BOFF Slot Limit Raise Please!

velqua

Similar to the Vanity Pets, there seems to be an increase in special Bridge Officers (BOFFs) offered through events, missions, and promotions. I currently believe the Bridge Officer slot limit is 48-50. I would like to see this limit raised to 100.

Now, some people may wonder why anyone would have so many Bridge Officers. First and foremost, the Traits. Bridge Officer (BOFF) traits vary from BOFF to BOFF; some traits are exclusive, while others are general. Players tend to try out different BOFFs to gauge their performance from these traits. As some BOFFs are exclusive and/or costly, players are less willing to remove those BOFFs to free up space for newer ones. Thus, BOFFs begin to lock down slots, forcing the Player to purchase additional slots--which is good for PWE/Cryptic.

A possible remedy for this, instead of increasing the slot limit, would be to allow BOFFs to learn new traits. The trait number limit would remain the same, but BOFF could learn traits that are typically reserved for exclusive or special BOFFs. A player could even obtain an exclusive or special BOFF and create a Trait Manual that could be used to give that specific trait to a slotted BOFF. As BOFFs rarity is based on their traits, essentially, a player could upgrade his/her BOFF's rarity by using a Trait Manual; thus, limiting the need to obtain and replace BOFFs acquired in missions, specifically those who are connected to the story.

Second, players like to have specialty groups for either or both ground and space. Some may prefer an all-Caitian away team, others may prefer an all-Nausicaan bridge team. These specialty groups may be for role-play purposes or for trait stacking advantages. Again, players are less willing to part from BOFFs they have invested currency, effort, and experience just to try out the newest BOFFs available in the game. Then again, the player may want to have specialty groups for specific builds and ships so as to be thematic or to gain trait stacking advantages.

Third, there are those players who desire to have each of the available species--the collectors. Whether it is for just a specific career or all, these players like diversity and celebrate it through their collection.

Granted, some of these reasons to have that many BOFFs are selfish, while others are what players desire since they are "playing" a game. Regardless of the reason, the BOFF Slot limit should be raised as new exclusive and special BOFFs are added to the game so that a player's investment isn't lost.

If the limit cannot be raised, the Developers should look towards a Dry Dock solution for them so that players can retain their BOFFs while adding new ones.

silverlobes

velqua wrote: »

If the limit cannot be raised, the Developers should look towards a Dry Dock solution for them so that players can retain their BOFFs while adding new ones.

They could call it Shore Leave.

I'd have to consider myself a collector. My main has about that many boffs (PC's in the shop at the moment, so I can't log in and count) but before I airlocked a couple of superflous non-hackers, when the count was two boffs lower, when I had to select the away team members, the list would populate in one continuous, undisturbed list down the screen. Before the spacings, the list would populate with a slider to get to the last two on the list. Airlock drill solved that issue, and the list became, once more, a continuous drop down the screen. My alts, on the other hand, they have very specific themes and crews, and those lists don't change.

But yes, I can see how it would be nice to be able to trim the ranks back to one regular space and ground crew, but not lose any of the crafting which has gone into the other boffs.

hanover2

Or the brig. Or the Agony Booth. Or the transport pattern buffer.

corelogik

Wow, people really have more than 50 Boff's? I find it a job sometimes to manage my lowly 18,... well, 18 slots, I only have like 13 or so actual Boff's. If such an increase is feasible, I could get on board with it, though at the moment it's hard to see how I'd ever have or want that many.

baddmoonrizin

Reserve Officers.

Plus, I'd love to have the ability to have a Bridge Officer Transfer from one character to another on an account for BOFFs that have already been commissioned.

corelogik wrote: »

Wow, people really have more than 50 Boff's? I find it a job sometimes to manage my lowly 18,... well, 18 slots, I only have like 13 or so actual Boff's. If such an increase is feasible, I could get on board with it, though at the moment it's hard to see how I'd ever have or want that many.

Yes, I believe 54 is the max number of BOFF slots currently.

warpangel

Sure, raising the limit is good.

Boffs with selectable traits, even better.

