Regarding Server Release Notes 04-18-2023

Aquiel

Specifically this mention of changes to shuttle missions: “We've also made some changes to the shuttle mission loot, where all successful 3-hour missions will now guarantee one quality 0 and one quality 1 faction item, while less-than-3-hour missions will drop those items less frequently, and will not drop quality 2 items”

I’m trying to obtain the 2⭐️ Science Experiment and it previously would have been obtainable in an Augment shuttle mission whereas it it no longer showing any way to obtain this item other than replication. See attached images:

Jenos Idanian

Are your Augments shuttles at 3h or less?

Aquiel

They’re at less than 3 hours due to tanking which I suspect is what WR is trying to force us away from. But *if* it’s still available in a 3 hr shuttle mission, shouldn’t the shuttle mission still be shown but grayed out?

[10F]risky Dingo

Ya, this seems like an unintentional bug/oversight

ChaosChild

They're definitely still available from 3-hour shuttles.

Just got 4 from 4 shuttles, 2 singles and a double.

Ishmael Marx

More generally…

Two players I respect have indicated that my initial negative impression of this change (ie, 2* items only w/ 3hr shuttles) is perhaps something I should reconsider. It negatively affects my strategy for acquiring 2* security codes and so far I’m having trouble finding the silver lining in this change. But… I’m willing to be convinced that this is a “me” problem and that it is a net positive for the game.

I don’t usually seek out “tell me I’m a fool” feedback, and overall this is a silly thing for having a Picard moment (this far, no farther!) or a Sarek moment (my logic fails me where my security codes are concerned), but as Captain Bateson might say, I’m listening…

Aquiel

Ishmael Marx wrote: »

More generally…

Two players I respect have indicated that my initial negative impression of this change (ie, 2* items only w/ 3hr shuttles) is perhaps something I should reconsider. It negatively affects my strategy for acquiring 2* security codes and so far I’m having trouble finding the silver lining in this change. But… I’m willing to be convinced that this is a “me” problem and that it is a net positive for the game.

I don’t usually seek out “tell me I’m a fool” feedback, and overall this is a silly thing for having a Picard moment (this far, no farther!) or a Sarek moment (my logic fails me where my security codes are concerned), but as Captain Bateson might say, I’m listening…

I think you should trust your initial instinctive reaction. You felt that way for a reason, trust yourself, @Ishmael Marx This is a crappy change and one that will cripple players that have not already achieved higher levels of play. The initial intent may have been to stop players from tanking their shuttles, but it’s going to affect lower level players as well. Bad move IMO

Dangevin [CAB]

ChaosChild wrote: »

They're definitely still available from 3-hour shuttles.

Just got 4 from 4 shuttles, 2 singles and a double.

Something is wrong with the loot tables. All 3h shuttles feature the expanded list of 2* faction items, but also pull from the Federation sub-3h list. Your screen illustrates, and this bears out in the actual drops upon completion. (See screen of my Hirogen shuttle below...all 4 of them had Fed items)

I have half of my factions untanked, and these Fed faction items appear in all of them...none for tanked ones. Only Fed items, nothing else seems awry.

I will raise the issue in Engineering



Drop table example, grubs n films:

DavideBooks

I'm afraid I don't understand this new change and how it affects me. I only have one faction tanked. One of the Frengi factions. I basically randomly choose factions to run, though I run an awful lot of section 31 for the 0* holoprograms. Will this make those holoprograms even harder?

weakinteraction

DavideBooks wrote: »

I'm afraid I don't understand this new change and how it affects me. I only have one faction tanked. One of the Frengi factions. I basically randomly choose factions to run, though I run an awful lot of section 31 for the 0* holoprograms. Will this make those holoprograms even harder?

If I've understood the announcement correctly, it should actually make it easier as your non-tanked shuttles now have a guarantee of giving at least one 0* item, which will be a holoprogram some of the time. It's the opposite situation - trying to get 2* items from tanked shuttles - that's been nerfed.

Shadowconmaster

The change will negatively affect people who have tanked their shuttles until they get them back up to 3 hours.

The change greatly benefits new players, the casual player, and people who were to lazy to do the shuttle nerf(ie myself). They will now get guaranteed rewards from the factions as soon as they get up to 3 hours. If memory serves, this is after 20 successful shuttles in that faction(-1.5 per failure).

