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"Smoke & Mirrors" Mega-Event Feedback
Travis S McClain
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Though the final event is still active, we're far enough into it that I feel comfortable offering some end-of-event feedback.
Things I Liked About "Smoke & Mirrors"
Mirror Universe!
I can't even say what it is about that subset of the canon that intrigues me, but I dig it and I was among those who lobbied in follow-up surveys after each of the previous mega-events for this to be a theme. I would have liked to have seen at least one or two crew members originate from the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, but I will readily acknowledge that it was probably easier on all of us not having to split our shuttles between Terran Empire and KCA between events.
Distribution of Preexisting 4* Crew
Each of the first three weeks featured one new 4* and one preexisting 4*, with the preexisting ones in the thresholds. That gave players who already had Mirror Empress Sato, Mirror Tucker, and/or Mirror Uhura a little bit of breathing room as they were able to either finish fusing as they went, or disregard the threshold reward crew and focus on other crew during the event--for instance, anyone they picked up from the previous week's event.
Distribution of Event Formats
I know there were other players who were put off by the first event being Galaxy, but what I saw was an opportunity to run Terran Empire shuttles for the first entire week of the event, which gave me the chance to stockpile the faction items I expected to need. Not coming back to Galaxy until the second half of this final event was also appreciated. I'd love to have a full Expedition again, but having it in the second half of last week's hybrid was satisfying.
Event Debut of Sato
Hoshi Sato was one of the last four main cast characters yet to appear in at least one event, and I'd been hoping all along that when she did finally debut, it would be in this Mirror Empress persona. I'd love to see her return in another, new persona in another event in the not-too-distant future.
Introduction of $9.99 Event Pack
I haven't bought one myself, because I already had the featured 4* fully fused in each instance, but I dig the pack structure and price point. I can think of a few previous events where I would have liked to have availed myself of such a pack.
Expanded Thresholds
Though the event for which they were introduced ended up not running an extra day as originally announced, I did appreciate having a few extra threshold rewards to work toward. The sample data is entirely too limited for me to have any clearer thoughts about extending this or modifying the default rewards table, but I liked the experimentation, at least.
Things That I Felt Could Have Worked Better
Selection of Preexisting 4* Crew
I'm always glad for the chance to pick up stars on someone I already have, but I confess I was a bit disappointed that two of the three preexisting 4* crew were ones who had been featured in other events (Tucker and Uhura). Archer, Ezri Tigan, and Sisko remain left out in the cold.
Distribution of Series
Because the event was built around "Mirror Broken", TNG dominated the event with five of the thirteen featured crew. That still left eight featured crew slots. Despite the lion's share of canonical Mirror Universe content taking place in DS9, we only got two DS9 Mirror crew. (Admittedly, though, they were the top two I hoped we'd get, so I was pretty happy about them.) And despite the Mirror Universe originating in TOS, the only TOS Mirror crew in the entire thing was Mirror Uhura, who I've just noted was also one of the two preexisting 4*'s that had already been featured in other events. This was, however, a really satisfying mega-event for ENT fans, and I do applaud that show getting some love for a change.
Mirror Broken Source Material
I agreed with someone else (I think it was SilverRose?) who said at the outset that they felt somewhat deceived; that they wish they'd known when we said we wanted a Mirror Universe mega-event that that would turn into an IDW synergy mega-event. Those are two distinctly different things. When I envisioned a Mirror Mega-Event, I had visions of Mirror Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, Marlena Moreau, Quark, Rom, Nog, Brunt, Odo, Tuvok, Forrest, and Soval. I was even open to the idea of new, non-canon TNG and/or VOY crew. Mirror Broken struck me on its face as a ridiculous idea with an even more ridiculous execution, and I disregarded the comics for that very reason. It's no less ridiculous to me now that I have Picard, Data, and Geordi in my Timelines crew.
