The biggest problem IMO with the Galaxy events is if you are going for gold.
Once you have reached the Threshold any additional crons you are burning is just for a place on the medal table and slightly better rewards.
For the vast majority who even hit the top 1000 you are getting the chance of just a single star on a legend and a chance to pay through the nose to double the fun. Even if you double the crew you are still looking at months of honour to complete the legend and an event type that happens twice a month
The gold chase just makes the negative issues worse and gives little or no positives
I don't think any of the events are perfect and they all have pros and cons
Galaxy events:
Pros:
You can play at your own pace
Don't need to have a massive crew to do well so more open for newbies
Crew are not locked out for long periods
Con:
Can be a bit of a grind and can be kind of dull
Can be time consuming
Burns crons
If you're Threshold-and-Out, this is largely true. If you're playing for rank, however, these days it's all but mandatory you forfeit doing anything from Monday through Wednesday before the event except either pre-farm or stockpile chronitons, and that you commit most of your time and chronitons to playing all four days of the event. And even that isn't guaranteed to get you into the top 1000.
Faction events:
Pros:
Not a grind
Quick to play
Cons:
Need 4 shuttles and a decent crew to be competitive
Shuttle crew locked out for 3 hours at a time (which has knock on impact on Voyages)
Need to be around every three hours to set the next shuttles out
Another con is that the factions being run are specific and may not be any of the ones you need to run for someone you're trying to finish equipping. This was most glaringly a problem during "A Good Day to Lie", when we all needed KCA items for our influx of Klingons. That was a faction in the first week, but the second week featured Hirogen, Klingon Empire, and Section 31. The last two events were Hybrids where the single faction being run was the Klingon Empire.
Consequently, we only had one event weekend to run KCA shuttles and try to get the Bloodwine and Gagh we needed. It was so bad they had to introduce the Distress Call: Klingon Empire missions just to put some of what we needed into circulation (and even this was botched).
Expedition events:
Pros:
They are infrequent
Crew are not locked out for long periods
Need a deep crew to be competitive
Cons:
Even more of a grind than Galaxy events
Very time consuming
Get boring very quickly
As noted above, going for rank in Galaxy events requires an increasingly greater commitment these days than it once did, to the point that it can even steal away time from the days leading up to when it starts.
Expeditions, however, are finite: Three one-hour tickets per day, representing a cumulative twelve hours out of four days. There are additional event tickets in the threshold rewards, of course (during the last one, "Quadrilateral 2", there were five), but even at that, these tickets represent at most 17 hours out of 96.
Even that's misleading, though, because after using the first ticket, which is the most time-consuming, to unlock all missions and difficulties, the subsequent tickets can generally be completed in about 15 minutes. Let's say that first ticket uses the full hour, and the remaining sixteen tickets are completed in 15 minutes. That's five hours out of four days that Expeditions require from us.
You're welcome to grind away for lesser points once you've claimed all the rare point drops, of course, but even at max, this brings you to 17 hours committed to the Expedition, versus four days of the Galaxy Event plus any time spent pre-farming/doing nothing but stockpiling chronitons in the days leading up to it.
I don't think any of the events are perfect and they all have pros and cons
Galaxy events:
Pros:
You can play at your own pace
Don't need to have a massive crew to do well so more open for newbies
Crew are not locked out for long periods
Con:
Can be a bit of a grind and can be kind of dull
Can be time consuming Burns crons
Faction events:
Pros:
Not a grind
Quick to play
Cons:
Need 4 shuttles and a decent crew to be competitive
Shuttle crew locked out for 3 hours at a time (which has knock on impact on Voyages) Need to be around every three hours to set the next shuttles out
Expedition events:
Pros:
They are infrequent
Crew are not locked out for long periods
Need a deep crew to be competitive
Cons: DB changed and ruined them by removing strategy
Even more of a grind than Galaxy events
Very time consuming
Get boring very quickly
The bolded points stand out to me as the biggest negative of each event. Burning chrons is by far the worst. Galaxy events are unplayable for anyone who is dedicated to having a strong crew without spending a ton.