The change is the best for everyone who does Faction events(like the one in a week). After they get to the 3 hour mark, they will get guaranteed 0* and 1* items. I believe the next section 31 faction event will finally relieve people of the constant need for larger quantities of case files and holoprograms.

[RotP]Ran Airen

Shadowconmaster wrote: »

The change will negatively affect people who have tanked their shuttles until they get them back up to 3 hours.

The change greatly benefits new players, the casual player, and people who were to lazy to do the shuttle nerf(ie myself). They will now get guaranteed rewards from the factions as soon as they get up to 3 hours. If memory serves, this is after 20 successful shuttles in that faction(-1.5 per failure).

The change is the best for everyone who does Faction events(like the one in a week). After they get to the 3 hour mark, they will get guaranteed 0* and 1* items. I believe the next section 31 faction event will finally relieve people of the constant need for larger quantities of case files and holoprograms.

Unless I am missing something in the meaning of "3 hour shuttles", it goes
30 seconds
2 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
3 hour

So if you were at 30 seconds, it a mere 5 successful shuttles to get back to 3 hours from fully tanked.

DavideBooks

We often complain that these game makers don't play their own game. And that may be true. But they certainly know about the work-arounds we have developed and what resources are needed. This new change apparently helps me (I only tanked one of the Frengi factions so I lose nothing), but I can see how it negativity affects others. It was clearly done to force people away from tanking factions. They knew what we did and what people wanted.

I think something similar was done to the Artifact. I get dribbles of schematics from most ships from packs. I haven't had anything from the Artifact since it was a monthly reward. I have gone up several evels on other ships, but not that. They knw it is desired and they know why. I can't prove it, but I would bet a significant amount that they have intentionally lowered the chances of that particular ship. I don't believe for an instant that the odds are the same on all ships.

Seven Constanza

I’ve gotten some Artifact schematics since it was the monthly reward but I’m some 600 or so short of finishing it. I wish it would come up more than say some of the older ships that I’ve finished long ago.

AviTrek

Tanking shuttles has always felt like a backdoor hack to me. I'm not surprised they decided to try and nudge away from it. If you tanked shuttles for the sake of farming items this is annoying, but as others have noted, it's easy to untank. If on the other hand you tanked for the sake of objective events and getting shuttles done quickly, they're still usable.

Personally I feel like this balance is fair. They are trying to nudge players away from tanked shuttles without putting an explicit block in the code that would prevent you from tanking shuttles.

ChaosChild

J

[RotP]Ran Airen wrote: »

Shadowconmaster wrote: »

The change will negatively affect people who have tanked their shuttles until they get them back up to 3 hours.

The change greatly benefits new players, the casual player, and people who were to lazy to do the shuttle nerf(ie myself). They will now get guaranteed rewards from the factions as soon as they get up to 3 hours. If memory serves, this is after 20 successful shuttles in that faction(-1.5 per failure).

The change is the best for everyone who does Faction events(like the one in a week). After they get to the 3 hour mark, they will get guaranteed 0* and 1* items. I believe the next section 31 faction event will finally relieve people of the constant need for larger quantities of case files and holoprograms.

Unless I am missing something in the meaning of "3 hour shuttles", it goes
30 seconds
2 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
3 hour

So if you were at 30 seconds, it a mere 5 successful shuttles to get back to 3 hours from fully tanked.

I believe it takes more than one successful shuttle to go up each tier. But I'm basing that on my memory of getting up to 3-hours in the first place, which was years ago. I've never bothered with tanking shuttles.

Kim_Novak.II

AviTrek wrote: »

Tanking shuttles has always felt like a backdoor hack to me. I'm not surprised they decided to try and nudge away from it. If you tanked shuttles for the sake of farming items this is annoying, but as others have noted, it's easy to untank. If on the other hand you tanked for the sake of objective events and getting shuttles done quickly, they're still usable.

Personally I feel like this balance is fair. They are trying to nudge players away from tanked shuttles without putting an explicit block in the code that would prevent you from tanking shuttles.

I have tanked all the factions but just keep the main ones liw so I can get loads of chrons when it comes to winning faction & also Ferengi as it's far easier to complete the midweek complete successful shuttles as you can launch 16 instead of the regular 12

Ivanstone

DavideBooks wrote: »

I think something similar was done to the Artifact. I get dribbles of schematics from most ships from packs. I haven't had anything from the Artifact since it was a monthly reward.

I've gotten about 5-600 Artifacts Schematics since it was an Arena award. I finished that month with a 9/10 Artifact and have since gotten it to 10/10.

