The 'It's About Time' Pack (Reman, Breen, Shard, Ophidian) is now 85% off or 1,200 Zen.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Muggs market isn't a good implementation of the system as it has the prices inflated above equivalent items in the same store and cranking up the price on an item just to make the discount sale seem good is pretty blatant way of showing how the little regard there is for the customers..
Except when it doesn't, Vizier is 2,100 right now. That seems to be showing more regard for the consumer after folks didn't take the +500 zen on the standard T6 Sovy as justified per "exclusive promo" (per a personal value judgement) or setting a categorical precedent for other kinds of promo ships.
As for:
But a chunk of the current stock was gleaned from defunct FE reruns and what would have been phoenix rewards. So far other than the tradable t6 tokens nothing has been rotated in that might indicate the plan to make the market anything more than a cynical wallet dipper.
The EMH Mark 1 was added to Mudd's AND the phoenix store. Inclusion in one demonstrably doesn't preclude the other (there's tradeoffs between character and account unlocks) and I haven't seen any specific confirmation that the FE event is in fact defunct (last time it was addressed on Ten Forward they specifically said it was simply being held as a tool in their event arsenal, with other events taking priority for the time being), only player presumption to that effect. Cryptic is free to maintain two of those three without invalidation (ex. Mudd's and the event with the former offering time-independent account unlocks and the later now benefiting from zen valuation. Per the above comment from Ten Forward I don't think Phoenix Box inclusion was terribly likely.)
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Muggs market isn't a good implementation of the system as it has the prices inflated above equivalent items in the same store and cranking up the price on an item just to make the discount sale seem good is pretty blatant way of showing how the little regard there is for the customers..
Except when it doesn't, Vizier is 2,100 right now. That seems to be showing more regard for the consumer after folks didn't take the +500 zen on the standard T6 Sovy as justified per "exclusive promo" (per a personal value judgement) or setting a categorical precedent for other kinds of promo ships.
As for:
But a chunk of the current stock was gleaned from defunct FE reruns and what would have been phoenix rewards. So far other than the tradable t6 tokens nothing has been rotated in that might indicate the plan to make the market anything more than a cynical wallet dipper.
The EMH Mark 1 was added to Mudd's AND the phoenix store. Inclusion in one demonstrably doesn't preclude the other (there's tradeoffs between character and account unlocks) and I haven't seen any specific confirmation that the FE event is in fact defunct (last time it was addressed on Ten Forward they specifically said it was simply being held as a tool in their event arsenal, with other events taking priority for the time being), only player presumption to that effect. Cryptic is free to maintain two of those three without invalidation (ex. Mudd's and the event with the former offering time-independent account unlocks and the later now benefiting from zen valuation. Per the above comment from Ten Forward I don't think Phoenix Box inclusion was terribly likely.)
And what do you think they would save that "silver bullet" for, now with the stuff being in the Mudd's Market? Do you think they would roll out additional Breen bridge officers and Reman bridge officers of the other class flavors? A thalaron grenade ground device?
And what do you think they would save that "silver bullet" for, now with the stuff being in the Mudd's Market? Do you think they would roll out additional Breen bridge officers and Reman bridge officers of the other class flavors? A thalaron grenade ground device?
No, being one who can consider first and second order consequences I think they'd just run the event as is. We can get into why but first I'll challenge you to think what those reasons might be. I think it's pretty obvious and sometimes it can be more useful for people to work through a problem themselves rather than being told the answer (teach a man to fish and all that.)
(Hint: keyword starts with the letter "G.")
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The main point at this stage is that it is no longer worthy of being a bloody Event. There is nothing being given out but the Mission Rewards. All they had to do was turn the four (five, if you count the Kobali Outfit) BACK ON in their respective Missions and be availible as a Reward. No Fuss, No Mudd (sic).
Those were Unique Items so you could never have more than one at a time per Character. You couldn't create armies of Remans or Breen, you couldn't have a troupe of levitators, or Shards of Infinite Possibilities.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
The main point at this stage is that it is no longer worthy of being a bloody Event. There is nothing being given out but the Mission Rewards.
