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The Dilemma of introducing more Dilemmas...
GhostStalker
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
I'm not sure where everyone else is, but I'm currently sitting on FF'd copies of all the two-dilemma "easy" characters, and am only chasing the "hard" three-dilemma ones. I go back and forth as to whether dilemmas come up too often or not often enough, but there's one consistent fact. Most of them are now boring. I'm not sure what the best way to address this could be, therefore Poll!
The Dilemma of introducing more Dilemmas... 67 votes
Keep Dilemmas the way they are.
5%
![[Deleted User]](https://us.v-cdn.net/6030345/uploads/defaultavatar/nL5515UJH9DYJ.jpg)
4 votes
Write up some second parts to the existing, such as: What happened to those Ferengi miners? How's that Maquis kid doing since we took him home? Did the scavenger pilot ever make it off that planet?
43%
29 votes
Remove some existing (pointless) dilemmas so that the character ones come up more often?
20%
![[QH] Oxmyx](https://us.v-cdn.net/6030345/uploads/userpics/547/n2W6EFWXI2VWP.JPG)
14 votes
Introduce random new ones simply for to alleviate boredom.
11%
8 votes
Another idea? Comment.
17%
12 votes
0
Comments
1. they produce previously unavailable high-value rewards, like legendary crew from the first year of the game, and
2. they replace low-value dilemmas currently in the game (like finding a stowaway).
Otherwise, they just dilute the chances of getting the few strong rewards already there.
Captain Level: 95
VIP Level: 12
Unique Crew Immortalized: 525
Collections Completed: Vulcan, Ferengi, Borg, Romulan, Cardassian, Uncommon, Rare, Veteran, Common, Engineered, Physician, Innovator, Inspiring, Diplomat, Jury Rigger, Gauntlet Legends
A.) We often forget that a lot of the players have never seen an 8 hour voyage without a refuel.
B.) Experienced players have literally 100+ useless legendaries just sitting around taking up space. I really don't need any more, and another star on one of them (which would literally be so rare it would make a BeGold look common) really wouldn't help their stats.
Also, the changes shouldn't change the odds of getting a random 4* dilemma unconnected to multi-part dilemmas.
Hahaha, so you just want them to cut the ones that don't give you anything good, eh?
Seems like both you and Matt wanted a combination of two of my choices - I guess my poll is lacking.
And while they do this make it so that we can save up our voyage tokens !!!!! !!! !!!!
+1
Other than that, with the current rewards, I don't really care about new dilemmas, as long as they don't further dilute the chances of getting to the last part of the 3 parters.
I LIKE THIS A LOT.
That's assuming that they're random drops, but if it worked the way it does for voyage exclusive crew you could choose whether or not you want to follow the path that leads you to that legendary and you could try to go for multiple copies. They could make a specific old legendary available for a limited period of time (3 or 4 months maybe) and then replace them with another.
If new players were willing to refuel once or twice to get a copy of Age Of Sail Crusher, then I don't see what would be wrong with it. If they don't want that legendary either, then no one lost anything.
I also think they should bump up the Achievements to include 30, 40, and 50 hour dilemmas.
Finally, this is an idea I've been kicking around in my head for a few days. They should introduce Voyage Return tokens. They would instantly recall your current voyage instead of requiring Dil. You could add another threshold tier at 400k to recieve one. And that way if we want to send out a fresh voyage with event crew after an event concludes, we aren't forced to spend Dil. That would also alleviate the issue some have had about getting their dailies done if they've set out to run a 50h long haul for voyage exclusive crew and might miss the next day waiting for their voyage to return.
I also like the idea of adding some updates to current dilemmas. I get bored arresting some Maquis or taking them home with no real impact on what happens because of my decision.
The other part of voyages that got stale long ago is all the filler text between dilemmas. I've been reading the same bits of text since voyages were first introduced, and sometimes see the exact same paragraph twice or even three times in a row (the same thing drifted by the ship three times in a row before anything else happened?).
Having said all that, none of that should be near the top of the priority list for the limited number of developers still working on STT.
A longer format voyage (week long, perhaps?) or multiple voyages could also add something new to do with our ever-expanding crew sizes.
