Requests for the DS9/Augment Mega-Event
Travis S McClain
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Now that we have the information for the finale of this current mega-event, it seemed a good time to make some notes in hopes that DB might be swayed while planning the next one, the upcoming DS9/Augment mega-event set for June. I've synthesized from memory the various key things that I've noted come up when discussing the previous megas. I'm sure if I've overlooked something, someone will speak up.
Recurring Legendary
To date, only one of of the Recurring Legendaries even had ENG as a tertiary skill (Borg Queen, as corrected by @Lady Gaghgagh below), so it would be fantastic for this to be the primary skill of whoever the June 5* is. ENG is the last skill that needs an infusion of some genuinely strong and useful crew, so it would be great if this 5* would be such a crew member. Also, since there are five weekends in June, any chance the mega-event will run all five and we won't even need Honor to finish fusing this crew member?
Ratio of DS9:Augments
In these first two split megas, "Ghosts of the Past" (DIS/Andorian) and "All We Become" (Vulcan/Romulan), the ratios between the two source elements haven't been as fully balanced as perhaps they could be. It's a given that Bashir and/or his quartet of misfits will turn up, being DS9 Augments. It would be nice if there were enough other DS9 crew and Augments aside from them that we're not left feeling that those dual citizens are the lion's share of one side. The most perfect balance would be:
4 Bashir & Misfits
4 Other DS9
4 Other Augments
Ratio of New:Existing
The perfect balance would be one new 5*, one new 4*, and one existing 4* each week, so we'd get:
1 new 5* recurring Legendary [ENG primary!]
2 new 5* DS9 crew
2 new 5* Augments
2 new 4* DS9 crew
2 new 4* Augments
2 existing 4* DS9 crew
2 existing Augments
There are only three 4* Augments: Augment Riker, RAF Julian Bashir, and Young Khan. Remember what I said about Bashir, though, which would leave Riker and Khan. I'm sure a lot of Augment fans are hoping for a new Khan somewhere in all this, so if the new Khan is another 5*, reusing the 4* Young Khan that week would work just fine.
Event Formats
Can we please have an Expedition somewhere in all this? A real one, not the diluted Hybrid version.
Characters
As mentioned, Bashir and his quartet of misfits fall in the middle of the Venn diagram, so we expect them to feature. If we get Patrick, he really ought to be Admiral Patrick and if at all possible, have the "That's a stupid question!" sound clip.
Ezri has qualified for the Bonus Crew in several events that featured Jadzia, but she's only ever been in the Featured Crew for one event herself ("Holograms Are Forever"). Also, she doesn't presently have a 5* persona.
When choosing the existing 4* crew, prioritize those who have not yet been featured in an event. For example, there's Subcommander T'Rul from DS9. -_-
Recurring Legendary
To date, only one of of the Recurring Legendaries even had ENG as a tertiary skill (Borg Queen, as corrected by @Lady Gaghgagh below), so it would be fantastic for this to be the primary skill of whoever the June 5* is. ENG is the last skill that needs an infusion of some genuinely strong and useful crew, so it would be great if this 5* would be such a crew member. Also, since there are five weekends in June, any chance the mega-event will run all five and we won't even need Honor to finish fusing this crew member?
Ratio of DS9:Augments
In these first two split megas, "Ghosts of the Past" (DIS/Andorian) and "All We Become" (Vulcan/Romulan), the ratios between the two source elements haven't been as fully balanced as perhaps they could be. It's a given that Bashir and/or his quartet of misfits will turn up, being DS9 Augments. It would be nice if there were enough other DS9 crew and Augments aside from them that we're not left feeling that those dual citizens are the lion's share of one side. The most perfect balance would be:
4 Bashir & Misfits
4 Other DS9
4 Other Augments
Ratio of New:Existing
The perfect balance would be one new 5*, one new 4*, and one existing 4* each week, so we'd get:
1 new 5* recurring Legendary [ENG primary!]
2 new 5* DS9 crew
2 new 5* Augments
2 new 4* DS9 crew
2 new 4* Augments
2 existing 4* DS9 crew
2 existing Augments
There are only three 4* Augments: Augment Riker, RAF Julian Bashir, and Young Khan. Remember what I said about Bashir, though, which would leave Riker and Khan. I'm sure a lot of Augment fans are hoping for a new Khan somewhere in all this, so if the new Khan is another 5*, reusing the 4* Young Khan that week would work just fine.
Event Formats
Can we please have an Expedition somewhere in all this? A real one, not the diluted Hybrid version.
