Hope for the best and prepare for the worst

AviTrek

I'm looking forward to this new event type, and I hope it goes off without a hitch, but I can't think of the last time a new feature as complex as this launched with no issues. Making it part of the mega event is even riskier. So my question is, what preparations are in place if the event fails?

If the event has to be cancelled early(ie Prime Directive), is there a backup in place? What happens to the first star on the event mega?

If the VP balance is out of whack and players can't reach the mega 5* or other threshold rewards what happens?

If there are multiple bugs with bonus ship/crew, what compensation or other changes are planned?

I hope none of this is necessary, but given past history expecting a smooth launch is wishful thinking. I hope someone at DB is planning for issues now to avoid a scramble at the last minute when something goes wrong.

Peachtree Rex

I think it's really odd that they almost downplayed the new event type in the Admiral Q&A:

What are some of the new features/systems we can expect to see this year?
We’re happy to say that there is a new event type coming soon! (Some of you may remember I mentioned it last December.) There is also going to be a modification to the scanning feature later this year. You will see new persistent story content. There will be significant changes coming for ship abilities, which is going to shake up the Arena also later in the year. However, depending on how they shake out, some of those may come in early 2019.

One sentence was devoted to a major feature that was going to be released within a month. Now, I know they are gun-shy about giving out specific timelines, but 5 weeks ago, this feature was probably pretty close to being completed. In retrospect, this would have been the perfect place to build some anticipation instead of more nonspecific hand-waving.

Althea Biermont

I agree. Those are all great questions and concerns. I really wish they had done this as a stand-alone event first instead of part of a Mega event.

It might have been good to experiment with a shortened event (since that has been much requested and they said they heard us on that). A 2-day Skirmish event from Friday noon EST to Sunday noon EST would have been a good test of the event and a good gauge of player response to a shorter event format.

SSR Barkley

the Skirmish is the first week of the mega event. this likely comes the same week as the FORCE UPGRADE.

What could go wrong?

Thurthorad

At the heart of this is the basic problem that DB just isn't commiting a lot of resources to the development of the game. Events are a tricky business to get right and they need about 3 more, but to get there they probably need to trial about 10 ideas. All this is doing is doubling down on a mode that is held in general distaste. If this was part of a suite of ideas I'd be excited, but as it is, it's their only one.

Considering the Arena game mode needs a general revamp and so does Gauntlet, it's going to be a long winter before this game gets better.

<TGE> Clifford

SSR Barclay wrote: »

the Skirmish is the first week of the mega event. this likely comes the same week as the FORCE UPGRADE.

What could go wrong?

Hmm... a bug that makes it so that you have to restart the game every time you want to build an item?

No... that couldn't be...

Educated_Beast

The only thing we can gaurantee to work flawlessly is collecting dilithium payments.

This ain't Monopoly, there will be no bank errors in your favor.

(ST) Dreadnought

AviTrek wrote: »

I'm looking forward to this new event type, and I hope it goes off without a hitch, but I can't think of the last time a new feature as complex as this launched with no issues. Making it part of the mega event is even riskier. So my question is, what preparations are in place if the event fails?

If the event has to be cancelled early(ie Prime Directive), is there a backup in place? What happens to the first star on the event mega?

If the VP balance is out of whack and players can't reach the mega 5* or other threshold rewards what happens?

If there are multiple bugs with bonus ship/crew, what compensation or other changes are planned?

I hope none of this is necessary, but given past history expecting a smooth launch is wishful thinking. I hope someone at DB is planning for issues now to avoid a scramble at the last minute when something goes wrong.

@shan any thoughts?