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So are Starbase doffs "Working as Expected"

abcde123123abcde123123 Member Posts: 342 Arc User
Can we get somebody from Cryptic to share the wisdom and thinking behind creating starbase doffs?

Currently you can buy starbase doff packs for fleet credits. However doffs from those packs:

* cannot be contributed to sb projects
* do not give dil/recruitment xp on dismiss
* yet can still be sold on exchange

Now I do understand that there's certain brain thinning during the summer time but this is just beyond me.

What is the point of white doffs that cannot be used for the very purposes white doffs are used for: grind/dismiss/feed to sb projects? And those doffs look EXACTLY alike normal doffs that can be used for such purposes? (Read good luck buying doffs on exchange, especially those sensor doffs for 500k a piece).

And while I can foresee the "oh people with a lof of credits will buy a lot of doffs" argument, may I remind you that fleet credits do not come out of thin air.
Post edited by abcde123123 on
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    thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Can SB Doffs be combined - 5 Whites into a Green, 5 Greens into a Blue, etc? And once you combine them can the Greens be used in SB projects? And if you break down a Green into 3 Whites can those DOFFs be used in SB projects?

    I didn't do any testing on Tribble, so what I'm basically asking is does the game give you ways to turn essentially free SB DOFFs into regular DOFFS though a process of Combining and Breaking them down?
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
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    timelord79timelord79 Member Posts: 1,852 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Huh, I didn't know you couldn't use them to contribute to bases, but I am regularly upgrading them into greens...
    11750640_1051211588222593_450219911807924697_n.jpg
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    abcde123123abcde123123 Member Posts: 342 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    thecosmic1 wrote: »
    Can SB Doffs be combined - 5 Whites into a Green, 5 Greens into a Blue, etc? And once you combine them can the Greens be used in SB projects? And if you break down a Green into 3 Whites can those DOFFs be used in SB projects?

    I didn't do any testing on Tribble, so what I'm basically asking is does the game give you ways to turn essentially free SB DOFFs into regular DOFFS though a process of Combining and Breaking them down?

    Well you can grind them allright, but grinding/shredding aint exactly profitable:

    5 doffs + 10 dil -> doff shredder -> 3 normal white doffs

    IIRC the price for doff pack is 5000 fleet credits. I haven't bought one myself yet, but I assume it's gonna yield 3 white doffs of unknown specialty. 5000 credits is 100 dil or 33 white doffs.

    That's the resource cost. There's much larger time cost in it where you have to do very boring things using an abysmal doff interface. Not exactly a pleasure.

    THEY AINT EXACTLY FREE sb doffs.

    What pisses me off is that they look exactly like normal white doffs but lack functionality of white doffs that I consider essential. We're all building starbases aren't we? :)
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    flekhflekh Member Posts: 233 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    * cannot be contributed to sb projects
    * yet can still be sold on exchange
    * [...]those doffs look EXACTLY alike normal doffs[...]

    If that combination is true, then ... oh, yeah, I'd call that an epic brainfart.
    That means buying DOffs from the exchange is now basically impossible if you want them for the starbase, as you'd risk paying for a totally worthless one.
    That should give an outcry that will make people on the ISS go permenantly deaf and will have every martian complain that it's drowning out his TV even at full volume setting.
    Truely Epic.

    Oh, I just checked: according to Zero on the devtracker, that's working as intended.
    ROFL!
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    thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Any time you're just using sweat equity it's free, IMO. :)

    Most of us have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Fleet Credits - and most of the Fleet Store items are sub-standard compared to what we already have - and you can make 1,440 Dilithium in about 10 minutes.

    If I can convert 5 SB DOFFs into 3 useful DOFFS that can save me a lot of ECs on the Exchange or dollars in the C-Store. If that's how it works it seems like an OK deal for me. But I'm not hung-up on Immediate Gratification. I'm willing to work a little to get what I want.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
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    boglejam73boglejam73 Member Posts: 890 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Can we get somebody from Cryptic to share the wisdom and thinking behind creating starbase doffs?

    Nope. Cryptic said they are working as intended!

    Huzzah!

