Now that some time has passed and we've gotten a chance to see what it's all about, what do you think about the Admiralty system?
In addition to the poll, please elaborate:
1) What do you *like* about the Admiralty system?
2) What do you *not* like about the Admiralty system?
3) What would you like to see changed or added to the Admiralty system?
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date:
Sep 2008
So, what do you think about the Admiralty system? 126 votes
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Comments
Those are easy enough to come by these days so I don't see it as a con just a bonus for those of us with large fleets...
Also an alternate source for some materials which are mainly available via advanced/elite content especially for those who are aware of their limits and show enough respect for others by not charging headlong into content they are not equipped to handle.
On the whole the system is good - needs a few tweaks to iron-out minor issues such as the tour of duty 10/10 KDF issue and some of the overcooked event requirements (annoying when every single assignment is out of reach and you have used every pass token due to similar problems - usually end up with a few days of being able to slot 1 or 2 assignments only)
That said, I do like the system, for the following reasons:
1. Greatly eases 'spec point grind'
2. Very Rewarding in Credits and Dilithium.
3. Appears to be expandable with additional campaigns and missions, extending the usefulness of the system.
It isn't without it's faults, however:
1. Perhaps too rewarding, Exchange prices and Dilithium exchange rates are already showing signs of inflation as a result.
2. Requires a fair number of ships to be profitable, meaning C-Store, Lobi, and Lockbox are recommended for full profitability.
3. Biased toward Starfleet characters, too many Sci-heavy missions to progress at equal pace on KDF/RRF
I am still somewhat confused as to why the Devs decided to implement this dispite having a very similar system already in place (Doffing), however, it is a good system and it does make life somewhat easier for players.
Edit: Forgot about the R&D materials, another good aspect. This allows players to bypass the STF requirement for VR materials.
Edit 2: The Cooldown times on higher tier ships does get mildly annoying, seems to be a rather steep curve for cooldowns on Tier 5 & 6 ships compared to <T4 ships. Not a huge issue though.
2. It's a glorified DOFF system. Personally I have no problem with that because it's not my main thing and something I can quickly do when logging into that character. But I know some people expected it to be them leading a ton of ships in the game. And NPCs already have a problem handling a single player controlled ship much less a flotilla of them.
3. Nothing. Fine as is. XP & Dil supplement is all I need.
That said, a few thoughts below-
* Card system is a little buggy, ships you pick up don't recognize immediately unless you commission the ship then enter the Admiralty system (have no idea why) when in reality, it should probably be changed where it gives you the card when you get the ship. (I've confirmed this numerous times with different characters on the same account, and different ships)
* Although the rewards for successful missions are somewhat meaningful, to a 10/10 rank Fleet Admiral a lot of them tend to be EC/SP rewards which are somewhat "meh" overall. I'd like to see perhaps maybe some item rewards outside of EC/Dil (consoles, weapons, armor, maybe even ships) introduced but I won't hold my breath here.
* Seems a bit imbalanced between Fed/Klink campaign rewards- Dil is an immediate return whereas Spec points are more invested over time. Not sure how else to say it, just doesn't seem as balanced as it should be.
* Why only two campaigns? Are there only two major factions in the entire game? Why not introduce more campaigns? (ahem, Romulans? Cardassians? Bajorans? ...insert faction here)
* I tend to end up with a huge amount of prisoners and colonists rewarded from campaigns- very few actual uses for them outside of DOFF queue. Would be nice to see more sinks for these introduced, considering the amount of rewards you get involving them.
I'm sure I could go on, but RL beckons and time is short.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
- Reputation Marks / Fleet Marks
10-15 or so Marks would be great, the idea is not to replace the queues, but to compliment them.. like when you are short for about 5 marks to finish the last project...
The point is that each campaign has a themed reward, Dil for KDF and Spec for Fed. Its just a mechanic and not meant to mean anything in a RP or "balance" sense. If you need Spec points you focus on Fed, if you need Dil you focus on KDF. Future campaigns will likely have their own themes, though what that might be no one is sure. Perhaps one focused on Fleet rewards, like marks, or one focused on R&D.
It seems pretty likely these were just the "launch" campaigns so as to not overwhelm players, tax their available ship rosters, and so they have content they can spread out. For example, from some old tribble screenshots on reddit, we know there seems to be a Romulan campaign of some sort. Its just not finished/released yet.
I feel the repair times should scale based on the length of the mission however (12+hours for a 15 minute mission, which is the same repair time as a 20 hour mission, is a little silly IMO)...
Not sure we needed another doff system, though...
My character Tsin'xing
You're right, that would have been classy.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
That kind of attitude is extremely harmful to a game. It creates an echo chamber of people who all agree with each other and ignores any issues that may need to be fixed or adjusted to improve a game or system. Thankfully, I do not think our devs have that kind of attitude about ignoring feedback.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
The means of filling requirements, obtaining ships, and the need for routine maintenance after missions means the system requires the kind of thought that the duty officer system only requires early on. With doffs, eventually you've got a solid roster and can just churn assignments continuously. With admiralty, you will eventually run out doing this and need to plan missions actively.
2. The flip side of the active thought is that building a roster is prohibitive. The ships you get as you level up won't get you anywhere. Dilithium and fleet credit ships are expensive. Everything else is paywalled to some extent or another (either directly from the C-store, from a lockbox, or requiring fleet modules).
