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Shortcuts and Simplifications

edited April 25 in The Bridge
Greetings
It would be nice if there were a way to disable animations in the game's settings. Given the repetitive nature of the game, there comes a point when disabling animations would save time and be a relief in general.
For the same reason, shortcuts to equipping and leveling up crews would also help, as the process can be fastidious with hundreds of crew in one's roster. Thanks.
BH.

Comments

  • Sulu's HusbandSulu's Husband ✭✭✭✭✭
    How about locking in speeds on pack openings, FBB, Arena, etc.
  • Sulu's HusbandSulu's Husband ✭✭✭✭✭
    I would also like for the game to remember when I click the auto-attack and speed up time buttons in ship battles. Having to re-check those in every single skirmish, fleet boss, and arena battle seems completely unnecessary.

    What a wonderful idea.
  • ChaosChildChaosChild ✭✭✭✭✭
    I would also like for the game to remember when I click the auto-attack and speed up time buttons in ship battles. Having to re-check those in every single skirmish, fleet boss, and arena battle seems completely unnecessary.

    This would be a terrible idea for arena battles. There are times when you don't want your ship to be on auto, when your opponent has a quick cloak for example, but if it remembered your previous settings you'd have lost the battle before you have a chance to turn it off. It may not happen often, and it may not affect some players at all, but making the game worse for some players is not a decision that should be embraced. Especially when the potential upside is saving players half a second per battle.

    Skirmish and boss battles wouldn't have the same problem, but I still don't see the issue being worth the development time to institute it. Especially when there are plenty of more important fixes that are needed first.
  • edited April 22
    Making the game easier for people who have to run 1500-2000 ship battles on a skirmish weekend should be just as much of a priority, if not more of a priority, than the odd newbie who shouldn't be using auto-battles and might lose a match or two when he forgets to cancel out of it.

    Every click we make adds up, whether that's all the unnecessary clicks which were sort of reduced recently in Continuum battles or any other content where we mindlessly repeat things that could easily be automated.

    Tapping 10,000 extra times during a weekend is not considered content.
  • ChaosChildChaosChild ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 22
    Making the game easier for people who have to run 1500-2000 ship battles on a skirmish weekend should be just as much of a priority, if not more of a priority, than the odd newbie who shouldn't be using auto-battles and might lose a match or two when he forgets to cancel out of it.

    Every click we make adds up, whether that's all the unnecessary clicks which were sort of reduced recently in Continuum battles or any other content where we mindlessly repeat things that could easily be automated.

    Tapping 10,000 extra times during a weekend is not considered content.

    Those "newbies" are the future of this game. Retaining players is hard enough at the best of times, deliberately making things harder for newer players in order to save a half second per battle for veterans who are going nowhere makes absolutely no sense.

    I'm saying this as a heavy skirmish player and one of the players who'd definitely benefit from this change. I don't want it.
  • edited April 22
    It can be made available as a perk to higher-level players. In any case, I doubt it would hurt giving people a choice to have it one way or another. Honestly, the endless clicking is the one "feature" that would cause me to leave the game altogether.
  • Making the game easier for people who have to run 1500-2000 ship battles on a skirmish weekend should be just as much of a priority, if not more of a priority, than the odd newbie who shouldn't be using auto-battles and might lose a match or two when he forgets to cancel out of it.

    Every click we make adds up, whether that's all the unnecessary clicks which were sort of reduced recently in Continuum battles or any other content where we mindlessly repeat things that could easily be automated.

    Tapping 10,000 extra times during a weekend is not considered content.

    This is the foundational problem with the game. Events are really just endurance competitions for “tapping”.

    Slight exception is faction events, but to win you are just proven to be good at hoarding resources and burning through them the fastest. And you still have to “tap” to fill seats and collect from returned shuttles.

  • WebberoniWebberoni ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 25
    Making the game easier for people who have to run 1500-2000 ship battles on a skirmish weekend should be just as much of a priority, if not more of a priority, than the odd newbie who shouldn't be using auto-battles and might lose a match or two when he forgets to cancel out of it.

    Every click we make adds up, whether that's all the unnecessary clicks which were sort of reduced recently in Continuum battles or any other content where we mindlessly repeat things that could easily be automated.

    Tapping 10,000 extra times during a weekend is not considered content.

    This is the foundational problem with the game. Events are really just endurance competitions for “tapping”.