Characters
As mentioned, Bashir and his quartet of misfits fall in the middle of the Venn diagram, so we expect them to feature. If we get Patrick, he really ought to be Admiral Patrick and if at all possible, have the "That's a stupid question!" sound clip.
Ezri has qualified for the Bonus Crew in several events that featured Jadzia, but she's only ever been in the Featured Crew for one event herself ("Holograms Are Forever"). Also, she doesn't presently have a 5* persona.
When choosing the existing 4* crew, prioritize those who have not yet been featured in an event. For example, there's Subcommander T'Rul from DS9. -_-
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Comments
― Musashi, Japan's Greatest Swordsman and Samurai
Agree. I happen to like Expeditions, and the first few tickets are extremely interesting.
But once you've unlocked all the epic tiers, and have figured out the optimal VP pathing for your particular crew set, it then becomes a tedious slog.
Nice list, otherwise, Travis!
mega event crew: Doctor Julian Bashir
First event: Redshirt Khan, Defiant Sisko, Ezri Dax
Second event: Persis, Odo, Admiral Ross
Third Event: Raakin, O'Brien, Kira
Fourth event: Deputy Director Sloan, O'Brien, Malik
What we will actually get
Mega event crew - Dr. Arik Soong
First event: Augment Burnham, DS9 Janeway and Rakin
Second event: Defiant Thomas Riker, Keiko O'Brien
Third event: Augment Worf (from ENT episode), Doctor Antaak, Odo
Fourth event: Augment Picard, Eddington, Quark
There are two key reasons I favor the full Expedition to the Hybrid. Firstly, because the other phase in a Hybrid has such an entirely different point drop schema that it's too difficult to grind away enough to catch up. Secondly, I still do not understand why anyone thinks indefinite tickets are beneficial. There may be some psychological thing of not having to race the clock, but flip it around: Indefinite tickets mean your opponents have far more time to possibly devote to the event than you can reasonably dedicate to it, and there's no mercy kill from the clock to put an end to your grinding.
A full Expedition may span four days, but there are only 17 one-hour tickets to be used; the three you get by default each day, and then five more in the threshold table. Suppose all that you do is just play through each ticket one time to claim the full value VP. No subsequent grinding, just one quick run per ticket. You unlock all the missions and each difficulty level in the first ticket, which takes a little longer for that reason. This should take about 10-15 minutes. The rest of your tickets can be cleared in about five minutes each. That's 90-95 minutes for all 17 tickets, spread across four days.
Each ticket's full VIP value is 35,000 from just the rare VP drops:
Normal: 250 VP per drop, four drops per mission, five missions per ticket (5000/ticket)
Elite: 500 VP per drop, four drops per mission, five missions per ticket (10000/ticket)
Epic: 1000 VP per drop, four drops per mission, five missions per ticket (20000/ticket)
The highest threshold is 450,000 VP. If the only points you got were just from claiming the all the rare VP in each ticket, you'd claim the last solo threshold during your 13th ticket. If you claim all the rare VP in all 17 tickets, you'd end with 595,000 VP, well beyond that final threshold. (Again: I haven't accounted for the points you get just for completing a level.)
Because so many players are averse to the Expedition format entirely, just accruing enough VP to clear the thresholds will often carry you pretty far in the rank tables. 595,000 VP for about an hour and a half of game play spread across four days is pretty much a gimme in my book.
I am well aware of the mechanics of the event and have participated in all of the previous ones.
The 1 hour format was, by far, the worst because it forced you to near continuously run the ticket for that hour.
With the unlimited format, you can break up a ticket into whatever time chunks you want.
Yes, some people might grind down their cree to the nubs, but that is considerably less effort than those that spend to open more tickets.
Bonus tickets in the event rewards actually just make matters worse as it is more time you "need" to spend tapping away just to keep up. Unless you enjoy three to five more facerolls through the event, tickets in threshold rewards are actually a drawback, not a benefit.
It also takes much, much longer than 5 minutes to run a full ticket (closer to 20 in the last event).
But who knows. Expeditions have been the format they have changed and tweaked the most. Maybe they will do something to make them less repetitive.
Maybe the Augments are upset with the discrimination that kept Bashir from being the new EMH. I can certainly appreciate that Khan's uprising left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, but that was a time when humans were still all alone in the universe. By the time of the 24th Century, humans are competing with Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Borg, Breen, Jem'Hadar, and androids, whether in combat or in a baseball game in a holosuite. Why allow a taboo of yesterday handicap today's humans by not allowing them to more fairly compete against their naturally superior rivals?
