= 44th Quarterly State of the Fleet, March 2019 =

Welcome New Fleet Members – Moving Alts – 44th Armada – Fleet Holding Meet-up – Gamma squad – Foundry sunset

Greetings 44th!

Here’s your quarterly update regarding your Mighty 44th, and the word is that we are doing extremely well.

Welcome New Fleet Members

As per the usual trend, we have been welcoming dozens of new applicants since the beginning of the new year, and we have welcomed back many returning veterans as well – welcome all!

Active characters = 738 of 1600 (46.13%)
New characters = 157 of 1600 (9.81%)
Active accounts = 231 of 461 (50.11%)
New accounts = 33 of 461 (7.16%)

The active accounts – meaning actual individual players, not alts – have nearly doubled since last year from about 125 to 231.

So as you can see we continue to be a very active fleet which has the pleasant side-effect that both the Delta and Gamma fleets (originally just for extra alt storage) are now growing and completing as mature fleets in their own right.  It was never really intended, but the 44th Delta Fleet will soon have its own completed Tier 5 Starbase.
Well done and thanks all!
Not only do our ranks continue to grow, but the quality of new members is up to 44th standards – engaging, active, no-drama and not afraid to ask for advice.

And we are pleased that you continue to provide answers and assistance to our newest members and even crafting / donating kit to help out the fledgling captains successfully face a Borg onslaught, or a particularly vicious tribble outbreak.
Thank you for your unselfish generosity!

Moving Alts

The large influx of returning / new members and their alts do pose one creeping issue however – we keep bumping up against the maximum fleet roster limit of 500 characters per fleet.
In the past we created the 44th Delta and 44th Gamma fleet to house the many-many alts you bring along, but sooner or later these fleets will approach their max limit as well.  Which is a nice luxury to have!

We will continue our policy that you can have as many alts as you like in the 44th Fleet – as long as they are semi-active, ie log in at least once a week or so.
But we need to balance and disperse alts more evenly among our three Federation fleets as we continue to grow (our KDF fleet still has sufficient space).

In the past, we have asked you to voluntarily move any seldom used or least favorite alts to the 44th Gamma fleet, and we thank those that did.
But most that could volunteer have done so already, and that means we have to adjust the rules a bit.  Basically to avoid having to create another fleet to house hungry alts.

In the very near future, there will be a rule that everyone can have a maximum of two (2) active alts in the 44th (Main) Fleet.
Running the roster-numbers, it will bring the Main fleet roster down to about 400, which is ideal as it leaves enough room for future members to transfer two alts from Delta/Gamma to Main, and enough room for alts to temporarily move to Main to buy shiny fleet gear.

Just as a reminder, every Lieutenant rank and above has unrestricted access to main fleet stores to buy fleet ships and fleet gear.  All that is required is a map invite or temporary fleet move to Main (just ask any Commodore/Admiral in 44th-diplo or discord).

We will announce in advance when the Main Fleet roster may be reviewed and reshuffled.  There will be a 30-day period where we will encourage you to reduce your alts in Main fleet by transferring them to Gamma.  After that period we will both remove AND re-invite to 44th Gamma any THIRD ALT in Main (for afk accounts).  Again, your alt will NOT be kicked, just moved with rank and privileges intact.

We consider this a fair rule to all and prepares our fleet rosters for our ever increasing numbers.
We will keep you posted on the new 2-alt rule and fleet events both on the forum, discord and in-game, so stay tuned.

44th Armada

Speaking of the Armada, we completed a reshuffle where we said goodbye to our beta fleet Dragons Lair and promoted our longtime armada members MMFWCL to beta fleet (congratulations!). We also welcomed new fleets as full beta/gamma fleets in both our 44th Federation and KDF Armada.
Bienvenue to our newest French KDF fleet Gardiens de Grethor.

This reshuffle made it possible to complete an old wish we had where our three fleets are now their own complete ‘block’: Main 44th Fleet as Alpha presiding over our own 44th Delta and 44th Gamma Fleets. This means that our own fleets are no longer tied to any shenanigans that other fleets may have, if they wish to start their own armada, or regarding inviting/removing sub-fleets.

And just to recap what the whole Armada thing is; allying with other player’s fleets/guilds giving each fleet certain xp and dilithium bonuses to you as a player, depending on the position within the armada, and the total Armada number (calculated by the total amount of members).  On top of that you now have access to other fleet’s projects and can help complete their fleet starbase/mine/colony holdings and earn fleet credits in return.  Especially when you’re a small fleet of less than a dozen active players, this additional outside armada help really speeds things up.

Fleet Holding Meetup

Regarding fleet events, we will soon have a recurring (probably monthly) Fleet Holding Event.  A gathering of fleetings at one of our many fleet holdings where we introduce it to new members and, like last time, just have a smashing good time chasing cats with lasers (don’t ask)…….

Jalification’s Gamma (Reputation) Squad

Fellow fleetie Jalification has an interesting project in the works.  As you may know, a number of Captain Reputations, Boff/Doff powers and space sets have various team buffs.  Jalif wants to try and create a 5-man team where we try to absolutely maximize the Gamma Rep stacking team bonuses. If the math works out, this team’s joined damage/tanking/healing will double, if not more.
STO’s mechanics can be a bit wonky, so it will be fun to find out how far team bonuses really stack these days.  Some of you may remember the stacking damage bonus from the Iconian space set that got the nerf hammer because it was a little “too” good.
It will take some organizing, but its totally doable.  This is open to all so anyone can sign up.
Here – https://startrek.44thfleet.com/forums/topic/gamma-doctrine/

Foundry Sunset

So the biggest news in STO is of course the total removal of the Foundry (RIP Foundry), which was where we could create our own missions.  As most of you know, lately most foundry missions were basically Endeavor grinders, meaning you could create a simple map to kill x Terrans or y-type ships.
The foundry has always been sort of a redheaded stepchild as it was awkward and its UI was difficult to master.

There were however a number of very good story missions which used the STO engine’s mechanic to its max potential, introducing effects the main game still hasn’t.  Using your floater/jetpack to attack your enemies from above?  Check!  Use your EV suit to discover an underwater base?  Yup!  Watch Risa burn?  You betcha!

Create a 44th Fleet mission based on our (website) history?  Indeed!  (Alas that one is gone now).
There were also a number of foundry authors who created missions to fill in the gaps in the official Trek lore and even STO’s Iconian story line, which received high praise from the STO community in general.

Sadly, this will all go away.  Lead designer Al “Geko” Riviera and STO community manager Mike “Kael” Fathum took a lot of heat, but the sad fact is that the foundry still runs on the old (rarely updated) STO engine.  Its original programmers have left Cryptic years ago so a lot of core knowledge is lost, and keeping the two different engines updated took up too much (programmer) time and money for little return.

So no more easy Endeavors!  However, the 44th being the 44th, we’ve kept a handy list/post on our forum, started by Chanfron (thanks!), and updating it with new locations/tricks as we find them.

Personal Endeavor Tips

The 44th Fleet has always been supported by a great Command Staff.  Gone are the days that one or two fleet admirals could run our online organization, and we are very thankful that the 44th Fleet (for over 9 years!) always had a group of members who dedicate a large portion of their free time not pew-pewing, but instead introducing new members to STO, planing and sloting fleet projects and events, writing detailed guides and reports, run our forum and Discord voice server and conduct Armada and official STO-forum contacts.
So a huge thanks to Bilrost, LadyInferno, Damix, Palcioz, Paradoxical, Phoenix, BreakingForce and Sargon!

Most Sincerely,
Akula
44th Fleet Admiral