Simplify - Remove DOFF system all together

tonywc

I've been getting back into the game lately and I've really been enjoying myself. There has been some systems though that have drug that enjoyment down and honestly kept me from coming back earlier. There are too many systems of complexity in the game. I plan to offer some suggestions on how I think the game could be changed to keep its current balance but remove items that I see as unnecessary. I'm very ignorant and I'm an outsider looking in so please give me context where I lack it.

RETIRE DOFF SYSTEM
I think this system was created to give the sense that you're a star fleet captain assigning his crew to assignments. That's cool, but I think that it's become lost in a sea of different systems. In short I think it should be removed.

LEVELING DOFFS
Leveling up DOFFs in most cases give titles and doffs. There are too many meaningless titles in the game for them to really matter so drop them. If the DOFF system is dropped then those rewards don't need to be replaced either.

DOFF ABILITIES
I think DOFF abilities should be folded into Bridge Officers. I think Bridge Officers need re-tooled as well. Again my aim is to simplify the way the game works, but to not fundamentally change the way the game operates.

REPLACEMENT?
Without going into too much detail that is outside of the scope of this section of the forum I think a new replacing system, which would live under a retooled Bridge Officer system, would allow players to set the focus of your bridge officers.

Choose between the current categories of DOFFs and this is where you could select the DOFF abilities that aid in your space combat. To off-set the loss of rewards from DOFFS I think whatever category you end up choosing will give the player a way to exert some control over the loot pool.

The longer you leave a category selected the better your crew becomes at doing that job. Improving the loot pool or giving more options for that category of doff abilities. If you change it you would loose your progress and start over. So it shouldn't take a very long time to level the category to max, but I would say there should be a cost to switching.

hyperhydra

DOFFs are also used in R&D, so if the DOFF system was retired, R&D would also need to be redesigned (or retired?). I think R&D is very useful for new players though. Personally I probably wouldn't miss the DOFF system mush, except for the 2000 daily dilithium from turning in contraband. I do like the idea of putting the current DOFF active roster buffs into BOFFs instead, maybe as a trait. Many players have invested time and game resources and even real world money into their DOFF crew, so I would expect a lot of resistance to this idea.

angrytarg

The DOFF system does require some sort of fine tuning or overhaul, I'd agree with that. Especially in regards to BOFFs.

The player should have a much closer bond to their BOFFs. Currently they are completely interchangeable and get selected for their meta-game-compatible traits. But you can set them as Department heads in the DOFF menu, which is a feature that currently does absolutely nothing. That would be a great way to utilize traits of BOFFs and integrate them into the DOFF system in some way.

Sadly, the DOFF system's responsible developers have left the game a long time ago, and there haven't been any significant advancements ever since. And it shows. If the system was meant to simulate a working crew and create synergy between Captain, Bridge Staff and Crewmen there had to be something that makes the system feel integrated into the actual gameplay somehow.

tonywc

> @hyperhydra#4469 said:
> DOFFs are also used in R&D, so if the DOFF system was retired, R&D would also need to be redesigned (or retired?). I think R&D is very useful for new players though. Personally I probably wouldn't miss the DOFF system mush, except for the 2000 daily dilithium from turning in contraband. I do like the idea of putting the current DOFF active roster buffs into BOFFs instead, maybe as a trait. Many players have invested time and game resources and even real world money into their DOFF crew, so I would expect a lot of resistance to this idea.

As I said at the end, in order to keep as much of the current benefits in place I recommended a replacement that would allow users to manipulate the loot pool. It's in this place that you could compensate whatever losses would be incurred by losing doffs. Selecting a particular category could focus your loop pool on resources or dilithium. It wouldn't make every drop resources or to lithium but it would increase the likelihood of those drops hopefully they would match what doffs produce or exceed them. I considered the fact that users have invested actual money in doffs. I think that in most cases it would be a minor amount. If a particular user has invested a large sum of money into doffs they could be reimbursed with Zen. If users purchased a doff with a special ability that ability would be unlocked for their account and available under one of the categories to focus the crew.

shyraven

The DOFF system shows its age, sure, but since it's not broken and can just be ignored by those who don't want to bother with it I don't see why it should be removed. It also wouldn't be fair to everyone who put a lot of time and resources into leveling up in this system.

sthe91

I do not agree with removing the DOFF system all together. I would support a revamp though.

orangenee

Tweaking it so I don't have to approach a border at a 23 degree angle from a certain direction to get certain missions would be better.

mithrosnomore

orangenee#2931 wrote: »

Tweaking it so I don't have to approach a border at a 23 degree angle from a certain direction to get certain missions would be better.

Hard to argue with this.

Having to find a "sweet spot" in the whole of space to unlock a specific mission seems unnecessary. Just let each block contain what it contains without having to search for some specific point along some specific border to unlock a certain mission.

The DOFF system as a whole, though? It could stand with some tuning, but there's no reason to remove it.

1) As stated earlier, I would like to see the Department Head assignments for BOFFs mean more, but that doesn't necessitate the removal of the DOFF system or even tie into it. It could just be a new "department head" benefit given to BOFFs to further differentiate them.

2) I would really like to see promotable DOFFs. Over time a person can collect a full crew of purple DOFFs anyway, but some non-purple DOFFs might hold some appeal to a player, so it would be nice to have a system where a player could promote a common DOFF to uncommon quality, then to rare and finally very rare.

Sure, there are even better DOFFs out there, with two tiers above purple, but they are much more difficult to get a hold of. Still, if the devs think that the cost is right then they could allow upgrading all the way to gold. I think that this takes away from things, though... Might be hard to sell a gold DOFF or even use one as a carrot to draw people into some activity if they can promote any DOFF into gold quality.

Take, for example, the Lower Decks DOFFs. Common quality. Green DOFFs. But they are unique above and beyond what other DOFFs offer. I think that it would be nice to have an option to upgrade these guys if someone wanted to.

Maybe a Personal DOFF mission to "Test Duty Officer for Promotion". Three different missions, one each for upgrading to green, blue, or purple, that can only be filled by officers of the next lower quality (only common DOFFss could upgrade to uncommon quality and so on) that costs some quantity of dilithium and possibly some commodities.

Send the DOFF on the mission and however long it takes they come back as a higher quality DOFF. They could even put in a failure chance, but I would make it low. 5-10-15% for green-blue-purple respectively. Something like that.

baddmoonrizin

Necro. /Thread