Can you blame anyone if he uses a script for Hybrid skirmish/expedition event?
Yes, because those are my two favorite event types combined for the first time ever and yeah, I'm not going to win but I'm going to do really well. Bots offend me and diminishs the effort I expend and spits in the face of every player who plays honestly.
It's been such a long time since the last expedition that I have more or less forgotten how they work exactly.
It’s basically a string of away missions using a ticket system to control the number of re-runs you can do. Rare rewards consist of big VP chunks (that get bigger with higher difficulties) and each time you use a particular crew member on a node, their stats decrease due to exhaustion (as with regular away missions). Unlike regular away missions, the exhaustion is permanent and cumulative over the course of the ticket.
Having a deep crew is helpful for amassing the most VP possible in a short time, as event crew and bonus variants award more VP on the rare nodes than non-bonus crew. Planning is also required, as the cumulative exhaustion (which is slower for the event crew than bonus or non-bonus crew) needs to be accounted for when doing all the missions and at higher difficulty levels. Doing missions in reverse order once unlocked - as skill requirements increase drastically from left-most mission to right-most as well as with difficult - helps ensure that you don’t tire out stronger crew unnecessarily.
The planning for how you use crew requires some actual strategic thinking and is something not really found in any other event type, not even Faction events. On the flip side, once your crew usage plan is in place it reverts to a tap-fest with the added threat of messing up an entire ticket if you absentmindedly click on the wrong crew or node.
Hmm... a more popular Mega-Event 5* crew? Wonder who that might be...,,
"Doctor Seven has a history of manipulation and her efforts to expand Borg influence are well known to Starfleet. She's reappeared just in time for the beginning of the holiday-themed Mega-Event, "Presents and Futures!""
Hmm... a more popular Mega-Event 5* crew? Wonder who that might be...,,
"Doctor Seven has a history of manipulation and her efforts to expand Borg influence are well known to Starfleet. She's reappeared just in time for the beginning of the holiday-themed Mega-Event, "Presents and Futures!""
...doesn't really work, does it?
Maybe .... ‘Doctor Seven has a history of drinking champagne and eating cheesecake-’ wait no...
“What's a knockout like you doing in a computer-generated gin joint like this?”
Proud member of Patterns of Force
Captain Level 99
Played since January 2017
When I saw the event description I thought "Hey cool, and I just got a gold pilot a few weeks ago, Pinafore Data!"
And then I realized that Pinafore Data isn't a pilot? Why not? He was sitting at the pilot's seat for basically his entire existence in canon, right? Flying all sorts of crazy maneuvers in that shuttle? If there's any version of Data that ever deserves the Pilot trait, I'd think it was him...
When I saw the event description I thought "Hey cool, and I just got a gold pilot a few weeks ago, Pinafore Data!"
And then I realized that Pinafore Data isn't a pilot? Why not? He was sitting at the pilot's seat for basically his entire existence in canon, right? Flying all sorts of crazy maneuvers in that shuttle? If there's any version of Data that ever deserves the Pilot trait, I'd think it was him...
I would have to agree that Pinafore Data should have the pilot trait.
DB forcing this Mega event with Etana Jol as the recurring 5* despite significant and thoroughly justified criticism is like a student submitting homework for review before turning it in at the last minute, then refusing to make changes based on feedback (possibly complaining about “lack of time”), and then wondering why they receive a failing grade on the assignment.
It’s a terribly bull-headed way to deal with a player base, a poor developmental strategy in general, and honestly insulting.
This isn’t remotely okay, and sends the message that DB legitimately does not care about the game nor its playerbase, which is the same message that was sent when we had a Romulan Mega event with basically no Romulans. Why should players continue to support a game when the developers continue to show such blatant disregard for them?
DB forcing this Mega event with Etana Jol as the recurring 5* despite significant and thoroughly justified criticism is like a student submitting homework for review before turning it in at the last minute, then refusing to make changes based on feedback (possibly complaining about “lack of time”), and then wondering why they receive a failing grade on the assignment.
It’s a terribly bull-headed way to deal with a player base, a poor developmental strategy in general, and honestly insulting.
This isn’t remotely okay, and sends the message that DB legitimately does not care about the game nor its playerbase, which is the same message that was sent when we had a Romulan Mega event with basically no Romulans. Why should players continue to support a game when the developers continue to show such blatant disregard for them?
You take things way too seriously.......it is just a game after all.
When I saw the event description I thought "Hey cool, and I just got a gold pilot a few weeks ago, Pinafore Data!"
And then I realized that Pinafore Data isn't a pilot? Why not? He was sitting at the pilot's seat for basically his entire existence in canon, right? Flying all sorts of crazy maneuvers in that shuttle? If there's any version of Data that ever deserves the Pilot trait, I'd think it was him...