Both at once, best of all.

saber1973a

Also it would be good for Cryptic - i think... after all people would buy more slot extensions... right?

themadprofessor

corelogik wrote: »

Wow, people really have more than 50 Boff's? I find it a job sometimes to manage my lowly 18,... well, 18 slots, I only have like 13 or so actual Boff's. If such an increase is feasible, I could get on board with it, though at the moment it's hard to see how I'd ever have or want that many.

I thought the same as you a while back. Then I created Zeus and started making the rest of the Greek Pantheon into his Bridge Officers...

brian334

I'm not so certain we need more inactive BOff slots. I already have two mules carrying their entire banks and inventories in inactive BOffs. What I would like to see is BOff Active Duty Stations on the ships you have in your hangar. Thus, every ship would be able to retain the BOffs built for that vessel, allowing the captain to customise his crews to each specific ship without having to airlock them when he advances to his next vessel.

How it would work: Any BOffs slotted in the BOff station of a ship remain on that ship when the ship is garaged, just as equipment is currently stored on vessels in your hangar. A captain could always go to any shipyard and swap out BOffs at will, up to the limit of BOff stations on the inactive vessels.

BOffs stationed on inactive vessels could be used in an expanded Admiralty system which adds their individual expertise in various ways. For example, a 1-4 point bonus, depending on rank, could be added to the mission's chance of success, while a similar bonus based on quality, (white=0, green=2, etc.,) could reduce failure or disaster results. Specific skills could be called out as required for particular bonuses.

Or not.

xyquarze

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Yes, I believe 54 is the max number of BOFF slots currently.

Need to remember to count next time I log in - I am at max with my main. And I am not gonna part with any with whom I've gone through so much together, even if most of them could have spent all their time in 10 Forward for all they contributed. Which right now means I have a box of 7 TOS holos sitting in my inventory...

postinggum

Game-wide there is an issue with limits set years ago no longer being enough for very well equipped players, I think a single thread putting the issiues together might b more useful than a bunch of seperate ones.

warpangel

You can never have too much inventory (bank, doff, boff, ship, drydock, whatever) slots.

mephizton2092

warpangel wrote: »

You can never have too much inventory (bank, doff, boff, ship, drydock, whatever) slots.

indeed, +1

meimeitoo

Not against it per se, but is this really needed?! If you had asked me this, 2 years ago, I would have wholeheartedly supported this. But now? I have like 6-10 boffs that have learned everything, and a few ones I just love for Space Barbie's sake (TOS crew, I'm looking at you!), and several that I kept out of loyalty.

Traits are as good as meaningless. Everything on my Rom either has SRO or Infiltrator, and SRO and a few with Pirate on my Engi main.

But, sure enough, one can never have too much inventory (bank, doff, boff, ship, drydock, whatever) slots.

silverlobes

meimeitoo wrote: »

Not against it per se, but is this really needed?! If you had asked me this, 2 years ago, I would have wholeheartedly supported this. But now? I have like 6-10 boffs that have learned everything, and a few ones I just love for Space Barbie's sake (TOS crew, I'm looking at you!), and several that I kept out of loyalty.

Traits are as good as meaningless. Everything on my Rom either has SRO or Infiltrator, and SRO and a few with Pirate on my Engi main.

But, sure enough, one can never have too much inventory (bank, doff, boff, ship, drydock, whatever) slots.

'Is it really needed?!' Well, that depends on how one defines 'need'. Arguably, no, it isn't needed. As you say, it's possible to have say 8 boffs who can do everything, but what about Space Barbie?! Space Barbie is the real Endgame!! I won't copy-pasta my original comment, but that's my own situation: A main with 40+ assorted minions, across the spectrum of available boffs (and who I actually only use a handful, ship and mood-dependent) and a variety of alts, Klingon Scientist, Romulan *shudder*Tactical*shudder*, Orion Slaver, Bolian dilithium mining crew, AoY *shudder*Tactical*shudder* and they all only have between four and six boffs who do everything.

