I'm still trying to figure out if you can have more than one of the Cadre type assignments in each class going at a time. So, for instance, I right now have one each of tactical, science, engineering, and civilian running. I haven't seen any more come up for me in ESD / SFA for a while, so I'm wondering if I just don't see them because I already have one of each, or if I should keep checking at every rollover in order to keep the pipeline full with new recruits coming in.
According to timeanddate.com, the -7 offset is correct for PDT (Cryptic is in Mountain View or something, right?). But I think that the game client always displays mini-map time in your local time zone (at least for me mini-map time always matches wall clock time; and I'm not on PDT).
One thing about the colonists; if you have any officer on a low priority missions like "exchange X for credits," you can always abort that mission with no loss if something better comes along that you need that officer for. This goes for the "resupply ground troops on X" missions as well; you lose whatever time that DOFF was on the mission that now won't be finished, but you will get back any credits or commodities you had to send with them, so you shouldn't hesitate to abort a low quality mission if something really big like a settlement comes along.
According to timeanddate.com, the -7 offset is correct for PDT (Cryptic is in Mountain View or something, right?). But I think that the game client always displays mini-map time in your local time zone (at least for me mini-map time always matches wall clock time; and I'm not on PDT).
Must be a setting somewhere, mine's always Pacific.
What is the point of these loopy "recruit bridge officer" assignments? They're blue, and the baseline recruitment CXP is 466 on the one I picked up . . . but the failure / disaster rate is 92% . . . and I don't have any need for another mediocre blue BOFF with no interesting skills or traits. AND they run 4 days.
I threw a spare engineer on one of them just to see what happens, since he had two of the critical success factors (diplomatic + engineer). But it seems like a complete waste of time. What am I missing? Is there something uber special that I can only get by ranking up recruitment CXP? Or does this thing pay off in some absurd amount of CXP if it succeeds?
What is the point of these loopy "recruit bridge officer" assignments? They're blue, and the baseline recruitment CXP is 466 on the one I picked up . . . but the failure / disaster rate is 92% . . . and I don't have any need for another mediocre blue BOFF with no interesting skills or traits. AND they run 4 days.
I threw a spare engineer on one of them just to see what happens, since he had two of the critical success factors (diplomatic + engineer). But it seems like a complete waste of time. What am I missing? Is there something uber special that I can only get by ranking up recruitment CXP? Or does this thing pay off in some absurd amount of CXP if it succeeds?
These are the ones I mention where disaster and failure aren't really disaster or failure. There's some shipboard ones that reward equipment that are the same way.
If you "fail," the doff is green quality. If you get a "disaster" they're white. Success is blue, critical success is purple.
What is the point of these loopy "recruit bridge officer" assignments? They're blue, and the baseline recruitment CXP is 466 on the one I picked up . . . but the failure / disaster rate is 92% . . . and I don't have any need for another mediocre blue BOFF with no interesting skills or traits. AND they run 4 days.
I threw a spare engineer on one of them just to see what happens, since he had two of the critical success factors (diplomatic + engineer). But it seems like a complete waste of time. What am I missing? Is there something uber special that I can only get by ranking up recruitment CXP? Or does this thing pay off in some absurd amount of CXP if it succeeds?
Failure doesn't mean you don't get one, it means you get one of lower quality than you would have gotten with a success or critical.
Critical = Purple
Success = Blue
Failure = Green
Disaster = White
It's confusing as it is handled now. I may just go in and try to reengineer them somehow, but I didn't want the quality to be random but rather something the player could influence.
These are the ones I mention where disaster and failure aren't really disaster or failure. There's some shipboard ones that reward equipment that are the same way. If you "fail," the doff is green quality. If you get a "disaster" they're white. Success is blue, critical success is purple.
So, these seem like an enormous waste of time. I mean, I guess if you have spare people doing nothing for 4d, or if you won't be in game for that long anyway, then a 1% chance of a purple BOFF is better than nothing. But if these are random, well, most of the random purple BOFFs in game are pretty useless, or at least unremarkable. And 4d is a ridiculous long run time for something that is going to end 92% of the time in something I can get for like 300 credits off the exchange, or a pittance in merits (DL) from the requisition officer. It's also not like we have any shortage of routine BOFFs just from leveling. I guess maybe some people will play them just for the chance of hitting the lottery and getting an Efficient Saurian . . . if that's even possible.
