New Trait for Variants

Vice Admiral Wolff

Granted this would be a bit of an undertaking, but a few guys could do it in a day:

How about a new trait for Variants like Galen and Robin Hood (as contemporary examples) "Picard Variant" so we could be sure in advance of who's going to count in events? Will Scarlett would get "Worf Variant" etc.

Obviously only a handful of crew would be entirely unique so this is a lot of work - but my God how it would simplify things down the line!

Female Klingon Q

Playing devil's advocate, why would this clarification be necessary?

How will making this clarification simplify things down the line?

Assuming this suggestion is implemented, who determines which crew "needs" this additional trait?

Finally, suppose that a Picard variant (say, Enterprise D Picard) does not get this trait. Would this variant still get event bonuses?

Odo Marmarosa

Or just tag them so they show up when Picard is searched for...

Vice Admiral Wolff

That's exactly what I was getting at, Odo. Maybe I made the point too confusing. Just saying it would be nice if, in searching for"Picard" looking for all variants this week, it showed EVERY variant of Picard rather than only the ones with "Picard" actually in the name.

Dirk Gunderson

It’s a brute force solution to a problem DB seems unwilling but able to fix otherwise; we know they have hidden database columns that are searchable in at least the cryostasis vault (although this seems like it no longer works) and it should be simple enough to have “base character” column in addition to a “series” column.

As long as these sorting traits weren’t in the pool of possible voyage or Galaxy event traits, I’m not entirely opposed to the idea.

Matt_Decker

Per @Dirk Gunderson's comment, this used to be searchable in cryostasis vault, but now it isn't. Also used to be searchable by show in which a character appeared. Not sure what happened.

Lucas Conch

Agreed: For example, I was looking for La Forge versions recently for an event boost, and discovered that Alan-a-Dale has nothing searchable marking him as a La Forge...but[ (correctly) the game treats him as one. So...

Anastasia Komananov
...Anastasia Komananov Kira
Command Hologram
...Command Hologram Doctor
Duchamps
...Duchamps Worf
Emergency Medical Hologram Mk. 1
...EMH Mk. 1 Doctor
Waitress Ezri
...Waitress Ezri Dax

Etc., etc.. Also not sure about characters such as Herbert Rossoff (et al., if more are introduced)...will they count as uniques? Or as variants of their in-makeup character? (E.g., will Rossoff count as Quark?)

Data1001

We've discussed this many times on the forum. It seems to me (and a number of others) that it would be a rather easy fix, just adding another field to the database of characters — a "searchname" or "basename" field — but perhaps it's a lot more complicated than that, the way their coding is set up.

Vice Admiral Wolff

Which is where my original suggestion of a new trait kicks in. Galen now contains "Picard Variant" would be simple, direct, searchable, and clear cut for everyone to understand immediately.

Female Klingon Q

Never mind