Which is untrue. Keyword missing is giveaway (aw, no points.) The event no longer serves as the exclusive home for these items but it's a ready made promotional tool for the Mudd's marketplace for when the FE item pack settles to background levels.
You play the event, you earn the item, you use the item, you grow to appreciate the item. Next character. Now do you wait an indefinite period of time for another re-run or buy the lowest hanging fruit of Mudd's? That's a much easier sell and path towards acclimatization than just about any other angle here, such that I would consider it a definite mistake if Cryptic retires the FE event long-term.
So bloody what that it's no longer the only way these items can be earned? It points players to Mudd's while providing at once an apparent compromise and a sales pitch (only satisfying moot customers in this equation, those with few characters and no long term plans to create more, but that's still providing positive reinforcement for participation. Ie. the original function of the event. Everything else here is just upside on top of that.)
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
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Duncan, I think you should probably stop hoping for a FE rerun. That has been asked about for months, and during livestreams Kael kept saying they had something in mind to bring those rewards back, even mentioning the possibility of putting them in the Phoenix Box, but it was obvious that FE rerun wasn't what was being considered. THIS is how we're getting access to those rewards now.
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Duncan, I think you should probably stop hoping for a FE rerun. That has been asked about for months, and during livestreams Kael kept saying they had something in mind to bring those rewards back, even mentioning the possibility of putting them in the Phoenix Box, but it was obvious that FE rerun wasn't what was being considered. THIS is how we're getting access to those rewards now.
Last I heard on the livestream Kael (IIRC) said that the event was something they could bring back but there weren't any current plans to do so. Definitively ruling it out would take something out of their arsenal long-term (paraphrasing) and that's not a position Cryptic needed to take then (my elaboration). That was quite some months back though.
That said, hope isn't the word I'd use here. I'm personally planning on buying through Mudd's once I get the zen and that syncs with a sale (that decision being decoupled from an analysis, when I offer feedback I try to be more objective.) Regardless of what Cryptic's intentions are now I think it's a good eventual move to use an FE rerun to promote Mudd's and in a way that is some part symbiotic with player and dev interests. My argument here is in part an argument to Cryptic in case they were planning on something else (given the obvious problems of timing for when I last heard them comment on the subject, not knowing whether they even considered the FE rerun as potential marketing, and all the implications inherent in the refrain "we don't talk about upcoming content" even if all of the above came out to a firm "maybe.") See. "I would consider it a definite mistake if Cryptic retires the FE event long-term." That doesn't mean much in the flow of an argument with ltminns, but it's as much of a red flag I can throw up to Cryptic to say "hey guys, might want to have a think about this if you haven't done so."
It's not enough that there's the potential for good things to come of Mudd's, that needs to be executed on. I can hope for that to be the case, or I can put something out there to help adjust likelihoods (however slightly) through the nominal function of this forum.
(See also my comments about replacing promo boxes with Mudds. I can't possibly be certain that's what Cryptic has in mind, so in case it's a workable idea that hasn't been considered I'm going to put it out there in what form I can. If I can push the consideration of multiple interactions into public debate, even better.)
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
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TBH the Feature Episode Rerun has been a miserable stump of an event since they cut out all the real content of it years ago and I totally understand and agree with not wanting to run the remnant of it ever again.
TBH the Feature Episode Rerun has been a miserable stump of an event since they cut out all the real content of it years ago and I totally understand and agree with not wanting to run the remnant of it ever again.
Let's be specific about what all that "real" content was. If it's not the episodes themselves and exclusive rewards (major items that typically comprise the bulk definition of "content" and indeed the defining characteristics of the FE re-run) then what could you possibly be referring to...
(There's more direct ways of doing what that accomplished and while not having it made the old event less enticing for certain folks I think it's moot about whether Mudd's would benefit from some kind of supporting event. Take the question a bit broader and ask how does Cryptic manage the system and improve player perception of increased c-store monetization. You can cut prices, do simple giveaways, and add more desirable things but those are all very direct (ie. a sledgehammer approach.) Are there other levers Cryptic could be pulling to make Mudd's less of a goad for complaining about max prices?)