    :D
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    baudlbaudl Member Posts: 4,060 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    whaaaaat? i just yesterday bought 40 fleet doffs and 7 i put into a SB project...you better check that before you distribute missinformation.

    the only downside, when purchasing them is, that they are either random tactical or security...or operations and engineers and so on.

    eventually after filling up my doff roster with the once i couldn't contribute, i go to the acadamy and get greens, which i downgrade again...until the SB assignements are filled or i have no fleet credits left to buy fleet doffs.

    don't give me "thats impossible", because i did it yesterday and nearly filled 3 sepperate assignments with doffs worth approximately 130k fleet credits from sepperate toons.


    PS: it seems military boxes favour tactical doffs...in a 7 to 3 ratio...but thats just subjective observation


    PPS: one box with one white cost me 500 fleet credits...it's the completely random box. However the class specific cost 750 fleet credits and have a 50-50 chance (presumably) to drop either a tactical or a security for a military box.
    Go pro or go home
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    danielpenfolddanielpenfold Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Yes you will be able to i think> :)
    I'm so happy :D
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    thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    baudl wrote: »
    whaaaaat? i just yesterday bought 40 fleet doffs and 7 i put into a SB project...you better check that before you distribute missinformation.

    the only downside, when purchasing them is, that they are either random tactical or security...or operations and engineers and so on.

    eventually after filling up my doff roster with the once i couldn't contribute, i go to the acadamy and get greens, which i downgrade again...until the SB assignements are filled or i have no fleet credits left to buy fleet doffs.

    don't give me "thats impossible", because i did it yesterday and nearly filled 3 sepperate assignments with doffs worth approximately 130k fleet credits from sepperate toons.
    The system on Tribble didn't allow it, and that's the system going into Holodeck with the patch today.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
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    boglejam73boglejam73 Member Posts: 890 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    thecosmic1 wrote: »
    Any time you're just using sweat equity it's free, IMO. :)

    Most of us have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Fleet Credits - and most of the Fleet Store items are sub-standard compared to what we already have - and you can make 1,440 Dilithium in about 10 minutes.

    If I can convert 5 SB DOFFs into 3 useful DOFFS that can save me a lot of ECs on the Exchange or dollars in the C-Store. If that's how it works it seems like an OK deal for me. But I'm not hung-up on Immediate Gratification. I'm willing to work a little to get what I want.

    Thats great and all, but the entire supposed purpose of the Fleet DOFF vendor was so that people with crazy amounts of fleet credit could have something to spend them on that would actually aid in advancing the fleet projects. Small fleets could get past being stuck on not having 30 security officers by investing some of the fleet credits they earned thru grinding into purchasing DOFFs. If the DOFFs aren't usable on fleet projects, what is the point of that guys existence?

    And having no way to distinguish between a project-slottable DOFF and an unslottable DOFF listed on the exchange makes purchases there a little bit like russian roulette. If I plunk down 800k for a common sensor officer I damn sure want to know I can use it on a project.

    EDIT: Also, I don't want to have to go to the fleet base, buy commons, go back to SFA, trade them up. Then trade them down, and then repeat. I want to play the game, not shlepp back and forth from sirius to eta erandi and back again.

    But hey - its working as intended. :rolleyes:
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    flekhflekh Member Posts: 233 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Oh, just to make sure we're all on the same page:

    Contributing Fleet DOffs worked before today's patch.
    It's being changed with the patch that's going live today.
    Here's the link to the bug report on the Tribble server version:
    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=5398171

    Yes, outrage incoming.
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    abcde123123abcde123123 Member Posts: 342 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    baudl wrote: »
    don't give me "thats impossible", because i did it yesterday and nearly filled 3 sepperate assignments with doffs worth approximately 130k fleet credits from sepperate toons.

    PS: it seems military boxes favour tactical doffs...in a 7 to 3 ratio...but thats just subjective observation

    I'll double check once the server goes online but I'm coming from this:

    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=5396211&postcount=20
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    baudlbaudl Member Posts: 4,060 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    thats insane, who's freaking idea was that? fire him...now!
    Go pro or go home
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    thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    boglejam73 wrote: »
    Thats great and all, but the entire supposed purpose of the Fleet DOFF vendor was so that people with crazy amounts of fleet credit could have something to spend them on that would actually aid in advancing the fleet projects.
    My question was can you convert SB DOFFs into regular DOFFs and then use them in Fleet projects? If you can then that's better then not being able to use them at all.

    Of course I'd rather they just give us less SB DOFFs for the FCs rather then make us go through the conversion process, but if it's conversion process or not be able to use them at all I'll deal with the conversion process.

