Hi all ,
So I didn't want to slow down any of the Admiralty with a long text chat about how the construction of the Rom Fed Starbase was going , but said construction (in my humble opinion) could be going a bit faster and more efficiently .
In this post , I'll reference both the player perspective , and what I see as general efficiency issues in regards to the current status -- which currently amounts to the slotting only Engineering Projects .
- The player perspective :
In regards to the Starbases in general , more valuable then EC or even Dill are the huge amounts of Doffs that are required -- as they are the most boring things to get , and the player has to go out of their way in a consistent manner to get them (unlike Dil , or even EC which are generated by playing the game) .
However with only slotting one kind of Projects (in our case Engineering Projects) , you limit the player to only get one kind of Doffs -- when they can be bothered to go get doffs .
To use a metaphor , at the moment we're at the equivalent of going to the store and buying butter (Eng doffs) , with the full knowledge that we will have to go back to the store later on to buy milk (Sci doffs) when the eventual Project that requires Sci Doffs will be slotted .
Twice the run = twice the time wasted . Not good .
The current Status :
In the past 3 weeks , at least two "Support Local Systems" projects were slotted and finished (requirements : 22 Doffs , EC , Dill , FM -- awards 500 Eng XP points) .
Note : people were willing to donate Dil .
At the same time two other projects (requirements: 172 Doffs + EC, FM -- awards 500 Eng XP points) + ( requirements : 154 Doffs + EC + FM -- awards : 1000 Eng XP points) -- just linger unfilled for over a month now , as ... it really looks like not many people (read : almost any people) are doing the Doff collecting thing ... , and that's a problem when (as mentioned before) , Doffs are the main requirement of a Fleet facility .
I can dig us out from that Doff "hole" with the needed 300+ Eng Doffs , but it will take a week or two , and it will be boring as hell ! :p
- My request :
On the Rom Starbase :
- Start slotting both Eng and Sci Projects in parallel to each other that have low Doff requirements that award 500 XP points .
Do not slot projects that have hundreds of Doff requirements (if it can be avoided -- this obviously does not count Projects that level up a Rank in a Fleet facility) , as we do not have a playerbase that generates hundreds of Doffs per-week .
- Do not slot the "Unload Surplus Fleet Marks" on the Rom Starbase (currently slotted) .
Fleet Marks are needed both in the construction of the Starbase and the Colony (which as of this writing has a Projects lacking Fleet Marks) .
My 2 cents . Sorry for the all too many words . :)
Hi Matt ,
Thanks for the quick response .
> You may be unaware that science projects could not be slotted when a Science upgrade is in progress
No , I was unaware of a Science Upgrade running in the background .
All I saw for the past 3-4 weeks was one specific type of Eng Project being slotted and filled a few times , while two other Eng Projects that were slotted (that had a combined need for 300+ Doffs) languishing untouched .
My concern (apart from the wasted time of recruiting only Eng Doffs at the Academy) -- was that if I filled those 300+ Doffs by myself , that another one (or both) of those high Doff requirement Projects will be slotted again , and we would be back to the same projects languishing untouched , because nobody , or almost nobody was donating Eng doffs to these projects .
In terms of perspective -- these are Projects that require either a few very wealthy players , or 10-12 (or more) active players who all donate a little to fill out the whole ... -- as , these Projects were conceived back when building the Starbase was all the rage and a few large Fleets competed at being the first Fleet to finish their Starbase .
> Secondly, you may also not be aware that you can buy hundreds of doffs in one go from the "Commission Duty Officers" guy in the ops area using fleet credits to pay for them. I regularly slot thousands of doffs on various fleets this way.
No , I was unaware of these changes , thanks for letting me know .
It's been a few years since I participated in building a Starbase ... , and mailing 5 Doffs at a time from toons that were made specifically to produce doffs at the Academy (to add to the SRS Rom Colony) , have certainly brought back some ... memories . :)
Cheers ,
- Aelfwin