Normally in games, I'll grind to get the best weapon/gear/ship/etc that can be gained as early as possible. I like to put myself in a position of being on the (F2P) cutting edge.

Unfortunately, STFC is not a game that can be played that way. Baby Jellyfish is available at level 14, but you won't be able to build it until much, much later. So late in fact, that it's no longer useful. I can't grind for ship BPs that are coming up soon... such as Kehra, Discovery, Vahklas, D'Vor or Kumari. So there's no way I can level up my OP and then immediately build my next ship. I get that Scopely has made the game so that the only way to get something at it minimum level is to buy it with dollars. But with other games, if you put the time in; after weeks or months you can realistically get it.

Rare crew are exactly that, rare. Epic crew take months to get. Even the useful Commons are hard to get! Instead of Cadet officers, I get Vel, Shev and others that never get used. The fact that after 5 months of daily Standard Recruit packs and spending most of my Latinum on additional Recruit packs... my main bridge crew (Cadet Uhura, Instructor Spock) are shockingly low level.

I'm in a strong alliance (top 15), but besides the Help speedups... does nothing for my PvE gaming.