It's time for an end to all the junk drops. None of it is of any real value to the game a 20 EC item cashes in for 8 or 10 and it takes up too much inventory space. The sooner it happens, the sooner I can say good riddance.
I gather up the food drops. Then sell it to vendor for EC. Unless my Boff uses it. Then I give it to them to refill their supply. My lower levels use them, as they don't have much EC. So I use it for both, EC and to refill my character.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
I like going 200,000 years into the past, killing the invaders of Iconia, and having them drop Bajoran Jumja Stick. Either the Bajoran's are lying about inventing the thing, or there an expansionistic time in the Prophets' history?
They are-unless you are KDF or Rom with KDF alliance. Then they are readtion mass to feed tribbles for your Cannibal Tribble.
oh contraire, ok so I have a kdf character but all my characters carry a cannibal tribble then all the tribble carcases are past to my kdf to turn in for tribble bounty, so food and tribble drops are dead handy, the tribbles eat the food to make more tribbles so my cannibal tribbles have a plentiful supply, even so you have to be playing the character at the time for anything to happen once an hour so most days you are lucky to get 2 or 3 tribble carcases a day in total.
if I only had a cannibal tribble on my kdf I would be lucky to get 2 or 3 tribble carcases a week.
its just a pity there isn't some really good stuff I can spend all the gold pressed latinum on.
most other drops I just recycle in the replicator unless on the rare occasion I get something very good.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
The food is Flash Frozen using a process first invented by some obscure Earther name Clarence Birdseye. It should be good until the 29th century.
Sketches in the Historical Archives at Memory Alpha are inconsistent and portray him as an Orion-skined giant.
Post edited by ltminns on
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I like going 200,000 years into the past, killing the invaders of Iconia, and having them drop Bajoran Jumja Stick. Either the Bajoran's are lying about inventing the thing, or there an expansionistic time in the Prophets' history?
Unlike, say, humans, Memory Alpha shows that the Bajorans actually were around at that time. There is one other solution to the Bajoran objection...traders without a Prime Directive could well have licensed the recipe for a profit.
But for just about ANY other species, it is really ridiculous to get those drops from them on Iconia!
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I like going 200,000 years into the past, killing the invaders of Iconia, and having them drop Bajoran Jumja Stick. Either the Bajoran's are lying about inventing the thing, or there an expansionistic time in the Prophets' history?
Unlike, say, humans, Memory Alpha shows that the Bajorans actually were around at that time. But for just about ANY other species, it is really ridiculous to get those drops from them on Iconia!
Well, I guess the Bajoran Prophet/Pah-wraith civil war did include disagreements on isolationism/expansionism. Maybe they did have an empire at one point in time? (Wild mass guessing) what if the sacking of Iconia was a tipping point between the Prophet factions that led to the civil war?
I like going 200,000 years into the past, killing the invaders of Iconia, and having them drop Bajoran Jumja Stick. Either the Bajoran's are lying about inventing the thing, or there an expansionistic time in the Prophets' history?
There is no technology the Bajorans' don't claim they invented before everyone else.
-Chief Dukat, Transporter officer of the USS Kanar.
All my characters have test reward tribbles and cannibal tribbles in their inventories. I transfer the tribbel carcasses to my KDF toons and turn them in for GPL that I can use in various doff assignments.
Edit: Inside your ship there is a chef and bartender doff contact that each have an assignment chain. Some food items they require can't be bought at any vendors and can't be obtained from your ship replicator. About the only way to get those items are as random loot drops. There may be special doff assignments that have a chance to give you a special food item, but that isn't very reliable.
If food drops were removed as loot drops, it would make it more expensive to obtain such hard to find items, and harder to complete those assignment chains if that's something you're into.
Also, some of the those food items can be used to breed tribbles that give pretty decent buffs.
As you argue the merits of why a borg drone or a icoans would have some type of food item on them, keep this in mind:
You ask for food items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Than someone will ask for common items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
THAN someone asks for uncommon items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Soon, nothing will drop, and Cryptic kills all loot drops.