I don't want to extend beyond the current 36-dilemma maximum for voyages, but I would also like to break the monotony. I also do not want to lose the existing dilemmas. They are good flavor for new players. None of the solutions above fit my desires, so here's a couple alternatives:
1) Take all those existing 1-parters and throw them in a pool. I'll call it "Decrept Dilemmas" because I have a strange attachment to the word Decrepit. Write up some new dilemmas. Have an essay contest. Personally, I would love to see @Kaitee , @Bylo Band , @DScottHewitt and some others would write. Throw these new dilemmas in a pool and call it GhostStalker Dilemmas (in honor of this thread). At the beginning of every voyage, the game picks either Decrepit Dilemmas or GhostStalker Dilemmas and that's what you see. This solution is probably easier to implement than what I actually want, which is:
2) Take half of the existing 1-part dilemmas and put them in a pool called 10F Dilemmas. Take the other half and put them in a pool called FH Dilemmas. At the beginning of a voyage, the game picks one pool or the other. To replace the half of 1-parters that is removed, we will add some second and third parts to some of those dilemmas. What happened to that trader? Did the rebelling colonists form a new government that collapsed? I don't know... have an essay contest. Maybe if I tag @Dirk Gunderson , @(HGH)Apollo and @Banjo2012 , they'll make something up. Some of the dilemmas won't get a second part so that others can have a third. I mean... I saved the captain. If I really want to know what happened to him after that, I'll just check Starfleet records. No big deal. (Spoiler alert: he retired to Risa, the end.) Anyway... This is also a good opportunity to add in some more voyage-exclusive SR's or have the game pull from the pool of Decrepit Legendaries.
That was really long-winded. No wonder @GhostStalker didn't make those options. They won't allow that much text in polls. I've created enough to know. Thanks for giving me another platform to throw out more ideas and tag a bunch of people.
Where I'm at right now is that really quite a lot of the main cast of RoboCop were also in Star Trek, let's do something with that. Like Annorax and Arturis try to assassinate John Paxton, he gets turned into a Soong-type android (and he's now really polite, like Data - "Regardless of your physical condition, I must ask you to accompany me.") by the XO of the Excelsior, then Captain Jellico has to kill the XO because me made a mistake, and now it's time to erase that mistake.
So let's have DB's people talk to CBS's people, see if they can quickly get Nancy Allen into season three of Disco to really make this work.
In all seriousness (not that I'm not serious) I'd love to see more early dilemmas, provided it was done pick-from-a-pool style so they didn't crowd out the later ones. I've broken up that Andorian and Gorn so many times I'm starting to think they're just an old married couple.
Make the gold an 'old' or 2016 gold, and change the 'featured gold' card available in drops weekly when you do the server update.
(example - two weeks ago we had The Games Afoot 3 - so make the featured gold you can get from voyages be Moriarty - who is of use in the event, and he's only obtainable for a week, so you don't have to worry about people cannibalizing pack sales by getting a FF gold from a voyage only.)
Thus:
-New players who can barely do a 2 or 4hr voyage still get random 2* drops to help their crew
-Growing players who need some fuses for 3*s get a larger drop chance.
-More experienced players can get a higher chance of a 4* to fuse existing crew and improve their current voyage to beyond 6h30m
-Seasoned players finally get a dripfeed of older gold crew that has been requested for a while, and overall honor increases as well.
Hmmm...ideas:
Blood-Red Tide pt.2, Tide Harder
A distress call has been received from the same colony, this time with a total collapse of the colony’s government [regardless of the option chosen in pt.1]. Food and medical supplies are scarce and the rebellion’s leadership wants to leave the planet entirely, although the High Council has blockaded the planet with the intent to keep the rebels from attacking other worlds.
Option A - Beam down supplies and mediate a negotiation between the KDF Admiral in charge of the blockade and the rebel leaders.
Option B - lodge a formal complaint with the Klingon ambassador but otherwise remain out of internal Klingon matters.
By Our Own Hands pt.2 - Capture of the Sticky Bandits
{crewname}’s counterpart has struck again, this time swindling an area trader of an entire cargo ship full of luxury goods. The warp signature from the cargo ship led us to a harrowing sight: duplicates of every single one of our crew members, all of whom are obviously more interested in theft than solving the galaxy’s problems. Your thieving counterpart proposes a contest of wits to determine if they should go free...you consider their offer, as taking them all by force would be a dangerous proposition.
Option A - agree to play your counterpart’s games to avoid a conflict.
Option B - risk attempting to arrest the other ship’s crew.
Option C - suggest that both crews go their own way until even more versions of you can be found, to make the game even more fun
What Smiles May Hide pt.2 - Let’s Put a Smile On That Face
The questionable trader we talked to previously has reached out again, saying he is on the run from {factionname} for having cargo that’s illegal in this timeline but not in the one he’s from.
Option A - defend the trader from the pursuing {factionname} ships.
Option B - leave the trader to his fate.
I'm a little unclear of your thoughts on the matter. Could you be a little less vague?
