get a rerun here or there.
The reason above for liking Galaxy events is currently mute for long term players, as we are getting super-rare cites thrown at us, far more than we need for non-Galaxy events.
What I like about Galaxy and Skirmish events, is I can do them in my own time, at my own pace, at the time I want.
Faction events I have to be on and off the phone all weekend, I have to be regularly thinking about when I next need to send shuttles out.
I do like a mixture of different events, but I prefer straight events now, rather than a mix.
Agreed. I enjoyed expeditions and having to think about the crew I was going to use, as well as breaking out my dusty crew members. It felt like at least some semblance of strategy. I wish we would get a new event that actually required some thought instead of mindless tapping.
To be clear, I don't think the old expedition events work as is with modern rosters. They were written for much smaller rosters, weaker crew, and without voyages running during the event.
A modern expedition event should require you to pick 5-10 crew at the start and only use those crew for the ticket. And the mission nodes should be tricky enough that you need to pick crew based on skill combos and not just the strongest crew. And I'd be tempted to revisit the decision to keep nodes unlocked so you can't just run in reverse after that first ticket. Make people really think about their crew and order so the winners are players who plan the best instead of grinding all the crew to exhaustion.
Man, you could not be more wrong (in my case anyway). I genuinely really like skirmish events. I don't watch a lot of tv or movies normally, so I plan to watch some during those weekends.
When the weekend is done I genuinely feel bereft that the skirmishes are over because I have usually had a really 'productive' weekend hobbywise. Why wouldn't you want to do two things at once? Skirmishes are absolutely amazing for game progression and you literally don't have to think about them in any meaningful way so it's all upside. Netflix and chill and blowing ships up!
also, i am quite fond of the pew pew. it gives me some much needed ship shards.
unsure if it is mute or moot for long term players because i have only played for a year so far. i imagine some of my fleet members would prefer me to be mute.
So let me be very clear and direct to the people making these decisions: indirectly, the lifeblood of your game is Skirmishes. Skirmishes are like an extravagant 5-course meal after spending weeks subsisting on little more than cabbage, without the hope of a future feast it is VERY difficult to stay motivated when you know all you have to look forward to is an endless buffet of cabbage.
Absolutely bring them back. The same three event types over and over is extremely stale. And no, hybrids don't count as their own type by my reckoning. A new event type entirely would be more welcome, but definitely bring back expeditions. We need the variety.
Then skirmish came along and made galaxy seem weak by comparison. In skirmish, the prizes are game loot, not just partial-VP-equivalencies, and you get them every time (ok, 4 out of 5 times). Sure they are random, but each one of them has value (although the 30 intel one does strain the boundaries of the word “value”), and collectively the prizes help in multiple areas of the game (not just in the event). Wonderful!
Galaxies still have their value (as noted, the community prizes are great), but give me a full skirmish every month and throw in a half-skirmish every two months too!
This can all still be done during a hybrid, yes, but the opportunity cost is much higher. When I have four days, I can afford to play around with all these things at a leisurely pace and remain competitive. When I only have two days, though, there's too much pressure to spend time on it because that will definitely make a difference in where I can rank. If the other half is Faction, the VP from the Skirmish phase will very likely determine how I'll rank in the overall event. If the other half is Galaxy, then I have to, y'know, spend two days going hard at half of a Galaxy event.
Expeditions
I liked expeditions but I do agree that they needed a better way of working.
Since Galaxy (shuttle missions) has 4 days allocated, I found it normal that Skirmish event to have 4 days too as in the past. Phase 1 starts on Thurdsay-> Thursday, Friday workdays or school days-> low availability. Skirmish allows us to choose background, to choose ships + rewards compared with Galaxy which is dull, repetitive, we are not using ships, not many options to bring a change etc
This could count as a reason why they have been stopped.
Having a stylus pen too makes skirmishes(& galaxies) sooo much easier
Maybe a good question is WHY has TP/WRG gone away from the pure skirm events? I have my suspicions, but interested in what others may think.
my theory has been that a pure squirimish puts undue stress on their servers because of the error messages and tremendous lag i receive whilst playing on the facebooks. i don't experience those error messages during the nefarious galaxy events.
Ben already said in his QA that one is coming.
I agree in principle that 2 days is enough time for most people who want to take advantage of all the goodness Skirmishes provide but the problem with the hybrid Skirmish events is we are not given the choice of when those 2 days happen. What if you have to work both days of the Skirmish half, that is a missed opportunity.
I'd be willing to sign off on Skirmish hybrid events if we got to choose the 48 hour window, I just really do not like having to move things around in my schedule/routines to accommodate Skirmish hybrid events which is why I greatly prefer full Skirmishes.