My answer to this, from past experience, is that it doesn't matter much in the end. Maybe it makes the difference between me finishing 250 or 800. Top 1000 is all that matters. I understand that other people may feel differently.
Slight tangent - that's also a point against some of the suggestions to restructure rewards. The lackluster reward increase from 1000 to 26 can be thought of as both good and bad.
Hear hear on the new crew.
I'm still peeved that we're still waiting for Dahar Master Koloth almost 10 months after his cohorts Kang and Kor were released in their aged/DS9 forms, so really just do them all. Or at least the three musketeers (since Serena Douglas did find her way to a new path without the trio.)
But really, folks DID vote a majority for BOTH DS9 AND the AUGMENTS. So short changing either is just telling us those votes weren't that important.
We have had ENG as a tertiary skill on a Legendary, Borg Queen had it. Still, you're right, it is tertiary and thus weak. I am okay if the Legendary has DIP as its main though, simply because the DIP we have on Legendaries so far is only secondary (cf. e.g. Borg Queen, Cornwell, Surak, tertiary in the case of Kortar). ENG main is most preferred, but DIP main is acceptable to me.
As for Khan, it is hard to imagine what other version of Khan could exist.
As for the breakdown of crew, I don't agree 100%.
Bashir himself counts as the crew on DS9 itself as well as part of the Augments, so he shouldn't count as extra or his own category in my opinion.
I think the breakdown should be more along the lines of...
DS9 crew/civilians/passers-by/affiliates (4 crew)
---some new ideas (choose 3):
Mirror Leeta, Lumba, Klingon Sisko, Ishka, Mirror Bareil, Admiral Leyton, Dr. Elias Giger, Pah-Wraith Keiko
---some existing ideas (choose 1):
Tora Ziyal, Subcommander T'Rul, Enabran Tain, Kai Opaka, Obsidian Order Garak, Zhian'tara Odo
Augments/Augment-affiliated (4 crew)
---some new ideas (choose 3):
Sarina Douglas, Dominion Prisoner Bashir, Malik, Dr. Stavos Keniclius, Udar, Marab, General K'Vagh, Captive Phlox
---some existing ideas (choose 1):
Joachim, Wrathful Khan, Augment Riker, Augment Picard, Antaak, Marla McGivers
Dominion/Dominion-affiliates (4 crew)
---some new ideas (choose 3):
First Omet'iklan, Changeling Martok, Eris, Weyoun Clone 6, Changeling Kira, Thot Pran, Gul Damar, Mila
-some existing ideas (choose 1):
Weyoun Clone 4, Changeling Founder, Laas, Kilana, First Goran'Agar, Dominion Dukat
Mega-Event Legendary (1 crew)
-some ideas (choose 1):
Prophet Sarah Sisko (DIP prime, SCI second, COM third)
President Jaresh-Inyo (DIP prime, COM second, SEC third)
Rurigan (ENG prime, DIP second, SCI third)
Dr. Lewis Zimmerman (ENG prime, SCI second, MED third)
Of course everyone can feel free to chime in.
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.
I think the more likely option with the begging for engineering is Augment O’Brien though, in the footsteps of Mirror Picard.
And everyone HAS to know Augment Dax is coming in some form, likely as a 5* to drive sales. Fur, bare flesh and spots? That’s easy money in the coffers.
Augment Burnham
Dabo Girl Janeway
Dabo Girl Burnham
Defiant Commander Janeway
Defiant Commander Burnham
Augment Lwaxana Troi
Augment Winn
Recurring Augment Founder
Dammit! Not sure why I forgot about the Borg Queen's ENG.
"Exit Stage Left, Even" Khan:
The idea here is just to emphasize that the mega-event would be disappointing if the bulk of either the DS9 or the Augment crew came just from that pool of DS9 Augments. By putting Bashir & DS9 Augments in a third category, it removes them from the pools of DS9 and Augments, so that they can be more clearly selected. I'd really dig a schema of one of the DS9 Augments in each week, one non-Augment DS9 crew, and one non-DS9 Augment each week.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
Ideally, I'd like the recurring 5* to be a new Dr. Bashir (both main DS9 cast and an Augment). He took engineering extension courses at the Academy, so you could justify ENG as a secondary or tertiary skill. If not a new Bashir, I'd be happy with a new Khan (Redshirt Khan would be a good choice) Admiral Ross, Leyton, maybe a new Garak. "Admiral" Patrick if you want a member of the Jack-pack in there.
No thanks to Sarah Sisko, I'm not a big fan of the direction the Prophet storyline went in late season 6 and season 7.
