This forums is for questions, answers, and discussion about First Edition rules, formats, and expansions.
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Director of First Edition
By MidnightLich (Charlie Plaine)
 - Director of First Edition
 -  
Prophet
#491250
Welcome to today's First Edition Friday Question, where you get a chance to answer questions that will help shape the future of First Edition. If you'd like to catch up on previous entries, here's a list of all of my previous Friday Questions:

13 DEC 2019: Which concepts should 1E "import" from other games?
6 DEC 2019: Which couples should get a dual personnel card?
29 NOV 2019: Which old, unused 1E cards deserve some love?
22 NOV 2019: Which upcoming milestones need celebration?
15 NOV 2019: What's your favorite card image?
11 NOV 2019: What was your first 1E experience?
1 NOV 2019 What is your opinion of the "full page" policy?
25 OCT 2019: What do you want to see in a Halloween set?
18 OCT 2019: What is your favorite expansion?
11 OCT 2019: Which TNG main character needs a new card?
4 OCT 2019: Which Star Trek story needs more cards?
27 SEP 2019: How many points should [SPOILER] be worth?
20 SEP 2019: Which rules always confuse you?
13 SEP 2019: What do you think of [SPOILER]?
6 SEP 2019: Which card needs an alternate image (AI)?
30 AUG 2019: Which characteristic needs love?


This year, First Edition turned twenty-five (25). Unfortunately, due to a confluence of unfortunate events, we didn't put out a product in celebration of that milestone. (But don't worry, there are still plans afoot to celebrate.) But while all this has been going on, I've been deep into planning for the game's future, and that future has been foremost on my mind lately. So today's question is turning that question to all of you.

Where do you want the game to be in five years?

Much like last week's question, this is very broad in scope by design. I want you to think of any and all aspects of 1E and imagine how you'd like them to be as we prepare to ring in 2025. Do you want to see more affiliations? Great - which ones, and when in the next five years? What rules do you hope are cleaned up, or gone, by then?

Or maybe you'd rather look at the meta level. What decks do you want to see winning big tournaments? Which ones do you want to be historical memories only? How about cards - are there cycles of cards you want created? How happy will you be if we've cracked Yesterday's Enterprise by then (or how angry if we haven't?)

I want to know where you see First Edition after another half-decade of the CC's guidance. Cards, decks, rules, organized play, it's all on the table. It's your dream world, share it with us. However you define it, we want to know where you want the game to be in five years?

There are a lot of celebratory holidays over the next week. I believe Hanukkah starts on Sunday, and Christmas is next Wednesday. Whether you celebrate anything this time of year or not, I hope it's a good week. Find time to be kind to others, and find time to play some Trek if you can.

See you next week.

-crp
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
 -  
Community Contributor
#491252
I want the ban list to have only [Ref] cards on it.

I want the average game to last 10 turns, with the speediest decks finishing in not less than 8 and slower games going as long as 15.

I want the average turn to last 120 seconds, so even those slow games finish within time.

Through a combination of rules offloads, ruling updates, rule tweaks, and migrations of rules to the Rulebook, I want the Glossary to be no more than half its current size, with players opening it maybe 20% as often as they do today... and I want it in hypertext.

In five years, I suspect I'll be ready for a Xindi affiliation, though the idea of doing more [22] right now makes me crabby. Plenty of other Star Trek to explore in the meantime.

I'll stop there, since all that is quite enough greediness on my part.
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First Edition Rules Master
 - First Edition Rules Master
 -  
Continuing Committee Member - Retired
Community Contributor
#491261
On a beach, retired and rich.

Oh, you said the game... :)

I want a clean rulebook. I'm not even fussy on size - Magic's is three times as long as ours (Glossary is 82 pages, MTG Comp Rules is 237), but it's also at least three times as readable. :D

And to push my luck, I want some actual mechanical flavor (including weaknesses). Like, I want Feds to have a weakness. (And in the "there isn't a dozen different workarounds" definition).
 
By Se7enofMine (ChadC)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
Moderator
#491310
My answer is going to seem cheap but, really, it's honest and from the heart.

I merely want the game (1E, 2E, Tribbles) to still be making new cards and the game be thriving, no matter how big or small the player base is.

Simple? Yes. Genuine? Absolutely.
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By Takket
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#491313
BCSWowbagger wrote:I want the ban list to have only [Ref] cards on it.

I want the average game to last 10 turns, with the speediest decks finishing in not less than 8 and slower games going as long as 15.

I want the average turn to last 120 seconds, so even those slow games finish within time.