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
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TBH the Feature Episode Rerun has been a miserable stump of an event since they cut out all the real content of it years ago and I totally understand and agree with not wanting to run the remnant of it ever again.
Let's be specific about what all that "real" content was. If it's not the episodes themselves and exclusive rewards (major items that typically comprise the bulk definition of "content" and indeed the defining characteristics of the FE re-run) then what could you possibly be referring to...
The Lobi Scavenger Hunt. You know, the part of the event that had actual gameplay, and actually engaged all 25 missions rather than just the last one of each arc.
The episodes themselves are not part of the event, they are up 24/7. So all the event was the last times it run was one extra reward item added to 5 out of 25 missions (and not major items, either), which was just lame.
For that matter, the name of the event stopped making any sense the moment they started using the name "Feature Episode" to refer to new releases, that would never be included in the "Rerun."
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Lobi. Lobi. Lobi. Award once per Account daily for running any Episode in the four Featured Arcs.
The last time they brought those four Reward Items back, they just unlocked them in the appropriate Episode. You ran that Episode, and if you weren't obtuse or didn't already have it, you selected the Reman, Breen, Cane, or Shard. There was nothing else. No daily Lobi, no anything else.
That being the case, it really wasn't an 'Event' per se. It was just Cryptic returning the Episode to its full 'health'. If they were going to play it that way, you might as well just leave the Episode as it was with all Rewards turned on for just routine, normal play.
They choose the Mudd's Market to make it availible and even named the Bundle appropriately. It's gone, I believe forever, as those Episodes Reward choices.
Earlier this week, when that Bundle was at 85% discount (1,200 Zen). I picked it up. At this stage
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Since three out of four of the Arcs where these Episodes reside have been sent to detention it's not likely that they will be 'Reimagined'. I also thought that they had specifically stated that the 2800 Arc wasn't going to be updated.
'Cutting the Cord' may have the greatest chance of 'Reimagining' as they said Romulan Episodes would be getting some sort of makeover (not sure if this qualifies though).
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
The Lobi Scavenger Hunt. You know, the part of the event that had actual gameplay, and actually engaged all 25 missions rather than just the last one of each arc.
Yeah, I know. Read on and consider whether I might have referred to the answer to this leading question.
Scavenger hunts provide the bare minimum of interaction and direction (there's a thing here, use a Markovian Chain to find it) and anything it might be able to do in terms of forcing players to explore their environment you can do much more effectively with more organic mechanics, integration with a main objective sequence, and a dedicated "unfolding world" design ethos [playing to human curiosity] which is absolutely achievable on tight deadlines and limited production resources. They are a nadir of design with player behavior taking on the simplest forms of foraging that we might expect to see in, say, the Ediacaran (ie. the age of facultatively mobile meat pancakes 579mya) and in service of what is a skinner box. Ie. it's token and in some ways actively detrimental to cultivating levels of player engagement (whether those players realize it or not) such that it was not retained after lobi was shifted and removed. Cryptic could have substituted any other kind of reward for the event (random doffs, dilithium, marks) if this gameplay had a significant positive impact in it's own right. But they didn't (a point for this being the application of a principle) and later iterations of the retroactive scavenger hunt (ex. recruitment rewards) have done more to engage with the player on a human level (ex. moving plot, setting along through text blurbs and having more context for the Easter egg.) Lobi in the old FE rerun served much more so as an easy outlet to the lobi store for those who hadn't bought into it before (my first items I subsidized with FE rerun lobi).
Ie. a promotion guiding players to a relatively new storefront and monetization format.
Ie. like what I'm suggesting should be explored for Mudd's (in some way) just as Cryptic introduced other systems through more sophisticated coordination between events and those systems (see. lobi in FE-reruns). I don't think the straight operation of Mudds is necessarily able to achieve full impact (as we've seen rotating stores do for other games) given that it's core mechanics are principally negative reinforcement (steep price, limited window, uncertainty). Players may adjust to it as more desirable items are added but not to the same degree as a system that's in some way providing positive pull (see. lobi in lock boxes). Add to that the enthusiasm deficit the system has to work itself out of (in community social dynamics) following initial reactions. Whatever Cryptic can do to help better introduce players to Mudd's and provide more positive reinforcement I think is a good thing (given what other games have done with rotating stores versus other forms of monetization.) At the very least this could provide a few opportunities to not release a particularly special ship to an RNG pack. If folks don't interact with it though, then Cryptic won't bother.