    Yes, it sucks that I'll have to convert them - assuming I can. But I can also see it from Cryptic's perspective in that they want people to buy DOFF Packs from the C-Store - so they're going to make it as tedious a process as they can so that people will just pony-up the bucks rather then do the work.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
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    abcde123123abcde123123 Member Posts: 342 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    baudl wrote: »
    thats insane, who's freaking idea was that? fire him...now!

    In corporate world they usually promote those people...

    I am sure that the intention was to make the starbase grind as tough as possible, but introducing nuub traps into it is just too much.

    I would not be surprised that shredder doffs will not be usable on fleet projects soon...

    What I don't understand however, that instead of making the game pleasant to play, the boys are putting a lot of effort to make it as unpleaseant as it they can.

    And judging by dil prices and reduced fleet bank lag the playerbase is thinning out...
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    baudlbaudl Member Posts: 4,060 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    The funny thing is the amount of information given out on the subject:

    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=5401231#post5401231

    2 sentences, that don't even explain one quarter of the aactual change.

    Just WOW!:eek:

    this game is slowly dying...PVP dead...PVE a grindfest not even the most grindy asian grinders i played could live up to it.
    And the season 6 patch kind of seemed to be a revitalising thing for this game, but turned out to be just another nail on it's coffin.
    Fleet ships that cost the same amount of money as the original version for a 10% performance increase.
    Some ships not even comparable statwise with other t5 ships. (klingon ship t5 with less than 17k hp wtf!)
    Go pro or go home
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    boglejam73boglejam73 Member Posts: 890 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    thecosmic1 wrote: »
    My question was can you convert SB DOFFs into regular DOFFs and then use them in Fleet projects? If you can then that's better then not being able to use them at all.

    Of course I'd rather they just give us less SB DOFFs for the FCs rather then make us go through the conversion process, but if it's conversion process or not be able to use them at all I'll deal with the conversion process.

    Yes, it sucks that I'll have to convert them - assuming I can. But I can also see it from Cryptic's perspective in that they want people to buy DOFF Packs from the C-Store - so they're going to make it as tedious a process as they can so that people will just pony-up the bucks rather then do the work.

    They can accomplish the same player time vs. c-store convenience ratio by simply raising the cost of the Fleet DOFF rather than making everyone jump thru their as*es and travel back and forth to convert one useless DOFF into a useful DOFF (assuming that its possible. We don't even know if the Fleet DOFFs can be traded in with the personnel officer yet...)

    People complained that the projects DOFF requirements were screwy, exchange wrecking, and had nothing to spend their fleet credits on. Cryptic comes up with a really good solution (fleet DOFFs) and then after a week decides to make the solution totally worthless? Completely boneheaded. Either they shouldn't have intro'd fleet Doffs at all or they should have done their math beforehand if they didn't realize it was going to undervalue c-store doff packs.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    abcde123123abcde123123 Member Posts: 342 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    thecosmic1 wrote: »
    Yes, it sucks that I'll have to convert them - assuming I can. But I can also see it from Cryptic's perspective in that they want people to buy DOFF Packs from the C-Store - so they're going to make it as tedious a process as they can so that people will just pony-up the bucks rather then do the work.

    I could be wrong here, but basic fed doff pack cost 300 zen (let's say 3 buks) and gives 5 doffs of random quality/specialty. Having opened 10 such packs the other day I got 50 doffs: say 3 blues, 5 greens, the rest is white. Now here's the kicker:

    ONLY ONE SECURITY SPECIALTY DOFF out of 50 doffs/10 packs.

    That's one security doff for 30 buks. I got 2 sensor doffs too but that's beside the point.

    I assume we will never see the stats on how good the doff packs are selling, but you tell me, given the experience outlined above if you need 30 security doffs are you going to spend real money on doff packs?

    Seriously?
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    abcde123123abcde123123 Member Posts: 342 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    boglejam73 wrote: »
    They can accomplish the same player time vs. c-store convenience ratio by simply raising the cost of the Fleet DOFF rather than making everyone jump thru their as*es and travel back and forth to convert one useless DOFF into a useful DOFF (assuming that its possible. We don't even know if the Fleet DOFFs can be traded in with the personnel officer yet...)

