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Our Special Crystalline Entity Event is Live! [Now Ended]

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    kapla1755kapla1755 Member Posts: 1,249
    edited September 2013
    tpalelena wrote: »
    I would say rapid fire, beam overload and high yield are even better for the entity, unless you get the shard spam on you.

    that works also but I like the aoe especially with torp spread as it helps the team by clearing out any shard spam around the entity. I find that apb or Apd is also a nice debuff on the massive amount of spam the CE is throwing out now.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    longasclongasc Member Posts: 490
    edited September 2013
    Regarding people having trouble with Mirror Universe Ships:

    In a slight variation of the Undine statement:
    "For the player base to advance the weak must perish." Or rather adapt. After a few tries everyone will be able to do it. These "impossible" statements after one-two tries are just feeble.
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    azurianstarazurianstar Member Posts: 6,985 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    You know, I have to laugh at Cryptic's irony.


    Remember when they were revising the CE, one of the things they did was reduced the number of shards because the CE turned invisible due to video problems. And what they do? They add tons of NPC ships (which are on top of tons of player ships and fighters), and then add a environmental hazards as darkness clouds, radar jamming, gravity wells, and tyken spam. Which freaks people's video cards to death.


    Whomever is the one responsible in calling this "fun", thanks. /sacrasm
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    atavism1atavism1 Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Don't get me wrong, I'm all for challenging scenarios. But this isn't challenging, it's just stupid.

    Flooding a map with so much spam that I either get kicked from the server from the lag, or have to struggle along through 30 second latency (or worse) isn't fun. It's an excercise in pointless frustration.
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    horstpfickhorstpfick Member Posts: 43 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Did a few runs:

    First run was easy, no MU spawns, and I did it on normal, just to see what I'm up against.
    Next toon I used to do it on elite on a daily basis, so I tried that today as well. MU ships spawned, I ignored them and shot at the entity until I died. Respawned, and saw a huge amount of Mirror ships. Tried to ignore them and make out where the entity was located. No luck there, but I managed to get out of reach. That wasn't very satisfying, as doing nothing while my team is killed over and over again isn't fun. So I went back in, hoping to find the entity somehow. No luck there. Team left, was replaced, left, and I finally gave up, too.
    Went to normal, same as the elite version this time. I couldn't see a difference between normal and elite (ok, I didn't get injuries on normal).
    Next runs were all like the above described.

    Edit: finished it with MU ships, but that time there wasn't that massive spawn I saw in earlier runs.
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    zulisvelzulisvel Member Posts: 518 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Vesta... 2 photon torps, one Hargh'peng, one cutting beam, 2 photon consoles. (all rare XIs) Parked at 9.8km. Got first place! :D Am I good or did everyone else suck? :rolleyes:

    My Lethean Sci in his non-fleet Varanus managed to take third place (normal). :) And he's the guy I take out when I want to goof off, so no way in hell is his build optimal.

    I've run, and will keep running it on 6 characters. Everyone else is either too low level or I don't care enough about right now to bother with them. All six runs successfully completed, with only two (one normal, one elite) having any issues. Both the problematic runs suffered lag due to a bazillion mirror ships. And me blowing up because I got stupid in the elite. :P

    Other than the graphics issues due to too many mirror ships I kind of like the randomness they added.
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    azurianstarazurianstar Member Posts: 6,985 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    BTW, just remembered something.......


    Thank you for "fixing" the CE charge up meter, or should I say the lack of fixing it. Still stupid to have that bar where it is, where players can't see the blasted thing. Would it kill you to add one to the targeting display in some fashion?

    Then again, given the UI team have ignored the request of the visually disabled players....
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    battykoda0battykoda0 Member Posts: 959 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    rickpaaa wrote: »
    It actually rotates scenarios. I have had several CE's tonight that were completable. I also had a couple that were the MASSIVE mirror universe spawns, and they were not completable.