3.
I know this seems to go counter to my liking of the thought required, and it does. But with admiralty ships being functionally unique and not farmable, I see no reason why having a few boxes like that one from Time and Tide (from the description, you get a permanent ship the first time, and a single-use one each time afterwards) can't be sprinkled around the campaign in interesting places - for example, the SS Azura II or IKS Targ, various ships that you pilot temporarily in missions like the USS Dyson, or ones you assist like the USS Kirk.
I also think single use ships should be more common and available from more sources than just the occasional critical reward, for all the same reasons - this fits with the above with the Time and Tide style boxes, getting a generic unnamed single use version of a ship after you get the named one.
The short version, I don't see why every admiralty ship should be tied to a playable one (even if every playable one is tied to an admiralty version), when it's not a technical requirement (as shown by the single use ships and Time and Tide box).
When they add new campaigns, I'd like to see them work differently than the existing ones. Perhaps a full fledged track for playable factions like the Romulans and any future additions, but for content releases, a linear, one-at-a-time chain of missions would be nice. These would ideally be much longer than the 10 missions in the full camapaigns, but there wouldn't be "grindable" filler, just the next mission once one is completed successfully. This could be used to enrich content releases with additional information and depth and rewards without the substantial time investment.
Lastly, I'm disappointed that the progression missions in the existing two campaigns are titled "1/10". There's a missed opportunity for a ministory here in the style of Project Chrysalis in the doff system.
Card System buggy? Ok so somehow it's a big deal to assign a ship to see it's stats before deciding to use it? You do know you can unassign ships right if the stats dont fit the misssion.
Guess you haven't done KDF ones and gee 99% of the missions I do I get resources and Dilth. You can reject missions so yeah gee hard.
Imbalenced???? Hard to follow your logic here. You do know spec point rewards take time ti get in "normal"game play right?
Two campaigns You do know there are only TWO Factions in the game right? LAst time I played Bajoarns, Cardassins are not factions and Romulans are by players choice either Fed Faction or KDf faction.
Yeah gee colonists and prisoners yeah gee guess you dont reject a mission but just play the ones that come up. You can skip those or reject those so yeah there's that.
Since it is based on starships it utilizes the main platform this game is all about and thereby sees to it that the amount of rewards are maximized by the amount of dedication you bring toward STO. I see it also as a thank you from Cryptic/PWE for those that supported the game in the past by making a lot out of something you already have instead of concentrating on something new you have to get.
Cryptic could not have done better in my opinion and I hope the admiralty is here to stay.
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The only problem I really have with it is that missions have way too many Science Requirements. My Fed characters can get by ok, but Romulans and Klingons just can't possibly complete them. The other day my Romulan had 3 missions to choose from, all three had a Science requirement of 125-200 and even the 2 missions in que below had huge science so passing wouldn't even help.
If they lowered the number of missions that require 90+ Science, I would go from Good to Excellent. I like everything else about it. At least the 6th Anniversary Ship will help a little bit.
I only did the Admiralty thing on my Fed; but I'm proud to say I never had any mission fail. (And I have both Fed and Klink at 10). At times like 93% was the best I could muster, so 1 or 2 missions could have failed, but none did. YAY me!
I like that it makes it easier to build the power of alts and to obtain dilithium. I dislike that it has contributed to the current dill/Zen exchange rats.
So that's two good things and one bad thing about the systems effect.
The system itself is a disappointment to me. If like I do, you have a large number of ships, there is no challenge or strategic element. It is just a chore to go through the ship roster and slot some ships every time a mission completes.
If the admiralty system had involved moving pieces on a strategic map, taking over pieces and reinforcing positions then it might actually feel like commanding a fleet. This is just doffing all over again. Not that there is anything wrong with doffing, but we already have the doff system, which dose doffing better, at least it would if they fixed some of its bugs and made it rewarding again.
The one thing I would have taken from the doff system would have been an active roster. Active ships would be unavailable for missions but turn up when using fleet support.
That being said I enjoy the A.S.S. (Admiralty Ship System) even if I don't use it that much. It eases the xp grind for spec points on my main and is a complementary source of dil. It also rewarded me for being a ship collector, which was nice. And it incentives me to keep collecting ships, which is a good thing for Cryptic.
It's not the Admiralty system I wanted (come on Boff ship), but I am very happy with it. It breathed some life into the game just like the Doffing system did.
1) it's saved a tonne of grinding for spec points. That's made the higher gameplay more accessible to newer players and alts alike.
2) good source of both dilithium and EC.
3) a good source of crafting materials. This has I believe had the effect of lowering the cost of crafting on the whole which in turn has made buying crafted stuff off the exchange cheaper, good for newbies and alts.
4) needs some thought to be put into it to get the best results rather than just point and click like the doff system. It's more about managing your fleet the get the best out of it, there's a decent challenge there.
5) finally a use for lower tiered ships once you get to higher levels.
6) clearly a system which can be expanded. I suspect we'll get new campaigns added over time which reward things like marks, FC's, EC
7) the hero ships is a nice idea, a new way for rewards to go to add in famous people and ships from the missions, rather than just some faceless doff.
it feels cryptic put too many resources in this s11 feature