    People complained that the projects DOFF requirements were screwy, exchange wrecking, and had nothing to spend their fleet credits on. Cryptic comes up with a really good solution (fleet DOFFs) and then after a week decides to make the solution totally worthless? Completely boneheaded. Either they shouldn't have intro'd fleet Doffs at all or they should have done their math beforehand if they didn't realize it was going to undervalue c-store doff packs.

    You are forgetting thou that doffs that you get from basic recruitment packs are TOTALLY RANDOM. For all I know (and this is actual experience) you can get 5 white civilians out of a doff pack.

    Ah TRIBBLE the actual experience, let's use the exchange to tell us what's available in the game in large quantities. Average price on usual white doffs 50k. Security doffs go for 200k, that's 4 times as much. And bartenders go for 18k.

    Now we can say that many fleets are building the military T2 60 security + 60 tacticals per projects so we can drop the factor to 3 to account for that. Now we can tell that security doffs are yeilded in game 3 times as less as all the rest of the doffs.

    And I don't even mention that advanced fleet weapons suck and suddenly elite fleet weapons have dissapeared from the fleet description pages. So I'm curious when elite fleet weapons are available?
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    boglejam73boglejam73 Member Posts: 890 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    You are forgetting thou that doffs that you get from basic recruitment packs are TOTALLY RANDOM. For all I know (and this is actual experience) you can get 5 white civilians out of a doff pack.

    Ah TRIBBLE the actual experience, let's use the exchange to tell us what's available in the game in large quantities. Average price on usual white doffs 50k. Security doffs go for 200k, that's 4 times as much. And bartenders go for 18k.

    Now we can say that many fleets are building the military T2 60 security + 60 tacticals per projects so we can drop the factor to 3 to account for that. Now we can tell that security doffs are yeilded in game 3 times as less as all the rest of the doffs.

    And I don't even mention that advanced fleet weapons suck and suddenly elite fleet weapons have dissapeared from the fleet description pages. So I'm curious when elite fleet weapons are available?

    Yeah, the more I think about this whole situation, the more insane it seems. Cryptic really failed to think thru a lot of things related to starbase projects and DOFFs and how they interact.

    I think it will come down to a point where they are either going to have to leave things with the fleet DOFF vendor they way they have been (while adding in sensor doffs to the possible pool of doffs - currently you can't get a sensor doff, even thou the drop is supposed to be random..?) or they are going to have to start selling c-store packs of specific officers, like a 5 pack of common security for 500 zen as an example.

    Just looking at exchange prices for supposedly common doffs (being 3x, 4x more expensive then the same doff in rare) tells me they weren't thinking ahead.

    Another solution would be to make the project inputs not skill-specific. Instead of 30 sensor officer commons, make it just 30 science branch officers. They could even double the number of required DOFFs and people would still be ok with it because it would be a lot less tedious to get 60 science officers than to hunt, farm, buy, beg for 30 common sensor DOFFs.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    l0cutus359l0cutus359 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    boglejam73 wrote: »
    Yeah, the more I think about this whole situation, the more insane it seems. Cryptic really failed to think thru a lot of things related to starbase projects and DOFFs and how they interact.

    I think it will come down to a point where they are either going to have to leave things with the fleet DOFF vendor they way they have been (while adding in sensor doffs to the possible pool of doffs - currently you can't get a sensor doff, even thou the drop is supposed to be random..?) or they are going to have to start selling c-store packs of specific officers, like a 5 pack of common security for 500 zen as an example.

    Just looking at exchange prices for supposedly common doffs (being 3x, 4x more expensive then the same doff in rare) tells me they weren't thinking ahead.

    Another solution would be to make the project inputs not skill-specific. Instead of 30 sensor officer commons, make it just 30 science branch officers. They could even double the number of required DOFFs and people would still be ok with it because it would be a lot less tedious to get 60 science officers than to hunt, farm, buy, beg for 30 common sensor DOFFs.

    Agreed! I like your ideas.

    Another suggestion....we should be able to use bound doff's regardless of method obtained.
    Locutus

    Delirium Tremens
    Tier 4 Starbase, Tier 3 Embassy
    http://dtfleet.com/
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    velktravelktra Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    I really think this needs to be done. With Fleet duty officers available on the exchange, there's no way to tell which ones are "normal" and which ones are Fleet. The Fleet duty officers need their own category or an additional tag so that you can tell before spending energy credits on them whether they're Fleet duty officers or not.