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
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Since three out of four of the Arcs where these Episodes reside have been sent to detention it's not likely that they will be 'Reimagined'. I also thought that they had specifically stated that the 2800 Arc wasn't going to be updated.
'Cutting the Cord' may have the greatest chance of 'Reimagining' as they said Romulan Episodes would be getting some sort of makeover (not sure if this qualifies though).
They said they wouldn't replace the DS9 in the 2800 missions/Assault on Terok Nor TFO with the new ViL DS9 because the new DS9 wasn't designed for combat scenarios, and those combat scenarios in those missions just don't work on the new DS9.
They never said they weren't maybe, possibly, one day, going to do any other updates to said missions, just that DS9's interiors isn't changing.
Funny thing is, what you're saying here is quite pertinent to prove a point about upgrading New Romulus as well. Namely, that it's not impossible to upgrade a map, and still use an older map for (likewise older) missions. Cryptic has done it with DS9, and they can do it for New Romulus too, IMHO.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Funny thing is, what you're saying here is quite pertinent to prove a point about upgrading New Romulus as well. Namely, that it's not impossible to upgrade a map, and still use an older map for (likewise older) missions. Cryptic has done it with DS9, and they can do it for New Romulus too, IMHO.
That's a completely and utterly different thing entirely. The DS9 social zone was changed for everyone, it only remained the same in the old TFOs/missions. Upgrading New Romulus, the social zone, would mean the social zone is upgraded for everyone.
As a Fed Engineer, I can't beam down to New Romulus Command. But I can't go to Quo'nos city either as a Fed. And yet, Quo'nos, the social zone, got upgraded nonetheless. None of which detracts one iota from my point, btw, "namely, that it's not impossible to upgrade a map, and still use an older map for (likewise older) missions."
Ok, y'all are derailing this thread as it has nothing to do with mission or social zone maps. Take that conversation elsewhere.
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I just wish there was a way for the "Mudd's Market" to check to see if you already unlocked (through the raffles, convention attendance, events completed, etc.) items and therefore greys them out since you already have the items.
I just wish there was a way for the "Mudd's Market" to check to see if you already unlocked (through the raffles, convention attendance, events completed, etc.) items and therefore greys them out since you already have the items.
Agreed, I already had most of them. But it still allows purchase apparently.
I just wish there was a way for the "Mudd's Market" to check to see if you already unlocked (through the raffles, convention attendance, events completed, etc.) items and therefore greys them out since you already have the items.
Well you can check for yourself easily enough through the couple of reclaim avenues, then you just have to remember, but I get your sentiment & agree about it should already be greyed-out if a player already has them account-wide unlocked. I figured it was just a cheap/lazy way by Cryptic if a player accidentally purchased it again.
TBH the Feature Episode Rerun has been a miserable stump of an event since they cut out all the real content of it years ago and I totally understand and agree with not wanting to run the remnant of it ever again.
Let's be specific about what all that "real" content was. If it's not the episodes themselves and exclusive rewards (major items that typically comprise the bulk definition of "content" and indeed the defining characteristics of the FE re-run) then what could you possibly be referring to...
The Lobi Scavenger Hunt. You know, the part of the event that had actual gameplay, and actually engaged all 25 missions rather than just the last one of each arc.
The episodes themselves are not part of the event, they are up 24/7. So all the event was the last times it run was one extra reward item added to 5 out of 25 missions (and not major items, either), which was just lame.
For that matter, the name of the event stopped making any sense the moment they started using the name "Feature Episode" to refer to new releases, that would never be included in the "Rerun."
It was 4 out of 20 missions. Nimbus was never part of the FE series rerun events.
