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I have (mostly) revised my opinion of expedition events.
DavideBooks
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
I started last October and was fully free to play until January. My first expedition event was Christmas time. My crew was weak and my crew spots very limited. I got enough points that, combined with the other half of the event, I hit threshold. I didn't care for the experience.
Now I have a much deeper and much much more advanced crew. Combine with that that I have been working my tail off to keep up with event crew. I went into this event with a bunch of Augments, a bunch of O'Brien crew, and a bunch of Riker crew. Even better, I had 2/4 fully equipped Iron Man Riker and 4/5 fully equipped Darth Bashir at the start.
One ticket netted me Rescue Rangers Gadget Leeta and the last star on Darth Bashir. A couple more tickets and Gadget Leeta was fully equipped and 3/4. Soon I was using only high bonus crew on every star and getting maximum returns. It was great. I ran out of tickets.
If only this were a two day event, I would do well.
I surpassed threshold and got all the bonuses. I was exceedingly fortunate on my event pack pull. I got star number 3 for Iron Man Riker and FOUR 4* beholds, all of which added to already held crew, two of which immortalized crew. The only schematics I got leveled up a ship. It was glorious.
I will later open the regular pull I earned.
So for me, personally, this expedition has been great.
However, I still have issues with this event type.
Most particularly, this event is patently biased to paying and experienced players. My first run through I used a bunch of different crew, but once I had high bonus crew, it didn't take as many, though they were all high level crew which newer players wouldn't have. Similarly, we have 15 more free cre spots now (I think) than when I was new, but you need far more crew for this event than any other.
Similarly, during galaxy events a few crew are tied up, but I can still run my shuttles and voyages. And on faction events I have crew ties to the shuttles and my voyages suffer a bit. But during the expedition event my shuttles and voyages were essentially grounded.
Overall, I have decided that these events are worth it, but only since I've advanced and paid for more crew spots.
Now I have a much deeper and much much more advanced crew. Combine with that that I have been working my tail off to keep up with event crew. I went into this event with a bunch of Augments, a bunch of O'Brien crew, and a bunch of Riker crew. Even better, I had 2/4 fully equipped Iron Man Riker and 4/5 fully equipped Darth Bashir at the start.
One ticket netted me Rescue Rangers Gadget Leeta and the last star on Darth Bashir. A couple more tickets and Gadget Leeta was fully equipped and 3/4. Soon I was using only high bonus crew on every star and getting maximum returns. It was great. I ran out of tickets.
If only this were a two day event, I would do well.
I surpassed threshold and got all the bonuses. I was exceedingly fortunate on my event pack pull. I got star number 3 for Iron Man Riker and FOUR 4* beholds, all of which added to already held crew, two of which immortalized crew. The only schematics I got leveled up a ship. It was glorious.
I will later open the regular pull I earned.
So for me, personally, this expedition has been great.
However, I still have issues with this event type.
Most particularly, this event is patently biased to paying and experienced players. My first run through I used a bunch of different crew, but once I had high bonus crew, it didn't take as many, though they were all high level crew which newer players wouldn't have. Similarly, we have 15 more free cre spots now (I think) than when I was new, but you need far more crew for this event than any other.
Similarly, during galaxy events a few crew are tied up, but I can still run my shuttles and voyages. And on faction events I have crew ties to the shuttles and my voyages suffer a bit. But during the expedition event my shuttles and voyages were essentially grounded.
Overall, I have decided that these events are worth it, but only since I've advanced and paid for more crew spots.
2
Comments
Cool how you gave a blow by blow of your experience, it really paints a picture;)
However I would have to disagree with some of your ending conclusions. Firstly, More experienced players, and players who spend, always have an advantage in pretty much all events, it is just the way it works. As far as exp, that's the way it should work, need to pay your dues kind of deal.
That being said, I recently started a new character just for fun, and I guess cause I am a glutton for punishment. I actually missed the first event of this mega with him, he was made after. so the character isn't even a full two weeks old yet. However with much ingenuity and 0 dollars spent, other than vip, Im 3/4th of the way done to threshold, and there are still 2 other parts to this event. So I would say this event is perfectly fine for newer players. I had much more success as a new character with this event then I did with that ship event, where I didnt even come close to threshold.
But either way glad you are enjoying your exp more;)
04-21-2016 "The Trouble with Klingons" (#95445, Faction)
05-12-2016 "Blood and Circuses" (#37748, Faction)
06-02-2016 "A Brute Squad" (#35339, Faction)
06-16-2016 "Contingency Plan" (#11438, Galaxy)
06-30-2016 "Season of Love" (#16008, Faction)
07-15-2016 "The Game's Afoot" (#3569, Expedition)
That was a dramatic improvement and it showed me that my willingness to grind (while the VIP players spoiled by warping bemoaned having to actually play missions manually!) made this format considerably more approachable for players like me than Faction or Galaxy Events. The second Expedition, "Quadrilateral", was a month after the first, and I placed #2150 in that one, a new personal best. There was no Expedition in August that year, but I saw continued improvement in September's "Ribbon of Joy" (#1240) and October's "Holograms Are Forever" (#1070).
