Naetor wrote:I understand the Trek nostalgia angle. Maybe some Voyager fanboy really likes the Hirogen. But, if that's the case, this can be accomplished many ways beyond dedicating ~30 cards to a new affiliation. Couldn't this also be accomplished with a suite of Dilemmas? A keyword?
Maybe. That's the route we took with Species 8472, after all. We should look for the
best way to represent Hirogen, Kazon, Vidiian, Xindi and Vulcans - which may or may not mean new affiliations.
Naetor wrote:My contention with a new affiliation is -- I'm sorry -- design has not been innovative in the past when doing so, maybe there's just not a lot of room for it. Temporal Transporters is a culturally-appropriated Bajoran card, Display of Wealth stuff is Borg. I wouldn't mind a new affiliation that has an innovative mechanic, but assimilating themes from another affiliation destroys cultural distinction.
Earlier you listed Khan, holograms, thieves, Relativity and KCA as new "affiliations." Not one of them actually introduced a new affiliation. Four of the five did give players a new way to play different selections of personnel from existing affiliations. Thieves... I'm not sure why they made the list, since they really just got some support cards. The last actual new affiliation was Starfleet in To Boldly Go in 2006. Essentially, you're arguing that the CC hasn't done a great job when taking half-measures and creating pseudo-affiliations. Your argument leads me to believe we'd be better off taking the bold route and making a new affiliation rather than trying to work potential new affiliation in as non-aligned or even non-personnel.
Anytime a discussion arises about new affiliations, we eventually get around to the "innovative mechanic" requirement. It's bunk. New affiliations don't need new mechanics, they need to
care about something in a unique way. Suppose, for example, Vidiians had Assault cards which start combat, but instead of scoring points or simply killing your personnel they gained skills and attributes (representing harvesting organs). Assault, combat, gaining skills and attributes are all existing mechanics, but currently nobody does it
that way.
Nerdopolis Prime wrote:Personally, I think a new affiliation could be interesting. But it should be a bigger set then. No way you could squeeze in Hirogen with a 45 cards set.
I think Starfleet makes the best comparison, because they were introduced with no prior support. All other affiliations at least had missions with their affiliation icon prior to releasing. Of To Boldly Go's 120 cards, 43 bear the
icon in some form - 2 equipment, 6 events, 2 interrupts, 1 HQ, 6 non-HQ missions, 22 Starfleet personnel and 4 Starfleet ships. Based on those numbers, we could squeeze a new affiliation into one expansion, but doing so would leave no room for anybody else, so I agree we'd want a larger expansion.
bhosp wrote:You only know those guys because Decipher put them on 1E cards.
I only know Akorem Laan, Korinas, Ikat'ika, Maihar'du and Mendak because Decipher put them on 2E cards. I mean, I remember the guy the prophets brought to the present, the Obisian Order lady who denied having a fleet, the Jem'hadar who beat up Worf, the guy who followed around the Nagus and the Romulan who revealed they had an ambassador mole, but I wouldn't remember one of their names. Likewise I might not remember a lot of Hirogen names, but I remember that time they took over Voyager and hunted everybody in the holodecks, and I remember that giant dude who captured Tuvok and Seven, and I remember they went hunting a Species 8472 being.