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Starfleet Academy, problems and suggestions
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
So, I did the Starfleet Academy event for the first time today, and I was rather disappointed.
For starters, the event itself makes no sense: "Ok kids, we want you to learn the finer points of multi-phasic and Positronic scanning, so we're going to pair you off with this tactical admiral, who's going to run around campus scanning things, try to keep up. Oh, and bring a phaser because we might randomly send a hostile holographic alien after you that will be sure to not only disrupt your studies, but the studies of every cadet on Campus, whether they're involved in this exercise or not!"
Then, from a gameplay perspective it's not fun in the slightest. It's the same kinda furball that Delta Volanis was on launch day, a bajillion players, running in circles, waving their arms wildly, trying to stay as far away from their fellow players as they can.
I suppose, as a "lets get something in game" element it's not horrendous at the moment, but I've got better things to do with an hour of my time than that, so I probably won't be doing the event again.
Now, for reasonable suggestions:
Break the combat out of the equation, give us 3 different events that get selected randomly. Combat training on one of the Holodecks (since they're not really needed for mission replay anymore) for tactical cadets, and then add a couple of labs, one for say, combining appropriate parts to build pieces of equipment (kind of like the bit where you make the girl the drink in the Dividian FE) for Engineering Cadets, and something like what we've got now, but happening in a lab with a more complex sequence than "Scan, pick a/b, collect stuff" so you don't end up running in circles trying to outrace your fellow officers to the shinies.
What I'd like to see (i.e. unreasonable suggestions)
A Cadet Mentoring program. You report to someone at starfleet academy and pick the type of cadet you want to mentor. Either tie it to the BOFF or DOFF system, so you'd pick from either Tac/Eng/Sci or Tac/Sec/Eng/Ops/Sci/Med and you get a new cadet to mentor. If it's a BOFF they come with no skills and only the traits that are default to their race. If you go with a DOFF they start with no Specialization or Traits.
You then guide them through the Academy, when you're at the academy they are the cadet you bring along to the above mini-games, you layout a course plan for them (kind of like DOFF assignments) that will let them train & learn. And will dictate their traits and skills/specializations as they advance. Every X assignments they ask you to come to SFA to oversee a particularly hard assignment they have to do (things like the Kobayashi Maru) and eventually, once they've done enough assignments, they graduate and join your crew as a BOFF/DOFF.
For starters, the event itself makes no sense: "Ok kids, we want you to learn the finer points of multi-phasic and Positronic scanning, so we're going to pair you off with this tactical admiral, who's going to run around campus scanning things, try to keep up. Oh, and bring a phaser because we might randomly send a hostile holographic alien after you that will be sure to not only disrupt your studies, but the studies of every cadet on Campus, whether they're involved in this exercise or not!"
Then, from a gameplay perspective it's not fun in the slightest. It's the same kinda furball that Delta Volanis was on launch day, a bajillion players, running in circles, waving their arms wildly, trying to stay as far away from their fellow players as they can.
I suppose, as a "lets get something in game" element it's not horrendous at the moment, but I've got better things to do with an hour of my time than that, so I probably won't be doing the event again.
Now, for reasonable suggestions:
Break the combat out of the equation, give us 3 different events that get selected randomly. Combat training on one of the Holodecks (since they're not really needed for mission replay anymore) for tactical cadets, and then add a couple of labs, one for say, combining appropriate parts to build pieces of equipment (kind of like the bit where you make the girl the drink in the Dividian FE) for Engineering Cadets, and something like what we've got now, but happening in a lab with a more complex sequence than "Scan, pick a/b, collect stuff" so you don't end up running in circles trying to outrace your fellow officers to the shinies.
What I'd like to see (i.e. unreasonable suggestions)
A Cadet Mentoring program. You report to someone at starfleet academy and pick the type of cadet you want to mentor. Either tie it to the BOFF or DOFF system, so you'd pick from either Tac/Eng/Sci or Tac/Sec/Eng/Ops/Sci/Med and you get a new cadet to mentor. If it's a BOFF they come with no skills and only the traits that are default to their race. If you go with a DOFF they start with no Specialization or Traits.
You then guide them through the Academy, when you're at the academy they are the cadet you bring along to the above mini-games, you layout a course plan for them (kind of like DOFF assignments) that will let them train & learn. And will dictate their traits and skills/specializations as they advance. Every X assignments they ask you to come to SFA to oversee a particularly hard assignment they have to do (things like the Kobayashi Maru) and eventually, once they've done enough assignments, they graduate and join your crew as a BOFF/DOFF.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
-If it spawns a Klingon someone else can shoot them before you.
-If it opens up another anomaly can be stolen if you don't scan it a second time before someone else.
Possible ways to fix these issues is to make all scans bound to you when you scan them. This would hopefully flag the Klingon as yours as well as the anomaly so no stealing could occur.
Another issue is the from the sheer amount of people in the zone trying to scan the anomalies. There are a lot but not enough to share with 90+ players. Perhaps this is an issue just on tribble but during the event you should not have to wait till the zone is all most full before you can transfer to another shard.
The amount of dilithium you can make from this event seems a bit to low. If you are trying to award us for time spent and an exploration mission gives 1440 dilithium and those take about 15 to 45 minutes then the SFA event for an hour should be giving more perhaps sense it is proactive.
There's actually even more ways.
On the Klingon you can steal the kill by dropping a turret next to the anomaly (which will always shoot first and give you credit), or (I've been told) a Dampening Field, which will similarly steal credit for the kill. I suspect mines will steal the kill as well, but I haven't seen that happen (and I don't have an Engineer, or enough of a cruel streak to test that intentionally).
On the expansion contraction, there's actually two chances to steal it. It can be snarfed if someone beats you to the second scan and it can be snarfed if someone manages to mash F while you're stabilizing it, if you don't pick it up immediately after completing stabilization.
I do like the idea of having multiple instances, one for tactical officers that includes the combat hologram, one for engineering officers that perhaps involves fixing something, and one for science officers that is similar to the current scan process.