The Lobi scavenger hunt is hardly much in the way of content. The accolades for it were unique, but how engaging was it finding them after you already found them once?
I see that we've had a few new additions to the store. Holographic Geordi, the Crystal Prism kit module and the S'torr Warship.
This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
don't miss the Fek'Ihri S'torr Warship for 17 000 zen, it is a bargain; lol Even the Ferengi seem less greedy that this "market".
i don't still understand what it is the point of this market, if it's to take players for fools, then it's successful.
And like these items are added in this "market", that means that nothing will be added in the phoenix box in the future?
Did you ever read the descriptions of the items in Mudd's Market? It straight up tells you that only a fool would buy them at the list prices, and to watch for sales. Nobody is expected to buy them at the list prices, and I doubt that anybody has. We have precedent now for 85% off sales in Mudd's Market, as every regular item in there up until these newest additions, has gone on sale at that price already. I can expect that we'll see everything offered at that price, or maybe even lower, at some point.
A case could be made for the holgraphic officers at the list prices, since they were sweeteners for spending $100 or more on Zen in a given month, and that is at least close to the cost of them in the store, though, in that case, you got the officers AND the Zen to spend. When it comes to the TOS ones, you even get 7 of them for every Starfleet and allied character that you have. The price of a single Bridge Officer from the C-Store is 500 zen, and it's only a per character unlock, so the base value of the TOS pack, at least is 3500 Zen times however many Starfleet and allied characters that you have. At 3 of those, you're doing better with that pack, even at the list price, than you would with other bridge officers at the normal price.
This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
Comments
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Except when it doesn't, Vizier is 2,100 right now. That seems to be showing more regard for the consumer after folks didn't take the +500 zen on the standard T6 Sovy as justified per "exclusive promo" (per a personal value judgement) or setting a categorical precedent for other kinds of promo ships.
As for:
The EMH Mark 1 was added to Mudd's AND the phoenix store. Inclusion in one demonstrably doesn't preclude the other (there's tradeoffs between character and account unlocks) and I haven't seen any specific confirmation that the FE event is in fact defunct (last time it was addressed on Ten Forward they specifically said it was simply being held as a tool in their event arsenal, with other events taking priority for the time being), only player presumption to that effect. Cryptic is free to maintain two of those three without invalidation (ex. Mudd's and the event with the former offering time-independent account unlocks and the later now benefiting from zen valuation. Per the above comment from Ten Forward I don't think Phoenix Box inclusion was terribly likely.)
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And what do you think they would save that "silver bullet" for, now with the stuff being in the Mudd's Market? Do you think they would roll out additional Breen bridge officers and Reman bridge officers of the other class flavors? A thalaron grenade ground device?
No, being one who can consider first and second order consequences I think they'd just run the event as is. We can get into why but first I'll challenge you to think what those reasons might be. I think it's pretty obvious and sometimes it can be more useful for people to work through a problem themselves rather than being told the answer (teach a man to fish and all that.)
(Hint: keyword starts with the letter "G.")
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Those were Unique Items so you could never have more than one at a time per Character. You couldn't create armies of Remans or Breen, you couldn't have a troupe of levitators, or Shards of Infinite Possibilities.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Which is untrue. Keyword missing is giveaway (aw, no points.) The event no longer serves as the exclusive home for these items but it's a ready made promotional tool for the Mudd's marketplace for when the FE item pack settles to background levels.
You play the event, you earn the item, you use the item, you grow to appreciate the item. Next character. Now do you wait an indefinite period of time for another re-run or buy the lowest hanging fruit of Mudd's? That's a much easier sell and path towards acclimatization than just about any other angle here, such that I would consider it a definite mistake if Cryptic retires the FE event long-term.
So bloody what that it's no longer the only way these items can be earned? It points players to Mudd's while providing at once an apparent compromise and a sales pitch (only satisfying moot customers in this equation, those with few characters and no long term plans to create more, but that's still providing positive reinforcement for participation. Ie. the original function of the event. Everything else here is just upside on top of that.)