Having said all that, however, I do still come down on the side of being glad that the players who are into the comic getting the neat little thrill of having those cards in the game, and I'm perfectly happy to see future synergy efforts. I just would like them to be more explicitly presented ahead of time as such. As with most issues, the problem isn't the issue itself so much as how that issue has been communicated.
Things I Disliked
Archer Getting Snubbed Again
Not only is Archer omitted from the featured crews, but in "Reflections", we actually had to defeat him in one of the Expedition missions. I don't know why sticking it to Archer became a running joke at DB, but it stopped being funny quite awhile ago.
Introduction of New Ships
I dunno why schematics for new ships aren't put into circulation any better than they are, but it's hard to even care about new ships being introduced at all under the current system. The only reason I was able to build the I.S.S. Defiant is that those 600 schematics were tacked onto the solo thresholds for last week's event. I'm unlikely to ever build it past level 1.
Things I Liked About "Smoke & Mirrors"
Mirror Universe!
I can't even say what it is about that subset of the canon that intrigues me, but I dig it and I was among those who lobbied in follow-up surveys after each of the previous mega-events for this to be a theme. I would have liked to have seen at least one or two crew members originate from the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, but I will readily acknowledge that it was probably easier on all of us not having to split our shuttles between Terran Empire and KCA between events.
Distribution of Preexisting 4* Crew
Each of the first three weeks featured one new 4* and one preexisting 4*, with the preexisting ones in the thresholds. That gave players who already had Mirror Empress Sato, Mirror Tucker, and/or Mirror Uhura a little bit of breathing room as they were able to either finish fusing as they went, or disregard the threshold reward crew and focus on other crew during the event--for instance, anyone they picked up from the previous week's event.
Distribution of Event Formats
I know there were other players who were put off by the first event being Galaxy, but what I saw was an opportunity to run Terran Empire shuttles for the first entire week of the event, which gave me the chance to stockpile the faction items I expected to need. Not coming back to Galaxy until the second half of this final event was also appreciated. I'd love to have a full Expedition again, but having it in the second half of last week's hybrid was satisfying.
Event Debut of Sato
Hoshi Sato was one of the last four main cast characters yet to appear in at least one event, and I'd been hoping all along that when she did finally debut, it would be in this Mirror Empress persona. I'd love to see her return in another, new persona in another event in the not-too-distant future.
Introduction of $9.99 Event Pack
I haven't bought one myself, because I already had the featured 4* fully fused in each instance, but I dig the pack structure and price point. I can think of a few previous events where I would have liked to have availed myself of such a pack.
Expanded Thresholds
Though the event for which they were introduced ended up not running an extra day as originally announced, I did appreciate having a few extra threshold rewards to work toward. The sample data is entirely too limited for me to have any clearer thoughts about extending this or modifying the default rewards table, but I liked the experimentation, at least.
Things That I Felt Could Have Worked Better
Selection of Preexisting 4* Crew
I'm always glad for the chance to pick up stars on someone I already have, but I confess I was a bit disappointed that two of the three preexisting 4* crew were ones who had been featured in other events (Tucker and Uhura). Archer, Ezri Tigan, and Sisko remain left out in the cold.
Distribution of Series
Because the event was built around "Mirror Broken", TNG dominated the event with five of the thirteen featured crew. That still left eight featured crew slots. Despite the lion's share of canonical Mirror Universe content taking place in DS9, we only got two DS9 Mirror crew. (Admittedly, though, they were the top two I hoped we'd get, so I was pretty happy about them.) And despite the Mirror Universe originating in TOS, the only TOS Mirror crew in the entire thing was Mirror Uhura, who I've just noted was also one of the two preexisting 4*'s that had already been featured in other events. This was, however, a really satisfying mega-event for ENT fans, and I do applaud that show getting some love for a change.