If Mountaineer Spock is a pilot just because he’s wearing goofy rocket boots, then Pinafore Data deserves it too.
Etana Jol has a history of manipulation and her efforts to expand Ktarian influence are well known to Starfleet. She's reappeared just in time for the beginning of the holiday-themed Mega-Event, "Presents and Futures!"
I'm curious about the decision-making process for putting her in the sheet versus a fully-realized version of her ship-board Ktarian command uniform. I'm not being snarky, I'm actually curious about the editorial choice.
To my mind, the Ktarian uniform was a really nice design that sadly never was seen again. But I suppose if the theme is gift giving, the Risa scene is where she gives the Game to Riker. Though it does lack gravitas.
DB forcing this Mega event with Etana Jol as the recurring 5* despite significant and thoroughly justified criticism is like a student submitting homework for review before turning it in at the last minute, then refusing to make changes based on feedback (possibly complaining about “lack of time”), and then wondering why they receive a failing grade on the assignment.
It’s a terribly bull-headed way to deal with a player base, a poor developmental strategy in general, and honestly insulting.
This isn’t remotely okay, and sends the message that DB legitimately does not care about the game nor its playerbase, which is the same message that was sent when we had a Romulan Mega event with basically no Romulans. Why should players continue to support a game when the developers continue to show such blatant disregard for them?
I must have missed it when people were saying "please don't make Etana Jol a mega legendary" months or even weeks ago. Or do you actually think DB could've changed their entire plan for the month in the 20 hours between the teaser and the announcement?
I'm not going to pretend she would've been my first choice, but can we at least make an effort to understand how business works?
DB forcing this Mega event with Etana Jol as the recurring 5* despite significant and thoroughly justified criticism is like a student submitting homework for review before turning it in at the last minute, then refusing to make changes based on feedback (possibly complaining about “lack of time”), and then wondering why they receive a failing grade on the assignment.
It’s a terribly bull-headed way to deal with a player base, a poor developmental strategy in general, and honestly insulting.
This isn’t remotely okay, and sends the message that DB legitimately does not care about the game nor its playerbase, which is the same message that was sent when we had a Romulan Mega event with basically no Romulans. Why should players continue to support a game when the developers continue to show such blatant disregard for them?
I must have missed it when people were saying "please don't make Etana Jol a mega legendary" months or even weeks ago. Or do you actually think DB could've changed their entire plan for the month in the 20 hours between the teaser and the announcement?
I'm not going to pretend she would've been my first choice, but can we at least make an effort to understand how business works?
There’s a reason I made a comparison to a student submitting homework at the last minute. That’s part of my point: by not building more buffer into the production schedule to respond to player feedback, they’re setting themselves up to annoy and disappoint players on a regular basis with limited options on responding to it.
That said, while it is clearly rather late to bother rewriting he entire event plot and promotional art work, it would not be difficult (in fact, it should be technically trivial) to swap Etana Jol with one of the other event 5*s upcoming that would be more appropriate in such a valued position as recurring Mega 5* (even the already announced, and thus obviously ready to be deployed Sphere Builder is a much less insane selection for Mega Event Recurring 5* than Etana Jol).
There’s an extent to which I’m willing to be sympathetic to the practical realities of game development and technicalities of engineering limitations and so on and so forth. But there comes a point where the situation is ultimately the fault of the developers and/or management, and the pacing of production and lead times is definitely something they control. And when the situation points to a development team that doesn’t look like they’re doing a good job or care, I’m going to call them out on it.
Big difference between being aware of the realities of game design and those realities being passed off excessively to excuse lack of effort. We’re well into the lack of effort regime at this point.
Etana Jol has a history of manipulation and her efforts to expand Ktarian influence are well known to Starfleet. She's reappeared just in time for the beginning of the holiday-themed Mega-Event, "Presents and Futures!"
I'm curious about the decision-making process for putting her in the sheet versus a fully-realized version of her ship-board Ktarian command uniform. I'm not being snarky, I'm actually curious about the editorial choice.
To my mind, the Ktarian uniform was a really nice design that sadly never was seen again. But I suppose if the theme is gift giving, the Risa scene is where she gives the Game to Riker. Though it does lack gravitas.
Oh that's easy, have you ever seen the news or TV? Sex sells. Sexualize her up to get people to go for her.
Poorly done and drawn IMO, but that's the obvious reason. You're right on point as to which version should have been used though.
But as week 1's 5*. There's no way she ranks a legendary recurring 5*. That ever so easily belongs to the Sphere Builder we saw for a season in Enterprise and helped shape The Federation.