    Slight exception is faction events, but to win you are just proven to be good at hoarding resources and burning through them the fastest. And you still have to “tap” to fill seats and collect from returned shuttles.

    How else would you structure events? Faction events are usually won with a combination of the deepest crews and the deepest pockets, be it from hoarding resources or burning through dil.

    Players who have developed strong enough crews (or won/purchased event crew), played the game methodically and strategically, then play a combination of the best/most during the active event, should win.

    I would much rather reward endurance than reward spending, and at least endurance-based rewards give newer players and FTP players a more level playing field, relatively speaking at least.
  • Admiral_CAdmiral_C ✭✭✭
    AviTrek wrote: »
    Making skirmish battles easier does not make skirmish battles easier. People don't understand point inflation. For most players going for rank reward, the limiting factor is time spent. If you make a skirmish quicker/easier, all you'll do is cause people to play even more and raise the chron costs for the skirmish. The amount of time clicking will be the same, it'll just cost more in chrons and result in a higher vp to reach the same reward as you do now.

    That depends on individual goals... For anyone who cares about top 1500, or top 100, or top x, which indeed is implied if you take the 10000 tap number literally, you are absolutely correct. For those who have the goal of just getting the static rewards, be it at 130k or 400k, reducing the number of clicks would be an actual effort saver.

    Personally, I am more often in the second category than the first, so my preference would be for an option for a permanent 'auto+3x' preference to be implemented, but I agree it will definitely lead to significant point inflation in the Tops list...

  • ChaosChildChaosChild ✭✭✭✭✭
    Admiral_C wrote: »
    AviTrek wrote: »
    Making skirmish battles easier does not make skirmish battles easier. People don't understand point inflation. For most players going for rank reward, the limiting factor is time spent. If you make a skirmish quicker/easier, all you'll do is cause people to play even more and raise the chron costs for the skirmish. The amount of time clicking will be the same, it'll just cost more in chrons and result in a higher vp to reach the same reward as you do now.

    That depends on individual goals... For anyone who cares about top 1500, or top 100, or top x, which indeed is implied if you take the 10000 tap number literally, you are absolutely correct. For those who have the goal of just getting the static rewards, be it at 130k or 400k, reducing the number of clicks would be an actual effort saver.

    Personally, I am more often in the second category than the first, so my preference would be for an option for a permanent 'auto+3x' preference to be implemented, but I agree it will definitely lead to significant point inflation in the Tops list...

    If all you're interested in is hitting threshold, the skirmish events are already the easiest ones to do this. By a long way. You can hit threshold with less than two hours of play, and if you're not trying to rank that two hours can be spread over the whole event.

    Just how little effort do you want to have to put in?
  • -:- AZ689-:- AZ689 ✭✭✭
    Optional auto-recall on low anti-matter
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    -:- AZ689 wrote: »
    Optional auto-recall on low anti-matter

    We need to be a little realistic here. This is a freemium game. It makes its money by getting people to spend money/dil. One way it does that is counting on voyages to run low and players forgetting to recall in time. An auto-recall is taking money out of TP's pocket is not going to be implemented unless you can show how it will increase profits elsewhere
  • These later comments here have little or nothing to do with my original post. What I suggested would not affect TP's bottom line. It would save my personal time though, one reason why I might just drop the game entirely, which indeed would affect TP's profit base. Just sayin'.
  • ShidoniShidoni ✭✭✭
    edited April 25
    ChaosChild wrote: »
    Admiral_C wrote: »
    AviTrek wrote: »
    Making skirmish battles easier does not make skirmish battles easier. People don't understand point inflation. For most players going for rank reward, the limiting factor is time spent. If you make a skirmish quicker/easier, all you'll do is cause people to play even more and raise the chron costs for the skirmish. The amount of time clicking will be the same, it'll just cost more in chrons and result in a higher vp to reach the same reward as you do now.

    That depends on individual goals... For anyone who cares about top 1500, or top 100, or top x, which indeed is implied if you take the 10000 tap number literally, you are absolutely correct. For those who have the goal of just getting the static rewards, be it at 130k or 400k, reducing the number of clicks would be an actual effort saver.

    Personally, I am more often in the second category than the first, so my preference would be for an option for a permanent 'auto+3x' preference to be implemented, but I agree it will definitely lead to significant point inflation in the Tops list...