    If you see static;
    The goal is yours; Grab it

    But if you see portals;
    It is way above normal

    I posted earlier about all the MU ships and phaser carnage of spawn camping NPC death then got one with the "Antimatter Spread" looking screen and it was as easy as the one with the rifts and the entire ship complement of the Terran Empire is impossible. I was able to complete 3 with the static on the screen in rather quick order while eventually bailing on every single one that spawned MU as it quickly became far too much for my CPU to maintain even 10 FPS out of my usual 40. Even the Elachi "Squid Ink Clouds" are not that much of a hindrance to beating it. If you can't see the CE, just "target next" until you get a lock and shoot from the blackness of the blot. But if you see inter-dimensional rifts, you might as well salute your fellows and leave.

    I am reading backwards to the last post I read forward to earlier. At that time, a Dev or CM had said they looked at it and the aggro threshold was off and that even self-healing was an aggro magnet. I have not gone far enough back to see a follow-up, if any so far, to that statement. With that info in hand, my tactic for beating the CE is to kill it with clouds and kill it with static but run crying like a baby if I see MUs. I see absolutely no sense in wasting all those components on repairs and that much time in a fail when you can get two other scenarios that you can beat on elite for better drops. Heck, I got first place in a Mirror Universe DSSV on the static one. If I can, then granny can beat the CE down with her cane as long as the Terrans don't come out to play.
    Wow. There is a new KDF Science ship. I'll be!
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    monkeybone13monkeybone13 Member Posts: 4,640 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    I realy like this event and enjoyed playing it last time with my fed and kdf, now I get to play it with my rommie.
    I only wish the event was running for 28 days instead of just 21, I have cued the new project with the doff prize with all my characters but my rom was also able to cue the previous event with the shard pet prize.
    If the event was running for 28 days I would be able to compete both these projects and that would bring my rom up in line with my others.
    as it is I will have to do half of one project and hope the event is repeated in the future so I can finish it then.

    dear Brandon, I see in an earlier post from you -
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bberge1701 View Post
    OK, I have a few questions not covered in the announcement.

    Is the old reward of the Crystal Shard space pet still available? I have some Romulan characters "born" after the first run, so they never got a chance to get it.

    If so, how many shards to complete its project? If it's 14, like last time, it will be impossible to complete both the old project and the new project.

    The old project is not available any longer. We may consider making a new way to obtain the Shard pet in the future. Please see the linked news post for information pertaining to players who already had it queued up, and information about the new project.


    just to let you know the old project is available or at least it was on Tuesday when I cued it with my rom.

    The old project with the crystal shard non-combat pet was available up until the event started today. I don't have a use for the doff so thankfully I was smart and queued up the old project Wednesday night on my romulan, reman, and recent level 50 orion. I didn't know at the time there was going to be a brand new project to take its place and I wouldn't be able to complete both projects, I just queued them up since I saw the event was coming again. So if you had the project queued in the project slot before the event started today you could keep it. They weren't going to auto remove the project because some players had it partially completed from the last time the event ran and they may want to finish it. (Some only need 1 crystal shard to complete the old project)

    Sadly this means for 3 characters I won't be able to complete both projects, but I can get the second project that awards the doff queued up and partially completed in case they run the event again. :) Though that would mean I won't be able to do the repeatable project for marks and a little dil. Choices choices.

    Edit: For the first time ever I got first place in the Crystalline entity mission and got the huge floor trophy for inside my ship. It was on my newest character: an Orion science captain in a standard Vo'quv carrier and I wasn't healing other players. Go figure.
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    theultimatextheultimatex Member Posts: 489 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    bberge1701 wrote: »
    Thanks for the prompt clarification, Branflakes!



    If I might make a suggestion, how about a 1-Shard project available after completing the main project, like you currently have for dilithium, etc?

    Well guess what? I can't even get the Shard project to [start]. I can't contribute to either project at present in my reputation tab to start them no matter how many shards I try to contribute.