I didn't say it in my first post, but the existing 3-parters retain their current likelihood of appearing, regardless of pools.
One thing I have thought for a while, is make the dilemmas more like beholds. Show which crew you are going to get for each option.
I would like to see more flavour in the rewards for solving dilemmas. Save the Captain, and you get a captain. Save the Prisoner, and you get a random crew member with the Prisoner trait.
A {{species/faction1}} is fighting a {{species/faction2}} which do you help?
You win whichever one you chose to help.
The advantage of these, is that you get less Ferengi that need airlocking.
The replicators in the mess have stopped working, how are you going to supply the crew with their breakfast.
a) get {{Jury Rigger}} to fix the replicators.
b) have {{diplomat}} negotiate with the people on a nearby planet for food.
c) tell {{vulcan}} to mind meld with the crew so they are no longer hungry.
Where {{Jury Rigger}} is the name of a random Jury Rigger, who may or may not be in your crew. You win whichever crew you chose here. This could also help players struggling with collections.
I chose “other” only bcuz you can pick 1. I would love choices 2,3,4 in there own simple context, all 3 together, or any mix and match. With the exception of 1 keeping them the way they are. Anything to change the boredom, and yes? What happened with the rest of the story on many of the dilemmas?
But lets cut out the 3 parts, or make them more sequential. The odds of the third dropping in the same voyage are sooooo low, even at 20 or more hours. I know some lucky players with RNG on their side for a voyage or 2 have obtained all 3 parts. But surely not common. 🖖🏻
Whilst visiting Starbase 74, you meet a couple of old friends. You would like to recruit both of them, but only have time to collect one.
The two options offered would match the silver and gold skills for the voyage.
This would add flavour to voyages, and assist newer players. Something similar could be added for the five race and the engineered traits that are parts of collections.
If adding more dilemmas (thus extending the 72hr max voyage), then the multi-part dilemmas need to occur in sequence (hit part 1, then your are guaranteed to hit part 2 and 3 on the next 2 dilemmas). It is truly baffling that this is not how the dilemmas work already.
I'd love to find out what that Maquis does with the rest of his/her life after they get out of the prison I keep tossing them into. I'd love to know if the Ferengi make profit on the mining rights (or alternatively if they come to a trade agreement with the system's home planet after I tell the Ferengi to take a hike). I'd love to find out whether whether the saved captain/prisoner goes on to future good things or is arrested (or re-arrested) for their various misdeeds (a 4* dilemma for part 2). What happens to that classless commander after I tell Starfleet he's not ready for a captain rank?
If a LOT of new dilemmas are added, then I'd be ok with one of them being a 5* drop dilemma. That way, the odds of getting it are very low (as it should be). I prefer the approach (floated many times) that older 5* cards should have a chance of dropping starting at 8hrs (or 10hrs). But either way is fine.
Some one has already dropped perhaps the best idea. A few more dilemmas probably won't hurt the game. Provided they are retooled properly.
There is a huge problem coming if the update the portal. It will get diluted. However. They could retire a portion of the portal to voyages, including the golds. There should be a reasonable pool of cards to make certain dilemmas like Winter's Price interesting by dropping either Owners/Hunters and Prisoners respectively. The portal could still drop randomly on a voyage as usual. But voyages would have a slight bias toward retired cards. Retired golds added to dilemmas on a 3rd or 4th tier would still be difficult, but being easier to get (relatively speaking) is offset by the reality that most of them aren't all that relevant any more. It would give high level players a chance to hunt down an FF that's collecting dust while keeping new golds in the portal that might still sell on a random table.
A portal update could prove disruptive, but if you retire part of it to a place people can still get it you give both features of the game something to make them a little more distinct while maintaining availablility.
1) Yes, add new dilemmas, and new second parts! Lots of them. Maybe even mix it up with several possible outcomes.
BUT YES, all multi-part dilemmas MUST become locked-in sequences!
Add me to the list players baffled that they aren't that way already. The more fresh dilemmas get added, the more important that change will be.
2) Great idea to have drops of "on-theme" crew, eg prisoner trait when you've saved the prisoner, captain trait when you've saved the captain.
3) I LOVE the idea of dilemmas that insert different cards based on traits, ("recruit {{engineer}} to fix the replicator, or recruit {{diplomat}} to negotiate for new equipment"), and then reward that card. Instant flavor and interest, and brings some of the fun of beholds into voyages.
4) If these dilemmas offered old golds on occasion, increasing slightly past the 8 hour mark, better still: you'd have some choice built in, so better odds of getting someone you actually need to finish, and if you really don't want old crew, the honor is still a great perk.