Shuttle Crew on Standby
SMM
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A couple of threads talked about Faction Events and some people hating them because they couldn't reliably be available to re-launch shuttles. I had a plan or suggestion that I think I submitted to DB over a year ago. My original thoughts had more detail than this suggestion, which involved new boost varieties, however the essence is as follows.
When all shuttles are out, missions can still be opened. The facility to add crew and boost to an open mission would be available but instead of a launch button a standby button would be available. Whilst on standby the crew would be as unavailable as if they were on a mission. Should a shuttle return the next standby mission would automatically launch. A standby mission could be cancelled releasing crew and boost at any time prior to launch.
Presumably, most often, the original set of shuttles would have stronger crew than standby missions. This would make attended re-launches preferable as crew could be reused but give those who cannot be available some options.
When all shuttles are out, missions can still be opened. The facility to add crew and boost to an open mission would be available but instead of a launch button a standby button would be available. Whilst on standby the crew would be as unavailable as if they were on a mission. Should a shuttle return the next standby mission would automatically launch. A standby mission could be cancelled releasing crew and boost at any time prior to launch.
Presumably, most often, the original set of shuttles would have stronger crew than standby missions. This would make attended re-launches preferable as crew could be reused but give those who cannot be available some options.
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Here is a standard schedule for the game, of course some of these times can vary a little, but it gives a general idea of how often you're encouraged to play.
7:00 Wake up in the morning and send out shuttles, a voyage, and run gauntlet.
9:00 Play a dilemma
10:00 New round of shuttles
11:00 2nd dilemma + gauntlet
12:00 Chron boost + debo
13:00 3rd dilemma + shuttles
~14:00 Check on Voyage and recall
15:00 Gauntlet
16:00 Shuttles
~17:00 Claim Voyage and start new one
18:00 Chron boost
19:00 Shuttles, Gauntlet, Dilemma
21:00 Dilemma
22:00 Shuttles + Chron Boost
23:00 Gauntlet + Dilemma
15 times during the day to login. 15 times a day for DB to try and convince you to buy a special offer. 15 times a day to show you an ad.
DB may have a lot to work on when it comes to QA and deployments, but when it comes to monetizing the game and encouraging player impressions they know exactly what they're doing.
It's pretty much the same model that all freemium games use. Probably because it works.
This is exactly why we can not warp cadet missions
Some people go to town on faction events, I only log in every three hours during the day, regardless of voyage dilemmas etc. and I can finish top 1000 when I want too most of the time.
I do wish that the voyage, and gauntlet refreshes we on the same timebase but Im not going to loose sleep over it.
Jim
After "quick start to 4k missions", if you use it, you should choose the faction, which seems to have best missions for you, open all of them and then choose crew and launch those, that have the best odds. And those 2-4 missions you should rerun every times, that they are completed, letting the other missions for that faction expire - the Merits' cost is really low, compared to gain in event points.
Doing this, when those chosen missions are using the best crew for them, every time 1 of them arrives home and is ready to be relaunched, the crew for it shows up as it's completed. And after sending all of them out, you can freely use the remaining crew for voyages.