My concern with the negotiator is it’s blocked and only accessible to high tier guilds.
This would cripple the zeta earn rate for those of us not in Uber guilds with a billion gp.
Having to choose hoth or geonosis is a terrible decision.
Amazing. Every word of that sentence was wrong.
First of all, you don't have to be in an uber guild with a billion GP to participate in Geonosis TB. If you're over a million GP, you can almost certainly get in on a guild that's giving Geonosis TB a bash. Yes, you'll get it slower. You'll still make progress.
Even the Falcon's dominance was not absolute. Since before Ships 2.0, I've swapped out three ships. I've added Houndstooth. I've added the Falcon. And I switched to Ackbar. In that order.
When the Falcon was introduced, I did not get it. I was not instantly relegated to the realm of 501+. I coexisted in the top 50, though it took some climb and sometimes I missed out and scored top 100 for the day. Now that I have the Falcon, I'm back in the top 50 stably and some days strike for top 20.
The Negotiator will not hit instantly and immediately stratify haves from have nots nor send you plummeting to the realm of 501+.
Let's say you're top 20 right now. That's as high as it's reasonable to assume; the overwhelming majority is not top of the heap and top 20 is still doing very well. Let's say over time the Negotiator's introduction drops you two brackets, which is about as big a hit as can reasonably be expected. That's a loss of a whopping... 100 fleet arena tokens per day. Your zeta earn rate is not crippled. You just miss out on one and a half zeta mats a month. Even if the ludicrous happened and you went from top 10 to top 500, that's noticeable, but not "crippled." You'd go from 21 zeta mats a month from the fleet arena store to 15. Your zetas from challenges (27/month) or the calendar (1.5/month) or TW (let's say 6/month conservatively) or the Wicket and Talzin events (4/month) or GAC (let's say 2/month) are unaffected.
So. Adding that up, an insanely huge drop from top 10 to top 500 that is unprecedented in the slow scale of ship arena would take your monthly zeta income from 61.5 zetas/month to 55.5 zetas/month. A 10% drop. That is not remotely crippled, and that is an insanely implausible case.
The Negotiator will not hit instantly and immediately stratify haves from have nots nor send you plummeting to the realm of 501+.
While what you said about fleet currency is correct, it is still worth noting that it will have an impact on the "haves" and "have nots" thing if you're in the top ranks. Going from rank 50 to 501+ is no big deal, your point kinda makes it clear (well done on the zeta/month approximation btw). You lose some currency but that's it. But if you drop from 1 to 50+ for not having the Negotiator, it will basically remove your fleet arena crystal income altogether. Not everyone is in a super strong guild that can farm the shards at a decent speed, nor has everyone the opportunity to be part of such a guild knowing their requirements. As you said, even weak guilds can farm it, sure. But not at decent speed.
The empire fleet meta lasted well over a year until Geos were reworked, and more annoying since ITF injected an RNG element even worse than falcon's 50% assist RNG. And I prefer the falcon meta to the HT+geos/empire that preceded it the current meta (my shard didn't get the Mace meta thankfully). The HT meta was speed dependent, encouraging you to waste zetas and G12 on otherwise weak pilots, and HT was harder to kill before falcon. The fights now are repetitive but at least you can win consistently and quickly once you have a strategy locked in.
This is even more of a speed meta. The maxed out bistan uwing RNG of who goes first and completely nukes the opposite HMF is frustrating beyond anything. And the only way to escape is to win the TM RNG because now HT and all the other rebels are likely to be at 100% tm.
So don't even try to compare this to HT meta.
A maxed out Bistan U-Wing is still slower than Tie Silencer. Not sure what the obsession with Bistan's ship is when you have to dump so much gear into two sub-par characters and it's so easily countered.
While what you said about fleet currency is correct, it is still worth noting that it will have an impact on the "haves" and "have nots" thing if you're in the top ranks. Going from rank 50 to 501+ is no big deal, your point kinda makes it clear (well done on the zeta/month approximation btw). You lose some currency but that's it. But if you drop from 1 to 50+ for not having the Negotiator, it will basically remove your fleet arena crystal income altogether. Not everyone is in a super strong guild that can farm the shards at a decent speed, nor has everyone the opportunity to be part of such a guild knowing their requirements. As you said, even weak guilds can farm it, sure. But not at decent speed.
If you are number one in fleet arena right now- which is not a reasonable point of comparison for general purposes because such a tiny portion of the playerbase can be number one- then you got there by getting ahead of the meta, by getting the Falcon early mobilizing those Rebel fleets before others could. You get to number one in fleet by being serious and pushing hard on fleet.
It is not a reasonable to say this hypothetical number one fleet player
My guild got 11 stars in the last TB. That's 3450 GET2. In order to double that, someone else would have to get 31 stars, which almost no one's managed. This TB, my guild will probably get 13 stars, for 3850 GET2 since we've realized a couple mistakes we made last time, then creep up from there. Someone whose guild is doing very well in Geonosist TB might get 20 stars, for 5250 GET2 not counting special missions. That puts me at 73% the earn rate.There's a window of advantage, but it's not a binary have/have not. TB rewards are a fairly flat progression.
