Revisiting the Admiral Prince Q&A...6+ Months Later

Peachtree Rex

TLDR Summary: IMO, DB has largely delivered on the promises set out here and even recently has appears to revisit one of the more derisive answers on event rewards. There aren't a lot of unchecked boxes from the actual promises they made here. Sounds like it's time for a new Q&A.

Original Q&A: https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/5164/q-a-with-admiral-prince-april-18#latest

Will there be a rebalancing of older crew to accommodate the boost that newer crew have?
As the game has evolved and there is need for a wider range of crew, the crew stats themselves now have a wider range. We are not likely to rebalance old crew in the short term, but as we continue to revise features and add to the game, we will be looking for ways to make the older crew more relevant.

Crew has not been "rebalanced". The addition of Skirmishes has made some older crew relevant.

Can we see Spot, Porthos, or other pets in-game?
It’s something we’d like as well. We have a number of different ideas about how we might approach these requests, but haven’t yet narrowed down the best way to make this happen.

Nothing new

How do you decide what traits and stars a crew has, especially the more subjective traits?
For traits this is a multi-person, multi-step process. A designer proposes traits, often considering other versions of that character. These are reviewed by our community team, other designers, QA, people very familiar with the episode or character, etc.

The star-rating for crew is totally different, however. That process starts when we need a crew who is X number of stars or they need to fit Y narrative. At that point, the narrative designers make suggestions and then we go back and forth on who it should be, and what version of that character. We then debate over whether that version of them is valid for whatever star level. Sometimes, we base that on their role in the episode, or how beloved they are by fans, or how that version compares to other potential versions. This process has lots of different inputs and operates quite differently from our process for traits.

Process question, not evaluating.

Will you be adding crew from the Kelvin-verse?
At this time, we are not looking to the Kelvin universe for inclusion in Timelines. We still have tons to cover from the Prime universe, especially as Discovery (and other upcoming projects) continue to provide new characters, species, and events.

Will you be adding more crew from TAS or TOS?
Yes, we will continue to add crew from all the canon series including TOS and TAS!

Not all of the main cast members have a 2-star crew, such as Deanna Troi. Do you have plans to add them in?
We will continue to add new variants of crew, but all characters may not have versions for all star ratings. That being said, we will continue to make new 2 star characters.

Nothing from Kelvin has been added (as indicated). Additional crew (TAS, TOS, and 2/3 star crew) have also been added. Promise kept.

Will there be more chances to get Guinan and Locutus?
Yes, old gauntlet jackpot crew will show up in the game at some point. For instance, there has been a pack that featured Locutus. That wasn’t enough, so we are talking about what our preferred method for introducing them to a larger population of players should be. We won’t be making it so that the time and effort people spent getting these characters out of the gauntlet is trivialised. So, at the very least, those crew will experience a period of exclusivity even after they are removed from the gauntlet.

Haven't seen any movement on this one.

Are there changes considered for the Events schedule like shorter events, more reruns, and
more Mega-Event reruns?
We actually discuss this topic frequently. Right now, Star Trek Timelines is the only place where you can get a new Star Trek story almost every week. So just like a television series, there are reruns that come up, but people usually tune in for new episodes more than reruns. We love being a place where fans know they can count on new Star Trek stories being readily available to them, so we aren’t giving that up anytime soon. However, we are looking at what “shorter” events might mean for our players and the future of the game.

Nothing specific was promised, here, only that they are looking into "shorter" events. No action has been made on event duration, but rerun rewards have been updated to include older 5*s in thresholds.

Is there any plan for a Fleet leaderboard, Fleet rewards, or an event where Fleets compete against each other?
Is there a plan? Yes!
Has it been implemented? Not yet!
Will it need to be rolled out in stages and tested along the way? You bet it will!
Is it coming soon? Probably not.

As indicated, this hasn't come.

Will there be changes to the event rewards structure to give players more incentive to participate?
Participation in events is at an all time high. As such, we believe players are already highly attracted to the rewards and the events themselves. That being said, as we have a growing diversity amongst how long players have been in the game, we are looking at what we can do to make events more interesting across all levels of experience with STT.

DB appears to have rethought this to at least some extent with recent updates to re-run events and extended thresholds. The 5* reward change also adds incentive to participate in all events (since the 5* will be useful in the next event).

