"Forever as One" Reflections
Travis S McClain
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
Though we haven't yet played the fourth part, we know its format and featured crew so I think it's reasonable at this point to comment on this mega-event by now.
Gotta be honest, I've been underwhelmed. I think we all hoped for a Picard tie-in, but after the embarrassment of some of the Discovery: A New Anomaly mega narrative, I think we can also understand DB's preference to let the series be established before trying to write a story about it. That was the smart choice. Making Picard and Number One the recurring 5* was a nice bone to throw, though, and I'm happy to have them. (Kudos also for slipping in some legacy characters who've turned up on that show.)
The featured crews weren't all that exciting, nor was there much sense of cohesion. The month was for Astrophysicists, but crew included Age of Sail Troi, Age of Sail Worf, Safecracker Nog, Stranded Odo, and the one Jadzia Dax (Blood Oath) who doesn't have that trait. I can appreciate that these choices gave us larger pools of bonus crew than if they had all been Astrophysicists, but this leads me to my next point:
A someone observed in another thread, the format structure made bonus crew of only marginal relevance. In weeks 1 and 3, and half of week 2, bonus crew just didn't matter all that much. It doesn't feel very "mega" to use only three or four crew most of the month.
I did, however, enjoy the forum discussions about the Tom Hardy Cadet Picard art.
Gotta be honest, I've been underwhelmed. I think we all hoped for a Picard tie-in, but after the embarrassment of some of the Discovery: A New Anomaly mega narrative, I think we can also understand DB's preference to let the series be established before trying to write a story about it. That was the smart choice. Making Picard and Number One the recurring 5* was a nice bone to throw, though, and I'm happy to have them. (Kudos also for slipping in some legacy characters who've turned up on that show.)
The featured crews weren't all that exciting, nor was there much sense of cohesion. The month was for Astrophysicists, but crew included Age of Sail Troi, Age of Sail Worf, Safecracker Nog, Stranded Odo, and the one Jadzia Dax (Blood Oath) who doesn't have that trait. I can appreciate that these choices gave us larger pools of bonus crew than if they had all been Astrophysicists, but this leads me to my next point:
A someone observed in another thread, the format structure made bonus crew of only marginal relevance. In weeks 1 and 3, and half of week 2, bonus crew just didn't matter all that much. It doesn't feel very "mega" to use only three or four crew most of the month.
I did, however, enjoy the forum discussions about the Tom Hardy Cadet Picard art.
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Is there a "Picard Collection"? If not, there should be!
(and I'm NOT even gonna ask what 'DYC' means! Pretty sure it's not Dallas Yoga Center or even https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/DYC )
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I’m sure part of this is how much my 5* crew has grown over the last 18 months, and how skills for Astrophysicists tend to be very SCI-heavy. Still, I have frozen both Stubbs and Arjin because they were outside of my top five crew for any skill combination - as many TOS crew as I have, I didn’t need to freeze any of the new 4* crew we got in December before the final full or hybridized Faction event even startled.
And the story overall...it has promise but I feel it has been stretched too thin across so many weeks of storytelling. Disconnected Borg elements have kidnapped a young version of Picard, thinking they can have a new Locutus on their hands, and it’s up to us to get him back. That’s one act, maybe two, in 40-minute show that we’ve taken three weeks to uncover. It feels like there could have been more to it, almost like the writing team is splitting time between STT and the Archer game...
It may as well not be a mega, just 4 separate events where we get a star on picard and number one for playing once a week?
So which existing 3* card do you think will be the ranked reward for Week 4, then, since you have ruled out the possibility of it being a new 3* Picard? 🖖
Either Talos IV Spock or Deanna Troi. They could even do Tourist Worf but they just introduced him.
All 3 event crew have a 3* variant already in the game. Why would you assume DB would randomly add a new 3* when there are plenty of existing options.
