SFC News Christmas contest!
Merry Christmas readers! To celebrate the holidays, SFC news is having a letter to Santa contest! What would like best for Christmas int eh starfleet universes? The winner will receive 25,000 credits towards their Christmas dream! Simply submit your letter to Santa on the "ABOUT US" tab above! Winner will be selected on December 24th.
Merry Christmas readers! To celebrate the holidays, SFC news is having a letter to Santa contest! What would like best for Christmas int eh starfleet universes? The winner will receive 25,000 credits towards their Christmas dream! Simply submit your letter to Santa on the "ABOUT US" tab above! Winner will be selected on December 24th.
If you want to be one of the top players in these games, the truth is, you will have to pay. Whether it be for hydro to trade with the merchant, or neutrality to protect our builds, we are making Blue Frog Gaming Rich. But how much money is too much to play and where does it end? Is there any way to stop spending as much?
Let us know your thoughts!
Let us know your thoughts!
The Basic Android... Worth it?
A feature introduced since the beginning of the game, was the ability to add your real friends, to join your crew by accepting your invite to start Starfleet. If your friends decided to farm corn and feed massive amounts of pigs instead, then chances are your crew slot is empty. Adding your crew offered you double the bonus of a regular droid though. 2% bonus instantly became a 4% bonus and counted as 2 Crew points. That number added up when it came time to build just a little faster, or research hours sooner. But there was an alternative, the Basic Android. But is it worth the 25,000 credits to buy?
Well lets do some math to test this. Say we wish to research the next level of warp drive, and with our current labs, it will take exactly 1000 hours. We have 5 lab droids giving us a 10% bonus. We also decide to buy a research commander at just 10,000 credits, lower than the android. We are looking at 650 hours now to complete this warp drive. But now, lets replace the droids with androids. This is a whopping 125,000 credits. now we see a 20% bonus, plus the additional 25% for the commander. so we now have a 45% bonus only amounting to a 100 hour difference, at 550 hours.
Is it worth it at the current price? In short, No. Sure it is nice to get that extra 100 hours, but think about how much time you are truly saving at what cost. You save 5% more time with the commander alone then you do with an android at 40% reduced cost. Its a no-brainer. You best bet is hope that your friend's farmville corn will one day die, and join you here for battle. If not, you still have a shot at winning one in the lucky draw.
A feature introduced since the beginning of the game, was the ability to add your real friends, to join your crew by accepting your invite to start Starfleet. If your friends decided to farm corn and feed massive amounts of pigs instead, then chances are your crew slot is empty. Adding your crew offered you double the bonus of a regular droid though. 2% bonus instantly became a 4% bonus and counted as 2 Crew points. That number added up when it came time to build just a little faster, or research hours sooner. But there was an alternative, the Basic Android. But is it worth the 25,000 credits to buy?
Well lets do some math to test this. Say we wish to research the next level of warp drive, and with our current labs, it will take exactly 1000 hours. We have 5 lab droids giving us a 10% bonus. We also decide to buy a research commander at just 10,000 credits, lower than the android. We are looking at 650 hours now to complete this warp drive. But now, lets replace the droids with androids. This is a whopping 125,000 credits. now we see a 20% bonus, plus the additional 25% for the commander. so we now have a 45% bonus only amounting to a 100 hour difference, at 550 hours.
Is it worth it at the current price? In short, No. Sure it is nice to get that extra 100 hours, but think about how much time you are truly saving at what cost. You save 5% more time with the commander alone then you do with an android at 40% reduced cost. Its a no-brainer. You best bet is hope that your friend's farmville corn will one day die, and join you here for battle. If not, you still have a shot at winning one in the lucky draw.
Conquest Plagued with complaints, and poor game Mechanics.
Since Conquests release, we have begun to see many players excel both fleets, and rank into the billions, and to some trillions. Conquests game mechanics are the fastest compared to all the other permanent universes. With this increased speed, and exponential resources, Game mechanics needed to be refined to accommodate players of all skill levels. This is what BFG aimed for, succeeded in, but also brought in some unintentional side effects.