When can we expect to see another expedition event?
So you haven’t seen a stand alone expedition event for quite a while. To be completely candid, there are two reasons for this. One, these are our most polarizing events. Two, they are by far the hardest and most time-intensive to make for developers. So, going forward expeditions will only appear in hybrid events as one of the phases. The next time you will see this is in the Mega-Event in June.

While we did see one in the June mega, we haven't seen an expedition since.

Peachtree Rex

Second half:

Are there any new dilemmas, rewards, or other changes coming to Voyages?
Yes, we are writing additions for Voyages, which will also see changes to rewards and new crew. These additions will likely all come at once so it may be some time before they are added.

Additional dilemmas haven't come (to my knowledge) but they have released new rewards and revisited the one-time-drop aspect of the voyage crew.

Can we get bonuses for using the same faction crew or ships on missions? Such as Klingons on a Klingon ship, or Federation on Federation missions.
We have not explored this in any real depth as of yet. We’ll bring up the question with our design team at a later date.

Can you add the ability to trade crew/equipment in-game or at least within your fleet?
We have explored this option, but we do not have a plan to implement it any time soon. There is a lot of complexity, risk, and edge cases that would need to sorted out first.

Are there any plans to adjust how honor is earned or spent?
We’ve been making changes to how honor is earned and spent since we introduced the system last year. Our plan is to continue iterating on it, versus making dramatic changes.

When will you be updating the rewards in the Dabo wheel, so we don't keep seeing the same things?
There is no date for such a change at this time.

Will you implement a search for traits in missions? Like search for "Dominion" in mission while selecting the crew.
This is something we are planning to do, but it will likely be much later in the year.

A bunch of "no"s to questions here. The only real change in these departments is the ad-warp spin on Dabo.

Will existing Collections be expanded and will more Collections added?
Yes! We have a list of ideas for new collections, a list of ones that are almost ready to go, and a list of crew who are needed so we can get some collections added and others expanded. You will see both expansions of existing collections and new ones added in the future.

Promise kept

Are there any plans for new Episodes/Distress Calls and when could we expect them?
Yes, we are working on more, but I don’t have a date for you right now. We are also working with CBS to figure out how we might develop a new persistent story arc that is similar to a distress call but also expands over time. Once we figure out the expanding distress call concept, we will be able to get closer to releasing new traditional distress call and episodes.

This is what's being rolled out now. Honestly, I expected something a little more dynamic, not just 2 missions every other month, but they are doing that they said.

What are some of the new features/systems we can expect to see this year?
We’re happy to say that there is a new event type coming soon! (Some of you may remember I mentioned it last December.) There is also going to be a modification to the scanning feature later this year. You will see new persistent story content. There will be significant changes coming for ship abilities, which is going to shake up the Arena also later in the year. However, depending on how they shake out, some of those may come in early 2019.

New Event Type: Check (Skirmishes)
Modified Scanning Feature: ???
Persistent Story Content: Check (Infinity Distress Call)
Updated Ship Abilities: Check

Are there Borg or other Factions coming in the future?
Not anytime soon. Adding/changing factions is quite an undertaking. Right now, we are trying to figure out how we would do it without causing issues or derailing our content development plans. When we find the answer, we will decide how we want to move forward on that.

Do you have any plans to ever update cadet missions in terms of rewards and crew restrictions to allow for more variety?
We do have plans to change cadet challenges eventually. Somewhere between making additional ones and completely overhauling the thing, there is an answer. We haven’t decided how far we want to go with it yet, but we do plan to update it.

Nothing promised here and, thus, nothing delivered.

Will there be an easier way to acquire starbase items (specifically holo-emitters)?
The pace at which Fleets currently upgrade their starbase rooms shows that the system for acquiring starbase items is working though it may be challenging. As a result of that reality, it is unlikely we will change this situation in the near future. However, we are discussing possible changes to starbase donations, including the long-awaited permanent solution to maxing out Starbases.

The "Holoemitter Situation" has been greatly improved by skirmish events (at least for my fleet). Also, the "garbage rooms" have been implemented.

Can you improve/update Gauntlet rewards?
The Gauntlet is one of those features that is on our list to revamp. When that happens, changes will be made to much of the system including the rewards. There is no date for this overhaul yet, but we have been collecting feedback on it and are working out what we want to change on the next pass.

Will there ever be a rework of the Gauntlet and the Arena to encourage greater diversity of crew?
Yes, there will be rework on both of these systems. The first thing that impacts the Arena will actually be a change to ships this summer which will shake some things up. We’ll have more details on that later. After that, there will be changes to Gauntlet, but the timeframe there is not set.