Basically, YOU ARE ASKING FOR A NERF BECUASE YOUR TO LAZY TO VENDOR FOOD ITEMS, AND THAT A BORG DRONE IN THE DELTA QUADRANT DROPS A FREAKIN BOTTLE OF BLOOD WINE AND IT ISN'T "CANON".
I raise my beer to the people who posted here that can make EC and DIL out of these food items, they are playing the game to the fullest.
yes, the food drops don't match the enemy. they are sill. A Klank with a bowl of soup in his pocket? That's weird
You complain about NPCs having food, but you're okay with them dropping other stuff they normally wouldn't have? oooookay.
People, remember they added foods years ago to act as alternatives to heals without wasting hypos. Is food so annoying that you're okay with less stuff dropping?
As you argue the merits of why a borg drone or a icoans would have some type of food item on them, keep this in mind:
You ask for food items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Than someone will ask for common items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
THAN someone asks for uncommon items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Soon, nothing will drop, and Cryptic kills all loot drops.
This is my fear: if implemented, the only way I can see Cryptic implementing it is a nerf. And I do NOT want that.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Or a feature, where you can arrange wich loot goes to the replicator and which goes in the inventory. Almost everything I loot goes to the replicator. Loot management is one of the moste boring aspects of the game. I always end up with loaded characters and stop playing them, because I have no interest in figuring out what is worth to keep and what is fine to sell.
"Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
dont you guys realize that p. stewart gets $1.00 for every bottle of Chatueu Picard that is bought,sold,vendored,or sent to the exchange or replicator......??? ADD MOAR Chatueu Picard damnit !!!!!
As you argue the merits of why a borg drone or a icoans would have some type of food item on them, keep this in mind:
You ask for food items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Than someone will ask for common items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
THAN someone asks for uncommon items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Soon, nothing will drop, and Cryptic kills all loot drops.
Basically, YOU ARE ASKING FOR A NERF BECUASE YOUR TO LAZY TO VENDOR FOOD ITEMS, AND THAT A BORG DRONE IN THE DELTA QUADRANT DROPS A FREAKIN BOTTLE OF BLOOD WINE AND IT ISN'T "CANON".
I raise my beer to the people who posted here that can make EC and DIL out of these food items, they are playing the game to the fullest.
as I said previously, I'd be in favour of getting rid of all drops...given that missions and kills reward EC too. Nothing (exageration, but it is close to 99%) that drops is sellable on the exchange at the moment. In other words: vendor trash.
lets asume that everytime you kill a NPC ship and it drops loot the average value of that item is 500 EC, wouldn't it be just smarter to add 500 EC to your bank automatically than pileing items up in your inventory or recycle them one at a time?
Ofcourse if the average was around 500 EC and you'd only get 100 EC I would be pissed, but to generally say it is a nerf when we are at the hypothetical stage of the idea is just nonsense born from hysteria.
Did I mention that I hate to look at floating loot containers?
As you argue the merits of why a borg drone or a icoans would have some type of food item on them, keep this in mind:
You ask for food items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Than someone will ask for common items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
THAN someone asks for uncommon items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Soon, nothing will drop, and Cryptic kills all loot drops.
Basically, YOU ARE ASKING FOR A NERF BECUASE YOUR TO LAZY TO VENDOR FOOD ITEMS, AND THAT A BORG DRONE IN THE DELTA QUADRANT DROPS A FREAKIN BOTTLE OF BLOOD WINE AND IT ISN'T "CANON".
I raise my beer to the people who posted here that can make EC and DIL out of these food items, they are playing the game to the fullest.
I have to agree with this. The real irony here being that while complaining that a Borg drone dropping a bottle of blood wine might not be canon, some people here are essentially arguing in favor of removing pieces of that same canon from the game - don't forget, apart from a few naturally Human food items like croissants and stuff, all of the food items in STO are pieces of that Trek canon; every single one was mentioned, prepared, eaten or drunk in an episode of Star Trek.