I don't think any of the events are perfect and they all have pros and cons
Galaxy events:
Pros:
You can play at your own pace
Don't need to have a massive crew to do well so more open for newbies
Crew are not locked out for long periods
Con:
Can be a bit of a grind and can be kind of dull
Can be time consuming Burns crons
Faction events:
Pros:
Not a grind
Quick to play
Cons:
Need 4 shuttles and a decent crew to be competitive
Shuttle crew locked out for 3 hours at a time (which has knock on impact on Voyages) Need to be around every three hours to set the next shuttles out
Expedition events:
Pros:
They are infrequent
Crew are not locked out for long periods
Need a deep crew to be competitive
Cons: DB changed and ruined them by removing strategy
Even more of a grind than Galaxy events
Very time consuming
Get boring very quickly
The bolded points stand out to me as the biggest negative of each event. Burning chrons is by far the worst. Galaxy events are unplayable for anyone who is dedicated to having a strong crew without spending a ton.
Very good points. However you missed one point: galaxies cost the most time of ALL of the event types. Most captains don't notice this because it is spread out more. It was even mentioned in this thread that one of the best strategies for galaxies was to start pre-farming days beforehand.
In this last galaxy event I finished in the top 1000 for the first time since achievements were introduced, rank #169 to be exact! I hadn't saved up any chronitons, not even the 100 that came in a message that week. My fleet didn't hit our max chroniton reward on two days of the event. I didn't get any chronitons from the gauntlet. And I didn't spend a dime over the course of the event. Even if there was a depressed turnout because Neelix isn't the biggest draw for people, I have to say, I've become a big fan of galaxy events!
I agree that this is overkill, though, because dedicating all my chronitons to the event and none to my crew in order to wind up with a single copy of a new legendary (and the 4/4 Pulaski I would have gone for even if I didn't try to compete for ranked rewards) is kind of a drag. Expeditions are fun, and a new kind of event would be even better.
In this last galaxy event I finished in the top 1000 for the first time since achievements were introduced, rank #169 to be exact! I hadn't saved up any chronitons, not even the 100 that came in a message that week. My fleet didn't hit our max chroniton reward on two days of the event. I didn't get any chronitons from the gauntlet. And I didn't spend a dime over the course of the event. Even if there was a depressed turnout because Neelix isn't the biggest draw for people, I have to say, I've become a big fan of galaxy events!
I agree that this is overkill, though, because dedicating all my chronitons to the event and none to my crew in order to wind up with a single copy of a new legendary (and the 4/4 Pulaski I would have gone for even if I didn't try to compete for ranked rewards) is kind of a drag. Expeditions are fun, and a new kind of event would be even better.
I know of many people who only did Threshold (myself included) because they already had Noah and once they had the threshold reward completed there was little drive to continue, especially as it was burning crons trying to get one gold star on a two skilled legendary of an unpopular character.
I ended up spending half the crons I would have normally spent going for gold on immortalising 10 characters and completing some collections.
If you're Threshold-and-Out, this is largely true. If you're playing for rank, however, these days it's all but mandatory you forfeit doing anything from Monday through Wednesday before the event except either pre-farm or stockpile chronitons, and that you commit most of your time and chronitons to playing all four days of the event. And even that isn't guaranteed to get you into the top 1000.
I typically only do Warp 1 events during the first few days of the event and then start the evening before the final day (with devoting a bit of time to the final push). I can frequently get in the top 1000 with only a few hours of crafting. The last hour you have to watch like a hawk if you haven't invested heavily to ensure a high position.
Another con is that the factions being run are specific and may not be any of the ones you need to run for someone you're trying to finish equipping. This was most glaringly a problem during "A Good Day to Lie", when we all needed KCA items for our influx of Klingons. That was a faction in the first week, but the second week featured Hirogen, Klingon Empire, and Section 31. The last two events were Hybrids where the single faction being run was the Klingon Empire.