The most noticeable side effect, is the resource spent hole for territories. Early in the game, there were territories for just about every player in the game. The only exceptions then, were the beginners, and top 50 players. Territories are the main source of resource income for players during that era. NPCs, although did not generate DSP, they generated then billions of resources. Fleets began to soar, as did every players RSP score. At some point, a hole began to form between the Military and Industrial territories. This formed close the 225 RSP rank and slowly began to expand. Players in this region would no longer have access to a territory, and would gain very limited income. As the rich became richer, the RSP average would increase, and the hole would widen. Players in this dead zone would have to rely on hunting both player and NPC to increase at a slower pace. The hole now surrounds approximately 150 ranks, all mid ranged players. The rich continue to get richer, and the gap increases every day.
Another common complaint of this new universe is the newbie protection. Currently, you may attack or be attacked by another player 10x or .1x your RSP rank. This is leading to players virtually becoming invincible in each rank, especially for mid ranged players. As fleet compositions differ, some players can not be hunted, due to these limitations. The only people who could kill this player, would be players far above their RSP rank, or in the event of a group attack. With speeds at 3x SFCO, it is much harder to coordinate a successful group attack. This leads to bullying by these "invincible" few and abuse of the system.
Since Conquests release, we have begun to see many players excel both fleets, and rank into the billions, and to some trillions. Conquests game mechanics are the fastest compared to all the other permanent universes. With this increased speed, and exponential resources, Game mechanics needed to be refined to accommodate players of all skill levels. This is what BFG aimed for, succeeded in, but also brought in some unintentional side effects.
The most noticeable side effect, is the resource spent hole for territories. Early in the game, there were territories for just about every player in the game. The only exceptions then, were the beginners, and top 50 players. Territories are the main source of resource income for players during that era. NPCs, although did not generate DSP, they generated then billions of resources. Fleets began to soar, as did every players RSP score. At some point, a hole began to form between the Military and Industrial territories. This formed close the 225 RSP rank and slowly began to expand. Players in this region would no longer have access to a territory, and would gain very limited income. As the rich became richer, the RSP average would increase, and the hole would widen. Players in this dead zone would have to rely on hunting both player and NPC to increase at a slower pace. The hole now surrounds approximately 150 ranks, all mid ranged players. The rich continue to get richer, and the gap increases every day.
Another common complaint of this new universe is the newbie protection. Currently, you may attack or be attacked by another player 10x or .1x your RSP rank. This is leading to players virtually becoming invincible in each rank, especially for mid ranged players. As fleet compositions differ, some players can not be hunted, due to these limitations. The only people who could kill this player, would be players far above their RSP rank, or in the event of a group attack. With speeds at 3x SFCO, it is much harder to coordinate a successful group attack. This leads to bullying by these "invincible" few and abuse of the system.
Starfleet Commander open parser
Let's take the time to look at one of the most used parser in all the Starfleet universes. Open Parser was created by BFG community manager Matt H. after the people who ran the BAM! parser which ran a very similar parser dropped the site.
The Open Parser is fairly simple to use. Simply install the parser on your browser, and it is as simple as that. Upon proper installation, the galaxy screen will now contain an extra option to select next to every players name. The icon, a question mark, shows a list of the player's planet locations as well as heph tracking if the player deployed their heph. Planet detection is based on how long ago the system was parsed by the site, so some systems may be more inaccurate than others. The players colonies will be listed by their location, along with their moons. For the Heph locator, the parser will detect the last known location of the heph and record the time the heph was seen. This may be inaccurate as well for the same reason as colonies. If the system is not parsed, then the heph will not be visible to the tracker.
Another useful feature of the open parser is the capability to track your targets play time. By going to open parser, you select the universe and type in your target's name. On the screen, there will be an option to hide/show tracking information. Upon clicking it, you will see many tables with a bunch of colors and numbers. But what do they mean? Well the instructions on how to use this feature on the site may blurry at best, it is easy to get the hang of. Each table is based on the game clock in hours. 1:00 UTC, 2:00 UTC etc. Below is a number which is between 1-10. The open parser will detect activity on your planet to determine your average activity during this time. The higher the number is to 10, the more likely the person is online. The lower the number is to 1, the less likely the player is active during that time. There is a table for every planet and moon. This may help determine which planet is their homeworld. I have found out however, that this information can be horribly inaccurate. I would not rely on this information, but instead use it as a tool.
Open Parser is an awesome tool. Learning to use it will surely improve your skills in the Starfleet universe. If you are interested on downloading the parser, simply go to http://openparser.com From there follow the instructions on the page.