Through a combination of rules offloads, ruling updates, rule tweaks, and migrations of rules to the Rulebook, I want the Glossary to be no more than half its current size, with players opening it maybe 20% as often as they do today... and I want it in hypertext.

In five years, I suspect I'll be ready for a Xindi affiliation, though the idea of doing more [22] right now makes me crabby. Plenty of other Star Trek to explore in the meantime.

I'll stop there, since all that is quite enough greediness on my part.
This "more turns" thing has been discussed a lot and it definitely has merit. I'd like to be able to put artifacts in my deck and not feel like it is a waste of space. right now, by the time you earn it, the game is close to being over most of the time.
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By Shepard (Matt Carroll)
 - Beta Quadrant
 -  
#491315
I'd like to see a turn away from Block format. I think it's served its original purpose of rounding out various eras/factions/affiliations with fairly cohesive trinities of sets and generally giving players more playable deck types, but I think that after TOS block, and possibly the previously promised Movies block, that the game could benefit from return to individual sets around cohesive themes. The two I would hope for the most are sets based around the Dominion War and the Xindi Weapon.

I'd also like to see the meta progress to the stage where
[Ref] cards are not necessary, or at least not necessary as defenses against abusive strategies (love me some Defend Hw and Obelisk for their non-defensive uses).

Generally I'd like to see the game be a bit more balanced in terms of how many factions are really playable. I don't even mean top-tier, just more competitive. DS9 in particular needs some love.

I'd also like to see the gameplay become a bit more simplified without compromising the rich complexity of the overall game. Changing the way Nors/sites work is an example that's been discussed in the past year on the forums and seems to be getting some attention.
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
 -  
Community Contributor
#491330
I found this while doing ban list research and thought it would be a fitting reflection for this thread:

viewtopic.php?p=49988#p49988
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
 -  
Regent
Community Contributor
#491336
BCSWowbagger wrote:I found this while doing ban list research and thought it would be a fitting reflection for this thread:

viewtopic.php?p=49988#p49988
Wow... that explains the hate-on for [Ref] cards that TPTB have had.

A lot of this makes sense and, 10 years on, a lot of it came to pass. OTF was the "new hybrid format" that came out of Standard and Revised,

It's been so long since universal printability that I'd forgotten how much card availability considerations were part of decisionmaking back then.

I think we've accomplished a lot of the goals of Jeremy's vision and the game has benefited as a result.

Going forward, I'm not sure we need to be banning more [Ref] cards - the ones that are left are purely optional in a competitive deck at this point. Containment Field is the one exception and maybe changing the timing of how [DL] work can demote that one to optional as well. I know there's a thread somewhere that beat that topic to death a few months ago but unlike James I'm too lazy to go find it... :P

Bottom line: there's a lot more good than bad about the game today compared to 10 years ago and the biggest needs now are more specific affiliation considerations than fundamental game mechanic considerations.

I think the following needs more building out:

[CF]
[Vid]
[Maq]
[1E-DS9] [Baj]
[Kaz]
[1E-DS9] [Kli]
[1E-DS9] [Rom]
[1E-TNG] [Car]

Q-Flash
Storage Compartment

But overall, yeah I've enjoyed 1e a lot since coming out of retirement in 2013 and I hope to continue to do so going forward.

:cheersL:
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By Ensign Q
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#491392
Armus wrote:
BCSWowbagger wrote:I found this while doing ban list research and thought it would be a fitting reflection for this thread:

viewtopic.php?p=49988#p49988
Wow... that explains the hate-on for [Ref] cards that TPTB have had.

haha, exactly my first thought. yeah, no idea how refcards worked in 2008, but now theyre definitely fine.
Otherwise he was pretty much stating the obvious. Casuals and Competitives are different playerbases and going forward you have to remember both.

Thats why I feel the idea: "Fit the game towards time restrictions" is not the best approach. If the average game takes longer than 60min, the tournament rules have to adjust...

Idk about expanding affilations. I feel everytime the CC prints a new set, its going for OP stuff.
Balancing broken with broken.
Sure, 23rd wasnt as bad as 22nd, but I still found some threads mentioning its too dominant.
What I think is needed to approach more players is a rules cleanup, maybe a bigger rewording of all the unclear cards and some form of advertisement. Youtube streams, reportages whatnot. Also hanging around with friends and playing the game at your LGS cant hurt.
TNG is long gone and outdated, but maybe Picards blows fresh wind in the franchise, that might help. I know about the copyright situation, but maybe the CC somehow can also get the rights to design Discovery and Picard cards to attract the younger audiences.
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First Edition Art Manager
By jjh (Johnny Holeva)
 - First Edition Art Manager
 -  
#491400
MidnightLich wrote:Where do you want the game to be in five years?
I want more competitive episodic Story Objective/Nouns Synergy like Mercenary Raiders, Scientific Diplomacy, Followers.

