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Increase the time interval between Mega Events
SSR Barkley
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As it currently stands, Mega Events run every other month, which many feel is too many. When almost half of the event calendar year stands as a Mega event, are they really Mega events any longer?
Key outcomes of running a Mega event every other month
If you look at the last several megas, none have checked all three checkboxes.
August Mega - Tight thematically - you stuck to the Romulan / Enterprise theme (Check). Recurring Gold - Humanoid figure - He had great potential, even to affect the story, but that remains to be seen. His stats are average to good, but nothing great, especially for mature crews. Legendaries - Absolutely terrible. not one but TWO 2-skill crews, one of which is absolutely terrible (Hernandez). Only one will ever see event use (T'Pol). Travers is serviceable but a one time use character really. The community seemed to be hoping that Phlox, Shran and Narissa were the golds, vs what were chosen
June Mega The caregiver/warp theorist event with Suspiria. Thematically, it failed hard as we barely got any crew that would actually serve the rest of the event as bonus crew. the biggest gripe I've seen from the community is we started getting cards with the caregiver traits AFTER the mega was well done and over. This event was when you began to see the term "Meh-ga" events becoming common. The recurring legendary had potential to have some great skill combos, but instead, we ended up with the ever common cmd/sec/dip trio. The Automaton rant on the TimelinesTalks podcast says enough about this. The Legendary cards were serviceable. Dahj is a beast, Doc Van Gogh is a desired skill set, good but not great. Chakotay is serviceable but Linnis was another 2 skiller. (There must be a rule that most megas have to have at least 1 2 skiller?)
April Mega - People thought this was gonna be a Picard mega but we were dosed with an oddball Cyberneticist mega and mixed Disco crew with Picard crew. I was plenty confused. Gold cards were mostly good, with copies of Hugh and Saru, mixed in with a forgettable Nhan card and 2 skill Elnor. These golds were mostly future use characters, but not very useful in this mega itself. Soji was very solid as a recurring card and will be a staple on 99% of rosters
February Mega - I think this was really the event people were excited about when they saw Picard as the recurring. He was a stud of a recurring. Top 10 voyager, high science score. But then the entire event had nothing to do with Picard, and was a mess thematically. Twilight T'pol is strong in gauntlet and a decent character. Annika Hansen, and AoS Worf are average golds, at best, and Icheb is a one-off that sees little future use.
The last mega that really stands out to the community was the ToS mega, from December 2019.
The ToS mega remains the gold standard for mega events. everything stood out in this event.
Suggested Change
There's many of us who feel, the quality of mega events could really be improved if you dropped them to every 3 months (so 4 Megas per year)
I understand that the one pushback from some players may be, "Well more megas means more "free" 4/5 cards", and yes, that is most certainly the case. But I would stress again, the point of Quality over Quantity as there is a tremendous argument to be made here.
If we continue to churn out failed megas after failed megas, people tire of the emotional roller-coaster of anticipation followed by disappointment. This is where you begin to lose player engagement.
Key outcomes of running a Mega event every other month
- Dilution - The anticipation and excitement over a mega event has been lost when they occur every other month.
- Quantity over Quality 1, maybe 2 megas out of the year are true hits over the course of the year. Mega events are judged on three major criteria, in the eyes of the player/community:
- Recurring Gold - Is the recurring gold a great choice? Does it have stats that make it worthy of a Mega? Will they see continued use?
- Theme - Is the theme tight? Do the characters match the bonus traits chosen for the month? Do the characters stick to what the theme was perceived to be?
- Legendary quality - Are people excited about the golds? (and to a lesser extent, the purples) Will they ever see use outside of the mega? Will they be staples of someone's crew going forward? Do they have good stats, and actually have three skills. Do the stand out in any of the three core areas of the current game? (Gauntlet (proficiencies), Faction events (base stats), Voyages (combined avg skill score))
If you look at the last several megas, none have checked all three checkboxes.