Maybe Kai Winn? We don't have a regular card of her as Kai, just the 3* of her as a Vedek and 5* Rogue Winn.
If we would have ended up with DS9/Dominion (which I voted for), I would have liked to see Afflicted Changeling Founder. Could have been used in a storyline about the Morphogenic virus.
The Story
The famous Eugenicist, Stavo Keniclius entered the temporal anomaly to find genetically modified humans, known as Augments, to create an army of super-humans. The Federation is trying to stop him, but the Augments won't let them them get In the way of Progress
Event One: Borderland
Arik Soong, know for stealing embryo's from Cold Station 12, has struck a deal with Keniclius. Now they plan a raid on a Federation station to find 4 augmented humans and recruit them into Keniclius's order. Can you Stop Him before they are captured
Event Type: Expedition
Event Crew:
●5* Stavos Keniclius (new,recurring)
●5* Sarina Douglas (new)
●4* Arik Soong (existing)
●4* Malik (new)
Players will play through missions in which they gain Intel and stop the attack at the station.
Event 2: The Rogue Follower
After the failed station attack,Keniclius has moved on to a more "subtle" recruitment method. This means that moles can easily infiltrate the Augment's strongholds. Who will you decide to help you on this reconnaissance mission?
Event Type: Faction
Event Crew:
●5* Stavos Keniclius (new,recurring)
●5* Section 31 Bashir (new)
●4* Laas (existing)
●4* Commander Tomolak (existing)
In this event, players will either choose Section 31, the Dominion or the Romulan Star Empire and help their spies infiltrate the stronghold.
Event Three: Calm Before the Storm
Intel reveals that the major Augment stronghold is located on the Genesis Planet.The Federation and it's allies do not have a plan though. With the Guidance of the crew of Deep Space Nine, can you help plan the attack?
Event Type: Galaxy
Event Crew:
● 5* Stavos Keniclius (new,recurring)
● 5* Lightship Ben Sisko (new)
●4* Cheif O'Brien (existing)
●4* Warfront Jake Sisko (new)
In this event, players will gather the supplies needed to go to battle and help the allies of the Federation gather what they need
Event Four: Paridise Lost
The time has come, the Federation is ready for their attack. Their fleet, lead by Benjamin Sisko and the USS Defiant, has set course for the Genesis Planet. How will you stop the Augments?
Event Type: Expedition
Event Crew:
●5* Stavos Keniclius (new,recurring)
●5* Captian Sisko (existing)
●4* Young Khan (existing)
●4* Admiral Patrick (new)
In this event, players will work with the Federation to stop the Augments and lead on final attack on their stronghold
Ceti Alpha V Khan...
So I like it, but I don't think certain things will jive well with others.
The fact the Legendary is from TAS might worry some. I'm okay with it personally, I mean he is a big part of the Augments technically. Another thing is the inclusion of Tomalak, a TNG character, is a big stretch to include him in a DS9/Augment event when he has no relation to any of those things.
One thing I'd rather not have is multiples of the same crew member in a mega. You have 2 versions of Sisko, maybe replace the last Sisko with 5* Lt. Cmdr. Jadzia or another DS9 5*.
I do love the idea of more Jake though. I know he was a bit of a middle of the road character, but I do think he needs another version. Battlefront/Warfront Jake is a cool idea. I think he'd be DIP, MED, SEC. And of course Section 31 Bashir would be cool.
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.
It was this, that kind of had me thinking about the Augments for the mega event really. Out of all the choices, engineering should have a showing in that group of people. There's the potential even for another O'Brien in there, a four star perhaps. Seriously, that guy was a legend at fixing up messed up Cardassian technology and integrating it into the Federation gear. A bit of an unsung hero, O'Brien, and I really loved his voice. So unique on a TV show.
So he's my request. A super-rare O'Brien with great artwork and stats that cover a superb engineering primary, a good solid command secondary and either diplomacy or security as a tertiary.
I'm not sure who the Legendary engineer should be, I don't know my Augments too well, but someone with a seriously good engineering base who would smash it in the Gauntlet too.
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
Sarina Douglas
Jack
Lauren
Patrick (Admiral Patrick would be hilarious with audio bit "That is a stupid question!")
Formal Dress Julian Bashir (From "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges")
Admiral William Ross (Preferably with his standard uniform, not the dress variant)
Weyoun Clone 5 (preferably with audio bit "Daboooooo! That's Dabo, isn't it?!")
Niners Julian Bashir (with audio bit "Now THAT is a fancy dan!")
Co-signing every single one of these!
