Captain Sushi's Proposal
![[BL] Q](https://us.v-cdn.net/6030345/uploads/userpics/276/nKQCBG4F4AJ0L.jpeg)
[BL] Q
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
On Behalf of another forum user who cannot start a new thread I've posted his proposal for discussion amongst the STT community ...
I don't have enough seniority or whatever yet to start a new thread, so out of existing threads to use to post an idea, this seemed like the most appropriate choice.
Warning: Wall of Text Ahead. Read at your own risk.
Many players have been asking for new event types, and one of the commonly-expressed desires for a new event type is a "level playing field"... something where a just-joined newbie and a long-time veteran would have an approximately equal chance at winning. Now, to be honest, I have trouble visualizing an event type where that's true, though probably Galaxy events come the closest of what we've already got. Please note: I don't want to get sidetracked into a discussion of the merits or evils of Galaxy events here; I want to put forth a new idea, not rehash old ones.
Something which has to be taken into account from DB's standpoint, of course, is that the event must generate revenue for them. This factor is a prime speculation point of why Expedition events have become all but extinct... opportunities for revenue generation are very slim compared to other event types, and require a much larger investment of man-hours as each Expedition event is like programming an entirely new Chapter for the galaxy map. This factor becomes doubly important when thinking about an entirely new event type, as considerable development resources must be devoted to it before DB can see a return on that investment.
Of course, with the generation of revenue comes the specter of Pay to Win; I simply don't see a way around that, and in a mobile game like this, I doubt it's reasonable. In a way, that in and of itself IS a level playing field, because a newcomer can just as easily choose to spend money as a long-time veteran; but perhaps we can minimize the effect somewhat, while still leaving DB room to generate revenue, and without locking out the F2P players.
The closest non-virtual example I can think of comes from collectible card games: the sealed booster tournament. Every player pays an entry fee, receives a certain number to booster packs, and can use those and only those cards during the tournament.
Now, before you explode about this being a shut-out of F2P people, hear me out.
Suppose for this tournament... call it a "Pot Luck" just for sake of having a label... there are 6 types of event packs, one for each of the 6 skills: CMD, MED, etc. Each pack contains, oh, let's say 5 cards, and costs 400 dilithium each (yes, more expensive per card than normal; hold on a moment). The 5 cards are guaranteed to be crew... no schematics. And each pack is guaranteed to have at least one 4* crew whose primary stat matches the pack type; i.e. a DIP pack would be guaranteed to have at least one 4* crew whose primary stat is Diplomacy. The other four cards in the pack, other than being guaranteed to be crew, would be the standard RNG selection.
Give everyone one pack free of their choice to start with. (This would be like the free 10 pack in the Community Rewards during a Galaxy event, only up front at the beginning of the event.) Let people buy up to 6 more packs of their choice during the event. Only crew received from these event packs can be used in the event.
This is as close to a level playing field as I can think of between newcomers and veterans, and does not lock out F2P people as there are ways, albeit limited, to gain dilithium in game and it could be used to purchase event packs beyond the one free pack.
There is still some advantage for veterans as they will already have a stock of inventory items which could be used for leveling the crew from the event packs, BUT odds are, RNG being what they are, most of the crew they would draw they already have; are they going to spend their items to level crew that they will have no use for after the event? Newcomers won't have an inventory stockpile, but will be motivated to level them as they WILL be useful to them when the event is over.
Now, as to the event type itself... something like the Faction event is probably easiest, though to prevent a huge advantage for veterans, perhaps a different shuttle type, unique to the event, can be used instead -- call them Runabouts -- and everyone gets one for the duration of the event. Maybe you can "lease" an additional Runabout for the duration of the event for 250 dilithium or some such.
To make things even more "level", perhaps the pack-type 4* in each pack is always the same, so everyone will always have that one card to work with, and then whatever other random cards the RNG throws their way. Ideally this means these cards would be new event-only cards -- yes, this would mean 6 new cards for the event (ugh!) -- and then purchase of event packs could be thrown open, without a cap, after the event so that people could FF their new cards if they wished.
This would, I think, generate revenue for DB, is as close as we're likely to get to a level playing field between newcomers and veterans, and doesn't completely lock out F2P people. I doubt there is a perfect solution, and I'm also certain this one could certainly stand some tweaking.
Ok, there's a rough draft of an idea. Let the discussion/shredding commence.
please keep the comments civil and respectful
I don't have enough seniority or whatever yet to start a new thread, so out of existing threads to use to post an idea, this seemed like the most appropriate choice.
Warning: Wall of Text Ahead. Read at your own risk.