Arena Update: Check
Gauntlet Update: ???

What ships can we expect in the future?
The highly requested Miranda-Class and the U.S.S. Reliant are coming soon along with some otherworldly ships like the Jem’Hadar Battleship and a Breen design.

Will there ever be a way to outright buy ships instead of packs?
Each time we release a ship in packs, we then make an offer where you can outright buy the ship (though not fully upgraded). We may or may not continue with that pattern. Ships will get added into the premium portal pulls, and Arena rewards, and Dabo after varying lengths of time.

Will there ever be an event around ships?
Yes, yes, there will. Very soon.

Will we ever get the Enterprise-E, Enterprise-A, Enterprise-D, Enterprise Refit, Excelsior Class ships?
Definitely some of these, maybe not all of them.

New Ships: Check
Ship Event: Check

[RotP]Ran Airen

My only comment is that a) I'm still not sure what "persistent story content" means or b) how the Infinity Distress Call satisfies it.

eXo | das411

Interesting post Peachtree - new ships yes, but we got proton's rocketship instead of any of those Enterprises

Peachtree Rex

das411 wrote: »

Interesting post Peachtree - new ships yes, but we got proton's rocketship instead of any of those Enterprises

They've released a new ship with all (or at least most) skirmishes. I think it's safe to say they will continue rolling out more.

Jim Steele

Peachtree Rex wrote: »

Will there be a rebalancing of older crew to accommodate the boost that newer crew have?
As the game has evolved and there is need for a wider range of crew, the crew stats themselves now have a wider range. We are not likely to rebalance old crew in the short term, but as we continue to revise features and add to the game, we will be looking for ways to make the older crew more relevant.

Crew has not been "rebalanced". The addition of Skirmishes has made some older crew relevant.

Interesting post @Peachtree Rex

I'm not sure how Skirmishes make older crew relevant, as really you only need to slap one bonus crew into the mix - at least with faction events if you have all three it certainly helps.

I think the 'collections' have certainly helped make the older crew more relevant, this is the biggest driver to immortalize older crew perhaps this is what Erin meant?.

Jim

Average Guy

I would like to see more chapters to the original story line. Also, I think the persistent story line could be a short number of missions like a 4-6 mission distress call that resets every week offering new rewards. You could even make them ship battles so the rewards could repeated ( they can be a variety of common and rare items) and offer a new opportunity to earn holoemitters.

AviTrek

Skirmishes have made ship battle skills more important. That makes certain older crew useful who had good ship skills but weaker other stats

Matt_Decker

The other way they've made older crew relevant is by consistently using an older existing crew as one of the event crew. So that's another way that promise has been kept.

Peachtree Rex

Matt_Decker wrote: »

The other way they've made older crew relevant is by consistently using an older existing crew as one of the event crew. So that's another way that promise has been kept.

Yea, but that's something they've been doing for some time. The last time I can remember a significant number of "all new crew" was the DSC/Andorian mega event.

Wundigore

Chaotica makes a nice bridge crew in Skirmishes (even when not event bonus) because of his nice burst damage ends battles fast. Same for T'Kumva. They are good in Arena too, but not as critical if you are not trying for top tier. So, in that way, skirmish made them relevant for me.

robownage

Peachtree Rex wrote: »

Matt_Decker wrote: »

The other way they've made older crew relevant is by consistently using an older existing crew as one of the event crew. So that's another way that promise has been kept.

Yea, but that's something they've been doing for some time. The last time I can remember a significant number of "all new crew" was the DSC/Andorian mega event.

Which was in February. They started using the 2 new/1 repeat model for all new events in March. So they were already doing it, but it was still recent when the Q&A was done. And honestly, that approach did kill two birds with one stone: it slowed the onslaught of new crew that everyone was complaining about AND made older crew more relevant.

[10F] Belle'Anna

There have been improvements in the game and quite a few changes. Some are surprisingly slow to develop, such as the reward structure, which is something that quite frankly could be different for every event, to provide variety and spice. I'm astonished at how little movement there has been in that area. It's good to see changes its a very stagnant game in many ways. Giving out freebies creates such goodwill among players too, I'm always a lot more enthusiastic after a gift like Bashir. Not overpowered but not tangibly bad either.