Unless there is some hidden reward solely for ranking up recruitment CXP that I don't know about, I cannot see how I would ever take one of these missions. I mean, do I do this just to boost recruitment CXP in order to have better recruitment missions for DOFFs?
Is "Colony Site Survey" a required mission to get a settlement mission for the colonists that I have? It doesn't seem like a super rewarding assignment, but if this is how you get the ones that (I have heard) pay off well for settling colonists, then maybe it's worth a could hours of my sci officers' time.
Is "Colony Site Survey" a required mission to get a settlement mission for the colonists that I have? It doesn't seem like a super rewarding assignment, but if this is how you get the ones that (I have heard) pay off well for settling colonists, then maybe it's worth a could hours of my sci officers' time.
This seems to be it. I'm still working this part out, it's a bit hard to keep straight how some assignments unlock others, since both the unlocker and the unlockee aren't always there and in this case you need to get some colonists on board too.
Picked up a blue mission in Afehirr Nebula this morning that supposedly pays off a Purple DOFF and 1k+ regular XP. I put my best people I had on it, including a couple telepathic colonists to boost the critical chance. It was a short mission too. Seems it pays to travel. If I had the DL for an advanced heavy cruiser with the go-everywhere transwarp, I'm thinking I would just about give up on regular missions and level on the DOFF assignments alone.
Random tips for DOFF management that I probably am not the first to think of:
- Visit every sector and every cluster at rollover hour. You will occasionally find ridiculously lucrative missions in the middle of nowhere that pay off 1K+ XP and award a purple DOFF. You will also be able to find more blue missions over time by making the rounds.
- Keep moving. If you're traveling a lot and you don't have transwarp, set your next destination as soon as you warp into a sector, THEN open the DOFF window and see what's available in the sector you're in.
- Solve the Traveling Salesman problem. I don't think I have an optimum route yet, but I try to travel in a regular loop around the universe, ending with a transwarp back to ESD. My route at the moment starts at Sirius and goes:
Sirius
SOL
ESD
SFA
Sirius (beam out from SFA)
DV
Alpha Centauri
Iota Pavonis
Alpha Centauri
Khazan Cluster
Psi Velorum
Affehir Nebula
Pi Canis
Hromi Cluster
Eta Eridani
Orellius
Beta Ursae
Rolor Nebula
Zeta Andromedae
Zena's Expanse
Alpha Trianguli
Betreka Nebula
[Transwarp to ESD]
Regulus
Whatever that cluster is in Regulus . . .
[The scary thing is I've done this enough times that I wrote that list from memory . . .]
- Check planets as well as clusters and sectors. Not all planets have missions, but apparently some do. I think the list of "confirmed" ones includes: Wolf 359, Memory Alpha, Bajor, Defera. There might be others. This might be random. I'm not sure yet since I haven't gotten into a regular habit of checking all the planets.
- Medical Relief missions are your friends. Stock up on medical supplies before you head out. The cheapest sources are the cargo ships in Sirius and Regulus sectors. You can regularly get blue Medical Relief missions in many sectors, and I have been keeping as many of these running as I have medical officers. Pair your doctors and nurses with science officers for the best chances of success.
- Resupply Ground missions are your friends. These are a great way to increase Military XP with relatively little risk. Stock up on medical supplies, provisions, and shield generators before you head out. Even colonists can do these, and they're short missions with a high chance of success; probably the best time to CXP ratio for military missions. When I'm done with my rounds trying to find blue missions, I stick anyone I have leftover on these resupply missions until the next rollover time.
- Security Briefing missions are not bad. They take about a day, only require one security or tac officer, and pay around 146 Military XP. The time + resources to reward ratio for these is much higher than Reinforce Troops missions, with (as far as I can tell) little chance of landing anyone in sickbay. You could put five tac/sec officers on briefing missions and get about 230 more Military XP in one day than you would get in three days from tying the same officers up on a single Reinforce Troops mission.