Many players have been asking for new event types, and one of the commonly-expressed desires for a new event type is a "level playing field"... something where a just-joined newbie and a long-time veteran would have an approximately equal chance at winning. Now, to be honest, I have trouble visualizing an event type where that's true, though probably Galaxy events come the closest of what we've already got. Please note: I don't want to get sidetracked into a discussion of the merits or evils of Galaxy events here; I want to put forth a new idea, not rehash old ones.
Something which has to be taken into account from DB's standpoint, of course, is that the event must generate revenue for them. This factor is a prime speculation point of why Expedition events have become all but extinct... opportunities for revenue generation are very slim compared to other event types, and require a much larger investment of man-hours as each Expedition event is like programming an entirely new Chapter for the galaxy map. This factor becomes doubly important when thinking about an entirely new event type, as considerable development resources must be devoted to it before DB can see a return on that investment.
Of course, with the generation of revenue comes the specter of Pay to Win; I simply don't see a way around that, and in a mobile game like this, I doubt it's reasonable. In a way, that in and of itself IS a level playing field, because a newcomer can just as easily choose to spend money as a long-time veteran; but perhaps we can minimize the effect somewhat, while still leaving DB room to generate revenue, and without locking out the F2P players.
The closest non-virtual example I can think of comes from collectible card games: the sealed booster tournament. Every player pays an entry fee, receives a certain number to booster packs, and can use those and only those cards during the tournament.
Now, before you explode about this being a shut-out of F2P people, hear me out.
Suppose for this tournament... call it a "Pot Luck" just for sake of having a label... there are 6 types of event packs, one for each of the 6 skills: CMD, MED, etc. Each pack contains, oh, let's say 5 cards, and costs 400 dilithium each (yes, more expensive per card than normal; hold on a moment). The 5 cards are guaranteed to be crew... no schematics. And each pack is guaranteed to have at least one 4* crew whose primary stat matches the pack type; i.e. a DIP pack would be guaranteed to have at least one 4* crew whose primary stat is Diplomacy. The other four cards in the pack, other than being guaranteed to be crew, would be the standard RNG selection.
Give everyone one pack free of their choice to start with. (This would be like the free 10 pack in the Community Rewards during a Galaxy event, only up front at the beginning of the event.) Let people buy up to 6 more packs of their choice during the event. Only crew received from these event packs can be used in the event.
This is as close to a level playing field as I can think of between newcomers and veterans, and does not lock out F2P people as there are ways, albeit limited, to gain dilithium in game and it could be used to purchase event packs beyond the one free pack.
There is still some advantage for veterans as they will already have a stock of inventory items which could be used for leveling the crew from the event packs, BUT odds are, RNG being what they are, most of the crew they would draw they already have; are they going to spend their items to level crew that they will have no use for after the event? Newcomers won't have an inventory stockpile, but will be motivated to level them as they WILL be useful to them when the event is over.
Now, as to the event type itself... something like the Faction event is probably easiest, though to prevent a huge advantage for veterans, perhaps a different shuttle type, unique to the event, can be used instead -- call them Runabouts -- and everyone gets one for the duration of the event. Maybe you can "lease" an additional Runabout for the duration of the event for 250 dilithium or some such.
To make things even more "level", perhaps the pack-type 4* in each pack is always the same, so everyone will always have that one card to work with, and then whatever other random cards the RNG throws their way. Ideally this means these cards would be new event-only cards -- yes, this would mean 6 new cards for the event (ugh!) -- and then purchase of event packs could be thrown open, without a cap, after the event so that people could FF their new cards if they wished.
This would, I think, generate revenue for DB, is as close as we're likely to get to a level playing field between newcomers and veterans, and doesn't completely lock out F2P people. I doubt there is a perfect solution, and I'm also certain this one could certainly stand some tweaking.
Ok, there's a rough draft of an idea. Let the discussion/shredding commence.
please keep the comments civil and respectful
2
Comments
Personally, I want to see new event types myself. I want to encourage the flowing of ideas, and DB to listen and implement them, even if in an experimental, trial run.
Thank you very much for this, @[BL] Q
Yikes. Hmm. Obviously i hadnt thought of that! Suggestions? I almost said "temporary crew slots, like temporary new shuttle type", but that starts to get reeeeaaally messy.
That's also an interesting notion. Any idea on how that might work?
There are two ways for F2P players to gain dilithium: by immortalizing crew and by winning an event. It might be hard to believe, but there are F2P players who won an event and who are also close to the immortalized limit.
To make it feasible to fit the P2W model the person who buys the most Arena tickets wins however if you did what I did last year I bought 20 tickets a day (300 Dilithium) while waiting on arena to be rolled out and had 350 tickets.
Over time you can hoard as many tickets as you like using Dilithium from the monthly card.