    If all you're interested in is hitting threshold, the skirmish events are already the easiest ones to do this. By a long way. You can hit threshold with less than two hours of play, and if you're not trying to rank that two hours can be spread over the whole event.

    Just how little effort do you want to have to put in?

    I'm kind of in the same boat as Admiral_C. I don't play Skirmish events to "win", but I don't stop at the top threshold reward either. I play to get the most out of my chronitons, which involves spending every single one I have on space battles (Thank you, Take My Chrons spreadsheet), skirmishing away all my intel, and then doing it again. I don't even save up chrons (except the collection rewards and such) and this generally places me at rank 300-500, so I guess my strategy isn't all that common. But every time I think I've saved enough of the materials most efficiently gained through space battles, we have another Galaxy event, and whoops, I'm out of Novel 1 again (or something).

    Anyway, remembering my Auto and speed selections on Skirmish would help me spend a lot less time on Skirmish while not moving my score, though I'm not sure that's what the devs actually want.
  • DScottHewittDScottHewitt ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why are people arguing over the suggestion? If you don't want to use Auto, just don't turn it on to start with?

    As for it would affect Skirmishes, it is not going to give you bonus Intel. Nor is it going to suddenly drop Chronitons randomly into your account to get more Intel. People who want to rank higher will still need to either "bank" Chronitons. Or spend money to get them.

    I like the idea of less clicking for medical reasons. I was greatly helped by only having to click Auto once and Speed Up three times at the start of a Battle. Doing it once, and it remembering my settings for the Event is even better. My hands won't be literally crippled up for a few days by Monday, when there is a full Skirmish.

    If I want to push higher in a Skirmish, I'll still need to buy Intel, Chronitons, or Dilithium to run more Battles.

    "The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
  • Captain SMRCaptain SMR ✭✭✭
    Another in FBB, when specific traits grey out (romantic, federation, etc.) of the combo choices, don't show recommended characters that cannot solve because that trait is not longer an option.
  • Captain SMRCaptain SMR ✭✭✭
    edited April 25
    Final request, on continuum missions, allow both sorting by skill and specific trait (i.e., diplomacy AND merchant). Plus, show us what level each character has unlocked in continuum (0,1,2,3,4). I am not sure this is a "short cut" but it would make my life a lot easier.
  • WebberoniWebberoni ✭✭✭✭✭
    Another in FBB, when specific traits grey out (romantic, federation, etc.) of the combo choices, don't show recommended characters that cannot solve because that trait is not longer an option.

    This is one of my top QOL suggestions at the moment. Even if it's too hard to 'cross off' trait combos that fleetmates have already tried, at the very least treat used traits as if they no longer exist in the list of possibilities.
  • Admiral_CAdmiral_C ✭✭✭
    Just how little effort do you want to have to put in?


    If the effort is in the form of strategizing, making choices, and thinking... Quite a bit. Indeed, I wish there was more of it in the game.

    If effort is in the form of mindless mechanical clicking, then I would be fine minimizing it all the way to zero.
  • I would think any type of shortcuts to be optional switches in the game's settings. No one would be forced to use them.
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    I would think any type of shortcuts to be optional switches in the game's settings. No one would be forced to use them.

    Even if they are optional, my objection is not me using it personally, but what that option does when everyone else uses it. I don't want to spend ten times as many chrons and still have to sit and click for just as long to get the same rank. And that's what reducing clicks in a skirmish would do.

    I hate the grindy nature of the events. I'm cautiously optimistic of the new event type. But reducing clicks doesn't make an event less grindy. It just changes where the grind is.
  • Ishmael MarxIshmael Marx ✭✭✭✭✭
    I may blow the historical storytelling aspect of this a bit, so someone w/ better memory can correct details...

    When skirmishes were introduced, there were no auto/speed buttons. Every battle had to be run manually. During those early days, Paladin hit 10M VP to win an event - an unfathomable number at the time - and crushed everyone else in the process. Today, with auto/speed, the skirmish winner routinely scores in the 25M VP range. Automaton once played a skirmish at elite (not epic) and still finished in the top 100 (presumably just to see if he could). Making skirmish "less clicky" doesn't lead to playing less... we just score more points because it's easier to do so.

    (I do agree about the reduced physical strain that Scott mentioned - despite the "joys" of aging, auto/speed has allowed me to keep playing my favorite event type competitively without completely destroying my hand/wrist.)
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