With those alts with the lower boff counts, there have been times when I dismissed an officer to make room for a new one while leveling up (I can get pretty anal about my crews fitting my headcanon for them, so if Lieutenant X shouldn't be serving aboard the USS Newship, it's time for a sit down in the conference lounge to inform them of their impending transfer, rather than just assigning them airlock inspection duty )

Sure, it's possible to save their visual template, but some boffs, I don't know if you would agree, display 'a little more character' than others. Some appear to 'go above and beyond'. For instance, I have an engineering boff. I wanted her to have a very specific appearance, so rather than Human, I got an Alien candidate for the greater flexibility of facial manipulation, and slapped an Arbazan forehead detail on (so I can at least say she is 'an alien') and then covered it with the fringed-ponytail. She looked (prior to Escalation and the enforcement of Lighting 2.0) exactly how I wanted her to look. But her performance! She's only a common candidate, no blue, green or purple, but by Kek, she goes Above and Beyond. She's an engineer, yet can also handle herself in a firefight, and independently operates as the awayteam medic. She's somehow withstood assaults which rendered the rest of the team (and my toon) unconscious, and then comes running to wake everyone up after dealing with the fight!

This is a boff I would NEVER delete under ANY circumstance. But supposing I only had limited space, and for some reason wanted to assign some new special boff; being able to send her on Shore Leave, would be vastly prefereable to simply saving the visual template and deleting, or just outright deleting.

So as you say, do we really need it? No. But equally, one can never have too much inventory

PS Your avatar is supercute ^_^

baddmoonrizin

Some of my characters serve as multiple personas since we are also limited to 54 Character Slots, and therefore I cannot individually create every persona as a separate playable character. For example, I have a FED Human Male Tactical captain that play as a captain from every era of Star Trek. As such, each persona has a dedicated crew of 6 BOFFs (2 from each Career) dressed in era appropriate uniforms. Since we are also limited to 54 BOFF Slots, each roster can be broken down into 9 distinct crews, allowing each toon to play as 9 different personas before needing to move on to another playable character to create other personas and crews. Increasing the number of BOFF Slots, increases the number of personas a single character can play as for me. (I'd love for the number of Character Slots to be increased past 54 as well, but that's a separate thread.) Of course, some might just simply want to have a larger crew.

meimeitoo

silverlobes#2676 wrote: »

meimeitoo wrote: »

Not against it per se, but is this really needed?! If you had asked me this, 2 years ago, I would have wholeheartedly supported this. But now? I have like 6-10 boffs that have learned everything, and a few ones I just love for Space Barbie's sake (TOS crew, I'm looking at you!), and several that I kept out of loyalty.

Traits are as good as meaningless. Everything on my Rom either has SRO or Infiltrator, and SRO and a few with Pirate on my Engi main.

But, sure enough, one can never have too much inventory (bank, doff, boff, ship, drydock, whatever) slots.

'Is it really needed?!' Well, that depends on how one defines 'need'. Arguably, no, it isn't needed. As you say, it's possible to have say 8 boffs who can do everything, but what about Space Barbie?! Space Barbie is the real Endgame!! I won't copy-pasta my original comment, but that's my own situation: A main with 40+ assorted minions, across the spectrum of available boffs (and who I actually only use a handful, ship and mood-dependent) and a variety of alts, Klingon Scientist, Romulan *shudder*Tactical*shudder*, Orion Slaver, Bolian dilithium mining crew, AoY *shudder*Tactical*shudder* and they all only have between four and six boffs who do everything.