Not sure though if it would work because many players are F2P
On second thought, maybe temporary crew slots aren't such a bad idea after all. We're talking about 35 slots max (5 crew per pack x 7 packs max [1 free + up to 6 purchased]). Call it the Bullpen. All cards from Event packs automatically go into your Bullpen, and when assigning crew to a Runabout, you can only select from the Bullpen. At the end of the event, all crew in your Bullpen are automatically transferred to your standard crew quarters. If some of them wind up in overflow (quite likely) then you have the standard 7 days to do something with them before they are automatically dismissed.
I like this idea, and perhaps the "standardized" selection can be changed up every so often (once a month?) to keep things fresh.
How does winning an event get you dilithium?
If you meant getting 4*/5* cards (via 10x Premium portal packs), that's a different story. And I will say that f2p players have it a lot easier now than when the game first started (voyages, event rewards being the biggest source).
How about if the packs could be purchased with Honor? A Legendary Behold is 45k, a Super Rare Behold is 16.2K, so more or less split the difference and say an Event pack costs 30k. That seems fair; you get more cards than the one you'd choose from a Behold, but you don't get to choose, you just get what comes up.
This isn't such a far-out idea, since they have introduced Merit-based draws.
Or perhaps the Merit-based draws could also be used as crew for the event. That should help the F2P crowd.
Call the event type "Crisis" -- as in, an emergency situation has come up, and there's no time to locate the best personnel for the task... you have to go with whomever is available RIGHT NOW (the crew you drew from the packs) and try your best to get the job done with them.
Also, about new crew and pack structure: I was suggesting one pack type for each skill so that you could either concentrate in one or two areas, or be sure you had at least some coverage in every skill. This also brings an element of strategy to event play... concentrate on one or two skills, and cherry-pick missions which are the best fit (like you can do now in Faction events, but at a rather high cost in Merits) or cover all your bases and have at least a chance with every mission, to conserve your Merits.
This did bring two more thoughts to mind, though: 6 new cards (ugh!) and no 5* Legendary for DB to use to encourage pack purchases. So, to deal with these objections, I suggest the following modifications to the initial proposal:
1) Of the six pack types, only two or three are selected to have new event-only cards, the rest will draw from the pool of existing cards. For example, DIP and ENG may have new cards as the standard 4* in them; the other types would have existing 4* (either standardized, or random). The two types selected to have new cards should be different for each "Crisis" event.
2) There is a 7th Event pack, at the standard price of 650 dilithium, which is exactly like normal event packs... guarantees one of the the new event-only cards, one of which will be a new 5*, but also may contain schematics... it's not guaranteed to be crew only.
-every fleet member selects 1 ship of each arena class, so 1x 1*-2* ship 1x3*-4* ship and a 5* ship
-every fleet member equips the ships with crew
-fleets are auto sorted in first event then brackets after first event #1-2, 3-4,5-6, 7-8 etc form new brackets next event
-scoring based on individual ship battle results (copy paste arena code) fleet with remaining ships wins battle
-imagine 150 vs 150 ship battles its gonne be epic
-small personal rewards based on participation each battle, rank rewards for all in fleet resulting from rank @ end of event
-maybe 3 day events 3 battle each day every 8 hours?
something like that, ofcourse the ship graphics needs to be "simplified" or use top down view with icons or something that would allow acceptable performance
I hope they let this stay here; I think it will get more active discussion that way.
All ahead full, Dork Factor 9!
I really like this bullpen idea, I think it could breath some life into pretty much any event type, without changing too much. Maybe call it a bubble universe?
You start out with a handful of balanced level 1 cadets and a crew only event pack, and away you go. You have a much simpler equipment list for bubble universe characters, and they gain experience and chrons much faster, but chron's are still a limiting factor in the event.
Whatever event type you're actually doing you have to decide between leveling or sending the crew on missions.
When the bubble universe 'pops' you get the choice to rescue a crew member from the universe and they reappear as their normal universe counterpart.
Actually there have been very spirited discussions in Make it So on a variety of suggestions. Some just aren't ones that generate much conversation and yes not everyone goes there.
I hope they don't as we really should encourage folks to go in there and see the other suggestions as well. Just as folks with tribbles really should realize Engineering exists.
Bubble universe! Yes! Excellent notion!
Ideas for new forms of play benefit far more from collaborative input from other players and I'd be far more interested in reading those and maybe adding the odd suggestion. I think putting them in a separate place to the "fix this, give us this search ability" type requests would help.
Well the 'fix this' stuff isn't supposed to be in Make It So, but Engineering.
That comment brought this to mind:
"I told Starfleet all we have is a... a boatload of children... but we're the only ship in the quadrant. "
-- Admiral Kirk
Epic!
Yay! More MED!