Furthermore, many of these have their practical application in the game. Some are used in fleet Starbase projects, and yes, there are still fleets that are building up, new that are being started that still have work on such projects. Some of us actually do like the Tribble breeding, I for one do it on all my Federation characters and these food items are needed for that process as well. Some of us like to build their characters thematically, so my Ferengi will have all the Ferengi food items in cargo hold, my Klingon all the Klingon ones, etc. - just in case the crew gets hungry. There are Doff chains aboard the ship some of us follow through that need some of these items. Heck, just toss 'em to the Boffs, they'll eat them up on a mission. In a way, like @cidjack mentioned here, it's playing the game to the fullest.
I really don't see the issue here other than this community's weird obsession with dumbing down the game and constantly removing more and more from STO. If you don't like them, just don't pick them up when they drop, don't come here and complain on the forum for Star Trek sake. Here's an idea - if you feel there's not much to do with these items, why not ask for more things that utilize their usage, you know - adding to the game instead of removing?
These food drops can actually give you larger stacks at one time than you can get from the Commissary Vendors - one at a time. Talk about Quality of Life issues, try stocking up the Bartender or Food Vendors for those Fleet Projects when you have to buy 1,000+ one at a time. I sweep up every drop I have access to, mostly send it all to the Replicators.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
These food drops can actually give you larger stacks at one time than you can get from the Commissary Vendors - one at a time. Talk about Quality of Life issues, try stocking up the Bartender or Food Vendors for those Fleet Projects when you have to buy 1,000+ one at a time. I sweep up every drop I have access to, mostly send it all to the Replicators.
It has been requested many times that they increase give us a quantity slider for food items we purchase from vendors. The fleet starbase project to add a chef and bartender to your starbase is why it's been requested, and is something my KDF fleet has available, but I've got other upgrades to do first.
Does Cryptic know how annoying it is when you need to buy hundreds of food items or hundreds of doffs for fleet projects and the game asks you every friggen time "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BUY THAT?"? Jesus!
However, a fleet mate recently told me a trick to this when I was buying many, many doffs from the starbase (I'm talking over 1,000 doffs at a time for fleet projects): hold the left CTRL key and you completely bypass the confirmation window. While holding the CTRL key you can just rapidly click the Buy button without it asking if you're sure you want to buy the item. It makes a world of difference. No more needing to line up the buy button to be under the confirmation button.
For some of us, picking up everything we can is a good source of energy credits, especially since we don't have real money to buy zen then get keys to sell on the exchange. Every little bit of EC we get is worthwhile and counts.
As you argue the merits of why a borg drone or a icoans would have some type of food item on them, keep this in mind:
You ask for food items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Than someone will ask for common items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
THAN someone asks for uncommon items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Soon, nothing will drop, and Cryptic kills all loot drops.
Basically, YOU ARE ASKING FOR A NERF BECUASE YOUR TO LAZY TO VENDOR FOOD ITEMS, AND THAT A BORG DRONE IN THE DELTA QUADRANT DROPS A FREAKIN BOTTLE OF BLOOD WINE AND IT ISN'T "CANON".
I raise my beer to the people who posted here that can make EC and DIL out of these food items, they are playing the game to the fullest.
as I said previously, I'd be in favour of getting rid of all drops...given that missions and kills reward EC too. Nothing (exageration, but it is close to 99%) that drops is sellable on the exchange at the moment. In other words: vendor trash.
lets asume that everytime you kill a NPC ship and it drops loot the average value of that item is 500 EC, wouldn't it be just smarter to add 500 EC to your bank automatically than pileing items up in your inventory or recycle them one at a time?
Ofcourse if the average was around 500 EC and you'd only get 100 EC I would be pissed, but to generally say it is a nerf when we are at the hypothetical stage of the idea is just nonsense born from hysteria.
Did I mention that I hate to look at floating loot containers?
So because you don't want to deal with vendoring stuff out, I shouldn't be allowed to? On average, a full inventory represents 150000 EC to me and is a bigger source of EC than you seem to realize. I don't care to have that taken away from me--and it is pretty standard operating procedure by Cryptic to nerf any system that gets "revamped" or "tweaked." The track record is there, I'm afraid. If you are not interested in it, just don't pick the containers up.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
All my characters have test reward tribbles and cannibal tribbles in their inventories. I transfer the tribbel carcasses to my KDF toons and turn them in for GPL that I can use in various doff assignments.