The Open Parser is fairly simple to use. Simply install the parser on your browser, and it is as simple as that. Upon proper installation, the galaxy screen will now contain an extra option to select next to every players name. The icon, a question mark, shows a list of the player's planet locations as well as heph tracking if the player deployed their heph. Planet detection is based on how long ago the system was parsed by the site, so some systems may be more inaccurate than others. The players colonies will be listed by their location, along with their moons. For the Heph locator, the parser will detect the last known location of the heph and record the time the heph was seen. This may be inaccurate as well for the same reason as colonies. If the system is not parsed, then the heph will not be visible to the tracker.
Another useful feature of the open parser is the capability to track your targets play time. By going to open parser, you select the universe and type in your target's name. On the screen, there will be an option to hide/show tracking information. Upon clicking it, you will see many tables with a bunch of colors and numbers. But what do they mean? Well the instructions on how to use this feature on the site may blurry at best, it is easy to get the hang of. Each table is based on the game clock in hours. 1:00 UTC, 2:00 UTC etc. Below is a number which is between 1-10. The open parser will detect activity on your planet to determine your average activity during this time. The higher the number is to 10, the more likely the person is online. The lower the number is to 1, the less likely the player is active during that time. There is a table for every planet and moon. This may help determine which planet is their homeworld. I have found out however, that this information can be horribly inaccurate. I would not rely on this information, but instead use it as a tool.
Open Parser is an awesome tool. Learning to use it will surely improve your skills in the Starfleet universe. If you are interested on downloading the parser, simply go to http://openparser.com From there follow the instructions on the page.
This months resource exchange rates
Crystal is still pretty low lately, however we have also noticed a decease in hydrogen value. Ore is maintaining its value. Here are this month's recommended trading values!
Original
Ore --> Hydro 2.5:1
Ore --> Crystal 1.5:1
Crystal --> Hydro 1.75:1
SFC X2
Ore-->Hydrogen 2.6:1
Crystal-->Hydrogen 1.55:1
Ore --> Crystal 2:1
Original
Ore --> Hydro 2.5:1
Ore --> Crystal 1.5:1
Crystal --> Hydro 1.75:1
SFC X2
Ore-->Hydrogen 2.6:1
Crystal-->Hydrogen 1.55:1
Ore --> Crystal 2:1
lucky draw tokens: worth it?
I think every player and every universe can say when BFG changed the lottery system to this daily lucky draw, they made a great improvement. It is a lot better than having that 1% chance of winning 10 Artemis from the previous lottery. But is the lucky draw so good, it is worth buying tokens in the store?
Sometimes, a token can save you up to 28,000 credits. This is the case if you receive a terraform token valued at 35,000 credits. Tokens can also be worth it if you get a commander prize saving a small fortune of 2,000 credits. If you are really lucky, you can triple or quintuple your tokens turning 8,000 credits into 40,000 credits. These however are the best case scenarios.
Then, there are the many times where the tokens are wasted on a 4,000 ore prize or that 1 atlas prize. Even the 5 prom prize is not worth the cost of the tokens. 8,000 tokens for 5 ships? Maybe if they were Zeus it would be worth it. Even the augments and catalysts are barely worth the cost. Catalysts last 1 day, compared to the mining commander which lasts a week. Also the catalysts may only be used on one planet. Best case scenario is if you get the arcane catalyst for all your planets, gaining a 25% bonus on all of your mines. Its really not worth the 8,000 credits. The speed augments and cargo increase for cargo ships and harvesters are rarely ever worth it. They last 24 hours and if you have a solid fleet and research techs, you will save very little hydrogen and land your attacks 5 minutes earlier.
So in conclusion, tokens are a gamble. Take a chance, they may be worth the wait. However, i tested the chances with 15 tokens. 13/15 times, the tokens were not worth the cost. I had won a terraform and a scientist. All other prizes were trivial resource rewards and a few ships. But test your luck in the lucky draw! you may win big! Good luck!
Sometimes, a token can save you up to 28,000 credits. This is the case if you receive a terraform token valued at 35,000 credits. Tokens can also be worth it if you get a commander prize saving a small fortune of 2,000 credits. If you are really lucky, you can triple or quintuple your tokens turning 8,000 credits into 40,000 credits. These however are the best case scenarios.
Then, there are the many times where the tokens are wasted on a 4,000 ore prize or that 1 atlas prize. Even the 5 prom prize is not worth the cost of the tokens. 8,000 tokens for 5 ships? Maybe if they were Zeus it would be worth it. Even the augments and catalysts are barely worth the cost. Catalysts last 1 day, compared to the mining commander which lasts a week. Also the catalysts may only be used on one planet. Best case scenario is if you get the arcane catalyst for all your planets, gaining a 25% bonus on all of your mines. Its really not worth the 8,000 credits. The speed augments and cargo increase for cargo ships and harvesters are rarely ever worth it. They last 24 hours and if you have a solid fleet and research techs, you will save very little hydrogen and land your attacks 5 minutes earlier.