How could I leave this off the list! This is one of the very worst things about Galaxy events. The fact that for a full faction you have your shuttles blocked for over half the week. If you are trying to level any characters which require faction only events (especially things like medical experiments which are often faction only and are used in bulk) it is running into a wall when upgrading a character
All you have to do for galaxy events is save chrons a couple days then get to 130k, have your 4/4 crewmember and a free community pull. You can do 130k in a day or two depending on how much you save. That's not too bad. Galaxy events allow you two 4/4 and a free portal pull. With faction you are stuck with a ton of 3/4 that you lvl up for the event and then dont want to airlock. They take up crew slots and you are stuck.
Comments
Once you have reached the Threshold any additional crons you are burning is just for a place on the medal table and slightly better rewards.
For the vast majority who even hit the top 1000 you are getting the chance of just a single star on a legend and a chance to pay through the nose to double the fun. Even if you double the crew you are still looking at months of honour to complete the legend and an event type that happens twice a month
The gold chase just makes the negative issues worse and gives little or no positives
If you're Threshold-and-Out, this is largely true. If you're playing for rank, however, these days it's all but mandatory you forfeit doing anything from Monday through Wednesday before the event except either pre-farm or stockpile chronitons, and that you commit most of your time and chronitons to playing all four days of the event. And even that isn't guaranteed to get you into the top 1000.
Another con is that the factions being run are specific and may not be any of the ones you need to run for someone you're trying to finish equipping. This was most glaringly a problem during "A Good Day to Lie", when we all needed KCA items for our influx of Klingons. That was a faction in the first week, but the second week featured Hirogen, Klingon Empire, and Section 31. The last two events were Hybrids where the single faction being run was the Klingon Empire.
Consequently, we only had one event weekend to run KCA shuttles and try to get the Bloodwine and Gagh we needed. It was so bad they had to introduce the Distress Call: Klingon Empire missions just to put some of what we needed into circulation (and even this was botched).
As noted above, going for rank in Galaxy events requires an increasingly greater commitment these days than it once did, to the point that it can even steal away time from the days leading up to when it starts.
Expeditions, however, are finite: Three one-hour tickets per day, representing a cumulative twelve hours out of four days. There are additional event tickets in the threshold rewards, of course (during the last one, "Quadrilateral 2", there were five), but even at that, these tickets represent at most 17 hours out of 96.
Even that's misleading, though, because after using the first ticket, which is the most time-consuming, to unlock all missions and difficulties, the subsequent tickets can generally be completed in about 15 minutes. Let's say that first ticket uses the full hour, and the remaining sixteen tickets are completed in 15 minutes. That's five hours out of four days that Expeditions require from us.
You're welcome to grind away for lesser points once you've claimed all the rare point drops, of course, but even at max, this brings you to 17 hours committed to the Expedition, versus four days of the Galaxy Event plus any time spent pre-farming/doing nothing but stockpiling chronitons in the days leading up to it.
The bolded points stand out to me as the biggest negative of each event. Burning chrons is by far the worst. Galaxy events are unplayable for anyone who is dedicated to having a strong crew without spending a ton.
Very good points. However you missed one point: galaxies cost the most time of ALL of the event types. Most captains don't notice this because it is spread out more. It was even mentioned in this thread that one of the best strategies for galaxies was to start pre-farming days beforehand.
I agree that this is overkill, though, because dedicating all my chronitons to the event and none to my crew in order to wind up with a single copy of a new legendary (and the 4/4 Pulaski I would have gone for even if I didn't try to compete for ranked rewards) is kind of a drag. Expeditions are fun, and a new kind of event would be even better.
I know of many people who only did Threshold (myself included) because they already had Noah and once they had the threshold reward completed there was little drive to continue, especially as it was burning crons trying to get one gold star on a two skilled legendary of an unpopular character.
I ended up spending half the crons I would have normally spent going for gold on immortalising 10 characters and completing some collections.
I typically only do Warp 1 events during the first few days of the event and then start the evening before the final day (with devoting a bit of time to the final push). I can frequently get in the top 1000 with only a few hours of crafting. The last hour you have to watch like a hawk if you haven't invested heavily to ensure a high position.
How could I leave this off the list! This is one of the very worst things about Galaxy events. The fact that for a full faction you have your shuttles blocked for over half the week. If you are trying to level any characters which require faction only events (especially things like medical experiments which are often faction only and are used in bulk) it is running into a wall when upgrading a character