I feel we are seeing movement ; maybe this is the influence of tipping point or whoever they are, giving fresh input and a sense of confidence in the team. I dunno. I too think it's time for another Q&A

Ironagedave

In fairness I can understand the tentativeness of the reward structure changes, the moment they make something easier to acquire the devaluation of their legendaries increases, still room for improvement IMO.

Skirmishes for example was a risk but they seem to be sporadic and only tied to mega event schedules, not to mention, the intensive nature of the event participation required to reap the rewards, still makes it highly selective, despite it being highly rewarding.

Yateball

They did give extra chances for Locutus in that revisit the collective pack
Small chance, but still a chance

[ISA] Big McLargeHuge

Ironagedave wrote: »

In fairness I can understand the tentativeness of the reward structure changes, the moment they make something easier to acquire the devaluation of their legendaries increases, still room for improvement IMO.

Skirmishes for example was a risk but they seem to be sporadic and only tied to mega event schedules, not to mention, the intensive nature of the event participation required to reap the rewards, still makes it highly selective, despite it being highly rewarding.

Here's the thing. They devalue the legendaries themselves by having so, so many of them. They aren't exclusive, they aren't unique, they are NOT rare. All they are is a drain on resources that you cannot mitigate until you fully fuse them, apart from shooting them out an airlock for a pittance. There has to be a middle ground where the bad to mediocre legendaries can be completed more easily.

Ironagedave

[ISA] Big McLargeHuge wrote: »

Ironagedave wrote: »

In fairness I can understand the tentativeness of the reward structure changes, the moment they make something easier to acquire the devaluation of their legendaries increases, still room for improvement IMO.

Skirmishes for example was a risk but they seem to be sporadic and only tied to mega event schedules, not to mention, the intensive nature of the event participation required to reap the rewards, still makes it highly selective, despite it being highly rewarding.

Here's the thing. They devalue the legendaries themselves by having so, so many of them. They aren't exclusive, they aren't unique, they are NOT rare. All they are is a drain on resources that you cannot mitigate until you fully fuse them, apart from shooting them out an airlock for a pittance. There has to be a middle ground where the bad to mediocre legendaries can be completed more easily.

I agree hence my saying still room for improvement, but would you prefer that they release something that was far too generous and then retract/nerf it - I should think the backlash on that would be far more more harming to them than good.

Captain_Who

Ironagedave wrote: »

I agree hence my saying still room for improvement, but would you prefer that they release something that was far too generous and then retract/nerf it - I should think the backlash on that would be far more more harming to them than good.

That's DBs MO. See gauntlet, voyages, events with smaller population.

Of all of DB's faults, generosity is not among them.

Ishmael Marx

I appreciate the review and assessment of the Q&A. Although a few things remain unaddressed, quite a bit that was promised or hinted at have shown up in the game. I find it encouraging that they continue to work on making whatever improvements they deem to be a priority. It's worth noting that they have also made some changes to the game to reflect the community's direct feedback - not every change is being made in a vacuum based on some arbitrary sequence on a dry erase board.

On a day to day basis, issues arise that impact one, or many, of us in a negative way. These are not insignificant things - certainly not to the affected parties. But on the larger scale, in my view, DB continues to strive to develop a game that we can enjoy in our various ways. I would encourage everyone to periodically step back from the tree in front of you and try to appreciate the forest. If the forest starts to look more like Mirkwood and less like Rivendell to you, so be it.

(Sorry for mixing franchises, but I couldn't quickly think of a Trek version of forests and trees.)

[10F] Belle'Anna

You mean it starts looking like the Ferengi Alliance rather than the Federation?

Ironagedave

Ishmael Marx wrote: »

If the forest starts to look more like Mirkwood and less like Rivendell to you, so be it.

(Sorry for mixing franchises, but I couldn't quickly think of a Trek version of forests and trees.)

How about the Talaxian great forest.

[QH] Captain Ziggy

So long as this forest contains Merry Men Crusher rather than that Flotter guy!

Peachtree Rex

das411 wrote: »

Interesting post Peachtree - new ships yes, but we got proton's rocketship instead of any of those Enterprises

I suppose this next event is timely then:
https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/12135/key-information-about-next-week-s-event-straight-on-til-morning-11-22#latest

Commander Sinclair

[RotP]Ran Airen wrote: »

My only comment is that a) I'm still not sure what "persistent story content" means or b) how the Infinity Distress Call satisfies it.