So in conclusion, tokens are a gamble. Take a chance, they may be worth the wait. However, i tested the chances with 15 tokens. 13/15 times, the tokens were not worth the cost. I had won a terraform and a scientist. All other prizes were trivial resource rewards and a few ships. But test your luck in the lucky draw! you may win big! Good luck!
Consumer alert! bogus offers
This is a consumer alert to all you guys who complete surveys and offers to earn credits in Starfleet Commander. An offer in particular is to download a small game onto your computer and in return you will receive 12,000 credits. The game is Tom&Jerry. The offer is a lie. If you complete the transaction, you will NOT be given 12,000 credits and because it is a third party provider, BFG will not give you the credits, no matter how much proof you give them.
I downloaded the game, (with intentions to immediately uninstall after) and the installation was completed. Upon completion, i was sent to a site confirming the installation. However i received no credits. I sent complaints to BFG, Peanut, and the third party site. Nobody however wants to own up to the mistake so i get no credits. I am Pissed so i just wanted you all to be careful what you go for. This is the last time i complete an offer, and i guess ill have to stick with the surveys.
I downloaded the game, (with intentions to immediately uninstall after) and the installation was completed. Upon completion, i was sent to a site confirming the installation. However i received no credits. I sent complaints to BFG, Peanut, and the third party site. Nobody however wants to own up to the mistake so i get no credits. I am Pissed so i just wanted you all to be careful what you go for. This is the last time i complete an offer, and i guess ill have to stick with the surveys.
the heph and merchant
Rarely nowadays, you will see a heph used for hunting, yet everyone seems to have one. What the heck do they use it for?! They use it to trade on using the Trade Merchant bought in the store. The Heph has a cargo hold of 1 billion resources. Unlike moons, they are able to have the Merchant used on them. So what players are doing is deploying their heph at a nearby location, loaded with the resources they would like to trade. Upon landing, the player would then trade the resources via the merchant for the resource they wish to acquire (usually players trade for hydrogen due to its scarcity). Since the heph has the maximum cargo hold of up to 1 billion resources, the merchant can trade you up to 1 billion resources of the resource you want. It provides an exponentially better trade value than if you were to trade from a planet, even with the capacity of 5.5 million. Players would then Re-dock the heph with the newly traded resources on their moon using the Lunar Dock.
Easy to do, and you can score a vast amount of the resource you would like! So spend your hydrogen! All that crystal everyone has is pretty much a check for hydro that you need to cash at your heph!
Easy to do, and you can score a vast amount of the resource you would like! So spend your hydrogen! All that crystal everyone has is pretty much a check for hydro that you need to cash at your heph!
Worthless Commanders
For the most part, people are quite satisfied with the current version of the "Lucky Draw". Some prizes are worth the token they are used for. You may gain resources, catalysts to increase mine production or even a terraform Token. For all the prizes we would all love to have, there are two particular commanders which I find completely find useless for the anyone not in (n). These two commanders are the Tactician, which increases mission profits by 25%, and the operations specialist, which unlocks premium missions and prevents oracles from detecting missions. What is the point of missions nowadays? you can gain 10x the resources from a debris field created by intercepted probes. These premium missions yield less than 250k resources. The biggest of the missions take hours to complete because you need to accompany it with your Zeus Missions are not worth the effort anymore. Maybe if we were able to perform missions through our moons, more people would perform them. When you are on an attack and all your main ships are out, fill in the remaining fleet spots to hit some quick and easy missions. Sorry Blue Frog, but these commanders suck. I would rather have a 4000 ore prize which at some point i would use rather than tacticians wasting space in my items.
Crystal Worth nothing.
Crystal stockpiles have increased exponentially over the last few months. Now that NPCs generate debris fields, hunters are gaining more crystal than they know what to use it for. Research, ship building, moon buildings, nothing other than a trade merchant is able to decrease your crystal stocks. Hydrogen and Ore stockpiles just aren't enough to keep up with the low cost of crystal to build big ships. So keep deploying those hephs and use those merchants! I'm sure this was all BFG's idea to make us spend so much!