With those alts with the lower boff counts, there have been times when I dismissed an officer to make room for a new one while leveling up (I can get pretty anal about my crews fitting my headcanon for them, so if Lieutenant X shouldn't be serving aboard the USS Newship, it's time for a sit down in the conference lounge to inform them of their impending transfer, rather than just assigning them airlock inspection duty )

Sure, it's possible to save their visual template, but some boffs, I don't know if you would agree, display 'a little more character' than others. Some appear to 'go above and beyond'. For instance, I have an engineering boff. I wanted her to have a very specific appearance, so rather than Human, I got an Alien candidate for the greater flexibility of facial manipulation, and slapped an Arbazan forehead detail on (so I can at least say she is 'an alien') and then covered it with the fringed-ponytail. She looked (prior to Escalation and the enforcement of Lighting 2.0) exactly how I wanted her to look. But her performance! She's only a common candidate, no blue, green or purple, but by Kek, she goes Above and Beyond. She's an engineer, yet can also handle herself in a firefight, and independently operates as the awayteam medic. She's somehow withstood assaults which rendered the rest of the team (and my toon) unconscious, and then comes running to wake everyone up after dealing with the fight!

This is a boff I would NEVER delete under ANY circumstance. But supposing I only had limited space, and for some reason wanted to assign some new special boff; being able to send her on Shore Leave, would be vastly prefereable to simply saving the visual template and deleting, or just outright deleting.

I didn't really make it clear, but I am still at max boff slots, regardless of really only needing a handful. For Space Barbie's sake, like I said, and, indeed, cuz I just can't let go of certain boffs who've been with me since I first began.

So as you say, do we really need it? No. But equally, one can never have too much inventory

Actually, one can, as far as Cryptic is concerned. Same reason we have ship limits: increasing the limit apparently scales very badly on their database. So much so even, that instead of just giving us more ship space, they went and made this whole convoluted drydock system, instead.

PS Your avatar is supercute ^_^

Awww, thank you! *blush*

silverlobes

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Some of my characters serve as multiple personas since we are also limited to 54 Character Slots, and therefore I cannot individually create every persona as a separate playable character. For example, I have a FED Human Male Tactical captain that play as a captain from every era of Star Trek. As such, each persona has a dedicated crew of 6 BOFFs (2 from each Career) dressed in era appropriate uniforms. Since we are also limited to 54 BOFF Slots, each roster can be broken down into 9 distinct crews, allowing each toon to play as 9 different personas before needing to move on to another playable character to create other personas and crews. Increasing the number of BOFF Slots, increases the number of personas a single character can play as for me. (I'd love for the number of Character Slots to be increased past 54 as well, but that's a separate thread.) Of course, some might just simply want to have a larger crew.

That's an interesting concept, do you mean along the lines of the Hattori Hanzo character, where each series featured a different descendent of the named character, or are they literally alternate personalities of the same base character? Such as Captain X does 25th Century, Captain X does 22nd Century, etc, and so needs a unique crew for each?

silverlobes

meimeitoo wrote: »

I didn't really make it clear, but I am still at max boff slots, regardless of really only needing a handful. For Space Barbie's sake, like I said, and, indeed, cuz I just can't let go of certain boffs who've been with me since I first began.

Ahh, I see what you mean, lots of Space Barbies in the toybox I have a Starfleet Klingon male who was an assigned crew member on Day One, but I found myself not using so much as an active officer, so I've taken his ranking and progression to the point where he now has white shoulder-panals, and is permanently assigned to my Avenger, with the headcanon that he is that ships commanding officer, which my main visits to inspect on occasion in her capacity as an admiral (aka when I want to do Red Alerts and blow stuff up )

Actually, one can, as far as Cryptic is concerned. Same reason we have ship limits: increasing the limit apparently scales very badly on their database. So much so even, that instead of just giving us more ship space, they went and made this whole convoluted drydock system, instead.

Oh, okay, maybe it's a difference in how their system reads ships in actual playing active use, and ones which are simply in the 'can switch to' list? I guess that would make sense if drydock takes those ships out of the equation of their analysis, so perhaps it's so they can see what types of ships are in popular use?

Awww, thank you! *blush*

Very welcome ^_^ PM Incoming ^_^

baddmoonrizin

silverlobes#2676 wrote: »

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Some of my characters serve as multiple personas since we are also limited to 54 Character Slots, and therefore I cannot individually create every persona as a separate playable character. For example, I have a FED Human Male Tactical captain that play as a captain from every era of Star Trek. As such, each persona has a dedicated crew of 6 BOFFs (2 from each Career) dressed in era appropriate uniforms. Since we are also limited to 54 BOFF Slots, each roster can be broken down into 9 distinct crews, allowing each toon to play as 9 different personas before needing to move on to another playable character to create other personas and crews. Increasing the number of BOFF Slots, increases the number of personas a single character can play as for me. (I'd love for the number of Character Slots to be increased past 54 as well, but that's a separate thread.) Of course, some might just simply want to have a larger crew.

