Using “bonus” shuttles following faction events
We’re currently in the lull following the first rerun of Rule 125, the faction event centered on the civil war between the Ferengi Traditionalists and the Ferengi Alliance.
Don’t worry too much about the storyline ramifications of that war: the Alliance won it last year, too, with no change to the status quo. In a perfect world, we’d see the redundant Ferengi faction bundled with its counterpart, clearing space for a ‘Borg Resistance’ or ‘Unimatrix Zero’ faction instead. But it is Disruptor Beam’s world and we all just pay (or not) to play in it.
That’s all digression from the main point I want to consider today: strategy for multi-faction events, specifically choosing which shuttles to run.
A lot of different factors go into determining which shuttles to run, including but not limited to:
which faction offers the most favourable missions from a percentage perspective
which faction items an individual player needs
which faction the player has excess transmissions for
which faction is most popular with other Timelines players
The first three items are going to vary from player to player—depending on your crew and your needs, your choice of faction may vary significantly from mine. But one thing we all have in common is the fourth point: the faction which is most likely to “win” the event.
In this case, Ferengi Alliance missions collected the most points for player, with Section 31 running a close second and the Klingon Empire well back in third place. As a result, for the next three days, any shuttles run off Ferengi Alliance transmissions will a) return 30 minutes earlier and b) bring in bonus chronitons if successful.
The problem with the DB approach is that it’s always going to favour the players who weren’t responsible for the victory of the winning faction. If Player A just spent four days running Ferengi Alliance missions, she probably doesn’t want to spend the next three days running Ferengi Alliance missions.
This suggests an obvious strategy: during the event, run shuttle missions for the faction you expect to lose. In my case, I ran Klingon Empire shuttles for the first day and then switched to Section 31 once I felt confident that the Ferengi Alliance was going to win (as I’m more in need of Section 31 items than Ferengi Alliance items). As a result, I ended up with a surplus of Ferengi Alliance transmissions for use over the three days where they carry a bonus.
It’s hardly an earth-shattering strategy, and I’d guess many players take the same approach, though a plurality must have been running Alliance missions. But I was curious as to how much benefit there was.
For the purposes of this exercise, I’m going to assume a 15-hour shuttle window, and ignore the overnight shuttles. I’m also going to assume the player has four shuttle bays and a success rate of 67 percent, which seems to be where most players wind up over the long haul on their non-event shuttle runs.
What does the difference look like?
Non-bonus shuttles: In 15 hours, assuming no lulls and no boosts, a player can run five sets of 3-hour shuttles, for a total of 60 shuttles and 40 successes. This player gets 40 item hauls, plus 20 trainer hauls (with trainers coming even on failed shuttles).
Bonus shuttles: In 15 hours, assuming no lulls and no boosts, a player can run six sets of 2.5-hour shuttles, for a total of 72 shuttles and 48 success. This player gets 48 item hauls, plus 24 trainer hauls, plus bonus items on the 48 successful missions: 240 chronitons in all, along with credits, transmissions and extra items.
It’s a substantial gap. The bonus strategy rewards the player with 8 extra regular shuttle hauls, 4 extra trainer hauls, an entire day’s worth of chronitons, along with 48 sets of other bonus material.