Mirror Broken Source Material
I agreed with someone else (I think it was SilverRose?) who said at the outset that they felt somewhat deceived; that they wish they'd known when we said we wanted a Mirror Universe mega-event that that would turn into an IDW synergy mega-event. Those are two distinctly different things. When I envisioned a Mirror Mega-Event, I had visions of Mirror Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, Marlena Moreau, Quark, Rom, Nog, Brunt, Odo, Tuvok, Forrest, and Soval. I was even open to the idea of new, non-canon TNG and/or VOY crew. Mirror Broken struck me on its face as a ridiculous idea with an even more ridiculous execution, and I disregarded the comics for that very reason. It's no less ridiculous to me now that I have Picard, Data, and Geordi in my Timelines crew.
Having said all that, however, I do still come down on the side of being glad that the players who are into the comic getting the neat little thrill of having those cards in the game, and I'm perfectly happy to see future synergy efforts. I just would like them to be more explicitly presented ahead of time as such. As with most issues, the problem isn't the issue itself so much as how that issue has been communicated.
Things I Disliked
Archer Getting Snubbed Again
Not only is Archer omitted from the featured crews, but in "Reflections", we actually had to defeat him in one of the Expedition missions. I don't know why sticking it to Archer became a running joke at DB, but it stopped being funny quite awhile ago.
Introduction of New Ships
I dunno why schematics for new ships aren't put into circulation any better than they are, but it's hard to even care about new ships being introduced at all under the current system. The only reason I was able to build the I.S.S. Defiant is that those 600 schematics were tacked onto the solo thresholds for last week's event. I'm unlikely to ever build it past level 1.
Fleet Recruitment - 20 vacancies as of 17 July 2022 | My Timelines Wish List | Editable STT Trait Audit Spreadsheet
7
Comments
Scott
That didn't faze me, but it did bring to my attention that I forgot to list the expanded thresholds as something I liked.
It sure as fire fazed the people it screwed over......
Scott
Good stats, fun character, huge re-use potential as future Picard bonus crew.
But please...for the love of god, Montresor, no more Com/Sec for mega stars!
When they start their feedback threads, they're welcome to rant and rave all they want. Nothing about this game means enough to me to become sincerely upset. My feeling about it was, we all found out together at launch that the event would end on its normal schedule instead of the advertised day later. So what? It's not like only part of the player base had that knowledge.
I was doing well just to avoid being hospitalized last weekend. I'm not going to tell anyone else what should or should not matter to them, or how much it should or should not matter to them. I can only say nothing about it means that much to me.
It occurs to me that, skill-wise, the perfect mega-event 5* would have been Leonardo da Vinci. That could have been a fun mega-event, with all kinds of thematic personae. Oh, well.
Gun-Show is my first Legendary Immortal!!!!!
So, title is a LITTLE misleading? Or, did you mean to call it the mega Event Positive Feedback Thread?
Hmm. I hadn't really thought in terms of ranking the four mega-events, but since you bring it up, I think for me, they'd be:
1. Smoke & Mirrors
This was the most interesting theme for me. I'm keeping every featured crew member that I've picked up so far, missing only Mirror Beverly Crusher last week and likely missing this week's Mirror Inquisitor Troi.
2. Discovery: A New Anomaly
I was excited for all of the new crew. I got, and kept, all four 4*'s. I fell short of all of the 5*'s. The only preexisting 4* I cared about was Blood Oath Jadzia Dax. Also, too much Galaxy (two hybrids followed by a full Galaxy). Those featured crew combinations were just kinda weird.
3. The Process of Assimilation
I really dug the introduction of the format, and the Borg Queen is easily my favorite of the four 5*'s. Otherwise, though, I was "meh" on most of the event crews. I didn't even bother keeping anyone except Drone Seven of Nine and Mirror Phlox, both from the first event. (I already had Dr. Tolian Soran going into it.)
4. A Good Day to Lie - The mega format wasn't new, Kortar is the least interesting of the four 5*s (it should have been Chancellor Martok!), and I was "meh" on all of the featured crews except Dahar Master Kor (got and kept), Dahar Master Kang (didn't get), and General Martok (got and kept).
-_- Starting to think I should have called it "'Smoke & Mirrors' Mega-Event Feedback for Grownups".
