I think one of the issues with reducing mission completion would be dilemmas being worth less. If I know my opponent isn't going to be getting many points from missions, I should use some/all of those seed slots to speed my deck up.
Yes that's a good point
Having been mulling this over a bit,
I think the problem might be the way missions are presented in the game. We look at all missions like they are the same thing and say, "Why can't my Romulans gain their points from espionage and subterfuge?"
Who is to say that they aren't? Mechanically, to complete a mission you simply check off a bunch of skill requirements, but that's not what the requirements represent. A mission calls for diplomacy and you can easily imagine Picard talking the locals into agreeing with the Federation. Treachery, and you can see those sneaky Romulans doing all sorts of dastardly things.
I guess what I'm saying is, if you approach it more like you would an RPG, missions don't need to be all the same.
Another good point and of course this is true
I would still like to see more affiliation specific objectives to get bonus points though.
Agreed
As a recent returnee myself, I started with just the PAQ cards (Premier, Alternate Universe and Q Continuum sets) for my first few games. After that I started adding new cards but stuck purely to TNG cards. Now I'm working on DS9 decks. I find that this simplifies things enough that the game is fun and flavorful. I wouldn't even know where to begin if I just opened the floodgates and permitted every era of Trek.
That's almost exactly how I have approached it too
I think part of the 'each Mission just being a set of requirements' and thus completing a Federation Mission feels exactly the same as completing a Romulan Mission, is the fact that a Dilemma is (almost ) universal - they can be placed at ANY Mission (Space and Planet distinction aside). There is no thematic connection between a Mission and the Dilemmas beneath it.
Wouldn't it be lovely if Dilemmas were themed in some way? I can see how to do it but not in a clean way and it's a bit 'after the horse has bolted' really - this should have been a thing from the start.
The issue is of course that once Dilemmas are restricted by theme, they can't always be seeded to an Opponent's Missions, so a 'Romulan' only Dilemma become redundant if your Opponent shows up and is playing Klingon!
However, if we take out Dilemma seeding and adopt a more 2e approach and have a Dilemma deck it can be done. It would have to be agreed by both players before the game however - as would the non-seeding of Dilemmas
Implementation: Dilemma side-deck via Doorway atop deck (similar to Dyson Sphere Doorway). Stock 30 Dilemmas minimum here. When a Mission is first attempted draw X cards from the Dilemma deck where X = Points of Mission/5 So a 30 point Mission draws 6 cards. Place Dilemmas that cannot be played due to Space/Planet restrictions face up beneath Dilemma deck (so you shuffle deck when you have gone through it once). Place Dilemmas that CAN be seeded beneath the Mission in an order of your choice.
Could be fun...or could be disaster - but any thoughts would be appreciated.
I'm going to think of some other tweaks to the game and ask for opinions on how they would affect it