[BCSWowbagger]

It's Friday, so it's time for a Friday Question.

Are you having more fun with the STCCG than you were in 2017? Why or why not?

Okay, last time I asked about 2002. This is widely (though not universally!) seen as the game's nadir, so it's good and pleasing, but not hugely shocking, that players are having more fun today than they were back then.

This week's FQ should be a little harder. Are you having more fun today than you were five years ago? This helps us see whether the CC/our community as a whole have recently been on the right track.

Here's some things that have changed in the past five years:

New sets:
Broken Bow,
Live Long and Prosper,
Cold Front,
Metamorphosis,
The Gift,
Equilibrium,
The Cage,
Q Who?,
The Neutral Zone,
A Private Little War,
Dogs of War,
Second Star to the Right,
The Trial Never Ended,
Paradise Lost,
and several boutiques I didn't even mention cuz WOW!

Rule changes:
The rule that "Earth" and "Bajor" don't include Mirror Earth and Mirror Bajor
can now report activated
Attempt restrictions (Homefront/Quantum Torpedo/matching affiliation) are checked only at start of attempt and when solving
The Frool Rule cancelled
Unlimited cards
Disguises count for characteristics
"Set-add-multiply" officially defined for the first time
❖ missions can't be stolen anymore if there's only one copy on the spaceline
ANIMAL restrictions cancelled
Miracle Worker unloaded
Nor rules overhaul: unlimited walking, beaming restrictions lifted
Regions: missions in regions must now seed at either end of the region (not insert anywhere in the region)
Face-up cards are public information
Zalkonian Storage Capsule no longer a valid download source

Ban/errata changes:
2EBC were removed from official support in 2019

"Clarifying errata" returned with a vengeance, leading to two full set remasters (Enterprise Collection and The Motion Pictures) and a variety of other minor touch-ups to cards

-icon cards got overhauled

got nerfed.

Before that, got nerfed. So did Temporal Benefactor!

Two cards lost the icon (The Wake of the Borg and Defend Homeworld)

War Council returned to the game from the long-term ban list in mid-2017. Welcome back, War Council! Scan and Full Planet Scan also came off the ban list, but nerfed too hard to see play.

Real World Changes:
Covid shook the player base pretttttttty dang hard. I'm not sure we've recovered from the impact. To be quite honest, I worry we never will.

We made "first contact" with the large group of casual (mostly Traditional) players in the Star Trek CCG Facebook group, a relationship we're still trying to build up.

Probably other stuff I'm forgetting, because (unlike all that other stuff) I can't read real-world changes straight off a database ticker.

***

So it has been a busy five years! Is your time with the STCCG better for it?

[Smiley]

nah.

[Professor Scott]

Yes, because I found TrekCC and joined on Apr 17, 2018 and prior to that I was not involved with the game since Decipher days.

[Armus]

Good line to draw.

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: The last 5 years can be largely summed up as "the power curve era," and while adding a lot more cards from previously-unexplored eras, hasn't necessarily improved the overall health and even fun factor of the game.

MUCH longer answer: After my great 1e resurgence of 2014, my 1e playing time was very limited in 2015-2017, with only a handful of tournaments played in those years. However, I never felt overly constrained in what deck types I could play with and be competitive. To the contrary, I won tournaments with Center of Authority, and before was a thing (more on that below).

That changed in early 2018 at the first Manassters when what I thought was a fairly serviceable deck ran face first into Benhosp's pre-errata Temporal Benefactor-powered solver, to say nothing of the MACO solvers that were being played that day.

Ok, so is a thing. Cool.

Unfortunately, it was the ONLY thing. Not cool.

I spent the rest of 2018 playing and/or teching for . I even added Temporal Benefactor and drones to my Stop First Contact deck because it only made it better.

Fast forward a year and I roll into 2019 Manassters with a Vulcan deck. I built it almost exclusively as an answer to all of the nonsense. It worked. I went 4-0 and smashed two speed solvers along the way. I gave Robin (@robin1234 my Manassters deck for a Boston regional and he won up there too.

Then the errata hammer dropped. Sort of.

