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Feature request: Automated Fleet Starbase Donations Box System
seraphantilles
Member Posts: 97 Arc User
The Fleet Starbase project contribution system needs some work IMHO.*
I suggest making a "donation box" NPC where all members would put anything they want to make available for donations towards fleet projects. Any potential stuff that might end up needed would be acceptable by this NPC.*
It would be kinda like listing things on the exchange, only you just put stuff in. You would not receive Fleet Credits until it actually got used by the Fleet, and you could remove things that haven't been used yet. (You could even buy additional slots in your personal donation box with Zen, letting you have a wider variety of potential donations in the box.)
Then when a new project starts, the admirals of the fleet could set up how the system collects donations from each member's box. They could establish a cap on the maximum Fleet Credits each member could earn per project, or per day, etc. Or they could set caps both on the maximum number of sub-categories each member could donate to per project, and also on the maximum percentage of each sub-category's total requirement that each member could be permitted to fulfill.
When the project pops, the system polls everyone's donations boxes and draws evenly from each member some amount of one of the needed items, randomly selected. That way, you don't get screwed for being offline or wanting to focus on your PVP match. Now, there would also be the potential here to perhaps allow the fleet to "tier" the donation caps, so that higher ranking members in the fleet would have a higher daily cap, just like the Fleet Bank ready allows for.
In fact, the Fleet Bank system does a good job of letting fleet leaders set maximum daily limits for each fleet rank on how much they can withdraw or deposit. I see no reason why similar limits shouldn't be available for managing the Starbase projects donations and rewards.
To summarize, I think the current method is a good start, but as-is, it's just too high-maintenance for everyone. We already have to worry about Doffs, dailies, and just playing. Adding another set of "cooldowns" to have to worry about is annoying and clutters the game experience.*The current system's open nature is a massive chore to police for fleet management, and opens the door for drama. I am sure most people much rather have the option for some kind of automated system.
The problem is that members who are not online when the projects end, or who are AFK, etc., do not get the opportunity to contribute in a busy, large, rich fleet. The projects' needs are met within seconds or minutes, and so those members who happen to have schedules that jive with the ending of the projects therefore get all the Fleet Credits, whereas people who work lots of overtime IRL or have odd hours do not have the opportunity to contribute.
Even if all members self-impose (lets say) a one category donation limit per project, and limit themselves to only 10% of that, then there is still the problem that only 10 people per sub-category may contribute. Even if no one "cheats" and exploits this, there is still the opportunity for human error in moving the slider. Also, even if no one ever cheats, it still generates tons of extra daily surveillance work for the fleet leaders, because they still have to make sure nobody's cheating, even of they aren't. Which they shouldn't have to do.
I suggest making a "donation box" NPC where all members would put anything they want to make available for donations towards fleet projects. Any potential stuff that might end up needed would be acceptable by this NPC.*
It would be kinda like listing things on the exchange, only you just put stuff in. You would not receive Fleet Credits until it actually got used by the Fleet, and you could remove things that haven't been used yet. (You could even buy additional slots in your personal donation box with Zen, letting you have a wider variety of potential donations in the box.)
Then when a new project starts, the admirals of the fleet could set up how the system collects donations from each member's box. They could establish a cap on the maximum Fleet Credits each member could earn per project, or per day, etc. Or they could set caps both on the maximum number of sub-categories each member could donate to per project, and also on the maximum percentage of each sub-category's total requirement that each member could be permitted to fulfill.
When the project pops, the system polls everyone's donations boxes and draws evenly from each member some amount of one of the needed items, randomly selected. That way, you don't get screwed for being offline or wanting to focus on your PVP match. Now, there would also be the potential here to perhaps allow the fleet to "tier" the donation caps, so that higher ranking members in the fleet would have a higher daily cap, just like the Fleet Bank ready allows for.
In fact, the Fleet Bank system does a good job of letting fleet leaders set maximum daily limits for each fleet rank on how much they can withdraw or deposit. I see no reason why similar limits shouldn't be available for managing the Starbase projects donations and rewards.
To summarize, I think the current method is a good start, but as-is, it's just too high-maintenance for everyone. We already have to worry about Doffs, dailies, and just playing. Adding another set of "cooldowns" to have to worry about is annoying and clutters the game experience.*The current system's open nature is a massive chore to police for fleet management, and opens the door for drama. I am sure most people much rather have the option for some kind of automated system.
The problem is that members who are not online when the projects end, or who are AFK, etc., do not get the opportunity to contribute in a busy, large, rich fleet. The projects' needs are met within seconds or minutes, and so those members who happen to have schedules that jive with the ending of the projects therefore get all the Fleet Credits, whereas people who work lots of overtime IRL or have odd hours do not have the opportunity to contribute.
Even if all members self-impose (lets say) a one category donation limit per project, and limit themselves to only 10% of that, then there is still the problem that only 10 people per sub-category may contribute. Even if no one "cheats" and exploits this, there is still the opportunity for human error in moving the slider. Also, even if no one ever cheats, it still generates tons of extra daily surveillance work for the fleet leaders, because they still have to make sure nobody's cheating, even of they aren't. Which they shouldn't have to do.
Post edited by seraphantilles on
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Comments
With caps.
/blah
In hour fleet the ambitious ones (I want to be the first on the leaderboard...) donate most of the things.
I am tired waiting when a project ends to put my stuff in. Also I am not willing to put in 250 samples one by one. Sorry.
I realize that's your signature and not your post, but I felt compelled to report that I know for certain that phasers take down Borg engines with their proc, and should the other systems as well.
equal parts cynical and helpful
To donate Fleet marks you slide the bar along to contribute the amount you want to donate. Nice easy and Quick.
However
To donate Data Samples you have to donate them one at a time. Which took me about 5 minutes to fill out 150 yesterday. How god damn annoying it might be if you have to donate 1000 or 10000 for tier III, IV or VI missions one at a time.
They could also add a check box to the DOFF contribute box. Check all the one's you want to donate and then hit OK. Again, instead of one at a time.
I know they might be looking for ways to stretch out the game play, but seriously spending a few hours or few days filling out a single contribute requirement will be no fun at all.
Anyway my 2 cents worth.
You'd just drag a stack of 250 samples into your donation box, and later the "collector" algorithm would deduct some percentage of its needs from your box.
It would certainly require some programming to pull it off so I wouldn't expect it too soon. But it would be alot easier for the devs to do this while it's all still fresh on their minds, I would imagine.
That's like builders putting wood and bricks on the building site and when the building permit comes through the foreman auto allocates the material and voila, there's a new building. I think that actually taking the time to look at what's needed and manually having to do it is more realistic.
I think they should have a slider for data samples, but make that slider only go up to 5. Otherwise people with vast numbers of samples could fill up the required sample spots before anyone else has a chance. Everyone has to have the opportunity to contribute, not just the first one in.
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