Or, specified that you only wanted people who drank the Kool-Aid.
Since the rudeness and name-calling that is rampant on any Forum has started, have a nice night.
Scott
Well, I was having a nice night. Then some dude starting complaining that I wasn't doing enough complaining about the things he wanted to complain about. I think I can rescue my night, though, because I smell pizza.
I loved the Klingon event. Hoping for a repeat...
This is a really important point, for a lot of us the only way we can get a decently fused 5* crew is playing in these mega events so making all the repeated 5* crew share the same stats is really not helpful. A crewman majoring in eng/sci/med or some combination of the three would be vastly more helpful for a future mega event.
I learned one important thing about Faction events when I started playing, and that's to pay no attention whatsoever to the percentages. I've had 92% failures and 17% successes. Just keep running 'em.
There are certainly plenty of Klingons to draw from for another run at it! My hope if they do go back to it is that next time, they'll do a better job of making it feasible for us to participate in the events and still run the KCA shuttles we need for the faction items. That was the worst part about "A Good Day to Lie" the first time through.
I only have four 5/5's, and of course they're the four from these mega-events. In terms of my interest in them, I'd rank them:
Borg Queen
T'Kuvma
Mirror Jean-Luc Picard
Kortar
In terms of game play value, though, T'Kuvma is dead last. I had to Google Kortar, but at least he also has DIP.
1. Borg
The first was the best, with BQ, a long-requested character, assessible to most players. There was some leveling fatigue with all the borg items, but they were largely farmible and there was a fun lineup of characters. Good balance of events and the storyline was great.
2. Mirror
Count me among those who wanted to see mirror TOS and VOY characters, but I was surprised that they were the theme. I'm okay with that and am enjoying the ride, but I was hoping for Mirrors Sulu, Odo, Quark, Bareil and Tuvok. Terran Empire faction equipment is the limiting factor, but they were part of the pure-faction portion. Having a blast despite last week's problems.
3. Discovery
No expedition portion and I haven't watched Discovery beyond the first episode so I wasn't that interested in the characters, who tended to look too similar and be two-skill crew. Made a play for Desert Georgeu but got knocked out in the last 90 minutes; never investing beyond thresholds in galaxy again. T'Kuvma was uninspired as mega-crew choice.
4. Klingons
Although I liked the characters and Kortar was the only one of the four mega crew I've citationed up to immortal, there was alot of redundancy and the crews all required too many faction items, particularly KSA which had no faction mission repressentation. Storyline was forgettable.
I was lucky enough to get all of the characters this time, and whilst some are sub par there are a few that will remain fun to use going forward. Personally was delighted that a Picard was the main character. T'Kuvma and Kortar are nobodies to me, and so they might as well be 23rd century Martoks.
Faction events are my favourite, so was happy to see them heavily featured. I won't rehash my distaste for expeditions here, but I did ok out of it because of the ticket fiasco. Galaxies are fine, but I never go beyond the thresholds into the bidding war that is the chron sink for higher places. Got Reed and Troi out of packs, and will happily sit out the rest after I FF the threshold character.
I think the 5 day events are a bad idea. Already the community has asked for shorter events, but DB doesn't care. The longer events have more to do with the season than anything else I guess.
All-in-all a thumbs up for this one. I'd rank them Mirror, DIscovery, Borg, Klingon; Mirror Jean-Luc Picard, Borg Queen, who? and really who?? Discovery was more fun to level the characters (and it was fun to get the Fed characters fresh off the TV), but Mirror JLP, Crusher and Troi will be favourites on my roster for a while I think.
No one has mentioned Mirror Geordi La Forge’s level 90 hyperspanner. You are stuck at level 90 if you decide to wait for it. The vp for it is 250000. That use to be the merit reward. I believe this is 100000 more than the past events.
This would be no problem if it was the level 90-100 item. But it is 80-90.
To me this makes the final event the worst designed event.