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Last I heard on the livestream Kael (IIRC) said that the event was something they could bring back but there weren't any current plans to do so. Definitively ruling it out would take something out of their arsenal long-term (paraphrasing) and that's not a position Cryptic needed to take then (my elaboration). That was quite some months back though.
That said, hope isn't the word I'd use here. I'm personally planning on buying through Mudd's once I get the zen and that syncs with a sale (that decision being decoupled from an analysis, when I offer feedback I try to be more objective.) Regardless of what Cryptic's intentions are now I think it's a good eventual move to use an FE rerun to promote Mudd's and in a way that is some part symbiotic with player and dev interests. My argument here is in part an argument to Cryptic in case they were planning on something else (given the obvious problems of timing for when I last heard them comment on the subject, not knowing whether they even considered the FE rerun as potential marketing, and all the implications inherent in the refrain "we don't talk about upcoming content" even if all of the above came out to a firm "maybe.") See. "I would consider it a definite mistake if Cryptic retires the FE event long-term." That doesn't mean much in the flow of an argument with ltminns, but it's as much of a red flag I can throw up to Cryptic to say "hey guys, might want to have a think about this if you haven't done so."
It's not enough that there's the potential for good things to come of Mudd's, that needs to be executed on. I can hope for that to be the case, or I can put something out there to help adjust likelihoods (however slightly) through the nominal function of this forum.
(See also my comments about replacing promo boxes with Mudds. I can't possibly be certain that's what Cryptic has in mind, so in case it's a workable idea that hasn't been considered I'm going to put it out there in what form I can. If I can push the consideration of multiple interactions into public debate, even better.)
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Let's be specific about what all that "real" content was. If it's not the episodes themselves and exclusive rewards (major items that typically comprise the bulk definition of "content" and indeed the defining characteristics of the FE re-run) then what could you possibly be referring to...
(There's more direct ways of doing what that accomplished and while not having it made the old event less enticing for certain folks I think it's moot about whether Mudd's would benefit from some kind of supporting event. Take the question a bit broader and ask how does Cryptic manage the system and improve player perception of increased c-store monetization. You can cut prices, do simple giveaways, and add more desirable things but those are all very direct (ie. a sledgehammer approach.) Are there other levers Cryptic could be pulling to make Mudd's less of a goad for complaining about max prices?)
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The episodes themselves are not part of the event, they are up 24/7. So all the event was the last times it run was one extra reward item added to 5 out of 25 missions (and not major items, either), which was just lame.
For that matter, the name of the event stopped making any sense the moment they started using the name "Feature Episode" to refer to new releases, that would never be included in the "Rerun."
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The last time they brought those four Reward Items back, they just unlocked them in the appropriate Episode. You ran that Episode, and if you weren't obtuse or didn't already have it, you selected the Reman, Breen, Cane, or Shard. There was nothing else. No daily Lobi, no anything else.
That being the case, it really wasn't an 'Event' per se. It was just Cryptic returning the Episode to its full 'health'. If they were going to play it that way, you might as well just leave the Episode as it was with all Rewards turned on for just routine, normal play.
They choose the Mudd's Market to make it availible and even named the Bundle appropriately. It's gone, I believe forever, as those Episodes Reward choices.
Earlier this week, when that Bundle was at 85% discount (1,200 Zen). I picked it up. At this stage
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
My character Tsin'xing
'Cutting the Cord' may have the greatest chance of 'Reimagining' as they said Romulan Episodes would be getting some sort of makeover (not sure if this qualifies though).
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Yeah, I know. Read on and consider whether I might have referred to the answer to this leading question.