We know management HATES Enterprise, but it's like they google "TNG one off guest stars" when hunting for recurring and legendary characters.
DB forcing this Mega event with Etana Jol as the recurring 5* despite significant and thoroughly justified criticism is like a student submitting homework for review before turning it in at the last minute, then refusing to make changes based on feedback (possibly complaining about “lack of time”), and then wondering why they receive a failing grade on the assignment.
It’s a terribly bull-headed way to deal with a player base, a poor developmental strategy in general, and honestly insulting.
This isn’t remotely okay, and sends the message that DB legitimately does not care about the game nor its playerbase, which is the same message that was sent when we had a Romulan Mega event with basically no Romulans. Why should players continue to support a game when the developers continue to show such blatant disregard for them?
I must have missed it when people were saying "please don't make Etana Jol a mega legendary" months or even weeks ago. Or do you actually think DB could've changed their entire plan for the month in the 20 hours between the teaser and the announcement?
I'm not going to pretend she would've been my first choice, but can we at least make an effort to understand how business works?
There’s a reason I made a comparison to a student submitting homework at the last minute. That’s part of my point: by not building more buffer into the production schedule to respond to player feedback, they’re setting themselves up to annoy and disappoint players on a regular basis with limited options on responding to it.
That said, while it is clearly rather late to bother rewriting he entire event plot and promotional art work, it would not be difficult (in fact, it should be technically trivial) to swap Etana Jol with one of the other event 5*s upcoming that would be more appropriate in such a valued position as recurring Mega 5* (even the already announced, and thus obviously ready to be deployed Sphere Builder is a much less insane selection for Mega Event Recurring 5* than Etana Jol).
There’s an extent to which I’m willing to be sympathetic to the practical realities of game development and technicalities of engineering limitations and so on and so forth. But there comes a point where the situation is ultimately the fault of the developers and/or management, and the pacing of production and lead times is definitely something they control. And when the situation points to a development team that doesn’t look like they’re doing a good job or care, I’m going to call them out on it.
Big difference between being aware of the realities of game design and those realities being passed off excessively to excuse lack of effort. We’re well into the lack of effort regime at this point.
Your example of a university student doesn't hold water - DB isn't saying "hey, this is what we'd like to do next week." They're saying "hey, this is what is coming next week." The players aren't part of their development process, we're consuming whatever they've come up with. And if we don't like it, we don't have to buy it.
And what kind of entertainment media actually has that kind of buffer? I'd actually like to hear an example. Network television films episodes weeks or months in advance, and so will take ages to write out an unpopular character. The Fantastic Beasts movie had committed enough money to Johnny Depp that the producers decided it wasn't worth the cost to recast him, despite the blowback. Yes, there are test screenings and focus groups - but those are for start ups, not established media.
And yes, from a technical standpoint, I'm sure it would be quite easy to flip Etana Jol and the Spherebuilder in the rewards. But they are trying to tell a story - that's part of their stated mission - and I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess the Spherebuilder wouldn't be able to fill Etana's position.
To your point about DB's lack of effort - there are plenty of examples of this, but this hardly counts as one. Even if half the player base says they don't like their character choice, that does not equal laziness. I'll be annoyed AF if next week Etana turns out to be another underwhelming two stat mega character - that would show a blatant disregard for the loud feedback shared two months ago (and I would expect that two months is enough turn around time to at least adjust the stats of the character). But this? It's unrealistic to expect the changes you're asking for, and them choosing a one off instead of one of the uber requested characters does not make for lack of effort.
Wow, a holiday themed event without Cheesecake Seven or many other possible as-yet unspecified random choices as the rucurring legendary?
How dare DB submit their homework early and give players a taste of what's to come over Christmas!
I mean, apart from the fact I'm glad it's not Cheesecake Seven because I may be busy, and I agree the K'Tarian Command Uniform is HOT (and sex sells, right?), so far I like the theme and the crew.
What a fun event for the holiday period! All event types featured for variety, cool crew, a recurring legendary, ah girl it must be Christmas!
And what kind of entertainment media actually has that kind of buffer? I'd actually like to hear an example. Network television films episodes weeks or months in advance, and so will take ages to write out an unpopular character. The Fantastic Beasts movie had committed enough money to Johnny Depp that the producers decided it wasn't worth the cost to recast him, despite the blowback. Yes, there are test screenings and focus groups - but those are for start ups, not established media.
Not weighing in on your actual debate here, as I'm fine with letting DB tell whatever story they want, but in terms of examples of last-minute production changes, Kevin Spacey's fall from grace caused "House of Cards" to change course entirely, and Ridley Scott reshot all of Spacey's scenes in "All the Money in the World" just several weeks before the release date, replacing him with Christopher Plummer (who probably should have been cast in the first place).