4 Misfits
4 Other DS9
4 Bashir & Other Augments
(I simply don't think there are enough non-misfit augmented characters to support four new ones in a month. And heck, there were enough Romulan characters to support four new ones this month, and we didn't even get that!)
But for a non-canon Augment, as they've had Riker and Picard already; I speculated in the announcement thread for this event that if they do Augment Worf, he should be sans cranial ridges, which would at the very least be an interesting new look for a Worf character.
O'Brien really is an unsung hero as an engineer.
I love all of these. I also need my 1701 Bashir, he's more boyish than ever in that getup and such the hopeless romantic.
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 event types would be so fitting. I have been thinking a bit more and took a few in and a few out.
First event (Faction with Federation, Bajorans and Augments) would be "Chrysalis" with Admiral Patrick (New legendary), Sarina Douglas, Jack and Lauren (all super-rare), so no existing card in this one. Rare ranked would be Racketball Bashir. One of the three super-rare augments would be available through event packs only (unfortunately, but that's how we can get them all in).
Second event (Galaxy with Federation, Augments and Ferengi Alliance) would be "Take Me To The Holosuite" with existing Niners Kira Nerys and Niners Rom, and new super-rare Niners Julian Bashir. Legendary could be either Captain Solok (new) with Niners Sisko as bonus in the event pack or Bashir could be the legendary with two existing super-rares (Kira and Rom) as compensation for no existing card in the first event. Rare ranked would be Captain Kasidy Yates.
Third event (Faction with Federation, Section 31 and Romulan Star Empire) would be "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" with a new Legendary ship, the USS Bellerophon (Intrepid-class). Legendary new card would be Admiral William Ross, super-rare would be Formal Dress Julian Bashir and existing super-rare would be Luther Sloan. Rare ranked would be Senator Cretak.
Fourth event (Faction/Expedition Hybrid with Ferengi Traditionalists, Dominion and Cardassian) would be "Empok Nor" with Ishka (new legendary), Yelgrun (new super-rare) and Eliminator Brunt (new super-rare) which would leave the chance for a legendary Liquidator Brunt (FCA!) wide open in the future. Rare ranked would be Keevan.
Alternatively, the fourth event could be "Tribbles and Tribble-ations Reloaded" with the above mentioned new legendary 1701 Miles O'Brien (top ENG base, similar to Culber's MED) and new super-rare 1701 Julian Bashir and existing super-rare 1701 Jadzia Dax with 1701 Sisko as event pack legendary bonus extra card.
Last, butt not least ... the Mega Event legendary recurring card ... of course it would have to be a Bashir, a truly enhanced card ... Combat Medic Bashir from the episode "In Purgatory's Shadow". The one who healed all the wounds and songs will be sung about him! Obviously three-skilled with top MED base (around Culber's level), mediocre SEC and CMD skills (more on the gaunt side than base). Overall he should become Nr. 1 voyager and make First Officer Burnham Nr. 2 only. MED-CMD-SEC combo is very rare in voyages, so he would fill a sorely needed gap!
Yes, that means Dabo Weyoun (Clone 5) will be postpawned again, butt his time will come.
Respectfully, I do not think this is the best approach regarding Event Crew to try to please the greater player base, acknowledging that any option available to DB will be disliked by some portion of players. Specifically, I feel that a major contributing factor to the dissatisfaction within the current Mega Event was precisely the choice to have one existing 4* each week. This I think opened up criticism in 2 different ways. Firstly, players did not like the choice(s) for existing crew, and I think this will always be the case, as there will always be players who would want the existing crew to be someone other than whoever is chosen - that is, I do not think it is possible for DB to choose an existing 4* character to use that someone won't criticize. Secondly, players came up with long lists of potential new crew (especially Romulans) they would have liked to have seen in the Mega, who did not end up appearing, and we could have gotten more of these if there had been fewer existing crew used.
Again, there is no perfect solution that someone won't like, but I do believe have 4 existing 4* crew during a Mega does more harm than good regarding player satisfaction. If there are more new 4* crew introduced, it adds something new to the game that is potentially available to all players, whereas existing crew will always be uninteresting to some players. My suggestion would be that at most only 2 of the 4 Events during the next Mega have an existing 4* character as Event crew, instead of your proposed 4.
I know there is a vocal minority on the forums that like expeditions. But I think DB stopped them as much for the unpopularity of the expeditions over the whole player base, (lack of participation) as any programming issues.
Just my opinion. I know that I would not go very hard and not spend any money for any expedition events.
Even if it wasn’t a mirror version, perhaps a 1995-vintage Warlord Khan would be a nice quasi-canon crew that everyone could get behind.