I too noticed that there seems to be an overabundancy of science heavy assignments on all characters I use the admirality feature on. It may very well just be the result of curious rolls, but I just wanted to voice that I share this feeling, I definitely do not have the feeling that eng and tac assignments are equally distributed. Maybe it's jsut because blue is prettier, though
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My observation is that while there may be an even number of missions that bias to even, or one of the three branches, players will quickly see predominantly Science in their Available Assignments.
As there is no periodic reshuffle of Available Assignments, and with Passing being a limited resource, players will do those assignments in the Available Assignment tray that they can do, and leave ones they aren't willing to tackle. As most players have a shortage of Science vessels in their inventory, Science heavy missions are the most likely to pile up.
So, while Borticus' statement is the truth, the reason why people see Available Missions biased to high Science requirements is because the system's design guarantees such logjams.
Nice idea but it doesn't fit with what I am seeing. I never skipped the sci missions if the mission was worth decent XP I took it. What I notice is the KDF side is very well balanced but the fed side is still messed up. After getting both to 10/10 I could do missions with 100% chance, 50% crit for KDF most of the time but the fed side I could barely pass as 80%. 4% crit. The sample size is now big enough that I cannot put it down to poor luck and/or confirmation bias which is what the devs seem to wont to write off the problem as.
Nice idea but it doesn't fit with what I am seeing. I never skipped the sci missions if the mission was worth decent XP I took it.
Emphasis mine, as that statement explains why your experience doesn't tally with my theory.
That is:
If someone has difficulties filling Science missions, they are apt to leave high-Science missions in the "Available Missions" tray. As the missions in the "Available Missions" tray don't go away until you attempt them or "Pass" them, high-Science missions are the most likely to accumulate. Passes are a limited resource, too, so there's a natural tendency to not use them unless there's something desirable "On Deck".
There's a side element that balanced missions with medium/high requirements (say, 60/60/60 and up) are likely seen as needing a Science vessel to fill without having one stat massively overstuffed, so may end up being seen similarly to Science-biased missions.
For the longest time, I too had the strong feeling that the Admiralty system was biased towards sci-heavy missions. The same seemed to be the case for my fleeties.
So, last week I sat down and started to actually keep track of all the assignments I was getting and how many of them were Sci.
I did this over 4 characters, doing assignments once per day as I always do. The result:
170 assignments so far. Only 46 of them had a science focus. This matches nicely with what Borticus posted. The issue really seems to stem from a combination of the lack of science ships and selective perception/confirmation bias.
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Nice idea but it doesn't fit with what I am seeing. I never skipped the sci missions if the mission was worth decent XP I took it. What I notice is the KDF side is very well balanced but the fed side is still messed up. After getting both to 10/10 I could do missions with 100% chance, 50% crit for KDF most of the time but the fed side I could barely pass as 80%. 4% crit. The sample size is now big enough that I cannot put it down to poor luck and/or confirmation bias which is what the devs seem to wont to write off the problem as.
Emphasis mine, as that statement explains why your experience doesn't tally with my theory.
That is:
If someone has difficulties filling Science missions, they are apt to leave high-Science missions in the "Available Missions" tray. As the missions in the "Available Missions" tray don't go away until you attempt them or "Pass" them, high-Science missions are the most likely to accumulate. Passes are a limited resource, too, so there's a natural tendency to not use them unless there's something desirable "On Deck".
There's a side element that balanced missions with medium/high requirements (say, 60/60/60 and up) are likely seen as needing a Science vessel to fill without having one stat massively overstuffed, so may end up being seen similarly to Science-biased missions.
For the longest time, I too had the strong feeling that the Admiralty system was biased towards sci-heavy missions. The same seemed to be the case for my fleeties.
So, last week I sat down and started to actually keep track of all the assignments I was getting and how many of them were Sci.
I did this over 4 characters, doing assignments once per day as I always do. The result:
170 assignments so far. Only 46 of them had a science focus. This matches nicely with what Borticus posted. The issue really seems to stem from a combination of the lack of science ships and selective perception/confirmation bias.