What James said regarding Turns.

WAY better reaction time on OP decks/cards/strategy by Errata and Design that embrace the OTF tools to balance the competitive game.
 
 - Beta Quadrant
 -  
#491461
i dont think james goes far enoguh actually. i dont want 15 turns to be considered a long, slow game. i want 15 to be at least average.

i want tng borgs and dominion war story cards.

i want q flashes to be strong again.

i want sets that have the freedom to include whatever they want, without being tied down to a narrow theme within a narrow block within an era of the star trek universe.

i dont want there to be banned cards except possibly any ref cards that have been made entirely redundant.

i dont want there to be any broken links that are older than 12 months old. not talking about future proofed broken links, but actually missing cards that are named or requirements for other cards.

the last two points are about responsibility. dont keep making new cards when you havent either finished cleaning your old mess or finished designing your old environment space.
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By Iron Prime (Dan Van Kampen)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
Moderator
#491513
BCSWowbagger wrote:I want the ban list to have only [Ref] cards on it.

I want the average game to last 10 turns, with the speediest decks finishing in not less than 8 and slower games going as long as 15.

I want the average turn to last 120 seconds, so even those slow games finish within time.

Through a combination of rules offloads, ruling updates, rule tweaks, and migrations of rules to the Rulebook, I want the Glossary to be no more than half its current size, with players opening it maybe 20% as often as they do today... and I want it in hypertext.
+1
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Executive Officer
By jadziadax8 (Maggie Geppert)
 - Executive Officer
 -  
2E North American Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
ibbles  Trek Masters Tribbles Champion 2023
2E Deep Space 9 Regional Champion 2023
#491520
I don't know about the game, but in five years I hope I'm a good enough player that my Constructed rating is >1500.
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By Mr.Sloan
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#491571
When Trekcc started i suggested to balance the draw/free play mechanics FIRST thing, giving all player and affiliations equally good draw and play mechanics. This is now done, but unfortunatly by now non of my former player base is any longer interested in constructed and building decks. Just playing Warpspeed to remember the good old times.

I also had prefered to think through and balance new cards more instead of releasing them and then errata or banning them. Manliv, Continuing mission and all the others. Guess thats a mentality difference between germans (just don´t make mistakes) and americans (just do it and fix the problems later).

Anyway I mostly like the way the game has developed by now. In 5 Years i hope ALL affiliations are equal. There are much more equal then in Big D´s time, but some are simply better then others to a degree.

I also would like to see more interaction and flavor. Its good that a battle deck cannot eleminate the opponent completly. I still like to see more smaller interaction, using affiliation flavor and give each affiliations more ways to get (bonus) points this way. Often any affiliation is just used as a solver. i´d like the meta game to be about 60-70% solving and 30-40% interaction and bonus point gathering.

e.g.
[Kli] Mor points (10-20 per game) per personal battle? or ship combat?
[Rom] Romulans are secretive information broker and saboteur with their tal shiar, yet most decks simply solve and do not use Tal Shiar Infiltrators to doe damage / and or gain bonus points. Make multiple ways to use Tal Shiar offensivly and effective enought so that romulan player start to use it regularly.
[Car] Yeah they capture sometimes, but they also have an obsidian order that should have the power to sabotage stuff, like ships etc.
[Fer] How about a card where one can use gold-pressed latinum to Brainwash an opponents personel to work for the ferengi now? Because everyman has its price and maybe only Integrity >7 personnal are save (or cost more latinum).
[Fed] How about stopping 3 diplomats to give the opponent 5 points to chancel a battle? and 5 more each time another battle is anounced? 1rst Battle prevention giving 5 Points. Chanceling a 2nd battle give additional 10 points etc.
[Bor] more points for interactive assimilation. borg ships give points to opponent when destroyed anyway, so...
etc.

Also maybe some cards that encourage both player to lay the spaceline in a way that both start in the middle of the spaceline as neightbors instead of having all missions and outposts on one end and the other player living at the other end.

Personally i would love to see BOTH player be encouraged to use [Tac]. Because once both player have it its real fun and interactive. But its also complicated, so whats right, whats wrong anyway?

And finaly: Player base is more and more scattert around the world. Offer online competitions, leagues, teamplays, nations vs. nations cups, online world championships etc. Lackey might not be 100% cheat secure but real life wasn´t either. As long as the game is continuely played world wide, i think that would be a small prize to pay.

And thanks for everyone who works for trekcc to keep the game alive! :thumbsup:
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