    Please don't tell me I need to drop the pet reward project from my toons just to do the new project and the Doff reward I don't want?
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    theultimatextheultimatex Member Posts: 489 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Just great. I can't even start the new project with my alt free account with the new project, when I had never touched the old one.

    Is this all because I have shards from the old project I got on the last day of the old event just for fun?
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    trekerrobtrekerrob Member Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Well the concept behind the event is great, but geez guys you've got something going wrong with the difficulty matching.

    I've done 5 Medium difficulties in a row now, and 2 out of 3 I would classify as Medium difficulty, the other 3 were crazy insane hard with so many ships it took 15 minutes to clear them before we even got the the entity.

    Somethings not right.
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    damienoz72damienoz72 Member Posts: 40 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    This is a dreadfully planned event.

    OVERKILL MUCH!

    I like a challenge - I really do - but when it's so hard that everyone else leaves and I am the only one left (this has happened on the last 5 occasions I tried this damn thing) then how it is a FUN EVENT!?

    It isn't - cryptic you clearly have ZERO Q&A. And very little in the way of respect for your revenue generators - that's us btw. :mad:
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    tpalelenatpalelena Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    A normal is for a doable event, the Elite one should be the power gamer's beloved challange.

    But with the terran ships in normal taking damage that would melt cubes in ISE.... and coming in the dozens, its broken.
    Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
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    revyremirevyremi Member Posts: 49 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    pls next time this event is up make it so that we can collect the shards when ever we want 20 hr cooldown is stupid.

    just put a 2 week or how ever long the event is cooldown on the project that way we cant expolit it and get to play it when ever we want and not time gated TRIBBLE.
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    revyremirevyremi Member Posts: 49 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Just great. I can't even start the new project with my alt free account with the new project, when I had never touched the old one.

    Is this all because I have shards from the old project I got on the last day of the old event just for fun?

    i have both the old and new ones slotted its working fine. click on the empty box and slot it simples.
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    aelfwin1aelfwin1 Member Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    You know, I have to laugh at Cryptic's irony.


    Remember when they were revising the CE, one of the things they did was reduced the number of shards because the CE turned invisible due to video problems. And what they do? They add tons of NPC ships (which are on top of tons of player ships and fighters), and then add a environmental hazards as darkness clouds, radar jamming, gravity wells, and tyken spam. Which freaks people's video cards to death.


    Whomever is the one responsible in calling this "fun", thanks. /sacrasm

    +1

    /10 char
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    thedodgehopperthedodgehopper Member Posts: 119 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    revyremi wrote: »
    pls next time this event is up make it so that we can collect the shards when ever we want 20 hr cooldown is stupid.

    just put a 2 week or how ever long the event is cooldown on the project that way we cant expolit it and get to play it when ever we want and not time gated TRIBBLE.

    Agreed. I've never been very fond of these kind of time gates. If you do the work, you should get the rewards, and it makes running around with the annoying time scheduling a little easier. Somehow though, I think the developers don't realize that a lot of us run more than one character. That really factors into it. Every time one of these events come out, I have to play myself ragged til I hate the game. It seems unfortunate since the purpose of these is to increase a sense of investment into the game. Truth be told though, someone like me is already heavily invested so an event really does nothing for me in that regard. Its more about collection at this point, and the new shiny doff.
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    xbalankexbalanke Member Posts: 64 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    I probably won't be making myself popular here.. but.. I actually like the changes.. it's a nice challenge!:D

    I'd guess that one out of every 4 runs (elite) I did yesterday failed which I think is an acceptable failure rate considering 1 - they were all PUGs; 2 - there was barely every any team communication; 3 - we get a nice reward for getting all 14 shards. I don't think it should be a simple 'shoot at toothless object for 15 mins, grab shard, repeat.

    The first character I played it on was actually my newest fed sci in a d'kyr without any fancy consoles or weapons.. an aegis set, that s the only thing she has, everything else is cheap mk x & xi off the exchange. The run took about 20 minutes I think, during the first 10 minutes we made barely progress killing the terran ships, so a couple of escorts went after the CE instead with me keeping them alive. and once the CE released the first energy wave destroying all terrans in range, the rest of the game was easy..