Edit: Inside your ship there is a chef and bartender doff contact that each have an assignment chain. Some food items they require can't be bought at any vendors and can't be obtained from your ship replicator. About the only way to get those items are as random loot drops. There may be special doff assignments that have a chance to give you a special food item, but that isn't very reliable.
If food drops were removed as loot drops, it would make it more expensive to obtain such hard to find items, and harder to complete those assignment chains if that's something you're into.
Also, some of the those food items can be used to breed tribbles that give pretty decent buffs.
I feel the need to reiterate that some food items are ONLY obtained via random drops.
Agreed. Those food drops are an even bigger waste of time and space than a singularity.
Disagree to an extent. IMHO, the whole loot drop crapola needs a revamp.. Why, in an Elite STF, should common ANYTHING drop.. Aux Batteries, Hypo's, and common MK X weapons. Such a waste for end-game troubles.
Even playing on Advanced or Elite settings, don't really enhance the drops. Tried it, didn't like it. Only thing I found "different" on Advanced or Elite is (1) Bragging Rights; (2) More EC's spent/Time investment for Ship repairs or Visits to the Doc (I know, 99% of bases can repair and have Doc's); (3) and an overall slightly (3-5%) chance for more Rare Drops of MK X and maybe MK XI good stuff.
If I'm doing "Elite" level missions, there should be "Elite" level Drops. Keep the common stuff in Story-lines or boosted/reduced level team play.
Red Alerts are a little different, since folks are boosted or leveled down to what L45 ?? Drops should be commensurate with the mission and Player level involved. Common drops, sure, but Elite STF's and/or FE's should drop common MK XII, XIII, and even MK XIV. Sure,, one-shot a Sphere in "Butterfly" and get an Aux Battery.
Oh, Food stuffs.. they have a purpose, (1) One or two of the Flet Missions do/did require Food Stuff (Romulan Ale comes to mind), and (2) My Favorite - TRIBBLE BREEDING. That breeding program yields VR Tribbs that have better stats than some of the "mission" (Cryo Tribb) Tribbs do and the ONLY way to get them is by Breeding Tribbles. VR Tribbs, iirc, are not bound and can be sold on Exchange.
Also, all my toons use just "Field Rations". My FED toons use Field Rations to yield carcasses that they "sell" to my KDF toons for a contraband tribute. I use the Food drops for Tribble Breeding..
How would this work for everyone? Setting in the menu. Any item over X rarity level is auto sent to the vendor. Players set X.
My stance on the mess on a whole? I don't really see this as a big deal. I disagree on the whole "if Cryptic touch it's ruined" that some people think. If drops was gone it force low level characters to replay missions for rewards, use crappy stock gear, pay the shops at the shipyards (side topic can we please have white consoles sold at those shops. Cheap way to roughly cover a few missing holes in your new t3 ship once you opened it.), pay the "you know will be high once they see they got a market" exchange, or get into crafting.
Actually I wasn't asking for the removal of the items, just not on the drop table anymore.
For some background in another game I play food Items work as buffs and buff everything from damage to credit drops to XP but are not dropped from enemies, you have to buy them with credits. That game also has a "tribble" type pet that has to be fed in order to work. In that game the only things on the drop tables are weapons, armor, their version of kit modules, and credits.
Besides my alternative is Doff trade/supply mission now not only would get food items but also some XP, SP, CP and dil.
Comments
[/SIGPIC]
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
oh contraire, ok so I have a kdf character but all my characters carry a cannibal tribble then all the tribble carcases are past to my kdf to turn in for tribble bounty, so food and tribble drops are dead handy, the tribbles eat the food to make more tribbles so my cannibal tribbles have a plentiful supply, even so you have to be playing the character at the time for anything to happen once an hour so most days you are lucky to get 2 or 3 tribble carcases a day in total.
if I only had a cannibal tribble on my kdf I would be lucky to get 2 or 3 tribble carcases a week.
its just a pity there isn't some really good stuff I can spend all the gold pressed latinum on.
most other drops I just recycle in the replicator unless on the rare occasion I get something very good.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Sketches in the Historical Archives at Memory Alpha are inconsistent and portray him as an Orion-skined giant.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Unlike, say, humans, Memory Alpha shows that the Bajorans actually were around at that time. There is one other solution to the Bajoran objection...traders without a Prime Directive could well have licensed the recipe for a profit.