The shwarma bit at the end of the first Avengers movie was literally filmed during the movie's premiere, because all the actors were in the same place.
Even in the case of the Star Trek franchise, they had to reshoot parts of the Voyager pilot after the original captain, Geneviève Bujold, left the production after two days, and they replaced her with Kate Mulgrew a week later.
Unless I'm mistaken, the last time DB reacted on short notice to forum complaints about crew choices in an event, we got (I believe) three separate changes to the 3* character in the rewards table (this was maybe 1-2 months ago). Not quite the same situation, but my point is that if they attempted to react to every single complaint on the forums in nearly real-time, it would be chaos.
DB forcing this Mega event with Etana Jol as the recurring 5* despite significant and thoroughly justified criticism is like a student submitting homework for review before turning it in at the last minute, then refusing to make changes based on feedback (possibly complaining about “lack of time”), and then wondering why they receive a failing grade on the assignment.
It’s a terribly bull-headed way to deal with a player base, a poor developmental strategy in general, and honestly insulting.
This isn’t remotely okay, and sends the message that DB legitimately does not care about the game nor its playerbase, which is the same message that was sent when we had a Romulan Mega event with basically no Romulans. Why should players continue to support a game when the developers continue to show such blatant disregard for them?
I must have missed it when people were saying "please don't make Etana Jol a mega legendary" months or even weeks ago. Or do you actually think DB could've changed their entire plan for the month in the 20 hours between the teaser and the announcement?
I'm not going to pretend she would've been my first choice, but can we at least make an effort to understand how business works?
There’s a reason I made a comparison to a student submitting homework at the last minute. That’s part of my point: by not building more buffer into the production schedule to respond to player feedback, they’re setting themselves up to annoy and disappoint players on a regular basis with limited options on responding to it.
That said, while it is clearly rather late to bother rewriting he entire event plot and promotional art work, it would not be difficult (in fact, it should be technically trivial) to swap Etana Jol with one of the other event 5*s upcoming that would be more appropriate in such a valued position as recurring Mega 5* (even the already announced, and thus obviously ready to be deployed Sphere Builder is a much less insane selection for Mega Event Recurring 5* than Etana Jol).
There’s an extent to which I’m willing to be sympathetic to the practical realities of game development and technicalities of engineering limitations and so on and so forth. But there comes a point where the situation is ultimately the fault of the developers and/or management, and the pacing of production and lead times is definitely something they control. And when the situation points to a development team that doesn’t look like they’re doing a good job or care, I’m going to call them out on it.
Big difference between being aware of the realities of game design and those realities being passed off excessively to excuse lack of effort. We’re well into the lack of effort regime at this point.
Your example of a university student doesn't hold water - DB isn't saying "hey, this is what we'd like to do next week." They're saying "hey, this is what is coming next week." The players aren't part of their development process, we're consuming whatever they've come up with. And if we don't like it, we don't have to buy it.
And what kind of entertainment media actually has that kind of buffer? I'd actually like to hear an example. Network television films episodes weeks or months in advance, and so will take ages to write out an unpopular character. The Fantastic Beasts movie had committed enough money to Johnny Depp that the producers decided it wasn't worth the cost to recast him, despite the blowback. Yes, there are test screenings and focus groups - but those are for start ups, not established media.
And yes, from a technical standpoint, I'm sure it would be quite easy to flip Etana Jol and the Spherebuilder in the rewards. But they are trying to tell a story - that's part of their stated mission - and I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess the Spherebuilder wouldn't be able to fill Etana's position.
To your point about DB's lack of effort - there are plenty of examples of this, but this hardly counts as one. Even if half the player base says they don't like their character choice, that does not equal laziness. I'll be annoyed AF if next week Etana turns out to be another underwhelming two stat mega character - that would show a blatant disregard for the loud feedback shared two months ago (and I would expect that two months is enough turn around time to at least adjust the stats of the character). But this? It's unrealistic to expect the changes you're asking for, and them choosing a one off instead of one of the uber requested characters does not make for lack of effort.
You are absolutely forcing your own narrative here rather than listening to what the example is illustrating, or why it’s being illustrated. All illustrative examples are accurate only to a point, but this one holds up rather well if read into the context I’ve cast for it already.
It is a choice to setup a production schedule that has more, or less, room for iteration and feedback. It is a choice whether or not to take the community’s feedback into account when making decisions at any stage of development. I believe quite firmly that in any game undergoing continuous active development, especially when that development is being supported by ongoing purchases from the game community/playerbase, the course of game development needs to sensibly follow a path that fits with things the community wants. I’m not blind to the fact that game making is a business and thus there are investors and such that need to be kept happy as well, so obviously there’s some sticky ground and players can’t always get what they want, and there plenty of complexities to get involved with on that front.