IDIC: Power of the High Command and Temporal Benefactor both received their SECOND erratas knocking them down another peg, and in the case of the former, effectively eliminating one of the best control deck options that had the capability to police all of the speed decks out there.

But isn't that what Power was supposed to do? Yes, but shut up.

But after the power cards got reigned in, everything was better, right?

Maybe. But only for about 5 minutes. Because what happened next, you ask?

The Reign of Terror kicked off in mid 2019! The Final Frontier enabled basically a bulletproof solver that could get ALL THE ANSWERS from ALL THE FEDS at LIGHTNING SPEED.

So at this point we had
Tired: bullshit
Wired: bullshit

And given that bullshit was already dominating basically everything else, how do you think basically everything else did with bullshit running the show? Something something transitive property of Trek something something....

What? It can't be that bad, right? I mean, there's control decks out there... oh. Wait...

I'll stop there because I've already done this rant, 3 YEARS AGO, but needless to say I think the concerns I articulated back then have been generally borne out with answers coming slowly if at all.

And the answers that did come weren't great. TFF era-locked the deck, which killed creativity and innovation, and in my opinion did a disservice to the and builds, which, while both reasonably good in their own right, had far less raw solving power than the deck and no way to splash any help.

Then there's . I don't hate it, but it's yet another instance of a speed solver affiliation in a game that's more conducive to speed solvers than anything else. That lack of decktype balance has led to a "samey-samey" meta where it becomes a question of which color and flavor of speed solver do you want to run today?

I don't always agree with @Smiley , but I'm sympathetic to this aspect of his "all 1e decks play the same" take. This is similar to the "All decks play the same, just pick your color" problem, only more widespread.

Now, to be fair, there have been some good changes over the last five years. Despite my complaints above on Power, A lot of errata have made the game generally better and the banning of some key power cards have kept some of the worst decks and game states off the board.

But bottom line, when I read this question and really considered it, I have to unfortunately conclude that, on net, I'm not sure the game really is all that much better compared to 5 years ago. There's some specific things that are definitely better, and other things that are worse, but what clinches the "no" for me is the fact that at the end of the day, if I was going to choose a deck to play at a high level event, the plausible choices are a pretty short list. And given the amount of different decktypes/ affiliations available in the game, that's not a good thing.

There's my . Take them for what they're worth.

PS: Look at how I made a super long post and didn't even mention Dorian Collins! Well that's unacceptable, so here it is. I'm sure @sexecutioner would've given me a proper suplex had I not brought her up at all...

[Enabran]

Armus said a lot. Unlike he I like the stuff and was waitig for it for years (yes we had a long term plan those days and was at the end of it). Too bad that the CC hammered down the Neutrale Zone theme after establishing it with 2 Dilemmas in the next set after that block. The need to errata the Classic Communicator may have been neccessary, but to change 3 things was too much. It was okay to change its instant skill gain, but also making it unique and rewording it to have that skill only to the end of turn, what should that? This was a very bad move.

To play against TNG is no fun. We had more players in 2017. 2 more points for the pre-2017 era.

That's how I see the points mentioned in the topic-opener:

New sets ➪ are always good to have

Rule changes:
The rule that "Earth" and "Bajor" don't include Mirror Earth and Mirror Bajor ➪ ok
can now report activated ➪ ok
Attempt restrictions (Homefront/Quantum Torpedo/matching affiliation) are checked only at start and end of attempts ➪ ok
The Frool Rule cancelled ➪ ok
Unlimited cards ➪ top! Should have been always so.
Disguises count for characteristics ➪ uhhhhh, what?
"Set-add-multiply" officially defined for the first time ➪ ok
❖ missions can't be stolen anymore if there's only one copy on the spaceline ➪ great!
ANIMAL restrictions cancelled ➪ Nonsense. A Targ can fly the Cha'Joh! Really?
Miracle Worker unloaded ➪ meh
Nor rules overhaul: unlimited walking, beaming restrictions lifted ➪ This was a good change (except the beaming change)
Regions: missions in regions must now seed at either end of the region (not insert anywhere in the region) ➪ meh
Face-up cards are public information ➪ ok
Zalkonian Storage Capsule no longer a valid download source ➪ never mind (who cares that card?)