That's an interesting concept, do you mean along the lines of the Hattori Hanzo character, where each series featured a different descendent of the named character, or are they literally alternate personalities of the same base character? Such as Captain X does 25th Century, Captain X does 22nd Century, etc, and so needs a unique crew for each?

My main toon captains the USS Endeavour-F of the 25th century. The toon that I gave as an example, I use as the captains of the Endeavours that came before him, from the NX Endeavour to the Endeavour-E, mimicing the Enterprise's evolution over time. Each ship of each era has a unique crew. The backstory is that my main toon is related to these previous captains in some way, making the Endeavour a sort of family legacy.

On the other hand, I use Aliengen toons to make captains and crews for the various Cross-Faction ships. On one such toon, I might have a Hirogen captain and crew for my Hirogen Apex Battlecruiser, but he could also serve as a Jem'Hadar captain with a Jem'Hadar crew for my Jem'Hadar Escort Carrier, and again as a Lukari captain and crew for the Lukari Ho'kuun.

silverlobes

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

silverlobes#2676 wrote: »

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Some of my characters serve as multiple personas since we are also limited to 54 Character Slots, and therefore I cannot individually create every persona as a separate playable character. For example, I have a FED Human Male Tactical captain that play as a captain from every era of Star Trek. As such, each persona has a dedicated crew of 6 BOFFs (2 from each Career) dressed in era appropriate uniforms. Since we are also limited to 54 BOFF Slots, each roster can be broken down into 9 distinct crews, allowing each toon to play as 9 different personas before needing to move on to another playable character to create other personas and crews. Increasing the number of BOFF Slots, increases the number of personas a single character can play as for me. (I'd love for the number of Character Slots to be increased past 54 as well, but that's a separate thread.) Of course, some might just simply want to have a larger crew.

That's an interesting concept, do you mean along the lines of the Hattori Hanzo character, where each series featured a different descendent of the named character, or are they literally alternate personalities of the same base character? Such as Captain X does 25th Century, Captain X does 22nd Century, etc, and so needs a unique crew for each?

My main toon captains the USS Endeavour-F of the 25th century. The toon that I gave as an example, I use as the captains of the Endeavours that came before him, from the NX Endeavour to the Endeavour-E, mimicing the Enterprise's evolution over time. Each ship of each era has a unique crew. The backstory is that my main toon is related to these previous captains in some way, making the Endeavour a sort of family legacy.

On the other hand, I use Aliengen toons to make captains and crews for the various Cross-Faction ships. On one such toon, I might have a Hirogen captain and crew for my Hirogen Apex Battlecruiser, but he could also serve as a Jem'Hadar captain with a Jem'Hadar crew for my Jem'Hadar Escort Carrier, and again as a Lukari captain and crew for the Lukari Ho'kuun.

Ahh, that's pretty cool, I really like the idea I also have an Endeavour in my lineup, the Sovereign Class USS Endeavour NCC 71805-C (my headcanon is that it's the one mentioned at the befining of First Contact) I've done a similar thing with one of my prize boffs, who originated on my Klingon crew, but I copied her template over to a Federation Alien (I headcanon 'alien', as being like how US immigration uses the term 'alien', as in 'Alien of Extraordinary Ability) and she's my main's executive officer (and the boff I've spent the most on in terms of qualifications and abilities)

My other monoculture alien crews, are a group of Bolian dilithium miners (who I headcanoned as somehow having access to Starfleet holodeck training programs) and an Orion slaver who Pretends to be a dilithium miner, and who is actually just the 'face of the ship' for his Mistress (who's really the Science boff, but hey, headcanoning is fun )