But the thing is, we’re at very basic level here. DB has been making decisions, quite regularly over the past few months, that show a lack of attention to player feedback or even caring about player feedback.
Mega Events are supposed to be exciting, significant, and more special than the regular weekly events. So for DB to just casually throw them at us with underwhelming leading crew, and the playerbase had no real opportunity to give feedback at a time that would have been more helpful for production, how can that possibly be construed as anything other than a lack of effort? We’ve had Mega events headlined by Cultural Figures like Surak and the Borg Queen, and we know they have a leading Sphere Builder, a group that drove the story a for a season of a main series, ready to go with Etana Jol, and yet somehow Etana is the recurring Mega? That screams lack of effort, lack of caring, lack of interest in what the player response is going to be like.
Whatever side of the debate people fall on for whether or not Etana should be a recurring 5* aside, the reality is that DB has made a mess entirely of their own accord through choices made by the company at some level, be it management or development. And they should not casually be absolved of dealing with that mess because the timetables they’re working with may be short or restrictive on practical levels.
In the past, I always did a DYC on the recurring legendary card in the first week of a mega to bring the card to 5* at the end.
However, the 4th event of the mega is a faction event again. Can we please have a confirmation that the card won't be placed at 400K again but somewhere more attainable? As I am and likely will not be able to clear this threshhold, I probably won't bother with a DYC if the 5th copy is out of reach.
I haven't been that upset in the past about artwork, but I don't like this one at all. Is it just me or do others think the same?
There is something disturbing about it. May have to do with the gloomy background, but she definitely looks more threatening than sexy (assuming that sexy is what they were going for with that choice).
I'm curious about the decision-making process for putting her in the sheet versus a fully-realized version of her ship-board Ktarian command uniform. I'm not being snarky, I'm actually curious about the editorial choice.
To my mind, the Ktarian uniform was a really nice design that sadly never was seen again. But I suppose if the theme is gift giving, the Risa scene is where she gives the Game to Riker. Though it does lack gravitas.
Your example of a university student doesn't hold water - DB isn't saying "hey, this is what we'd like to do next week." They're saying "hey, this is what is coming next week." The players aren't part of their development process, we're consuming whatever they've come up with. And if we don't like it, we don't have to buy it.
And what kind of entertainment media actually has that kind of buffer? I'd actually like to hear an example. Network television films episodes weeks or months in advance, and so will take ages to write out an unpopular character. The Fantastic Beasts movie had committed enough money to Johnny Depp that the producers decided it wasn't worth the cost to recast him, despite the blowback. Yes, there are test screenings and focus groups - but those are for start ups, not established media.
And yes, from a technical standpoint, I'm sure it would be quite easy to flip Etana Jol and the Spherebuilder in the rewards. But they are trying to tell a story - that's part of their stated mission - and I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess the Spherebuilder wouldn't be able to fill Etana's position.
To your point about DB's lack of effort - there are plenty of examples of this, but this hardly counts as one. Even if half the player base says they don't like their character choice, that does not equal laziness. I'll be annoyed AF if next week Etana turns out to be another underwhelming two stat mega character - that would show a blatant disregard for the loud feedback shared two months ago (and I would expect that two months is enough turn around time to at least adjust the stats of the character). But this? It's unrealistic to expect the changes you're asking for, and them choosing a one off instead of one of the uber requested characters does not make for lack of effort.
You are absolutely forcing your own narrative here rather than listening to what the example is illustrating, or why it’s being illustrated. All illustrative examples are accurate only to a point, but this one holds up rather well if read into the context I’ve cast for it already.
It is a choice to setup a production schedule that has more, or less, room for iteration and feedback. It is a choice whether or not to take the community’s feedback into account when making decisions at any stage of development. I believe quite firmly that in any game undergoing continuous active development, especially when that development is being supported by ongoing purchases from the game community/playerbase, the course of game development needs to sensibly follow a path that fits with things the community wants. I’m not blind to the fact that game making is a business and thus there are investors and such that need to be kept happy as well, so obviously there’s some sticky ground and players can’t always get what they want, and there plenty of complexities to get involved with on that front.
But the thing is, we’re at very basic level here. DB has been making decisions, quite regularly over the past few months, that show a lack of attention to player feedback or even caring about player feedback.