Scavenger hunts provide the bare minimum of interaction and direction (there's a thing here, use a Markovian Chain to find it) and anything it might be able to do in terms of forcing players to explore their environment you can do much more effectively with more organic mechanics, integration with a main objective sequence, and a dedicated "unfolding world" design ethos [playing to human curiosity] which is absolutely achievable on tight deadlines and limited production resources. They are a nadir of design with player behavior taking on the simplest forms of foraging that we might expect to see in, say, the Ediacaran (ie. the age of facultatively mobile meat pancakes 579mya) and in service of what is a skinner box. Ie. it's token and in some ways actively detrimental to cultivating levels of player engagement (whether those players realize it or not) such that it was not retained after lobi was shifted and removed. Cryptic could have substituted any other kind of reward for the event (random doffs, dilithium, marks) if this gameplay had a significant positive impact in it's own right. But they didn't (a point for this being the application of a principle) and later iterations of the retroactive scavenger hunt (ex. recruitment rewards) have done more to engage with the player on a human level (ex. moving plot, setting along through text blurbs and having more context for the Easter egg.) Lobi in the old FE rerun served much more so as an easy outlet to the lobi store for those who hadn't bought into it before (my first items I subsidized with FE rerun lobi).
Ie. a promotion guiding players to a relatively new storefront and monetization format.
Ie. like what I'm suggesting should be explored for Mudd's (in some way) just as Cryptic introduced other systems through more sophisticated coordination between events and those systems (see. lobi in FE-reruns). I don't think the straight operation of Mudds is necessarily able to achieve full impact (as we've seen rotating stores do for other games) given that it's core mechanics are principally negative reinforcement (steep price, limited window, uncertainty). Players may adjust to it as more desirable items are added but not to the same degree as a system that's in some way providing positive pull (see. lobi in lock boxes). Add to that the enthusiasm deficit the system has to work itself out of (in community social dynamics) following initial reactions. Whatever Cryptic can do to help better introduce players to Mudd's and provide more positive reinforcement I think is a good thing (given what other games have done with rotating stores versus other forms of monetization.) At the very least this could provide a few opportunities to not release a particularly special ship to an RNG pack. If folks don't interact with it though, then Cryptic won't bother.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Funny thing is, what you're saying here is quite pertinent to prove a point about upgrading New Romulus as well. Namely, that it's not impossible to upgrade a map, and still use an older map for (likewise older) missions. Cryptic has done it with DS9, and they can do it for New Romulus too, IMHO.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
As a Fed Engineer, I can't beam down to New Romulus Command. But I can't go to Quo'nos city either as a Fed. And yet, Quo'nos, the social zone, got upgraded nonetheless. None of which detracts one iota from my point, btw, "namely, that it's not impossible to upgrade a map, and still use an older map for (likewise older) missions."
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My character Tsin'xing
Well you can check for yourself easily enough through the couple of reclaim avenues, then you just have to remember, but I get your sentiment & agree about it should already be greyed-out if a player already has them account-wide unlocked. I figured it was just a cheap/lazy way by Cryptic if a player accidentally purchased it again.
It was 4 out of 20 missions. Nimbus was never part of the FE series rerun events.
The Lobi scavenger hunt is hardly much in the way of content. The accolades for it were unique, but how engaging was it finding them after you already found them once?
I see that we've had a few new additions to the store. Holographic Geordi, the Crystal Prism kit module and the S'torr Warship.
i don't still understand what it is the point of this market, if it's to take players for fools, then it's successful.
And like these items are added in this "market", that means that nothing will be added in the phoenix box in the future?
Did you ever read the descriptions of the items in Mudd's Market? It straight up tells you that only a fool would buy them at the list prices, and to watch for sales. Nobody is expected to buy them at the list prices, and I doubt that anybody has. We have precedent now for 85% off sales in Mudd's Market, as every regular item in there up until these newest additions, has gone on sale at that price already. I can expect that we'll see everything offered at that price, or maybe even lower, at some point.
A case could be made for the holgraphic officers at the list prices, since they were sweeteners for spending $100 or more on Zen in a given month, and that is at least close to the cost of them in the store, though, in that case, you got the officers AND the Zen to spend. When it comes to the TOS ones, you even get 7 of them for every Starfleet and allied character that you have. The price of a single Bridge Officer from the C-Store is 500 zen, and it's only a per character unlock, so the base value of the TOS pack, at least is 3500 Zen times however many Starfleet and allied characters that you have. At 3 of those, you're doing better with that pack, even at the list price, than you would with other bridge officers at the normal price.
you talk about humans; of course players have bought these items at these ridiculous prices, and even at 85% discout these items are overpriced..