    This is especially important for those of us buying these DOFFs in order to contribute to our fleet's starbase. Because you can't tell the difference, you buy them, expect to be able to use them, and then find out you can't donate them at all. If Fleet duty officers cannot be used for projects, then they need to be designated on the exchange.

    Please give us a way to tell looking at a duty officer on the exchange whether they're a Fleet DOFF or not.
    Demons run when a good man goes to war.
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    mikeflmikefl Member Posts: 861 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    baudl wrote: »
    whaaaaat? i just yesterday bought 40 fleet doffs and 7 i put into a SB project...you better check that before you distribute missinformation.

    the only downside, when purchasing them is, that they are either random tactical or security...or operations and engineers and so on.

    eventually after filling up my doff roster with the once i couldn't contribute, i go to the acadamy and get greens, which i downgrade again...until the SB assignements are filled or i have no fleet credits left to buy fleet doffs.

    don't give me "thats impossible", because i did it yesterday and nearly filled 3 sepperate assignments with doffs worth approximately 130k fleet credits from sepperate toons.


    PS: it seems military boxes favour tactical doffs...in a 7 to 3 ratio...but thats just subjective observation


    PPS: one box with one white cost me 500 fleet credits...it's the completely random box. However the class specific cost 750 fleet credits and have a 50-50 chance (presumably) to drop either a tactical or a security for a military box.

    I do the exact same thing everyday if I don't have the officers. My partner and I have our own starbase and about 13 alts. I basically do the duty officer recruitments and then when I don't have enough I do fleet doffs... sell what I don't need or upgrade to green and back down. It only costs time really.. .the dil is negligible. You can even get the dil right in the same place from Viala and the lore mission. I don't bother with the speicifc boxes I just do the 500 FC generic... I've gotten security officers I sell and then buy armory officers etc or I get sensors officers which I don'y use and sell for 500k and buy the officers I need... I am never held up by duty officers on projects.
    Gold Sub since March 2010
    Lifetime Sub since June 2010
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    captainbrown2captainbrown2 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Confirmed on holodeck. These things can't be used in projects and can be sold on the exchange where they look like useable doffs.
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    danielpenfolddanielpenfold Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Why do you think it need's to be done with them?
    I'm so happy :D
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    crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,113 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    velktra wrote: »
    I really think this needs to be done. With Fleet duty officers available on the exchange, there's no way to tell which ones are "normal" and which ones are Fleet. The Fleet duty officers need their own category or an additional tag so that you can tell before spending energy credits on them whether they're Fleet duty officers or not.

    This is especially important for those of us buying these DOFFs in order to contribute to our fleet's starbase. Because you can't tell the difference, you buy them, expect to be able to use them, and then find out you can't donate them at all. If Fleet duty officers cannot be used for projects, then they need to be designated on the exchange.

    Please give us a way to tell looking at a duty officer on the exchange whether they're a Fleet DOFF or not.

    Agreed - as long as it's a fact that we CAN'T contribute Fleet Doffs to Starbase Projects (and IMO as long as they cost more FC for the player who buys them on his Fleet's Starbase then that same player would get to contributing them to a Fleet Project, I don't see an exploit issue); PLAYERS NEED a way to discern regular contributable doffs from Fleet doffs, so they can make an informed decision when purchasing Doffs from the EC Exchange.
    Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012
    TOS_Connie_Sig_final9550Pop.jpg
    PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
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    boglejam73boglejam73 Member Posts: 890 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Or they could just un-do this stupid solution-in-search-of-a-problem and let the damn fleet doff's work in projects. Just sayin.

    But, as we have all heard by now, this is working as intended.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    l0cutus359l0cutus359 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Confirmed on holodeck. These things can't be used in projects and can be sold on the exchange where they look like useable doffs.

    Wow.... as Spock would say "not logical" :confused:
    Locutus

    Delirium Tremens
    Tier 4 Starbase, Tier 3 Embassy
    http://dtfleet.com/
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    suprcheezesuprcheeze Member Posts: 66 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Confirmed on holodeck. These things can't be used in projects and can be sold on the exchange where they look like useable doffs.
    Massive fail. :mad:
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    badname834854badname834854 Member Posts: 1,186 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Just in case you haven't heard by now, these are "working as intended"
This discussion has been closed.