August Mega - Tight thematically - you stuck to the Romulan / Enterprise theme (Check). Recurring Gold - Humanoid figure - He had great potential, even to affect the story, but that remains to be seen. His stats are average to good, but nothing great, especially for mature crews. Legendaries - Absolutely terrible. not one but TWO 2-skill crews, one of which is absolutely terrible (Hernandez). Only one will ever see event use (T'Pol). Travers is serviceable but a one time use character really. The community seemed to be hoping that Phlox, Shran and Narissa were the golds, vs what were chosen
June Mega The caregiver/warp theorist event with Suspiria. Thematically, it failed hard as we barely got any crew that would actually serve the rest of the event as bonus crew. the biggest gripe I've seen from the community is we started getting cards with the caregiver traits AFTER the mega was well done and over. This event was when you began to see the term "Meh-ga" events becoming common. The recurring legendary had potential to have some great skill combos, but instead, we ended up with the ever common cmd/sec/dip trio. The Automaton rant on the TimelinesTalks podcast says enough about this. The Legendary cards were serviceable. Dahj is a beast, Doc Van Gogh is a desired skill set, good but not great. Chakotay is serviceable but Linnis was another 2 skiller. (There must be a rule that most megas have to have at least 1 2 skiller?)
April Mega - People thought this was gonna be a Picard mega but we were dosed with an oddball Cyberneticist mega and mixed Disco crew with Picard crew. I was plenty confused. Gold cards were mostly good, with copies of Hugh and Saru, mixed in with a forgettable Nhan card and 2 skill Elnor. These golds were mostly future use characters, but not very useful in this mega itself. Soji was very solid as a recurring card and will be a staple on 99% of rosters
February Mega - I think this was really the event people were excited about when they saw Picard as the recurring. He was a stud of a recurring. Top 10 voyager, high science score. But then the entire event had nothing to do with Picard, and was a mess thematically. Twilight T'pol is strong in gauntlet and a decent character. Annika Hansen, and AoS Worf are average golds, at best, and Icheb is a one-off that sees little future use.
The last mega that really stands out to the community was the ToS mega, from December 2019.
- Recurring - Garth, a one off character that you somehow managed to turn into a staple card in ship battles. You see a lot of him on ships, so he has utility, albeit in one of the lesser popular game features. Still ... good card
- Golds - You picked all bridge crew, so they all see future use. Spock - a great card with MED skill of all things. Uhura, the weakest of 4, but still has future potential. Laborer kirk, a fantastic card with ENG ... You're not going to see many Kirks with ENG. And Torpedo Surgeon McCoy - a great skill combo, maybe overshadowed by the recent additions of Amanda Rogers and Indulgent Seven in the same skillset, but he sees plenty of use. All great choices for Legendary cards
- Theme - You guys nailed this theme. Almost all ToS cards, with the exception of Agent Harris and Ishka, but we can overlook that, as they're just existing purples thrown into a mega. You even limited the bonus crew pool to bridge characters from ToS, and didn't blanket include all ToS tagged cards. Bravo!
- Honorable Mention - We got the 1701-A ship
The ToS mega remains the gold standard for mega events. everything stood out in this event.
Suggested Change
There's many of us who feel, the quality of mega events could really be improved if you dropped them to every 3 months (so 4 Megas per year)
- More time between each Mega to plan better. Improve on all three pillars of the game.
- Get people more excited about a Mega event, if they occur less often
- Gives you the opportunity to throw in more Reruns and Flashbacks. The community likes these, and it gives you more man hours to devote to the niche projects you are working on, vs churning out events non-stop
- Flexibility - More opportunities for unique stories that don't have to span a 4 week period.
I understand that the one pushback from some players may be, "Well more megas means more "free" 4/5 cards", and yes, that is most certainly the case. But I would stress again, the point of Quality over Quantity as there is a tremendous argument to be made here.
If we continue to churn out failed megas after failed megas, people tire of the emotional roller-coaster of anticipation followed by disappointment. This is where you begin to lose player engagement.
/SSR/ Barkley - semi retired
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Comments
A proposal to address the reduced number of 4/5's available - schedule two temporary achievement legendaries where you can get 4 copies of the legendary. I think that level of engagement is similar to participating in a mega event.
Since TP has been doing 390 packs somewhat regularly, we won't necessarily miss the recap packs.
With the temporary achievements system in place, WRG has the avenue to maintain the quantity of free, fused legendary crew (if they wish) while taking the time to make more impactful mega events.
The thing I appreciate most about frequent mega events is the road map of event types. Allows me to schedule play time for events that I enjoy. I hope the new event hub can lead to more of that in the future.