I posted this under my wish list topic, but I figure this one might be worth a second look. Yes, we all know the KDF still needs a little more work, and we would love to see it as a stater faction. Lets say the KDF is fixed tot he point where just about everyone is happy with it, now what about the new factions?
I was thinking why not make them level unlockable types, like the KDF is now, and they would be to the level of what we see with the KDF at this point and time. Maybe a little more polished, and not so limited, but still to a point like we see the KDF at this point and time. Would you be ok with that?
IMO I would like to see something like this, not to say it how it would happen, but if the KDF is a starter faction later on why not do this:
Level 25 - Feringi Alliance
Level 30 - Romulan Star Empire
Level 40 - The Dominion
Level 50 - The Borg
I don't know about you guys, but even the Borg at the level 50 cap would be a good faction to have, maybe not full Borg, maybe make them break away Borg looking to make their own way in the galaxy. Away from the main Borg, it's happened before so why not in STO. Heck we might even get a new level cap to 55, 60 or even 70, then you can push all this faction caps even higher with you wish. But once you get to play the new faction, your starting level should be 20 I think. Just like you get with the KDF now.
So what do you guys think? Good idea, bad idea or you have your own idea? Please feel free to comment, your not going to hurt my feelings if you don't like the idea. hehe

Comments
the main reason i say this is because at most, there's only 4 ship models in-game for them.
the Bird of Prey
the Mogai Escort
the D'Deridex
the "Scimitar class"
and a couple of fighter types..
if they were to be tied to a level unlock, i'd suggest something around 35/40, make the romulan BoP the "starter" ship and the other three the "admiral" level equivailents. I'd also suggest SERIOUSLY toning the "scimitar" type down, because it'd be insanely overpowered as a player ship as it exists now in-game.
i suppose you could include the Hirogen ships and race in their faction, but even then thats only another 4 ships..
in order to unlock them any lower some serious design and modelling work would have to be done to create at least a reasonable amount of ships for each level.. and i'm fairly sure the moment the KDF is deemed "complete" by the players there will be a riot for the romulans to be playable immediately..
If cryptic ever bothers to expand PvP this might even be the best way to introduce additional variety: Specific PvP characters, always maxlevel, limited to otherwise not playable factions.
1. You start a mission to stop a Borg invasion into Fed/ KDF space, this would be a key point to unlocking the Borg as a playable faction starting point. This mission would have your guy getting captured and assinulated.
2. After you watch your ship blow up, you wakeup in a Borg ship, of course you don't lose your ship, it's all for show.
3. As a Borg you do a few missions on the ship, until finally you are given control of a Borg Sphere or Probe ship.
4. Once you are given this ship, you do a couple missions for the Borg, then upon the last starter mission you are recused by break away Borg, who have be come independant from the collective.
The Break away goal is to free others from the collective, and you gain new ships from the missions under the independant Borg. At least that's how I would do it. The Collective is what it is, and to have playable Borg you have to be free from them. I think it could work if done right.
that's only because if they showed the borg like they did in TNG, you would need pretty much 50 ships to kill 1 borg cube.
Give stuff the time it needs, factions are way to important to 1/2 a$$.
BTW I forgot to say you don't lose your main guy to start the Borg missions, you just get a copy if you want, or customize them to look different if you wish. hehe
Pretty sure that ship's already sailed in this game. 2 years in and the KDF is still just a half-done faction. Might as well play up the strengths of this development team, and that is ... half-done factions. It fits the construction of the game as it is, and doesn't pin one's hopes on something the team has show time and time again that they can not do.
The KDF as a half-faction is playable and fun. They could add a series of other half-factions that are playable and interest players. And that would improve the game overall and draw more people in. And they no longer have to actually try and do a full faction which they've show is impossible since they can't seem to generate more than a tiny trickle of content/missions each year.
That's why I posted my idea, and I am sure others feel the same way. If you make the new faction level unlocks like the KDF is now, it might be the best way to go. Heck even if the plan is to make the Romulans a full faction, you can still add the others as level unlocks, and they will still be fun to play. As long as these new factions are setup like the KDF is right now, it will work IMO.
As far as the limited # of ship models for romulans, I'm sure that if/when they are added as a faction CaptLogan or some of the staff would be tasked with designed many many new (and awesome looking) ships.
In any case, I think talk of future factions is fun, but premature. I would put money on STO adding romulans in 2014 at the EARLIEST.
But we'll see.
They've been saying this for 2 years now. Unfortunately their track record and actual work done on this is lackluster and demonstrates they can't actually deliver on this.
My initial thought is that this idea is not that good a one. The Klingon players want/demand/insist on a full faction soon, and frankly this is just a single player game with some co-op features without a full Klingon faction. Putting in tiered unlocks for additional factions would just make the Klings even angrier and I couldn't blame them.
However...
So long as a gimped Klingon faction is not 'the new norm,' then perhaps this is a good idea. The Ferengi, the Romulans, all the rest aren't as fleshed-out as the Feds, so maybe this might be a good way to squeeze them in. (THough it's a slippery slope, as the Klingons are arguably not as 'fleshed out' as the Feds, either....)
However, the KDF is getting pretty good. Right now, I'm pretty much happy with the KDF and I've been playing only Klingon since F2P. If we could release Romulans at this level, I would be happy.
Romulans have a lot ship possibilities, by the way. There's the old bird of prey and the new one, the Mogai, the D'deridex, the Scimitar, the scout ship from TNG... and it wouldn't be too hard to make new Romulan ships, I mean, they all look like birds? The ones in Star Trek Armada were all cool, so they can do it.
There's a thread in this section about CapnGeko's interview with Priority One, in that interview he provides quite a bit of info about the plan to expand the Klingon faction. Stating something along the lines of they're going to be working backwards, adding missions in at around level 21 ish, then lower the starting level... Rinse and repeat until they get to level 1, at which point they should have a KDF tutorial thrown in to.
So there should be no reason why any new faction should be level locked if it's a full faction with a tutorial (that can be skipped).
Woo, good to hear. I like the klginons.... i love flying the Orion Carriers. and i am happy to see they will be expanding them, i just hope they bring great sotries to the klingons.
P.S. Your Avatar... is that a Guyver?
The problem right now is unlocking factions. KDF will finally be able to play form start soon(tm) which is a huge improvement. In the future whe/if new factions are added, they should be playable from the start instead of having people be forced to play an X amount of a faction they do not really like.