- Keep your trade missions going. Try to build up a stock of 7+ of the most expensive commodities; 15+ of the ones that cost 300-400 EC, and 30+ of the cheapest ones (plus as many stacks of medical supplies, provisions, and shield gennies as you can afford). The "Exhange X for EC" missions are reasonably profitable if you buy all your commodities from the cargo ships in Sirius or Regulus; and you will need some steady income to buy the medical supplies and provisions you need to keep Medical Relief and Resupply Ground assignments going. The lower priced commodities are generally more profitable than the higher priced ones, but I try to keep some of everything on hand since you can pick up selling missions randomly in every sector. I haven't found the "Trade for X" missions to be all that great generally; sometimes they give you a better prices than cargo ships, but often a "success" is a higher price than you would have paid buying it yourself. If you have trader DOFFs, I assume these can get a lot more favorable outcomes.
Picked up a blue mission in Afehirr Nebula this morning that supposedly pays off a Purple DOFF and 1k+ regular XP. I put my best people I had on it, including a couple telepathic colonists to boost the critical chance. It was a short mission too. Seems it pays to travel. If I had the DL for an advanced heavy cruiser with the go-everywhere transwarp, I'm thinking I would just about give up on regular missions and level on the DOFF assignments alone.
Nice assignment: this gave me a purple Bartender, 1,200+ exploration CXP, AND 2,600 BOFF SP. Now if I can just get a Chef and and Entertainer, maybe I can do one of those "Entertain Dignitaries" missions.
Ran across a Quarantine Colony mission in Hromi Cluster today. It didn't seem as lucrative at first glance as a Medical Relief mission, since it required a doc, two science, and two other DOFFs + some medical supplies; and it gave only about 200 some CXP and runs 3d. HOWEVER, it had a 19% baseline crit chance, which seems like it could be a huge payoff if it hits. Maybe the next time I get one and my doc is free I'll try it.
Some assignments, most notably Bridge Officer Recruitment, failure and disaster are still a "success," but with reduced reward. For example, a bridge officer recruitment mission (commonly seen on Earth Spacedock) will give a purple doff on a critical success, a blue on a success, a green on failure, and a white on disaster. No worries about losing your doffs on them. These missions usually have a very high base failure/disaster rate, which can scare people off from doing them.
Do they really give DOFF's ? I thought they give BO's!
Do they really give DOFF's ? I thought they give BO's!
Cadre assignments (picked up for "free" at SOL, ESD, and SFA) give DOFFs. The ones you find out in the sectors that are called "Evaluate Alien X Officer" give BOFFs (and require you to assign one of your existing crew to do the "evaluation").
What would truly blow this game away, and make it go down in the history books, is if an app is made that will allow you to send DOFFs on mission when you aren't available.
Heck, make it xml based and let me contol my doffs on my break at work.
Thanks to the DOFFJOBS channel, I've found out that most people don't realize just how many places unique doff assignment lists (DAL) are hiding. So, here you go:
Every single non-mission zone you can enter should have a DAL. I know that many zones are currently bugged or not hooked up, so this isn't entirely true right now.
Now here is where things go 4th dimensional... if you enter your bridge from a zone, you get another unique DAL. And then, as I confirmed tonight thanks to ESD finally hitting multiple instances... DALs are unique to each instance.
So, TL;DR: Every social zone, every instance of that zone, and entering your bridge from those zones... all give you a unique doff assignment list.
Thanks to the DOFFJOBS channel, I've found out that most people don't realize just how many places unique doff assignment lists (DAL) are hiding. So, here you go:
Every single non-mission zone you can enter should have a DAL. I know that many zones are currently bugged or not hooked up, so this isn't entirely true right now.
Now here is where things go 4th dimensional... if you enter your bridge from a zone, you get another unique DAL. And then, as I confirmed tonight thanks to ESD finally hitting multiple instances... DALs are unique to each instance.
So, TL;DR: Every social zone, every instance of that zone, and entering your bridge from those zones... all give you a unique doff assignment list.
What does this mean? Does i have to go to ESD and beam to my bridge to get a doff mission?
What does this mean? Does i have to go to ESD and beam to my bridge to get a doff mission?