"persistent story content" means instead of an "Episode", where you have a mini story with a beginning and end, the "persistent story content" can continue on virtually forever. This could have been done with Distress Calls by just adding on a couple more every month or so, but they chose this way while ST:Disco is on the air and generating new ST content. Personally I like it because it keeps the game fresh to some extent.

I suspect when the next 2-3 ST TV shows begin airing, DB will generate new content to appease us for those as well.

Ren~

[ISA] Big McLargeHuge wrote: »

Ironagedave wrote: »

In fairness I can understand the tentativeness of the reward structure changes, the moment they make something easier to acquire the devaluation of their legendaries increases, still room for improvement IMO.

Skirmishes for example was a risk but they seem to be sporadic and only tied to mega event schedules, not to mention, the intensive nature of the event participation required to reap the rewards, still makes it highly selective, despite it being highly rewarding.

Here's the thing. They devalue the legendaries themselves by having so, so many of them. They aren't exclusive, they aren't unique, they are NOT rare. All they are is a drain on resources that you cannot mitigate until you fully fuse them, apart from shooting them out an airlock for a pittance. There has to be a middle ground where the bad to mediocre legendaries can be completed more easily.

One thing they could do to address that is having, i don't know, new elite cadet challenges giving like 500-1000 honour per run. Then we can get legendary citations at a pace that isn't insufferably slow and we don't feel bad about getting some 1/5 or 2/5 character for those doing double the crew. The major issue is that a 1/5 legendary is useless on the long run, it's just a drain on your very limited crew slots, and since I somehow don't see DB giving suddenly everyone unlimited crew slots so that we don't feel bad about buying packs or winning something during an event, a very significant increase in honour rewards across the board is the only way.

Right now winning a legendary card or buying it feels terrible, I can't help but think it's not good business lol.

[TFA] Celeres

Thanks for pulling this together, it’s helpful to see where DB made improvements to the game and square that with what they said they were going to do.

The only thing I’ll add is related to voyages; I was under the impression that the two new voyage crew cards came with new corresponding dilemmas, but I suppose they might have just fit them into the existing structure.

Travis S McClain

Regarding the matter of existing crew becoming relevant again by way of Skirmishes, here are the existing 4* Featured Crew from the ones played to date:

Young Khan ("Superior Ambition 1: Catching Fire") - Attack, 6s Initialize
Weyoun Clone 4 ("Haunted Vessels") - Evasion, 12s Initialize
First Goran'Agar ("Advance Directive") - Attack, 14s Initialize
Kal-if-fee Spock ("A Valdore Too Far") - Attack, 12s Initialize, Immediately deals 200% damage
Captain Proton Paris ("Photonic Fantasies: Captain Proton to the Rescue!") - Evasion, 6s Initialize
Prospect Michael Burnham ("Straight On Til Morning") - Evasion, 8s Initialize, Increases boarding damage

Weyoun, Goran'Agar, and Spock take so long to initialize that many, if not most, ship battles can be won by using other crew members' abilities before they're even ready.

Realistically, the greatest value any of this group brought to their respective Skirmishes was getting the full bonus points simply for occupying a station while other crew members did the actual work. The only existing crew member who has truly become useful thanks to Skirmishes is Ensign Ogawa.

Peachtree Rex

Travis S McClain wrote: »

Regarding the matter of existing crew becoming relevant again by way of Skirmishes, here are the existing 4* Featured Crew from the ones played to date:

Young Khan ("Superior Ambition 1: Catching Fire") - Attack, 6s Initialize
Weyoun Clone 4 ("Haunted Vessels") - Evasion, 12s Initialize
First Goran'Agar ("Advance Directive") - Attack, 14s Initialize
Kal-if-fee Spock ("A Valdore Too Far") - Attack, 12s Initialize, Immediately deals 200% damage
Captain Proton Paris ("Photonic Fantasies: Captain Proton to the Rescue!") - Evasion, 6s Initialize
Prospect Michael Burnham ("Straight On Til Morning") - Evasion, 8s Initialize, Increases boarding damage

Weyoun, Goran'Agar, and Spock take so long to initialize that many, if not most, ship battles can be won by using other crew members' abilities before they're even ready.

Realistically, the greatest value any of this group brought to their respective Skirmishes was getting the full bonus points simply for occupying a station while other crew members did the actual work. The only existing crew member who has truly become useful thanks to Skirmishes is Ensign Ogawa.

I use Pel due to her quick Init. She is ready in time for a Killy/Cube instant attack combo