Mega Events are supposed to be exciting, significant, and more special than the regular weekly events. So for DB to just casually throw them at us with underwhelming leading crew, and the playerbase had no real opportunity to give feedback at a time that would have been more helpful for production, how can that possibly be construed as anything other than a lack of effort? We’ve had Mega events headlined by Cultural Figures like Surak and the Borg Queen, and we know they have a leading Sphere Builder, a group that drove the story a for a season of a main series, ready to go with Etana Jol, and yet somehow Etana is the recurring Mega? That screams lack of effort, lack of caring, lack of interest in what the player response is going to be like.
Whatever side of the debate people fall on for whether or not Etana should be a recurring 5* aside, the reality is that DB has made a mess entirely of their own accord through choices made by the company at some level, be it management or development. And they should not casually be absolved of dealing with that mess because the timetables they’re working with may be short or restrictive on practical levels.
I'm sorry, I guess I just don't see it your way. This fan base will complain about everything and anything, and if DB reacted on a dime every time someone didn't like something, we'd have total chaos like in the case that @Ishmael Marx mentioned above at the end of the Dominion event. Even when they explicitly ask for our feedback, and craft an entire mega around what we voted for, people will still complain (not enough DS9, why Darth Bashir, etc).
It just seems to me that the solution you're getting at will cause more of the same. You'll never get all of the player fanbase to agree. They could release a tentative schedule for the next six months, and every. single. decision would be picked at by someone. "Stop adding Disco characters, it's not even Star Trek" - sound familiar?
I get being angry at them for moving the legendary reward to 400k. I get being angry at them for choosing to release Captain Spock at the same time as releasing the shuttle tokens. And I would get being angry if they ignored the feedback about Minuet last time and Etana Jol is a complete dud from a stats perspective. There are many, many things that we can all agree DB actively does to aggravate us. But for them, negotiating on character decisions is the kind of no-win Kobayashi Maru stuff that just isn't worth it.
Besides, maybe Etana Jol is someone at DB's all-time favorite one-off villain. That kind of critical thinking would explain some of the other decisions.
I'm sorry, I guess I just don't see it your way. This fan base will complain about everything and anything, and if DB reacted on a dime every time someone didn't like something, we'd have total chaos like in the case that @Ishmael Marx mentioned above at the end of the Dominion event. Even when they explicitly ask for our feedback, and craft an entire mega around what we voted for, people will still complain (not enough DS9, why Darth Bashir, etc).
It just seems to me that the solution you're getting at will cause more of the same. You'll never get all of the player fanbase to agree. They could release a tentative schedule for the next six months, and every. single. decision would be picked at by someone. "Stop adding Disco characters, it's not even Star Trek" - sound familiar?
I get being angry at them for moving the legendary reward to 400k. I get being angry at them for choosing to release Captain Spock at the same time as releasing the shuttle tokens. And I would get being angry if they ignored the feedback about Minuet last time and Etana Jol is a complete dud from a stats perspective. There are many, many things that we can all agree DB actively does to aggravate us. But for them, negotiating on character decisions is the kind of no-win Kobayashi Maru stuff that just isn't worth it.
Besides, maybe Etana Jol is someone at DB's all-time favorite one-off villain. That kind of critical thinking would explain some of the other decisions.
Comments
No, but it might get you probed a little more often.
Even I saw that it was sarcastic and I usually miss these things.
It’s basically a string of away missions using a ticket system to control the number of re-runs you can do. Rare rewards consist of big VP chunks (that get bigger with higher difficulties) and each time you use a particular crew member on a node, their stats decrease due to exhaustion (as with regular away missions). Unlike regular away missions, the exhaustion is permanent and cumulative over the course of the ticket.
Having a deep crew is helpful for amassing the most VP possible in a short time, as event crew and bonus variants award more VP on the rare nodes than non-bonus crew. Planning is also required, as the cumulative exhaustion (which is slower for the event crew than bonus or non-bonus crew) needs to be accounted for when doing all the missions and at higher difficulty levels. Doing missions in reverse order once unlocked - as skill requirements increase drastically from left-most mission to right-most as well as with difficult - helps ensure that you don’t tire out stronger crew unnecessarily.
The planning for how you use crew requires some actual strategic thinking and is something not really found in any other event type, not even Faction events. On the flip side, once your crew usage plan is in place it reverts to a tap-fest with the added threat of messing up an entire ticket if you absentmindedly click on the wrong crew or node.
Proud member of Patterns of Force
Captain Level 99
Played since January 2017
TP: Do better!!!
"Doctor Seven has a history of manipulation and her efforts to expand Borg influence are well known to Starfleet. She's reappeared just in time for the beginning of the holiday-themed Mega-Event, "Presents and Futures!""
...doesn't really work, does it?
Maybe .... ‘Doctor Seven has a history of drinking champagne and eating cheesecake-’ wait no...
