2017 Year in Review
Travis S McClain
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
Figured now was as good a time as any to take a look back on the year in Timelines.
Things I Liked
Honor
At long last, a way to pick up stars without having to get hold of another copy of the crew member! It's also cool to be able to open a Legendary Behold with Honor. I've done that a few times, and each time was thrilled with what I got.
Starbases
Those stat bonuses are spiffy, obviously, and I also enjoy the sense of our fleet working together in such a clear manner.
Achievements
Back on the old forum, there was a lot of talk about our own individual goals. I see some of the things that came up often reflected in the Achievements, including immortalizing X number of crew, hitting a certain rank in an event, and hitting certain Captain levels. It's also nice to have clearly defined, attainable goals that I can focus on at different times. I certainly wouldn't have bothered with most of the 1*s, 2*s, and/or 3*s without the immortalizing Achievement. We could use some new Achievements in 2018.
Voyages
The recent chroniton nerf aside, it's been nice to use more of my crew than I had been with just shuttles and missions, particularly those 1/5's that had otherwise been relegated to sporadic use in events. I've hit the 20 hour Achievement, though, so there isn't really any point in me running any Voyage beyond the 6:00 mark I can hit without paying dilithium to extend. And it's gotten tiresome getting only dilemmas that drop 2* crew for days on end.
Mega-Events
An easy-to-acquire 4/5 is the most obvious selling point of the mega-event format, but I also dig having the month long theme. I also dig having narrative continuity from one week to the next. Every other month is the most frequent schedule I could bear, though, and I think I enjoyed even more having two months between the third and fourth.
Discovery
I've loved DIS so far, and it was cool to have crew members from that show debut in the "Discovery: A New Anomaly" mega-event. I'm eager for more of the show and more game content from it!
TAS
I was stoked to see Lieutenant Arex Na Eth, and agog when Lucien was added to the Voyages.
Gauntlet
It's nice to have something to do while waiting for chronitons to replenish and shuttles to return. RNG can be baffling and frustrating, and the loot is often underwhelming. Still, I've lucked into two Locutus of Borg and three Bartender Guinan, so I shouldn't complain.
Things That Need Work
Communication
In fairness, there will never be a point where communication won't need work. There for awhile in the summer, things were going really well, and on a consistent basis, following the Do Better campaign started by SilverRose. Then came fall, and it seemed this devolved again. I think the low point was the Musketeer La Forge debacle, when there was an obvious discrepancy between the official word and what was known by DB while that official word was being passed onto us.
Artwork
Much has been made in the last several months of the change in aesthetics, and it's my hope that we will see a return to detail. The broad strokes that create blurriness are a disappointing blemish on one of the most important elements of the game.
Event Format Rotation
I loathe Galaxy events, and I've been convinced since they were introduced last year that the only reason anyone likes them is the lucrative community rewards, which could easily be granted for any event format. There were fourteen full Galaxy events, and another ten hybrids. That's more than a quarter of all events as full Galaxy and almost half of all events were at least part-Galaxy. Conversely, we had just one full Expedition in 2017, and three hybrids.
Favorite New Crew (That I Have)
Anastasia Komananov
Bartender Guinan
Bestselling Author Jake Sisko
Borg Queen
Commander Kira Nerys
Commander Nevesa
Dahar Master Kor
Duchamps
Lieutenant Arex Na Eth
Martia
Mirror Jadzia Dax
Mirror Vic Fontaine
Niners Kira Nerys
Niners Rom
Reinforcement Stamets
Ruk
Things I Liked
Honor
At long last, a way to pick up stars without having to get hold of another copy of the crew member! It's also cool to be able to open a Legendary Behold with Honor. I've done that a few times, and each time was thrilled with what I got.
Starbases
Those stat bonuses are spiffy, obviously, and I also enjoy the sense of our fleet working together in such a clear manner.
Achievements
Back on the old forum, there was a lot of talk about our own individual goals. I see some of the things that came up often reflected in the Achievements, including immortalizing X number of crew, hitting a certain rank in an event, and hitting certain Captain levels. It's also nice to have clearly defined, attainable goals that I can focus on at different times. I certainly wouldn't have bothered with most of the 1*s, 2*s, and/or 3*s without the immortalizing Achievement. We could use some new Achievements in 2018.
Voyages
The recent chroniton nerf aside, it's been nice to use more of my crew than I had been with just shuttles and missions, particularly those 1/5's that had otherwise been relegated to sporadic use in events. I've hit the 20 hour Achievement, though, so there isn't really any point in me running any Voyage beyond the 6:00 mark I can hit without paying dilithium to extend. And it's gotten tiresome getting only dilemmas that drop 2* crew for days on end.
Mega-Events
An easy-to-acquire 4/5 is the most obvious selling point of the mega-event format, but I also dig having the month long theme. I also dig having narrative continuity from one week to the next. Every other month is the most frequent schedule I could bear, though, and I think I enjoyed even more having two months between the third and fourth.