    What did I learn from my first 3 runs?: AoE is an absolute NO GO! it gets you way too much aggro from the terran ships.. I changed the boffs and strategy on most of my chars before going in and never had much trouble.. even my tac kumari managed to stay alive for an acceptable time once I had replaced CSV3 with CRF3..
    I dumped CSV, TS and FAW in favor of single target abilities and most of the time the terrans didn't give me much trouble.. I d also recommend against using photonic fleet on sci's btw and TR and GW should be used with care to not attract the attention of too many terrans..

    Obviously if one of your teammates goes in guns blazing with FAW, TS or CSV, grabbing the attention of every single terran ship on the map.. well.. it gets harder. I did one run where we got the CE away from the terran spawn points and we were pounding it without any effort.. until an oddy (i think) who was fighting a few tholians got within weapons range of the terrans when he hit FAW.. you can guess the rest.. :rolleyes:
    Once the terrans are spawned the trick is to get the CE to release its energy wave asap, but whatever you do, stay away from the terran groups that haven't yet been aggro'd. The fact that in pugs not everyone knows this is the mail reason of the 25% failure rate..

    I also tried one on normal and I think, if anything, it was too easy.. there were terrans from the start and the whole thing was over in about 7 minutes.. all it took was me and 2 other escorts shooting at the CE while everyone else was busy spamming FAW and getting killed :)
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    goku5030goku5030 Member Posts: 229 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    kapla1755 wrote: »
    Changed it is right this is CE in normal mode last 4 runs:


    If you see this ruuun for your life :P

    what comes outta the rifts 1
    what comes outta the rifts 2
    what comes outta the rifts 3
    what comes outta the rifts 4


    1st run in a Fleet norgh on an engy
    :D

    These are all with random Pug teams, there is also what appears to be subspace clouds like the black hole console that block any targeting and weapons fire from within them.

    Rofl we are Spartans we fight :O against the many .... And run like cowards :D
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    goku5030goku5030 Member Posts: 229 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    tpalelena wrote: »
    This event is awful. Who had this worst idea of amping the thing up until NORMAL feels harder than ELITE used to be?

    Cryptic... just what was someone thinking!?! This is undoable unless the WHOLE team has the best mark XII fleet-reputation equipment. Even than it is a pain that makes the Elite Into the hive pale in comparison!

    A hundred terran ships, giant disabling ruptures that you can't even full impulse out of , this is the worst instance this game ever had.

    Just one mirror battleship has shields like an elite cube. Or better. Just... did anybody even playtest this?

    They want to test your bravery fight against the many :D with only 5 people :)... While you doing that cryptic is rofl :)
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    lordmalak1lordmalak1 Member Posts: 4,681 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    i just ignore the MU ships and hit the crystal til it goes to next phase, then end of the rifts :)

    Glad I'm not the only one. I fired on 2 (two) MU ships over 4 runs on 3 toons. I completely ignored them otherwise. I don't get what all the crying is about, the MU ships seem little more than a nuisance.
    :confused:
    KBF Lord MalaK
    Awoken Dead
    giphy.gif

    Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
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    tancrediivtancrediiv Member Posts: 728 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Let me first say, I like a challenge. I like that a mission makes you have to bring your best game.

    But if I just brought my very best game to Crystal Elite, and got wiped out of existence in moments by clouds of mirror ships, firing so many phasers it looked like orange glowing background with hints of space thrown in, it is too many spawns.

    I may like a challenge, but I only have so much time to play. I don't want missions that go on for 45 minutes with CE down to 40% and holding, and each time I hit it down to 37%, getting popped and having to start again.

    This mission is broken.

    Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER

    Expatriot Might Characters in EXILE
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    killgore3232killgore3232 Member Posts: 21 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    xbalanke wrote: »
    I probably won't be making myself popular here.. but.. I actually like the changes.. it's a nice challenge!:D

    I'd guess that one out of every 4 runs (elite) I did yesterday failed which I think is an acceptable failure rate considering 1 - they were all PUGs; 2 - there was barely every any team communication; 3 - we get a nice reward for getting all 14 shards. I don't think it should be a simple 'shoot at toothless object for 15 mins, grab shard, repeat.

    The first character I played it on was actually my newest fed sci in a d'kyr without any fancy consoles or weapons.. an aegis set, that s the only thing she has, everything else is cheap mk x & xi off the exchange. The run took about 20 minutes I think, during the first 10 minutes we made barely progress killing the terran ships, so a couple of escorts went after the CE instead with me keeping them alive. and once the CE released the first energy wave destroying all terrans in range, the rest of the game was easy..

    What did I learn from my first 3 runs?: AoE is an absolute NO GO! it gets you way too much aggro from the terran ships.. I changed the boffs and strategy on most of my chars before going in and never had much trouble.. even my tac kumari managed to stay alive for an acceptable time once I had replaced CSV3 with CRF3..
    I dumped CSV, TS and FAW in favor of single target abilities and most of the time the terrans didn't give me much trouble.. I d also recommend against using photonic fleet on sci's btw and TR and GW should be used with care to not attract the attention of too many terrans..

    Obviously if one of your teammates goes in guns blazing with FAW, TS or CSV, grabbing the attention of every single terran ship on the map.. well.. it gets harder. I did one run where we got the CE away from the terran spawn points and we were pounding it without any effort.. until an oddy (i think) who was fighting a few tholians got within weapons range of the terrans when he hit FAW.. you can guess the rest.. :rolleyes:
    Once the terrans are spawned the trick is to get the CE to release its energy wave asap, but whatever you do, stay away from the terran groups that haven't yet been aggro'd. The fact that in pugs not everyone knows this is the mail reason of the 25% failure rate..

    I also tried one on normal and I think, if anything, it was too easy.. there were terrans from the start and the whole thing was over in about 7 minutes.. all it took was me and 2 other escorts shooting at the CE while everyone else was busy spamming FAW and getting killed :)

    I agree with this poster. A seasonal or timed event shouldn't be too easy. Truthfully, I got bored floating around on Risa, and never finished it. Have a little strategy, or if you don't mind taking a trip to the ship repair afterwards, fly past the Mirror ships and bludgeon it to death. it will fall eventually. I ran the mission on 3 characters yesterday, and only one was what I would call painful. Please don't change the event Cryptic.
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    gerwalk0769gerwalk0769 Member Posts: 1,095 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    xbalanke wrote: »
    I probably won't be making myself popular here.. but.. I actually like the changes.. it's a nice challenge!:D

    I'd guess that one out of every 4 runs (elite) I did yesterday failed which I think is an acceptable failure rate considering 1 - they were all PUGs; 2 - there was barely every any team communication; 3 - we get a nice reward for getting all 14 shards. I don't think it should be a simple 'shoot at toothless object for 15 mins, grab shard, repeat.

    The first character I played it on was actually my newest fed sci in a d'kyr without any fancy consoles or weapons.. an aegis set, that s the only thing she has, everything else is cheap mk x & xi off the exchange. The run took about 20 minutes I think, during the first 10 minutes we made barely progress killing the terran ships, so a couple of escorts went after the CE instead with me keeping them alive. and once the CE released the first energy wave destroying all terrans in range, the rest of the game was easy..

    What did I learn from my first 3 runs?: AoE is an absolute NO GO! it gets you way too much aggro from the terran ships.. I changed the boffs and strategy on most of my chars before going in and never had much trouble.. even my tac kumari managed to stay alive for an acceptable time once I had replaced CSV3 with CRF3..
    I dumped CSV, TS and FAW in favor of single target abilities and most of the time the terrans didn't give me much trouble.. I d also recommend against using photonic fleet on sci's btw and TR and GW should be used with care to not attract the attention of too many terrans..