Proud member of Patterns of Force
Captain Level 99
Played since January 2017
TP: Do better!!!
And then I realized that Pinafore Data isn't a pilot? Why not? He was sitting at the pilot's seat for basically his entire existence in canon, right? Flying all sorts of crazy maneuvers in that shuttle? If there's any version of Data that ever deserves the Pilot trait, I'd think it was him...
I would have to agree that Pinafore Data should have the pilot trait.
It’s a terribly bull-headed way to deal with a player base, a poor developmental strategy in general, and honestly insulting.
This isn’t remotely okay, and sends the message that DB legitimately does not care about the game nor its playerbase, which is the same message that was sent when we had a Romulan Mega event with basically no Romulans. Why should players continue to support a game when the developers continue to show such blatant disregard for them?
You take things way too seriously.......it is just a game after all.
If Mountaineer Spock is a pilot just because he’s wearing goofy rocket boots, then Pinafore Data deserves it too.
Joyous that the reason I might be up at 3:00 AM on New Year's Eve will be for something other than launching shuttle missions.
Yay for 365 not being divisible by 7!!!
I'm curious about the decision-making process for putting her in the sheet versus a fully-realized version of her ship-board Ktarian command uniform. I'm not being snarky, I'm actually curious about the editorial choice.
To my mind, the Ktarian uniform was a really nice design that sadly never was seen again. But I suppose if the theme is gift giving, the Risa scene is where she gives the Game to Riker. Though it does lack gravitas.
I must have missed it when people were saying "please don't make Etana Jol a mega legendary" months or even weeks ago. Or do you actually think DB could've changed their entire plan for the month in the 20 hours between the teaser and the announcement?
I'm not going to pretend she would've been my first choice, but can we at least make an effort to understand how business works?
There’s a reason I made a comparison to a student submitting homework at the last minute. That’s part of my point: by not building more buffer into the production schedule to respond to player feedback, they’re setting themselves up to annoy and disappoint players on a regular basis with limited options on responding to it.
That said, while it is clearly rather late to bother rewriting he entire event plot and promotional art work, it would not be difficult (in fact, it should be technically trivial) to swap Etana Jol with one of the other event 5*s upcoming that would be more appropriate in such a valued position as recurring Mega 5* (even the already announced, and thus obviously ready to be deployed Sphere Builder is a much less insane selection for Mega Event Recurring 5* than Etana Jol).
There’s an extent to which I’m willing to be sympathetic to the practical realities of game development and technicalities of engineering limitations and so on and so forth. But there comes a point where the situation is ultimately the fault of the developers and/or management, and the pacing of production and lead times is definitely something they control. And when the situation points to a development team that doesn’t look like they’re doing a good job or care, I’m going to call them out on it.
Big difference between being aware of the realities of game design and those realities being passed off excessively to excuse lack of effort. We’re well into the lack of effort regime at this point.
Oh that's easy, have you ever seen the news or TV? Sex sells. Sexualize her up to get people to go for her.
Poorly done and drawn IMO, but that's the obvious reason. You're right on point as to which version should have been used though.
But as week 1's 5*. There's no way she ranks a legendary recurring 5*. That ever so easily belongs to the Sphere Builder we saw for a season in Enterprise and helped shape The Federation.
We know management HATES Enterprise, but it's like they google "TNG one off guest stars" when hunting for recurring and legendary characters.
Your example of a university student doesn't hold water - DB isn't saying "hey, this is what we'd like to do next week." They're saying "hey, this is what is coming next week." The players aren't part of their development process, we're consuming whatever they've come up with. And if we don't like it, we don't have to buy it.
And what kind of entertainment media actually has that kind of buffer? I'd actually like to hear an example. Network television films episodes weeks or months in advance, and so will take ages to write out an unpopular character. The Fantastic Beasts movie had committed enough money to Johnny Depp that the producers decided it wasn't worth the cost to recast him, despite the blowback. Yes, there are test screenings and focus groups - but those are for start ups, not established media.
And yes, from a technical standpoint, I'm sure it would be quite easy to flip Etana Jol and the Spherebuilder in the rewards. But they are trying to tell a story - that's part of their stated mission - and I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess the Spherebuilder wouldn't be able to fill Etana's position.
To your point about DB's lack of effort - there are plenty of examples of this, but this hardly counts as one. Even if half the player base says they don't like their character choice, that does not equal laziness. I'll be annoyed AF if next week Etana turns out to be another underwhelming two stat mega character - that would show a blatant disregard for the loud feedback shared two months ago (and I would expect that two months is enough turn around time to at least adjust the stats of the character). But this? It's unrealistic to expect the changes you're asking for, and them choosing a one off instead of one of the uber requested characters does not make for lack of effort.