Nothing about any of the other events has been as satisfying for me as gauging my progress as a player by my competitiveness in Expeditions. The first 4/4 I ever earned on my own was Dr. Tolian Soran ("Ribbon of Joy"), and the first event in which I ever cracked the top 1000 was an Expedition ("The Game's Afoot 2", #723). To this day, I still get a certain pleasure scrolling past either of those two in my crew that I don't feel for anyone else.
All of this is to say that I totally get why slogging through one of these masochistic events can become satisfying and rewarding, especially vis a vis a previous Expedition experience. Having been an outspoken fan of the format from the beginning, it always warms my heart to see another player find it enjoyable!
I think this is the one event where f2p can actually do well with little investment in resources ...
For Galaxy a f2p needs to do pre-farming, hoarding of chrons in mail, put aside many game aspects during the event etc. etc.
Faction f2p is really difficult for the beginner, you need 4 shuttles first (impossible when I started - Dil. was not rewarded unless you purchased something with real money) and a solid crew, which takes an incredible amount of time and effort in the game.
For Expedition, outside of the time spent on the event ... well, that's it ... you're basically levelling your crew anyway, you do not have to hoard items etc. restricting crew development etc. etc., you don't need to get Dil somehow to buy more shuttles.
I've been able to take part in the event (not done thresholds yet due to personal time constraints) and have:
- obtained almost all the rewards with little effort (at just over 200k VP at the time of writing).
- have been able to fully level and equip the new Leeta without having to rely on things like replication for any items because I've been able to send out voyages and shuttles without much general hinderance. So, basically I've been able to play all aspects of this game without too much hinderance.
The only real gripe I have, and why I dislike starting up new runs:
- Crew selection!! Aargh, so irritating, why can't ALL BONUS crew be at the top of your crew list and then based on rarity ... in Galaxy, and Faction this is always the case, your bonus crew kinda migrate to the top of the list because they are of most benefit ... I have to scroll down a ton to find my 2/4 Augment Riker, especially when I've used him a couple of times and am switching between missions.
I'd have to agree. Hours and hours of grinding away on my F2P account (once I had finished grinding on my other two accounts), and spending the 6 extra tickets I'd been saving in my in-game email, and I did clear all the thresholds, so that's a heck of a lot more VP than I've ever gotten there.
But after all that, my eyes have completely given up on me, I feel a thousand years old, and I think I'm going to be tapping imaginary buttons in my sleep. 😵
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
For the paid account, hitting thresholds was a doddle. I had Riker and BRB, and was able to quickly level Leeta.
On my F2P account I don't have Riker and levelling Leeta was a struggle so I gave up once I hit the 3rd Leeta, just wasn't worth it for the relatively small amounts of VP I was getting per run. Could I have hit the last threshold, yes I think I could, but it would have been far too much effort.
And this is the central issue with Expeditions, the effort-reward equation. They have definitely improved the rewards and that is why this is the best expedition so far, but it is by far the most tedious event after the initial working out who goes where. 12 tickets was *a lot* of work.
The reason faction events are the most popular is that they are the least effort. And we play these games for fun, not the grind.
Galaxies are unpopular because they are both grindy and expensive in terms of resources, but they are also great for new players and free players for getting FF 4*s.
Skirmishes were a nice iteration on expeditions, the grind was a little more fun because we were getting to roll on a loot table a few times a minute, and the volume of stuff gained made the grind worthwhile in a way that this expedition event is still a good bit short of.
No. Best pull I've ever had without a gold crew. I couldn't believe the beholds kept coming. The only way it could have been better would be if I had pulled a 3* Tuvok as well. (That is my only not FF 3*)
On the first day of the event I used most of one ticket and decided to go for the last star on Bashir and done. Or at least wait for the remaining two phases of the event to kick in. Last night however, I sat down and gave it a good go. I got back into the swing of things and was so impressed by the results I was getting with my Augment Riker, Bashir and the new Leeta that I wasn't even doing the Normal rounds - just picking off the VP for the Elite and Epic missions and then restarting another ticket... I hit the grind again this morning and before I'd finished my last ticket I'd hit the 300k and then the 400k rewards.
A lot depends on the depth of your crew - this time around, I had more "event" crew on tap and with an Immortalised Bashir and Riker bringing home the bacon (Leeta mopping up the rest), I realised it wasn't as much of a nightmare as I'd previously remembered.
It does take a lot more time, I think - and when I started on Thursday, I was already tired from a very long week, so I probably wasn't really in the mood - and I was struggling to read the dim red colours of the depleted stats of my crew and made a couple of stupid mistakes and wasted what should have been easy VP.
I can pretty much put my feet up now if I want - I've hit all the thresholds (don't know if there's any community rewards coming later!), and I'm not too bothered about Augment O'Brien anyway...
Did ok in the two pulls though - the 300k dropped a third star for Professor Scott...
... And the 400k Event pack dropped the last star I needed for Leeta, the last star needed for Dixon Hill in a behold and a begold with North Star Tucker as my choice! Not bad...
The grindy nature of the event gives an advantage to newer players if they are willing to work for it and extra tickets are affordable to monthly card buyers. Veteran players have more crew to work with and whales can still spend their way to the top, but time is the greatest factor. My first expedition was "Ribbon of Joy" and I barely snuck in the top 1000 & loved them ever since.
Now to take a breath in faction phase!