DavideBooks

I suppose I stand corrected. I would very much like to not be so far from luck.

[10F]risky Dingo

Ishmael Marx wrote: »

More generally…

Two players I respect have indicated that my initial negative impression of this change (ie, 2* items only w/ 3hr shuttles) is perhaps something I should reconsider. It negatively affects my strategy for acquiring 2* security codes and so far I’m having trouble finding the silver lining in this change. But… I’m willing to be convinced that this is a “me” problem and that it is a net positive for the game.

I don’t usually seek out “tell me I’m a fool” feedback, and overall this is a silly thing for having a Picard moment (this far, no farther!) or a Sarek moment (my logic fails me where my security codes are concerned), but as Captain Bateson might say, I’m listening…

As someone with all shuttles tanked all I can say is they aren't going to change it back. The change makes little sense to me, I'd keep my shuttles tanked even if under 3h dropped nothing. As long as they help with OEs and chrons, tanked shuttles aren't going anywhere.

That said, I get my 2* security codes from MWF cadets. Or, if you're already using those cadets for other things, you can temporarily "untank" your shuttles, farm items, and then "retank" them. That's what I do for 2* science experiments. I'll untank for a few days, then retank them back down. Rinse repeate.

[10F]risky Dingo

DavideBooks wrote: »

I'm afraid I don't understand this new change and how it affects me. I only have one faction tanked. One of the Frengi factions. I basically randomly choose factions to run, though I run an awful lot of section 31 for the 0* holoprograms. Will this make those holoprograms even harder?

Theoretically, it should make getting those holoprograms easier. However, it is currently bugged and that's very much not the case. Since the federation 0-1* items are in the loot tables for all factions, you might end up with 0* orchids (or w/e), instead of a 0* holoprogram, as your "guaranteed" 0* drop. I've had this literally happen to me (with the augments).

[10F]risky Dingo

ChaosChild wrote: »

J

[RotP]Ran Airen wrote: »

Shadowconmaster wrote: »

The change will negatively affect people who have tanked their shuttles until they get them back up to 3 hours.

The change greatly benefits new players, the casual player, and people who were to lazy to do the shuttle nerf(ie myself). They will now get guaranteed rewards from the factions as soon as they get up to 3 hours. If memory serves, this is after 20 successful shuttles in that faction(-1.5 per failure).

The change is the best for everyone who does Faction events(like the one in a week). After they get to the 3 hour mark, they will get guaranteed 0* and 1* items. I believe the next section 31 faction event will finally relieve people of the constant need for larger quantities of case files and holoprograms.

Unless I am missing something in the meaning of "3 hour shuttles", it goes
30 seconds
2 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
3 hour

So if you were at 30 seconds, it a mere 5 successful shuttles to get back to 3 hours from fully tanked.

I believe it takes more than one successful shuttle to go up each tier. But I'm basing that on my memory of getting up to 3-hours in the first place, which was years ago. I've never bothered with tanking shuttles.

It only takes one success to move you up the shuttle timer. In other words, at 30s, completing a successful shuttle 5x will put you into the 3h bracket.

Edit: to be clear. The timer doesn't change until you complete a successful shuttle then open a new transmission. All shuttles opened, at a certain time level, will keep that time level until used or expired.

AviTrek

[10F]risky Dingo wrote: »

ChaosChild wrote: »

J

[RotP]Ran Airen wrote: »

Shadowconmaster wrote: »

The change will negatively affect people who have tanked their shuttles until they get them back up to 3 hours.

The change greatly benefits new players, the casual player, and people who were to lazy to do the shuttle nerf(ie myself). They will now get guaranteed rewards from the factions as soon as they get up to 3 hours. If memory serves, this is after 20 successful shuttles in that faction(-1.5 per failure).

The change is the best for everyone who does Faction events(like the one in a week). After they get to the 3 hour mark, they will get guaranteed 0* and 1* items. I believe the next section 31 faction event will finally relieve people of the constant need for larger quantities of case files and holoprograms.

Unless I am missing something in the meaning of "3 hour shuttles", it goes
30 seconds
2 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
3 hour

So if you were at 30 seconds, it a mere 5 successful shuttles to get back to 3 hours from fully tanked.

I believe it takes more than one successful shuttle to go up each tier. But I'm basing that on my memory of getting up to 3-hours in the first place, which was years ago. I've never bothered with tanking shuttles.