I realize my words rule it out, and perhaps I should have written it differently. I have been around enough that I believe a 3* is possible (though it would be a card some people would pay for doubling so I figure 5* most likely), and I also believe the (remote) possibility of DB pulling a surprise and sending one out free. I don't mind this mega, but I agree the story seems disjointed.
Looks at 3* Tourist Worf ... oh, right, I forgot that past performance may not be predictive of future results.
EDIT: Never mind, carry on. 🖖
But yea, if they weren't going to tie-in more, they should have waited til April.
Yes that made me quite angry as well. So angry that my thoughts on it got me kicked off the Star Trek Picard Facebook page.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I really wasn't bothered with the question is my bonus crew with Eng/Sci 898/545 better than my Eng/Sci 828/702 for an Eng Sci Seat.
I got the feeling Making Variants of Seven for the Second event and Dax for the 3rd event was mainly because they didn't all have the trait.
The only thing that was of interest is getting another good stats wise Picard legendary but somehow the other things took the shine off this a bit.
I still haven't finished leveling up Dr Paul Stubbs, for example. The event didn't provide a way to get a fourth copy, he wasn't really necessary for his specific event anyway, and his stats are inferior to a bunch of other bonus crew I already have, including other super rares (like Graduate Burnham).
Mirror Burnham is cool to have just because of the character and that episode arc, but stat-wise she looks a lot like Fugitive Burnham, but with a less interesting/useful tertiary skill.
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
This is also the first mega event where I've not defrosted any crew other than event-specific crew (Spock, Jadzia and Odo) ... no wait, I defrosted a single crew for week 2, Tactical Burnham, but that wasn't really needed in retrospect.
I won't be defrosting anyone for week 4 ... because the flashback after is meh for me.
So ... coasting through a mega only using a bunch of 1/5s and a couple of higher-fused crew (Proto Barclay, Degra, KB Jadzia (3/5) etc.) is hardly inspirational.
I think this all comes down to the choice for bonus crew and event structure. There very little variance in the crew choices and the event structure has meant that we've not really needed additional crew at all other than the specific event crew.
I'd much prefer a small set of bonus crew for the 4 weeks and have that augmented with a different small selection each week. e.g. have Caretaker as bonus across the whole event with the weekend Troi and Worf as additions etc. ... coupled with a more interesting event structure ...
As a player, this mega event hasn't challenged or excited me at all, worse it has brought along genuine boredom, which in turn has meant that the frustrating (e.g. RNG) aspects of the game have become even more highlighted and prevalent in my playing eye (pack opening, gauntlet, older legendaries sitting there at 1/5 etc. etc.) ... which in turn has brought along fatigue ... ah well.
Back when events were monthly instead of weekly, they were exciting and fresh. When they became a weekly slog, megas added an element of freshness because it linked events together over a longer period of time and gave out an awesome (freebie 4/5) reward. Now that we've had megas as part of the regular event cycle year after year, it's getting stale again. DB needs to interject something else into the game / events in order to chase out the ever-present ennui.
Proud Former Officer of The Gluten Empire
Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
A Summer Mega-Mega that spans ten weeks!!!!!!!
The only real issue I had with it are some of the ongoing niggling concerns, which aren't exclusive to megas — a couple of which are: in Galaxies, poor skill choices in recipes and an uneven representation of items in builds; and in Factions, having skill combos not well-represented by bonus crew.
However, the current regular schedule of mega events is something I look forward to, as it's always nice to have a new Legendary to get 4 free stars on. As long as there continue to be new crew/variants who I'm interested in, most of the rest is of far lower concern to me.
As to a more general sense of tedium with the game as a whole, that's a different topic.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
That pretty much sums up my thoughts as well. Only thing I would add to that is I wish DB would give us a bit more variety in the skill sets of the recurring legendarys. Picard is great, don’t get me wrong, but he’s basically just an upgraded Surak. A med/com/anything or med/eng/anything recurring legendary would give me a lot more to be excited about. Still, Picard is a top notch voyager, and I certainly won’t complain about getting him.