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Fleet Mine Bugbears
bareel
Member Posts: 3 Arc User
Backround: I have a quasi solo fleet but due to my personal activity and generous donations from the 'provisions for donations' drive I have made good progress keeping up with or exceeding that of an average small fleet I believe and this feedback will mostly be from the average small/family fleet leader PoV.
The Dilithium Mine was advertised as Cryptic's attempt to help ease the difficulties of small fleets and yet it has done exactly the opposite in my eyes. By the end of next week I will have T3 Development with T2 Trade and expect to finish the mine in another two months, mostly. I would wager I am far ahead of the average small fleet yet far behind the mega fleets that should be completely done by the end of this month. Additionally progress on the main base has come nearly to a standstill.
Now yes the mine does have built in discounts for future projects. Discounts that will lower the overall cost of the starbase effective everyone equally really. All this creates is an additional barrier to be overcome by the small fleet while remaining a very easy to complete task for the megas. These discounts could have simply just been applied instead of requiring the mine to be constructed so really they do just as much harm to a fleet currently struggling with progression as they provide benefit.
Next up are the other discounts and projects one can get. Now let me ask you a hypothetical question. You are a casual player with limited time to play along with a limited capability to earn shiny purple rocks. Would you rather join the fleet that gives you a 4-9% discount on nearly all purchases in purple rock currency? Or the one that gives 15% and has a daily mission that can net you a currently unkown amount of rock for minimal effort?
Finally the actual gear is disappointing especially when compared to the embassy. No new kits, no new boffs with amazing passives, no new doffs with roster effects. Simply a very limited selection of warp cores with an elite effect far too good to pass up, especially considering it is the only way to get ultra rare cores, and engineering consoles that make every existing engineering console look like garbage. At least the embassy sci consoles still left one or two alternatives but not the ones out of the mine!
In the end you have created an additional barrier to fleet progression and combined that with mostly underwhelming rewards that makes some existing gear obsolete and still managed to give mega fleets a new carrot for recruiting over those struggling.
Well done.
You want to help small fleets? Create a new 'Special Project' with a cost of 1,000 fleet marks, 140 non civ doffs, 40 civ doffs, some other EC TRIBBLE, and finally 10,000(?) fleet credits that takes 5 days and rewards 1,000 exp to all three categories. Then all fleets can get some progression.
Disclaimer #2: I do not expect to have a solo tier 5 fleet next week, or ever really. Nor do I truely care that much if I didn't enjoy progressing the fleet I wouldn't do it. However in my not so humble opinion small family fleets are paramount for player retention which strikes me as something STO struggles with and could eventually be it's downfall. I just want a better game with a happier playerbase.
The Dilithium Mine was advertised as Cryptic's attempt to help ease the difficulties of small fleets and yet it has done exactly the opposite in my eyes. By the end of next week I will have T3 Development with T2 Trade and expect to finish the mine in another two months, mostly. I would wager I am far ahead of the average small fleet yet far behind the mega fleets that should be completely done by the end of this month. Additionally progress on the main base has come nearly to a standstill.
Now yes the mine does have built in discounts for future projects. Discounts that will lower the overall cost of the starbase effective everyone equally really. All this creates is an additional barrier to be overcome by the small fleet while remaining a very easy to complete task for the megas. These discounts could have simply just been applied instead of requiring the mine to be constructed so really they do just as much harm to a fleet currently struggling with progression as they provide benefit.
Next up are the other discounts and projects one can get. Now let me ask you a hypothetical question. You are a casual player with limited time to play along with a limited capability to earn shiny purple rocks. Would you rather join the fleet that gives you a 4-9% discount on nearly all purchases in purple rock currency? Or the one that gives 15% and has a daily mission that can net you a currently unkown amount of rock for minimal effort?
Finally the actual gear is disappointing especially when compared to the embassy. No new kits, no new boffs with amazing passives, no new doffs with roster effects. Simply a very limited selection of warp cores with an elite effect far too good to pass up, especially considering it is the only way to get ultra rare cores, and engineering consoles that make every existing engineering console look like garbage. At least the embassy sci consoles still left one or two alternatives but not the ones out of the mine!
In the end you have created an additional barrier to fleet progression and combined that with mostly underwhelming rewards that makes some existing gear obsolete and still managed to give mega fleets a new carrot for recruiting over those struggling.
Well done.
You want to help small fleets? Create a new 'Special Project' with a cost of 1,000 fleet marks, 140 non civ doffs, 40 civ doffs, some other EC TRIBBLE, and finally 10,000(?) fleet credits that takes 5 days and rewards 1,000 exp to all three categories. Then all fleets can get some progression.
Disclaimer #2: I do not expect to have a solo tier 5 fleet next week, or ever really. Nor do I truely care that much if I didn't enjoy progressing the fleet I wouldn't do it. However in my not so humble opinion small family fleets are paramount for player retention which strikes me as something STO struggles with and could eventually be it's downfall. I just want a better game with a happier playerbase.
Post edited by bareel on
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Comments
Woah woah woah, I'm going to stop you right there son*
Frankly it sounds like you're doing a pretty good job on your own, and I think it's correct that one person can't build a starbase on his own. Even 5 people together *should* struggle. Yes, the Dilithium Mine has some problems, and isn't the help for smaller fleets it was promised to be, but it's handy for the average gamer.
Suck it up and keep plodding along on your own (for some bizarre reason) or get out there and join a community. Your choice sir!
* (For the record I did read all of your post)
Kirk's Protege.
I prefer to limit my interaction with a community of people such as yourself to message board posts.
* (For the record I am not your son and find that term to be rage worthy levels of condescending)
I am also solo building a fleet, so I know where you are coming from. I'm $80 into my fleet already, and just have tier 1 shipyard. Would like to hear more about your 'provisions for donations' drive, got a link?
* At least he didn't say he was gonna pray for you.
Just as something I wanted to mention: It is known how much dil you can get from a dil mine.
At tier 2, you unlock the first daily mission. It is basically the same thing as the one on the Ferengi dil mine, just not as spread out, which can give up to 1000 dil. At tier 3, you unlock basically another mission of the exact same type, also gives up to 1000 dil. You also unlock a 'rich dil' mission which grants up to 480 dil as well (note: Number from tribble, might've been changed)
On top of that, you can do the dil-rewarding DOFF mission, which, depending on the tier of it and if you crit it or not, can give 250-750 dil. (500 base, 750 crit at tier 3)
So, presuming you don't crit the DOFF mission, that is 2,980 dil from a fully leveled dil mine.
I think the sticker is that you can only refine 8000 Dil a day regardless of how much unrefined you have on hand, or if you are a LTS, there is a vendor at SFA who will run doff missions for an extra 1000 dil - as many slots as you care to fill. To finance my projects I am turning Zen into refined Dil. $$$. The Dil Mine should dispense Refined Dil.
The link is in my signature. Also the only way you will ever make good progress is to use a ton of alts for a solo fleet base.
I didn't spend a dime of real money on the base as I said if the grind to build it bothered me I wouldn't do it. Also it would quite simply cost thousands of dollars worth of purple rock to build.