And while there might be some people in your shard who are in disproportionately high-performance guilds, but the extreme example of a #1 player in fleet sleeping on the Negotiator while in a guild so low performance in comparison to the rest of their shard that not only do 50 people manage to beat them to the punch but also manage to consolidate their GR fleets to such a degree that they lock out our former #1 example player is... disingenuous at best.
What's more, the example former #1 player is highly unlikely as to get to number one, they had to invest heavily in their pilots, which probably puts them in an established hSith guild to get those G12+ pieces and probably has them doing at least okay in Geonosis TB. The confluence of, "established #1 in fleet" and "in a guild weak enough that their Geonosis TB performance is irrelevant," is not a reasonable example.
Now, is it plausible that someone at #1 right now will lose that #1 spot to someone who gets the Negotiator for them and therefore take a significant hit to their crystal income? Yes. In fact, I feel reasonably confident in saying that will happen. But I can't rightly call that a problem. At the very top, the rewards scale quickly, but there's a very small portion of the game on top of that hill. Someone is number one. Whoever is at number one got there because of the status quo. They will always be invested in the status quo remaining the same. But a meta shift will always come eventually. It will be something and it will be gated somehow. This method is more equitable and puts the ball more in your court than making it a marquee pack which is nearly hard gated by cash.
The empire fleet meta lasted well over a year until Geos were reworked, and more annoying since ITF injected an RNG element even worse than falcon's 50% assist RNG. And I prefer the falcon meta to the HT+geos/empire that preceded it the current meta (my shard didn't get the Mace meta thankfully). The HT meta was speed dependent, encouraging you to waste zetas and G12 on otherwise weak pilots, and HT was harder to kill before falcon. The fights now are repetitive but at least you can win consistently and quickly once you have a strategy locked in.
This is even more of a speed meta. The maxed out bistan uwing RNG of who goes first and completely nukes the opposite HMF is frustrating beyond anything. And the only way to escape is to win the TM RNG because now HT and all the other rebels are likely to be at 100% tm.
So don't even try to compare this to HT meta.
A maxed out Bistan U-Wing is still slower than Tie Silencer. Not sure what the obsession with Bistan's ship is when you have to dump so much gear into two sub-par characters and it's so easily countered.
The empire fleet meta lasted well over a year until Geos were reworked, and more annoying since ITF injected an RNG element even worse than falcon's 50% assist RNG. And I prefer the falcon meta to the HT+geos/empire that preceded it the current meta (my shard didn't get the Mace meta thankfully). The HT meta was speed dependent, encouraging you to waste zetas and G12 on otherwise weak pilots, and HT was harder to kill before falcon. The fights now are repetitive but at least you can win consistently and quickly once you have a strategy locked in.
This is even more of a speed meta. The maxed out bistan uwing RNG of who goes first and completely nukes the opposite HMF is frustrating beyond anything. And the only way to escape is to win the TM RNG because now HT and all the other rebels are likely to be at 100% tm.
So don't even try to compare this to HT meta.
A maxed out Bistan U-Wing is still slower than Tie Silencer. Not sure what the obsession with Bistan's ship is when you have to dump so much gear into two sub-par characters and it's so easily countered.
Good luck keeping Silencer on defense
You don't have to keep it on defense, but it doesn't fall any farther than any other Millennium Falcon lineup. Given that Bistan's ship is also a liability on defense I just don't see the point of dumping the resources into him until he's a requirement for something or suddenly becomes a worthwhile character.
The empire fleet meta lasted well over a year until Geos were reworked, and more annoying since ITF injected an RNG element even worse than falcon's 50% assist RNG. And I prefer the falcon meta to the HT+geos/empire that preceded it the current meta (my shard didn't get the Mace meta thankfully). The HT meta was speed dependent, encouraging you to waste zetas and G12 on otherwise weak pilots, and HT was harder to kill before falcon. The fights now are repetitive but at least you can win consistently and quickly once you have a strategy locked in.
This is even more of a speed meta. The maxed out bistan uwing RNG of who goes first and completely nukes the opposite HMF is frustrating beyond anything. And the only way to escape is to win the TM RNG because now HT and all the other rebels are likely to be at 100% tm.
So don't even try to compare this to HT meta.
A maxed out Bistan U-Wing is still slower than Tie Silencer. Not sure what the obsession with Bistan's ship is when you have to dump so much gear into two sub-par characters and it's so easily countered.
Good luck keeping Silencer on defense
You don't have to keep it on defense, but it doesn't fall any farther than any other Millennium Falcon lineup. Given that Bistan's ship is also a liability on defense I just don't see the point of dumping the resources into him until he's a requirement for something or suddenly becomes a worthwhile character.
