Look at the traits. VR get Superior versions of traits that buff them more.
Most races have only ground traits so this matters more for your away team. A science boff with Superior Creative will cast stronger spells. Any boff with Superior Peak Health will be slightly harder to kill, etc.
It's a minor difference so if you have a white quality boff that you like there is no reason why you "need" to replace them.
also, higher quality boffs tend to have better skills. I say tend to because the game's idea of better is skills you can't buy at the boff trainer... these are often skills that have dubious value.
In case you're referring to things like "Knife and Fork Eating III" at commander level instead of the normal "Knife and Fork Eating II", that's true and depends, as you say, on whether you actually need the skill. If you're on a soup mission "Spoon II" may be way better.
But you can still get them anyways, not via the boff trainer for 10k ec, but off the exchange for not too much more. Or build the PADDs yourself, depending on skill.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
Interesting way to put it, but accurate. Like I said, "dubious value". Boff skills that can't be obtained any way other than finding random boffs with them are no more. They were a bad game design feature anyways.
I don't understand what a rare offers. They all can be trained, so why would I pick a purple?
I go into a bit of detail about Bridge officers in this thread, which is a guide for new players on The Academy forum here. I think it answers relevant questions.
I just did my first 'doppelganger' Boff with T'Met. She is Uncommon (Green) and has no Superior Traits. Now as Vulcans have no Space Traits it doesn't matter when assigned to the Bridge Stations. I was always planning on replacing her by a VR Vulcan female Science Officer.
After seeing the price for those on the Exchange I decided to forget about that approach and kept assigning Skills to her. A few days ago a VR showed up on the Exchange at about a sixth of the price. I picked the Boff up.
At this point I had invested too heavily in T'Met to replace her directly with a VR T'Met. I decided to keep T'Met and use here exclusively for Space assignments. I copied her to the new Boff and use the new one for the Away Team. Just bought/made Ground Skills, gave her T'Met's ground equipment and Voila.
Of course this would make the heads explode for the RP crowd. Also got to keep a 23rd Century Boff. In the end it worked out all for the better.
'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.'
Comments
Most races have only ground traits so this matters more for your away team. A science boff with Superior Creative will cast stronger spells. Any boff with Superior Peak Health will be slightly harder to kill, etc.
It's a minor difference so if you have a white quality boff that you like there is no reason why you "need" to replace them.
My character Tsin'xing
But you can still get them anyways, not via the boff trainer for 10k ec, but off the exchange for not too much more. Or build the PADDs yourself, depending on skill.
My character Tsin'xing
I go into a bit of detail about Bridge officers in this thread, which is a guide for new players on The Academy forum here. I think it answers relevant questions.
After seeing the price for those on the Exchange I decided to forget about that approach and kept assigning Skills to her.
A few days ago a VR showed up on the Exchange at about a sixth of the price. I picked the Boff up.
At this point I had invested too heavily in T'Met to replace her directly with a VR T'Met. I decided to keep T'Met and use here exclusively for Space assignments. I copied her to the new Boff and use the new one for the Away Team. Just bought/made Ground Skills, gave her T'Met's ground equipment and Voila.
Of course this would make the heads explode for the RP crowd. Also got to keep a 23rd Century Boff. In the end it worked out all for the better.
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.'