It just means that you can do that if you want; your bridge will have a different list of sector missions than the sector you're in at the moment. Basically each time you enter a sector, you could (if you want to go insane very quickly), check the sector list, then beam to the bridge and check THAT list also. It should be two different lists for each different sector you visit.
The headexplodes part happens when you realize that every instance of every single zone also has it's own list. On Tribble this isn't so obvious; but on Holodeck you could be looking at 8 or 10 or more different mission lists between all the instances of just one crowded zone like SOL System or ESD. Even star clusters regularly have 3 to 5 instances each on Live.
This seems to be it. I'm still working this part out, it's a bit hard to keep straight how some assignments unlock others, since both the unlocker and the unlockee aren't always there and in this case you need to get some colonists on board too.
I have done half a dozen Colony Site Surveys and have yet to find an assignment that actually unloads DOffs. I have searched every star cluster multiple times and now have 15 Colonists aboard but they have nowhere to go.
One theory, put forward on the DOFFJOBS channel tonight, was that the missions to actually establish a forward base (which is what the "dump colonists" assignment is called) does not open until you are Tier 1 in Colonial, similar to the way Diplomacy missions open when you hit Tier 1 or Tier 2 and so on.
- Medical Relief missions are your friends. Stock up on medical supplies before you head out. The cheapest sources are the cargo ships in Sirius and Regulus sectors. You can regularly get blue Medical Relief missions in many sectors, and I have been keeping as many of these running as I have medical officers. Pair your doctors and nurses with science officers for the best chances of success.
Thank you for all your hard work. One quick correction:
The cheapest price for Medical Supplies is on VULCAN, where they are 50 credits each (75 on the cargo ships). The cheapest price for Provisions (needed for military supply missions) is on ANDORIA (again, 50 credits apiece but 75 from the cargo ships).
Comments
i have 4 recruitmens running now. the normal white mission and one green of engi's tac's and sci's.
Must be a setting somewhere, mine's always Pacific.
I threw a spare engineer on one of them just to see what happens, since he had two of the critical success factors (diplomatic + engineer). But it seems like a complete waste of time. What am I missing? Is there something uber special that I can only get by ranking up recruitment CXP? Or does this thing pay off in some absurd amount of CXP if it succeeds?
Nice write-up though.
These are the ones I mention where disaster and failure aren't really disaster or failure. There's some shipboard ones that reward equipment that are the same way.
If you "fail," the doff is green quality. If you get a "disaster" they're white. Success is blue, critical success is purple.
Unless there is some hidden reward solely for ranking up recruitment CXP that I don't know about, I cannot see how I would ever take one of these missions. I mean, do I do this just to boost recruitment CXP in order to have better recruitment missions for DOFFs?
This seems to be it. I'm still working this part out, it's a bit hard to keep straight how some assignments unlock others, since both the unlocker and the unlockee aren't always there and in this case you need to get some colonists on board too.
- Visit every sector and every cluster at rollover hour. You will occasionally find ridiculously lucrative missions in the middle of nowhere that pay off 1K+ XP and award a purple DOFF. You will also be able to find more blue missions over time by making the rounds.
- Keep moving. If you're traveling a lot and you don't have transwarp, set your next destination as soon as you warp into a sector, THEN open the DOFF window and see what's available in the sector you're in.
- Solve the Traveling Salesman problem. I don't think I have an optimum route yet, but I try to travel in a regular loop around the universe, ending with a transwarp back to ESD. My route at the moment starts at Sirius and goes:
Sirius
SOL
ESD
SFA
Sirius (beam out from SFA)
DV
Alpha Centauri
Iota Pavonis
Alpha Centauri
Khazan Cluster
Psi Velorum
Affehir Nebula
Pi Canis
Hromi Cluster
Eta Eridani
Orellius
Beta Ursae
Rolor Nebula
Zeta Andromedae
Zena's Expanse
Alpha Trianguli
Betreka Nebula
[Transwarp to ESD]
Regulus
Whatever that cluster is in Regulus . . .
[The scary thing is I've done this enough times that I wrote that list from memory . . .]
