Episode Seven: "Flight of the Phoenix"

[Serris]

Sunday, April 26th, 2015 @ 1:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BST.

With repairs completed, the Phoenix departed K-7 for the Typhon Expanse. The first leg of the trip wasn't without its share of incidents. A power malfunction in the galley caused some of Chef's cooking to go awry, sending some crewmembers to Sickbay, including Captain He.

Shortly after, Lieutenant Cameron detected a Klingon distress call directly in the Phoenix's flight path. Once the ship dropped out of warp, they found a derelict K'Tinga-class battlecruiser, heavily damaged by what appeared to be disruptor fire. Suddenly, an unknown assailant opened fire from within the nebula. After an intense battle that damaged the warp drive and injured some of the crew, the enemy ship was disabled. Unfortunately, before the crew could properly investigate their attacker, the unknown ship was destroyed, possibly by a self-destruct sequence.

With repairs underway, the crew is left to heal before resuming their journey into the depths of the Beta Quadrant.


LCARS Database references for this episode:
     •     Landmark: Tarkeeti Nebula

[Mutatio Nomen]

Sunday, March 26th, 2015 @ 1:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BST.

Welcome to the timewaaarrrp!

[Klaw]

Quickly, an FYI, this Hercules release fixes some bugs/complaints but not all of them, yet...

To put it simply, I'm still cooking

[Serris]

Sunday, March 26th, 2015 @ 1:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BST.

Welcome to the timewaaarrrp!

Whoops. Fixed that.

[Samual Johnson]

I will pssibly be somewhat late for this today, running medIa computer for my church. But I will be there

[Serris]

This thread is now dedicated to reviewing the episode. Please leave your feedback here!

[Serris]

I've been told that disabling the warp drive in the battle with the enemy ship was a bit too heavy-handed. Lost Era was founded on the idea of giving players freedom of how they interact with the universe, and it's not delivering on that. I'll be sure to be more subtle in the future.

Aside from that, I think this was a respectable outing. We had a pretty clear end goal and everyone had something to do at some point or another. I'm not going to vote in the poll, but I feel like it was a solid 4.

[Andzzy]

I voted 4 in the poll. I think that overall it was a very good episode. There was a plot, we stayed on it, and everyone seemed to have something to do until the end. I think that the areas where the SRP needs to be improved were fairly evident here. This aside from the warp drive failure that made the episode feel more forced and story-driven rather than dynamic and choice-driven.

1) Crew Interaction. Bug Chef is serving as much-needed comedic relief but the interactions between crewmembers can sometimes feel strained and terse. As a choice-driven SRP I think that a little more out-of-the-way conversation wouldn't hurt so much. I'm seeing it improve in great strides but I still think it could be better (yes I am guilty of this also).

2) Crew Response Times. When someone gives an order to a crewmember I like to think that the average response time should be in the area of 5-10 seconds. Obviously it's not going to be instant because we're RPing via text and not voice, but a 30-40 second delay in response can add an uncomfortable gap in the SRP. This sometimes has to be filled by the SRP Runner or the CO (when those two things aren't one in the same). Likewise, if you see that someone has left an uncomfortable gap and you're in a position to fill that gap, you might consider making an effort to do so.

Overall the SRP is running well in my opinion and I enjoy being a part of it. There are just a few things that I think need work as mentioned above. It's off to a great start and, as Bug Chef would put it, acquire excellent roleplaying sessions!

[Scott Archer]

I think it was a little slow starting but got into a much better rhythm- my favorite ep of the season so far.
I disagree that killing the warp drive was heavy handed. It maybe felt a little cliche as it happened just after the call to use warp to escape but it gave the engineering crew a clear objective.

[Mutatio Nomen]

Much more enjoyable this time around. Some of my choice lines from the episode:

Bonchune: Permission to speak freely.
He: Denied.

Marcel: This is some good hamburger.

Cameron: Shall I include that we're under attack as well?

LOL. Oh man.

[Telex Ferra]

I left a really long review in this thread? Did it get deleted or not go through?

[Shoot]

I left a really long review in this thread? Did it get deleted or not go through?

I haven't seen any rewiews from you today, but I did like this episode a lot.

[Serris]

I left a really long review in this thread? Did it get deleted or not go through?

I haven't seen any replies from you in this thread, and I know for a fact that I haven't moderated any posts in this subforum beyond moving episode threads. I think it just failed to go through.

[Telex Ferra]

Well, what I said was that I was the person that voted 2.

I don't want to go over things that have already been said in here a few times, so I'm not going to type out my whole review again. All I will say is this:

It's okay to have an SRP with a very linear plot, but you can't claim that the player's have an impact on the story when everyone's actions are controlled in such a way that they play out a very specific plot. During this episode. I think you sent more specific instructions to people over PM than I have ever seen in this SRP. If you're still committed to allowing players to shape the SRP, you're going to have to loosen, not tighten, your grip on the reins.