But for just about ANY other species, it is really ridiculous to get those drops from them on Iconia!
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Well, I guess the Bajoran Prophet/Pah-wraith civil war did include disagreements on isolationism/expansionism. Maybe they did have an empire at one point in time? (Wild mass guessing) what if the sacking of Iconia was a tipping point between the Prophet factions that led to the civil war?
There is no technology the Bajorans' don't claim they invented before everyone else.
-Chief Dukat, Transporter officer of the USS Kanar.
All my characters have test reward tribbles and cannibal tribbles in their inventories. I transfer the tribbel carcasses to my KDF toons and turn them in for GPL that I can use in various doff assignments.
Edit: Inside your ship there is a chef and bartender doff contact that each have an assignment chain. Some food items they require can't be bought at any vendors and can't be obtained from your ship replicator. About the only way to get those items are as random loot drops. There may be special doff assignments that have a chance to give you a special food item, but that isn't very reliable.
If food drops were removed as loot drops, it would make it more expensive to obtain such hard to find items, and harder to complete those assignment chains if that's something you're into.
Also, some of the those food items can be used to breed tribbles that give pretty decent buffs.
You ask for food items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Than someone will ask for common items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
THAN someone asks for uncommon items to be removed, Cryptic complies.
Soon, nothing will drop, and Cryptic kills all loot drops.
Basically, YOU ARE ASKING FOR A NERF BECUASE YOUR TO LAZY TO VENDOR FOOD ITEMS, AND THAT A BORG DRONE IN THE DELTA QUADRANT DROPS A FREAKIN BOTTLE OF BLOOD WINE AND IT ISN'T "CANON".
I raise my beer to the people who posted here that can make EC and DIL out of these food items, they are playing the game to the fullest.
You complain about NPCs having food, but you're okay with them dropping other stuff they normally wouldn't have? oooookay.
People, remember they added foods years ago to act as alternatives to heals without wasting hypos. Is food so annoying that you're okay with less stuff dropping?
This is my fear: if implemented, the only way I can see Cryptic implementing it is a nerf. And I do NOT want that.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
as I said previously, I'd be in favour of getting rid of all drops...given that missions and kills reward EC too. Nothing (exageration, but it is close to 99%) that drops is sellable on the exchange at the moment. In other words: vendor trash.
lets asume that everytime you kill a NPC ship and it drops loot the average value of that item is 500 EC, wouldn't it be just smarter to add 500 EC to your bank automatically than pileing items up in your inventory or recycle them one at a time?
Ofcourse if the average was around 500 EC and you'd only get 100 EC I would be pissed, but to generally say it is a nerf when we are at the hypothetical stage of the idea is just nonsense born from hysteria.
Did I mention that I hate to look at floating loot containers?
I have to agree with this. The real irony here being that while complaining that a Borg drone dropping a bottle of blood wine might not be canon, some people here are essentially arguing in favor of removing pieces of that same canon from the game - don't forget, apart from a few naturally Human food items like croissants and stuff, all of the food items in STO are pieces of that Trek canon; every single one was mentioned, prepared, eaten or drunk in an episode of Star Trek.
Furthermore, many of these have their practical application in the game. Some are used in fleet Starbase projects, and yes, there are still fleets that are building up, new that are being started that still have work on such projects. Some of us actually do like the Tribble breeding, I for one do it on all my Federation characters and these food items are needed for that process as well. Some of us like to build their characters thematically, so my Ferengi will have all the Ferengi food items in cargo hold, my Klingon all the Klingon ones, etc. - just in case the crew gets hungry.
I really don't see the issue here other than this community's weird obsession with dumbing down the game and constantly removing more and more from STO. If you don't like them, just don't pick them up when they drop, don't come here and complain on the forum for Star Trek sake. Here's an idea - if you feel there's not much to do with these items, why not ask for more things that utilize their usage, you know - adding to the game instead of removing?