- Check planets as well as clusters and sectors. Not all planets have missions, but apparently some do. I think the list of "confirmed" ones includes: Wolf 359, Memory Alpha, Bajor, Defera. There might be others. This might be random. I'm not sure yet since I haven't gotten into a regular habit of checking all the planets.
- Medical Relief missions are your friends. Stock up on medical supplies before you head out. The cheapest sources are the cargo ships in Sirius and Regulus sectors. You can regularly get blue Medical Relief missions in many sectors, and I have been keeping as many of these running as I have medical officers. Pair your doctors and nurses with science officers for the best chances of success.
- Resupply Ground missions are your friends. These are a great way to increase Military XP with relatively little risk. Stock up on medical supplies, provisions, and shield generators before you head out. Even colonists can do these, and they're short missions with a high chance of success; probably the best time to CXP ratio for military missions. When I'm done with my rounds trying to find blue missions, I stick anyone I have leftover on these resupply missions until the next rollover time.
- Security Briefing missions are not bad. They take about a day, only require one security or tac officer, and pay around 146 Military XP. The time + resources to reward ratio for these is much higher than Reinforce Troops missions, with (as far as I can tell) little chance of landing anyone in sickbay. You could put five tac/sec officers on briefing missions and get about 230 more Military XP in one day than you would get in three days from tying the same officers up on a single Reinforce Troops mission.
- Keep your trade missions going. Try to build up a stock of 7+ of the most expensive commodities; 15+ of the ones that cost 300-400 EC, and 30+ of the cheapest ones (plus as many stacks of medical supplies, provisions, and shield gennies as you can afford). The "Exhange X for EC" missions are reasonably profitable if you buy all your commodities from the cargo ships in Sirius or Regulus; and you will need some steady income to buy the medical supplies and provisions you need to keep Medical Relief and Resupply Ground assignments going. The lower priced commodities are generally more profitable than the higher priced ones, but I try to keep some of everything on hand since you can pick up selling missions randomly in every sector. I haven't found the "Trade for X" missions to be all that great generally; sometimes they give you a better prices than cargo ships, but often a "success" is a higher price than you would have paid buying it yourself. If you have trader DOFFs, I assume these can get a lot more favorable outcomes.
EDIT: I did it. Join if you want (not sure if anyone else already did this; if so, now we have another one).
Do they really give DOFF's ? I thought they give BO's!
From the Web! That would be extraordinary!
Great post, thank you
Typo on my part - the specific assignment I was talking about gives a boff, not a doff.
Thanks to the DOFFJOBS channel, I've found out that most people don't realize just how many places unique doff assignment lists (DAL) are hiding. So, here you go:
Every single non-mission zone you can enter should have a DAL. I know that many zones are currently bugged or not hooked up, so this isn't entirely true right now.
Now here is where things go 4th dimensional... if you enter your bridge from a zone, you get another unique DAL. And then, as I confirmed tonight thanks to ESD finally hitting multiple instances... DALs are unique to each instance.
So, TL;DR: Every social zone, every instance of that zone, and entering your bridge from those zones... all give you a unique doff assignment list.
What does this mean? Does i have to go to ESD and beam to my bridge to get a doff mission?
The headexplodes part happens when you realize that every instance of every single zone also has it's own list. On Tribble this isn't so obvious; but on Holodeck you could be looking at 8 or 10 or more different mission lists between all the instances of just one crowded zone like SOL System or ESD. Even star clusters regularly have 3 to 5 instances each on Live.
I have done half a dozen Colony Site Surveys and have yet to find an assignment that actually unloads DOffs. I have searched every star cluster multiple times and now have 15 Colonists aboard but they have nowhere to go.
One theory, put forward on the DOFFJOBS channel tonight, was that the missions to actually establish a forward base (which is what the "dump colonists" assignment is called) does not open until you are Tier 1 in Colonial, similar to the way Diplomacy missions open when you hit Tier 1 or Tier 2 and so on.
Thank you for all your hard work. One quick correction:
The cheapest price for Medical Supplies is on VULCAN, where they are 50 credits each (75 on the cargo ships). The cheapest price for Provisions (needed for military supply missions) is on ANDORIA (again, 50 credits apiece but 75 from the cargo ships).