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My Take on the DOff System

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
So a lot has been posted on the DOffs, much of which I'll repeat, but just wanting to drop my personal thoughts, many of which interconnect

My first impression is that there are a heck of a lot of DOffs that are incredibly hard to receive, that are necessary for DOffs. I've done as many recruiting missions as I can find, bought a number of DOff backs, and yet have to find a single entertainer DOff for example. Yet, there are missions were I need to have three of them.

Then there are the DOffs I have yet to find, and would like to have, but yet to find a reason to use for any mission, like the Flight Deck Officer (being that I'm a carrier pilot).

This leads into the next point, in that there seems to be a serious imbalance in the officers needed for missions. I've primarily concentrated on Maurader, Trading, and Espionage missions (oh and recruiting), and almost every one of them requires a security officer specialist. And while I received a plethora of security officer specialists, I've also received a ton of other specialists that have very little use except as general officers.

Which leads into the next point, that even if I do have the specialist necessary (say a trader or quartermaster), a lot of the mission then have a higher failure rate for aggressive or honorable traders. Given that the majority of my traders (in fact DOffs) are Klingon, chances are I'm going to have a higher failure rate because of it.

So wanting some of the rarer DOffs, I go to the exchange to see if I can find one to buy, and I have to go through 400 DOffs, because they're listed by the DOffs name, and not their specialization or Federation/Klingon side, making finding a specific and useful DOff on the exchange an exercise in boredom.

Then there is also a huge imbalance of the number of DOff missions and their qualities and lengths. I noticed there is a rarity of espionage missions that last less then 4 hours, and more last 2 days. Yet I can find a plethora of 30 and 45 minute Marauder and Trader missions. Coupled with the higher amount of exp that Marauder missions give me, along with the higher level of item rewards that trader and Marauder missions give me, I'm finding a very little reason to do espionage missions, except for character role play purposes.

Add in the known problem that a two day mission gives me only 20 more exp then a 45 minute mission, if that, and there really is a disincentive to do any blue long term mission, especially considering that the longer missions generally have a higher level of casualty.

Oh and that brings up exp progression. Right now I'm about 1/2 way to Marauder 2. That said I've done every single espionage mission I can find (and meet the requirements) and I'm barely 3/4 of the way to Espionage 1 and maybe 1/2 way to trading 1. I understand that Marauder is supposed to be easier to level, but it also seems that the other are progressing super slowly. But then, as said before I see very little reason to do any DOff other then Marauder and Trader as they're the only two that actually give you items and the access to Sirius sector. ((Science and Exploration also give you anomalies but then they're still easier to find from exploration area farms.)).

That said I love the basic premise. At one point I had a 1/4 of my DOffs in sick bay, and another in the brig. I've lost a few of my white level DOffs to death, executed one, reassigned three others, and generally am having a blast. I just wish it was a bit more balanced.
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