Ban/errata changes:
2EBC were removed from official support in 2019 ➪ meh - You've killed my Enterprise-C Deck.

"Clarifying errata" returned with a vengeance, leading to two full set remasters (Enterprise Collection and The Motion Pictures) and a variety of other minor touch-ups to cards

meh

-icon cards got overhauled

got nerfed.

Before that, got nerfed. So did Temporal Benefactor!

Two cards lost the icon (The Wake of the Borg and Defend Homeworld) ➪ Boooo! The wake of the Borg is dead since then. DH loss unnecessary

War Council returned to the game from the long-term ban list in mid-2017. Welcome back, War Council! Scan and Full Planet Scan also came off the ban list, but nerfed too hard to see play. ➪ Welcome Back War Council. Bye Bye my expensive 10 Decipher copies. I whish I had sold you before.

[Armus]

Armus said a lot. Unlike he I like the stuff and was waitig for it for years (yes we had a long term plan those days and was at the end of it). Too bad that the CC hammered down the Neutrale Zone theme after establishing it with 2 Dilemmas in the next set after that block. The need to errata the Classic Communicator may have been neccessary, but to change 3 things was too much. It was okay to change its instant skill gain, but also making it unique and rewording it to have that skill only to the end of turn, what should that? This was a very bad move.

Just to be clear, I don't hate . On the contrary, I was super excited about playing with characters from the TOS series in substantial number.

What I'm not a fan of is cards being designed and released that completely take over the game. Just like I wasn't a fan of cards being designed and released that completely take over the game.

The jury is still out on and . I think they were intentionally developed to NOT continue to increase the power curve (a good thing), but because they are less powerful, they aren't seeing as much play.

Add to that the fact that they errataed Reunite Legends to specifically exclude the Kla'diyus and there's YET ANOTHER data point that anything resembling a control strategy is something that is being actively discouraged by the developers.

(To be fair, that's not ALL you could do with RU/Kla'diyus, but it was definitely SOMETHING you could do).

As for the getting made unique, it was necessary to both fix the balance issue AND avoid a giant rules mess, and is just one of those times where trek sense had to give way to gameplay considerations. My inner Trek nerd is with you, but my inner gamer understands and accepts such a necessary tradeoff.

[Hoss-Drone]

A story.

Its at this point that I think Brian I might be accidentally, partly responsible for your perspective as it seems, at least to me, that design, rules and balance have all been responding to me hammering everything you named with and wreck your face.

If solver so good and control so bad in this "power curve era" then how come they felt they had to 1. Keep up speed and it's tools while at the same time 2. Nerfing change of plans. 3 nerfing Elim starship 4. Nerfing Invasive transporters and 5. issuing adverse ruling after adverse ruling when I explored the edges of some of the rules.

[Armus]

A story.

Its at this point that I think Brian I might be accidentally, partly responsible for your perspective as it seems, at least to me, that design, rules and balance have all been responding to me hammering everything you named with and wreck your face.

If solver so good and control so bad in this "power curve era" then how come they felt they had to 1. Keep up speed and it's tools while at the same time 2. Nerfing change of plans. 3 nerfing Elim starship 4. Nerfing Invasive transporters and 5. issuing adverse ruling after adverse ruling when I explored the edges of some of the rules.

Control is different than Aggro/Smash/Lockout, or, as you put it, "Wreck your face"

For simplicity I'll call it Aggro.

Aggro is very much an answer to Speed, but it's not usually the ONLY answer. In 1e, I'd say aggro is still very competitive, as evidenced by the consistently high placement of Battle Borg decks when piloted by players who know what to do with them.

The difference between control and aggro in the 1e context is that aggro smashes you off the board, and only after the threat is completely eliminated is there any attention given to actual mission solving/scouting (and that's assuming you aren't doing some crazy nonsense with Assimilate Counterpart and/or Assimilate Starship to win without even having to deal with dilemmas).