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
It has been requested many times that they increase give us a quantity slider for food items we purchase from vendors. The fleet starbase project to add a chef and bartender to your starbase is why it's been requested, and is something my KDF fleet has available, but I've got other upgrades to do first.
Does Cryptic know how annoying it is when you need to buy hundreds of food items or hundreds of doffs for fleet projects and the game asks you every friggen time "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BUY THAT?"? Jesus!
However, a fleet mate recently told me a trick to this when I was buying many, many doffs from the starbase (I'm talking over 1,000 doffs at a time for fleet projects): hold the left CTRL key and you completely bypass the confirmation window. While holding the CTRL key you can just rapidly click the Buy button without it asking if you're sure you want to buy the item. It makes a world of difference. No more needing to line up the buy button to be under the confirmation button.
For some of us, picking up everything we can is a good source of energy credits, especially since we don't have real money to buy zen then get keys to sell on the exchange. Every little bit of EC we get is worthwhile and counts.
So because you don't want to deal with vendoring stuff out, I shouldn't be allowed to? On average, a full inventory represents 150000 EC to me and is a bigger source of EC than you seem to realize. I don't care to have that taken away from me--and it is pretty standard operating procedure by Cryptic to nerf any system that gets "revamped" or "tweaked." The track record is there, I'm afraid. If you are not interested in it, just don't pick the containers up.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
My character Tsin'xing
Disagree to an extent. IMHO, the whole loot drop crapola needs a revamp.. Why, in an Elite STF, should common ANYTHING drop.. Aux Batteries, Hypo's, and common MK X weapons. Such a waste for end-game troubles.
Even playing on Advanced or Elite settings, don't really enhance the drops. Tried it, didn't like it. Only thing I found "different" on Advanced or Elite is (1) Bragging Rights; (2) More EC's spent/Time investment for Ship repairs or Visits to the Doc (I know, 99% of bases can repair and have Doc's); (3) and an overall slightly (3-5%) chance for more Rare Drops of MK X and maybe MK XI good stuff.
If I'm doing "Elite" level missions, there should be "Elite" level Drops. Keep the common stuff in Story-lines or boosted/reduced level team play.
Red Alerts are a little different, since folks are boosted or leveled down to what L45 ?? Drops should be commensurate with the mission and Player level involved. Common drops, sure, but Elite STF's and/or FE's should drop common MK XII, XIII, and even MK XIV. Sure,, one-shot a Sphere in "Butterfly" and get an Aux Battery.
Oh, Food stuffs.. they have a purpose, (1) One or two of the Flet Missions do/did require Food Stuff (Romulan Ale comes to mind), and (2) My Favorite - TRIBBLE BREEDING. That breeding program yields VR Tribbs that have better stats than some of the "mission" (Cryo Tribb) Tribbs do and the ONLY way to get them is by Breeding Tribbles. VR Tribbs, iirc, are not bound and can be sold on Exchange.
Also, all my toons use just "Field Rations". My FED toons use Field Rations to yield carcasses that they "sell" to my KDF toons for a contraband tribute. I use the Food drops for Tribble Breeding..
TYVM.. Have Fun, be nice to each other..
My stance on the mess on a whole? I don't really see this as a big deal. I disagree on the whole "if Cryptic touch it's ruined" that some people think. If drops was gone it force low level characters to replay missions for rewards, use crappy stock gear, pay the shops at the shipyards (side topic can we please have white consoles sold at those shops. Cheap way to roughly cover a few missing holes in your new t3 ship once you opened it.), pay the "you know will be high once they see they got a market" exchange, or get into crafting.
For some background in another game I play food Items work as buffs and buff everything from damage to credit drops to XP but are not dropped from enemies, you have to buy them with credits. That game also has a "tribble" type pet that has to be fed in order to work. In that game the only things on the drop tables are weapons, armor, their version of kit modules, and credits.
Besides my alternative is Doff trade/supply mission now not only would get food items but also some XP, SP, CP and dil.