Discovery
I've loved DIS so far, and it was cool to have crew members from that show debut in the "Discovery: A New Anomaly" mega-event. I'm eager for more of the show and more game content from it!
TAS
I was stoked to see Lieutenant Arex Na Eth, and agog when Lucien was added to the Voyages.
Gauntlet
It's nice to have something to do while waiting for chronitons to replenish and shuttles to return. RNG can be baffling and frustrating, and the loot is often underwhelming. Still, I've lucked into two Locutus of Borg and three Bartender Guinan, so I shouldn't complain.
Things That Need Work
Communication
In fairness, there will never be a point where communication won't need work. There for awhile in the summer, things were going really well, and on a consistent basis, following the Do Better campaign started by SilverRose. Then came fall, and it seemed this devolved again. I think the low point was the Musketeer La Forge debacle, when there was an obvious discrepancy between the official word and what was known by DB while that official word was being passed onto us.
Artwork
Much has been made in the last several months of the change in aesthetics, and it's my hope that we will see a return to detail. The broad strokes that create blurriness are a disappointing blemish on one of the most important elements of the game.
Event Format Rotation
I loathe Galaxy events, and I've been convinced since they were introduced last year that the only reason anyone likes them is the lucrative community rewards, which could easily be granted for any event format. There were fourteen full Galaxy events, and another ten hybrids. That's more than a quarter of all events as full Galaxy and almost half of all events were at least part-Galaxy. Conversely, we had just one full Expedition in 2017, and three hybrids.
Favorite New Crew (That I Have)
Anastasia Komananov
Bartender Guinan
Bestselling Author Jake Sisko
Borg Queen
Commander Kira Nerys
Commander Nevesa
Dahar Master Kor
Duchamps
Lieutenant Arex Na Eth
Martia
Mirror Jadzia Dax
Mirror Vic Fontaine
Niners Kira Nerys
Niners Rom
Reinforcement Stamets
Ruk
Fleet Recruitment - 20 vacancies as of 17 July 2022 | My Timelines Wish List | Editable STT Trait Audit Spreadsheet
3
Comments
For crew I will add...
Ilia Probe - dat SCI stat! Oh and plus for TMP representation and an awesome character to boot.
Leonardo da Vinci - dat SCI, ENG, MED combo
Mirror Beverly Crusher - dat art and it's Bev for cryin' out loud
Mirror Inquisitor Troi - for badass Troi
Mirror Jean-Luc Picard - those guns
Mirror Bashir - I just like him ok
Dr. Hugh Culber - dat MED stat!
Commander Chapel - more Chapel is always a good thing
Rura Penthe Kirk - dat SEC stat!
North Star Archer - more Archer is needed
Robin Hood Picard - he's too cute
Princess Jadzia - such a good SCI 4*
Captain Lorca - I don't like DIS but still, he's good
Captain T'Pol - more T'Pol is needed
Captain of the voyage vessels: Queen of Bashir, Landsknecht, and Sunspear, the first luxury starship cruiseliners.
Amenities include wifi, fully-functioning holodecks, a full-service bar, 3 party decks, a Trill spa, and a business centre.
Fun fact: The ships are propelled by bouncy castle technology.
The Klingon mega event didn't do if for me either. I like the occasional Klingon and love my Worfs but Kortar was a nobody and I didn't know half of the characters and the KCA grind, wasn't fun.
The Borg event had been fine. I loved that they gave us the Borg Queen, but I didn't like the made up characters.
The Honor store made me perk up, but the values for airlocked crew made the whole thing seem very grindy, and at the time I was unimpressed.
And then Voyages were released and my interest surged. Finally a game mode I could sink my teeth into. AND it complimented the honor store too, so finally we could realistically think about FFing key legendary crew without dropping multiple $100s. This combination has really made the game an entirely different proposition for me, and made it hugely more enjoyable and I've spent more money than I want to really since voyages was released.
The Discovery event was fine, and I think it was done as well as it could be except for T'Kuvma. Worst character we've been given so far, and also the least interesting.
The Mirror event was great. The Mirror Universe is exactly the right area for character invention and I think the representations of many of the TNG characters was super cool. Big thumbs up despite the serious technical errors made.
But I end the year nervous that they are fiddling with Voyages, and I am suddenly cautious about spending money again, waiting to see what they do next. If they nerf honor gain at all I will have serious decisions to make.
Good
Bugs squashed and game greately improved
Bad
Voyage Nerf
We've gotten a good number of free crew slots boosts this year, though I think we're due for another. Thankfully they gave us a big one for the Voyages release or I probably couldn't even play them.
Another plus was the addition of Warp1 for everyone, regardless of VIP status. Particularly with the influx of Voyage chrons, farming would've become a nightmare without this. And especially in Galaxy events.
Oh and I joined the game in 2017, so there's that.