On the other hand, Control can get enough out early to be a deterrent, but not enough to be a total smash job, and in exchange are better than aggro at mission solving (though not as good as speed). On the other hand, they aren't quite as easy for aggro to smash as a speed deck is, and the maneuvering is more chess-like, as a control deck can knock out a couple pieces of an Aggro deck and maybe live to fight another day (and even do a mission or 2 in the process)

The problem with aggro as the ONLY answer to speed is that people don't like lockouts, so TPTB have rolled back some off the aggro power cards. Unfortunately, since they have ALSO rolled back/not made Control cards, there's not much reason to NOT play speed.

So while I don't necessarily disagree with your case, I think it's a different case than the one I was making (though I'm thinking the two things are at least somewhat related).

[edgeofhearing]

No.

It's not like I'm having a lot less fun, but I play this game to use PAQ nouns. There aren't many more reasons to do so since 2017, but there have been a lot more reasons not to do so (like the new skill-dense TNG personnel in Coming of Age).

Still playing, but it takes me much longer to come up with something new and fun to do in a TNG deck than it did in 2017.

[boromirofborg]

I'm more engaged, certainly. I had gotten wrapped up in life and other games for a while, and checked in here once a year or so.

Now, I'm regularly playing 2E since it's in my area, but I started playing 1E with the kid (and converting all personnel/ships to an easier to read 2E-like template for our games.).

1E is in a decent place overall, but I'll agree solvers are too strong, and there needs to be more ways to mess with an opponent - control deck style.

Sadly, much like in other games, control decks are often seen as unfunny by other places when they face them, and they get ignored in development.


Just thinking off the top of my head how many control deck tools have been nerfed/banned:

Incoming Messages - too narrow with too many affiliations now
Wormholes - only your own ships
Anti-time anomaly - every game needs a reset button or two
Kevin/Amanda - hated out
RBM - Ref'd, nerfed, banned.
Pollution cards - nerfed.

Now, I'm not saying that most of those cards didn't need some serious tweaking or nerfing. But I am saying that most of them were, ironically, a key part of the ecosystem from the beginning.

I also think the biggest control option in the game gets little to no love - the BBSD.

I love the concept of, opponent is 1 mission ahead and nearing winning the game? Let me send my ship over, lose a battle, but take out 1-2 key personnel in the meantime, buying a turn.

Instead, we continue to drift to all/nothing type games.

Even the rework of Sybil/Khan, which I think was good overall, means it's harder to pull off a control strategy of you converting my people.

In a more perfect setup, I'd love for my deck to have to figure out how I'm going to solve my last mission with Jean-Luc in orbit, trying to come to a diplomatic solution (delaying me while he solves a mission for the win.)

Or my trying to avoid having my organs harvested by the while also converting them.

[Hoss-Drone]

To answer the OP Title question:

No. But only because COVID. COVID caused a frustrating lack of in person play which has then in turn caused players to not reappear for whatever reason.

If people came back to live in person play I would be happier. I am not a fan of lackey and never will be so as goes love play so goes my opinion of the state of the game.

COME BACK ANDORIAN PLAYERS.

[Armus]

I play this game to use PAQ nouns. There aren't many more reasons to do so since 2017...

What if I told you this feedback has been heard and is currently being worked on...?

[Klauser]

Ban/errata changes: 2EBC were removed from official support in 2019

... I didn't care for this change. It pissed off a few of my local players.

[Enabran]

As for the getting made unique, it was necessary to both fix the balance issue AND avoid a giant rules mess, and is just one of those times where trek sense had to give way to gameplay considerations. My inner Trek nerd is with you, but my inner gamer understands and accepts such a necessary tradeoff.

There was a rules mess with the non-unique Classic Tricorders and I can live with that change, but there is no rules mess with a non-unique Classic Communicator. So inner Trek nerd, climb the barricades with me

[jjh]

Are you having more fun with the STCCG than you were in 2017? Why or why not?

More.

I am happy with the additional cards, the additional Trek diversity, and the additional Rules support.

I am happy with the CC's stewardship of the 1E game.