I wholeheartedly agree. It reminds me a bit of how I can get a little cranky about historical inaccuracies in most movies...except Westerns. For some reason, when it comes to Westerns, all I care about is that it's fun. "This rifle wasn't invented for another 28 years and these two historical figures never met." So what? It's fun! Same with the Mirror Universe.
Eh, that kind of thing doesn't really bother me. I've often been presented with the choice of either continuing to level and equip someone quickly, or slowing down my progress to catch up to thresholds. Generally, I choose to go ahead and work on them, and if that means the threshold items don't get used, so be it. I've got a 5* Saru's Uniform leftover from the Discovery event that I claimed after I'd already built. Also have a 5* Poisoned Drink from one of the last few weeks.
As it happens, though, I've been stockpiling chronitons for Phase 2 instead of even working on him, so I've been oblivious to what items are even in the rewards table. If I was working on him, there'd be nothing to stop me from going ahead and building the thing myself rather than wait to hit that threshold, except for my own patience. At least it's attainable, and even if I ended up building it myself, it's not like a 5* Geordi's Hyperspanner is ever going to go to waste.
It also seems to have been pretty error prone. Now each of the megas has had some technical challenge or another but this one has had a larger occurrence of said tribbles. That hampers my glee and enjoyment of the event.
And there is the art. Thats been beaten to death already.
The characters in this one were great for the most part, though the serious lack of 4* medical crew is really problematic imo. This was a very security intensive event, so if anyone doesn't have a really solid security team by now they're doing it wrong. Even Janeway is more obsessed with flintlock pistols than bossing people around or science. Other than that, it's been great
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My main complaint with the Hyperspanner is that the threshold is 250000 in this event rather than the normal 150000.
I am playing two accounts my main account has FE all La Forge’s except Mirror and Musketeer(do not have but does not use) A legendary item in gauntlet and DABO, is considered a big win. Only Mirror can use this item, so I will wait to level. If I have 100% success with shuttles I will be able to do it before galaxy phase. I am planning to play for three copies of Mirror Janeway in rank. Mainly because I am close to fully leveling all my crew. So I am getting close to the point where I can fully play galaxy events and not worry about how it effects my crew leveling.
My second account got the $10 event offer before removal. I do not plan to go that far into event. I just want the hyperspanner. This account will have to play Galaxy even with 100% shuttle success. Once I get spanner, may play to get one copy of Mirror Janeway in rank rewards. Depends on how much vp will be needed with this extended event i am guessing 270000 to get to rank 3000.
So the importance of having La Forge leveled is diminished. Also, if I had built the hyperspanner, I would not have bothered at all with galaxy part except for token amount for community rewards.
For this mega event, I liked the mix of existing and new crew, I liked the story line, etc. I'm not thrilled with making characters from a new comic series so central to the event, but it worked alright. Having two new legendaries with a medical skill is certainly a plus.
My only complaint is with the execution with the third event in the series -- cutting it short a day, giving extra tickets as compensation, which actually penalized those looking to use the last day, etc. As someone who bought the "admiral" $50 deal, and at the time of purchase these changes were not yet know, it really messed me up. I'm also frustrated DB has not yet acknowledged how much of a screw up that was or made any attempt to compensate those who were sold those deals under false pretenses.
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
- Too much Mirror Universe
- Too much Enterprise
- Way too many non-canon characters (the current event is made up of them entirely!)
When they did the first (Borg) megaevent, it was cool. But now, the format is predictable and boring. Spending 4 weeks on the same theme leads to monotony. One of the good things about normal play is the variety of characters you can get, so you might dislike one week but love the next. With mega events however, if you dislike the theme (as I did), then you have to wait 4 whole weeks to get something you do like.
I agree with this. I love having a stupid number of crew to use, and a variety of ways to use them (galaxy portions get discarded by these rules). It doesn't matter to me if the other people have them, it still makes the event more enjoyable, and it feels better to win more.
Frankly other than Discovery, that is the strength of all Megas.
And Discovery II it will be a strength if you did in Discovery I.