    Obviously if one of your teammates goes in guns blazing with FAW, TS or CSV, grabbing the attention of every single terran ship on the map.. well.. it gets harder. I did one run where we got the CE away from the terran spawn points and we were pounding it without any effort.. until an oddy (i think) who was fighting a few tholians got within weapons range of the terrans when he hit FAW.. you can guess the rest.. :rolleyes:
    Once the terrans are spawned the trick is to get the CE to release its energy wave asap, but whatever you do, stay away from the terran groups that haven't yet been aggro'd. The fact that in pugs not everyone knows this is the mail reason of the 25% failure rate..

    I also tried one on normal and I think, if anything, it was too easy.. there were terrans from the start and the whole thing was over in about 7 minutes.. all it took was me and 2 other escorts shooting at the CE while everyone else was busy spamming FAW and getting killed :)

    I played in a successful match yesterday but thank you for the tips. Thanks also Devs, this event gives me an excuse to outfit my ship with reputation gear. More special events that utilize reputation traits and gear, ground and space, would be welcome by me.

    Please more events that build the value of Engineer, Sci, crew and underutilized skills instead of DPS. Perhaps entities could have high burst resistance, reflection, or dps threshold.
    Joined STO in September 2010.
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    swamarianswamarian Member Posts: 1,506 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    My science character completed the mission without any problem. Then my engineer in an escort got massacered. After coming here, I tried it again ignoring everything but the CE and its spawn. That went MUCH better, and I found a place behind the crystal with few ships to play in. (It still took a while, but we steadily made progress at least.)
    My escort's also running mostly exchange gear. The only cool stuff she has is the leach and isometric charge.
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    fadmbambamfadmbambam Member Posts: 656 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    My opinion about these "changes" (to avoid the obvious "bugs"/"reality check failure"/"trolling",etc...) would be that even the Dominion would think of this being overkill.

    Here's an idea, let's start a contest we'd call "Show your most ridiculous situation in Crystalline Cataclysm!"
    My first entry:
    Star Trek's version of Bullet Hell: Phaser Hell.

    That looks like one of mine... there were so many mirror ships, I had problems even finding the CE. And it was impossible to get to the CE without hundreds of mirror ships attacking me (even though I didn't aggro them.)


    Reminds me of the >285,000 Enterprises from the episode "Parallels."

    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:USS_Enterprise-D_convention_near_a_quantum_fissure.jpg
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    collije1collije1 Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    Help. I had the old project still to finish (only needed 1 more shard to complete).

    I did an Elite mission last night and reecived a shard. When I try to add it to the old project, I see that the shard is available and I selected it fine, but when I try to submit nothing happens. I attempted this about 10 times to confirm.

    Also I see that the new project is available. Since it was stated that the new project shouldnt be available until the old one is either completed or jettisoned, then it looks like a bug to me.

    I'd hate to have to cancel the old existing project and loses those prior obtained 13 shards.
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    seabee22ndseabee22nd Member Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    goku5030 wrote: »
    Rofl we are Spartans we fight :O against the many .... And run like cowards :D

    agreed, the mirror ships make it impossible to complete mission even on normal and it can take up to leaving an event 3 times before being able to complete one and that can consume a lot of time
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    treking2treking2 Member Posts: 159 Arc User
    edited September 2013
    It would be really nice if you could actually see the cooldown timer for getting the shard.
    It is a pain when you don't get it because you ran it at 19.9 hours instead of 20,
    and have a cooldown that keeps you from running it again that day.
    [Real life can be such a pain at times.]

    Perhaps displayed in the "PvE Queues" for the event in the description,
    as they do for the foundary spotlight missions,
    or perhaps in the description in the reputation system,
    but Please put the display of the 20 Hour countdown timer Somewhere!

    Thanks :)
This discussion has been closed.