It only takes one success to move you up the shuttle timer. In other words, at 30s, completing a successful shuttle 5x will put you into the 3h bracket.

Edit: to be clear. The timer doesn't change until you complete a successful shuttle then open a new transmission. All shuttles opened, at a certain time level, will keep that time level until used or expired.

I think it's more than 1 success, but it's not much more. You can still do it easily. Just like a kickstart. You can open every faction mission, run them all at 30 seconds and only then open the completed shuttle. It's very easy to jump back to 3 hours.

WaldoMag

I was waiting for someone else to post about this. I was negative on the idea. And, thought this might be the final nail in the coffin.

However, what I now find is that I can farm components. They drop much more often . I actually can level my crew without Chrons. (When only needing components)

Before:
The drop of two star items with 0:30 seconds shuttles was about 60 successful shuttle missions to get one 2* item. To get one I need on the average about 180 successful shuttle missions. I was sending 300 shuttles 180 successful and 120 failures.

I still basically rely on replication to replicate the item that needs 2* faction only items. BTW forget 2* Warnog dropping from space battle mission (Dogs of War). I spent over 600 Chrons and none dropped.

Now:
Use cadet missions to farm the 2* faction only items. Concentrate on the ones most used , such as, 2* security codes, 2* covert contacts, and 2* tactical Alert. But keep track of what you are low on and run those cadet missions.
Best bet on replication, is the item that needs it . This may mean replicating 5* items.

Edit: if they decide to lower the drop rates of components that is when I will first close my wallet and then quit.

Edit2: At the moment they took the 2* faction items away from the 0:30 second
Shuttles but by giving a better drop rate on components , they have given us more in return.

Kim_Novak.II

Find crew(best to use STTWIKI) that are easy to get & low level that have HTF/faction items then replicate them daily, but don't fully level them up otherwise that item will be equipped & you won't be able to replicate it again.

Good example is Talos IV Spock

*Nomad* {PoF}

Kim_Novak.II wrote: »

Find crew(best to use STTWIKI) that are easy to get & low level that have HTF/faction items then replicate them daily, but don't fully level them up otherwise that item will be equipped & you won't be able to replicate it again.

Good example is Talos IV Spock

Next new change from WRG: Now only allowed to replicate 1 of the same item per day....

Shadowconmaster

[RotP]Ran Airen wrote: »

Shadowconmaster wrote: »

The change will negatively affect people who have tanked their shuttles until they get them back up to 3 hours.

The change greatly benefits new players, the casual player, and people who were to lazy to do the shuttle nerf(ie myself). They will now get guaranteed rewards from the factions as soon as they get up to 3 hours. If memory serves, this is after 20 successful shuttles in that faction(-1.5 per failure).

The change is the best for everyone who does Faction events(like the one in a week). After they get to the 3 hour mark, they will get guaranteed 0* and 1* items. I believe the next section 31 faction event will finally relieve people of the constant need for larger quantities of case files and holoprograms.

Unless I am missing something in the meaning of "3 hour shuttles", it goes
30 seconds
2 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
3 hour

So if you were at 30 seconds, it a mere 5 successful shuttles to get back to 3 hours from fully tanked.

Similar to faction events, you require a certain amount of successes to go up a tier. It's not just 1 per teir.

WaldoMag

Shadowconmaster wrote: »

[RotP]Ran Airen wrote: »

Shadowconmaster wrote: »

The change will negatively affect people who have tanked their shuttles until they get them back up to 3 hours.

The change greatly benefits new players, the casual player, and people who were to lazy to do the shuttle nerf(ie myself). They will now get guaranteed rewards from the factions as soon as they get up to 3 hours. If memory serves, this is after 20 successful shuttles in that faction(-1.5 per failure).

The change is the best for everyone who does Faction events(like the one in a week). After they get to the 3 hour mark, they will get guaranteed 0* and 1* items. I believe the next section 31 faction event will finally relieve people of the constant need for larger quantities of case files and holoprograms.

Unless I am missing something in the meaning of "3 hour shuttles", it goes
30 seconds
2 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
3 hour

So if you were at 30 seconds, it a mere 5 successful shuttles to get back to 3 hours from fully tanked.

Similar to faction events, you require a certain amount of successes to go up a tier. It's not just 1 per teir.

It is one per up to an hour.

Mirror Cartman

I keep hirogen and borg tanked.

If hirogen pops up in a shuttle event, I concentrate on hirogen shuttles for that event to farm useful stuff, then go back to my other factions.