How dare DB submit their homework early and give players a taste of what's to come over Christmas!
I mean, apart from the fact I'm glad it's not Cheesecake Seven because I may be busy, and I agree the K'Tarian Command Uniform is HOT (and sex sells, right?), so far I like the theme and the crew.
What a fun event for the holiday period! All event types featured for variety, cool crew, a recurring legendary, ah girl it must be Christmas!
Oh it is Christmas! Yay!
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Not weighing in on your actual debate here, as I'm fine with letting DB tell whatever story they want, but in terms of examples of last-minute production changes, Kevin Spacey's fall from grace caused "House of Cards" to change course entirely, and Ridley Scott reshot all of Spacey's scenes in "All the Money in the World" just several weeks before the release date, replacing him with Christopher Plummer (who probably should have been cast in the first place).
The shwarma bit at the end of the first Avengers movie was literally filmed during the movie's premiere, because all the actors were in the same place.
Even in the case of the Star Trek franchise, they had to reshoot parts of the Voyager pilot after the original captain, Geneviève Bujold, left the production after two days, and they replaced her with Kate Mulgrew a week later.
You are absolutely forcing your own narrative here rather than listening to what the example is illustrating, or why it’s being illustrated. All illustrative examples are accurate only to a point, but this one holds up rather well if read into the context I’ve cast for it already.
It is a choice to setup a production schedule that has more, or less, room for iteration and feedback. It is a choice whether or not to take the community’s feedback into account when making decisions at any stage of development. I believe quite firmly that in any game undergoing continuous active development, especially when that development is being supported by ongoing purchases from the game community/playerbase, the course of game development needs to sensibly follow a path that fits with things the community wants. I’m not blind to the fact that game making is a business and thus there are investors and such that need to be kept happy as well, so obviously there’s some sticky ground and players can’t always get what they want, and there plenty of complexities to get involved with on that front.
But the thing is, we’re at very basic level here. DB has been making decisions, quite regularly over the past few months, that show a lack of attention to player feedback or even caring about player feedback.
Mega Events are supposed to be exciting, significant, and more special than the regular weekly events. So for DB to just casually throw them at us with underwhelming leading crew, and the playerbase had no real opportunity to give feedback at a time that would have been more helpful for production, how can that possibly be construed as anything other than a lack of effort? We’ve had Mega events headlined by Cultural Figures like Surak and the Borg Queen, and we know they have a leading Sphere Builder, a group that drove the story a for a season of a main series, ready to go with Etana Jol, and yet somehow Etana is the recurring Mega? That screams lack of effort, lack of caring, lack of interest in what the player response is going to be like.
Whatever side of the debate people fall on for whether or not Etana should be a recurring 5* aside, the reality is that DB has made a mess entirely of their own accord through choices made by the company at some level, be it management or development. And they should not casually be absolved of dealing with that mess because the timetables they’re working with may be short or restrictive on practical levels.
However, the 4th event of the mega is a faction event again. Can we please have a confirmation that the card won't be placed at 400K again but somewhere more attainable? As I am and likely will not be able to clear this threshhold, I probably won't bother with a DYC if the 5th copy is out of reach.
There is something disturbing about it. May have to do with the gloomy background, but she definitely looks more threatening than sexy (assuming that sexy is what they were going for with that choice).
I would have preferred the uniform version too
Only because Christmas is on Tuesday, otherwise........
I'm sorry, I guess I just don't see it your way. This fan base will complain about everything and anything, and if DB reacted on a dime every time someone didn't like something, we'd have total chaos like in the case that @Ishmael Marx mentioned above at the end of the Dominion event. Even when they explicitly ask for our feedback, and craft an entire mega around what we voted for, people will still complain (not enough DS9, why Darth Bashir, etc).
It just seems to me that the solution you're getting at will cause more of the same. You'll never get all of the player fanbase to agree. They could release a tentative schedule for the next six months, and every. single. decision would be picked at by someone. "Stop adding Disco characters, it's not even Star Trek" - sound familiar?
I get being angry at them for moving the legendary reward to 400k. I get being angry at them for choosing to release Captain Spock at the same time as releasing the shuttle tokens. And I would get being angry if they ignored the feedback about Minuet last time and Etana Jol is a complete dud from a stats perspective. There are many, many things that we can all agree DB actively does to aggravate us. But for them, negotiating on character decisions is the kind of no-win Kobayashi Maru stuff that just isn't worth it.
Besides, maybe Etana Jol is someone at DB's all-time favorite one-off villain. That kind of critical thinking would explain some of the other decisions.
This