G12+5 with 6 DOT mods on Bistans pilots = not a liability;)
Replies
First of all, you don't have to be in an uber guild with a billion GP to participate in Geonosis TB. If you're over a million GP, you can almost certainly get in on a guild that's giving Geonosis TB a bash. Yes, you'll get it slower. You'll still make progress.
Even the Falcon's dominance was not absolute. Since before Ships 2.0, I've swapped out three ships. I've added Houndstooth. I've added the Falcon. And I switched to Ackbar. In that order.
When the Falcon was introduced, I did not get it. I was not instantly relegated to the realm of 501+. I coexisted in the top 50, though it took some climb and sometimes I missed out and scored top 100 for the day. Now that I have the Falcon, I'm back in the top 50 stably and some days strike for top 20.
The Negotiator will not hit instantly and immediately stratify haves from have nots nor send you plummeting to the realm of 501+.
Let's say you're top 20 right now. That's as high as it's reasonable to assume; the overwhelming majority is not top of the heap and top 20 is still doing very well. Let's say over time the Negotiator's introduction drops you two brackets, which is about as big a hit as can reasonably be expected. That's a loss of a whopping... 100 fleet arena tokens per day. Your zeta earn rate is not crippled. You just miss out on one and a half zeta mats a month. Even if the ludicrous happened and you went from top 10 to top 500, that's noticeable, but not "crippled." You'd go from 21 zeta mats a month from the fleet arena store to 15. Your zetas from challenges (27/month) or the calendar (1.5/month) or TW (let's say 6/month conservatively) or the Wicket and Talzin events (4/month) or GAC (let's say 2/month) are unaffected.
So. Adding that up, an insanely huge drop from top 10 to top 500 that is unprecedented in the slow scale of ship arena would take your monthly zeta income from 61.5 zetas/month to 55.5 zetas/month. A 10% drop. That is not remotely crippled, and that is an insanely implausible case.
Really, When do i get my month long summer holiday without losing my house?
Assuming carrie didn't lose her house, you will get your month long summer holiday when you're making financially sound decisions like she did
While what you said about fleet currency is correct, it is still worth noting that it will have an impact on the "haves" and "have nots" thing if you're in the top ranks. Going from rank 50 to 501+ is no big deal, your point kinda makes it clear (well done on the zeta/month approximation btw). You lose some currency but that's it. But if you drop from 1 to 50+ for not having the Negotiator, it will basically remove your fleet arena crystal income altogether. Not everyone is in a super strong guild that can farm the shards at a decent speed, nor has everyone the opportunity to be part of such a guild knowing their requirements. As you said, even weak guilds can farm it, sure. But not at decent speed.
A maxed out Bistan U-Wing is still slower than Tie Silencer. Not sure what the obsession with Bistan's ship is when you have to dump so much gear into two sub-par characters and it's so easily countered.
It is not a reasonable to say this hypothetical number one fleet player
My guild got 11 stars in the last TB. That's 3450 GET2. In order to double that, someone else would have to get 31 stars, which almost no one's managed. This TB, my guild will probably get 13 stars, for 3850 GET2 since we've realized a couple mistakes we made last time, then creep up from there. Someone whose guild is doing very well in Geonosist TB might get 20 stars, for 5250 GET2 not counting special missions. That puts me at 73% the earn rate.There's a window of advantage, but it's not a binary have/have not. TB rewards are a fairly flat progression.
And while there might be some people in your shard who are in disproportionately high-performance guilds, but the extreme example of a #1 player in fleet sleeping on the Negotiator while in a guild so low performance in comparison to the rest of their shard that not only do 50 people manage to beat them to the punch but also manage to consolidate their GR fleets to such a degree that they lock out our former #1 example player is... disingenuous at best.
What's more, the example former #1 player is highly unlikely as to get to number one, they had to invest heavily in their pilots, which probably puts them in an established hSith guild to get those G12+ pieces and probably has them doing at least okay in Geonosis TB. The confluence of, "established #1 in fleet" and "in a guild weak enough that their Geonosis TB performance is irrelevant," is not a reasonable example.
Now, is it plausible that someone at #1 right now will lose that #1 spot to someone who gets the Negotiator for them and therefore take a significant hit to their crystal income? Yes. In fact, I feel reasonably confident in saying that will happen. But I can't rightly call that a problem. At the very top, the rewards scale quickly, but there's a very small portion of the game on top of that hill. Someone is number one. Whoever is at number one got there because of the status quo. They will always be invested in the status quo remaining the same. But a meta shift will always come eventually. It will be something and it will be gated somehow. This method is more equitable and puts the ball more in your court than making it a marquee pack which is nearly hard gated by cash.
Good luck keeping Silencer on defense
You don't have to keep it on defense, but it doesn't fall any farther than any other Millennium Falcon lineup. Given that Bistan's ship is also a liability on defense I just don't see the point of dumping the resources into him until he's a requirement for something or suddenly becomes a worthwhile character.
G12+5 with 6 DOT mods on Bistans pilots = not a liability;)