It is good that you will gladly accept that, because that is just about all you will get. But the question isnt whether you or I or even a small die hard group of Rom fans will accept a barely existent Rom faction. The question is whether the majority of people who are interested in playing Romulan will accept what you just described. That would be a great subject for a new poll. "How little content will you actually accept for a Romulan faction?"
Any...when starving anything taste good. And the only point im trying to press at this time is this....There are Romulan fans within this community...but none of us feel like we are part of the community since we have no faction to play to begin with. Meanwhile enough members of this community are quick to point and mock the few that remain with the "why would you want a faction when we all see what cryptic did to the kdf" or "if the romulans become a playable faction before the kdf are finished we can count down the days till sto shuts down"
Things like that make me personally wonder if these individuals even watched trek and understood what Roddenberry was trying to say.
It is interesting to see all of the responses in this thread about the feature options for 2013. It is clear that the game has a lot of room to grow and over the next year it is going to be our goal to tackle as many of the features on that list as we can.
Good post dstahl. Fortunately there is a solution to your content disparity problem, and it is called the foundry. But until you guys actually make it so that foundry missions reward you equally to official content, that solution will continue to elude you. Yes, I saw your earlier post about Spotlight missions getting rewards in October, and that is good. But there are simply not enough spotlight missions to make up for the content disparity with the KDF.
You have to find a way to make it work for all foundry missions, and you also have to get the foundry missions out of the dark and dusty corner of the mission journal UI they are currently in and shine a light on them. Then and only then will you solve your content problem. And if you actually pull that off, then you wont have to worry about content disparity with future factions like Romulans either.
I havent played NW yet, but from the interviews I've read and seen it sounds like they are making their foundry missions just as visible as the official content. It also sounds like they are scaling rewards based on mission length, virtually solving exploit problems. Honestly, it should be your top priority to get this tech into STO. Until you do, you are always going to have the content disparity issue on your back and dragging this game down. The game is approaching the 3 year mark. Its time to solve this problem once and for all.
Then don't bother. You will be doing the RSE and it's fans a disservice by folding them into another faction. I want to play a Romulan in the RSE not a Federation Romulan or a Klingon Romulan, I can do that now with the alien creator. I appreciate your thoughts on the matter and needless to say I disagree with them. If that is the direction you plan on going at least let those of us who are still playing in hopes that the RSE will be released know and know soon.
When it comes to a Romulan faction, the question still remains, would it be healthy for the game to introduce an entirely new faction that is now in the situation we just worked to solve? More than likely, if we were to add the ability to play as a Romulan, we would want to make it so that they could have their own experience, but ultimately fit somehow into the confines of our two faction game. Whether or not this means Romulans ultimately having to choose between which faction they support or something else entirely, the idea that Romulans would be a 3rd unique faction unto itself is a road STO may not take, if only to ensure the future health of the game.
Like the Romulan Alliance System? Of course you do, it sounds fine to you because you aren't Romulans, you're FED or KDF who are going to make a Romulan alt, it makes a HUGE difference in perspective.
There is also the concern that players have put a lot of effort into their existing characters and fleets. It wouldn't necessarily be a healthy choice to introduce a 3rd faction that has its own fleets, duty officer system, ships, and bridge officers because it would be disruptive to the fleets and friendships you've made in game.
So........what are you saying Dan? That our fleet ingame that is solely romulan would suffer if our faction was introduced?
Im totally lost for words at this part of your statement Mr Stahl...from what im seeing...your stating on your belief...that part of the sto community has to just suck it up? because it would be disruptive to let us have our faction???
if this is true...i suggest all members close your accounts now. If im reading into this and or misreading this...I request further explanation on the Romulan Situation.
romulan, true way, dominion, and breen factions that are level 40-50 and consists of 1 home sector block, 1 social map, 1 ship tier, and qued content access is all i want.
for full or partial pve content, the fed and klingon can fill that roll. it would be a huge waist of resources to build any more pve for new factions, people want to pretend being starfleet captains or klingon warriors, they don't want to roll play the rest especially, they just want to fly their ships.
When introducing the "Reputation System" in Season 7, why not tie it to the Federation and KDF as "Factions" ? A Human Player would begin with "Honored" or Higher reputation with Earth (and thus a "Starfleet player"), while a Klingon Player would begin with a "Honored" or Higher reputation with Qu'onos (and thus a "KDF player").
Would also like to see the Reputation system extended to have the ability to LOSE reputation, in order to gain it with a rival faction. Thus allowing players who "go rogue", to switch from being a FED player to a KDF player (and vice versa). An "Alien" player would be given a choice of which Faction to represent at the start of the new Season.
Current Federation member races (Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite etc), would start off at "Friendly" for the FED, while the KDF member races (Orion, Lethean, Gorn etc), would start off at "Friendly" for the KDF.
Obviously this may be a "long-term" goal, but would also solve the issue of if the game has 1 faction, 2 factions or MANY factions. In the world of "Star Trek", there isn't only 2 factions. There are in fact many different factions, some of which allied with other factions.
romulan, true way, dominion, and breen factions that are level 40-50 and consists of 1 home sector block, 1 social map, 1 ship tier, and qued content access is all i want.
for full or partial pve content, the fed and klingon can fill that roll. it would be a huge waist of resources to build any more pve for new factions, people want to pretend being starfleet captains or klingon warriors, they don't want to roll play the rest especially, they just want to fly their ships.
I agree on this fully...Im not asking for level 1-50 im asking for my costumes race and gosh darn ships......something that at this point seems itll be disruptive to the rest of the community and not healthy for sto....
might as well have just said wich faction do you think belongs in star trek online but never will....wed still win the damn vote..not that it matters as of now.
When it comes to "factions", one concern I share is that when it comes to Star Trek fans, it is predominantly made up of "Federation" fans. No matter how many other races or factions we consider, the Federation will always be the most popular because they have the "leading role" in the TV shows, Movies, and most Games/Books.
yes I know that the federation has more favored, but there is still people who would perfer another faction, example being: the people who perfer KFD and the people who like Romulans beter.
You know, I've been playin for two years, not quite since beta.
I LOVED the game when I first started with my first character. I was able to wander the game exploring this map, and this experience. It was fantastic.
Two years have flown by. I've leveled six characters to end game and have experienced nearly everything the game has to offer that I care to engage in.
I also have a KDF charachter that I leveled up before free to play. Simply to experience things on that side of the fence.
I've got all the fancy alien species under my belt, even a female character. I wanted to experience it all.
I have every ship from the C store and several of the lock box ships.
But here I am today, Starved for something/ANYTHING new. A new ship, a new mission, a new experience of ANY kind.
THANK GOD for the FOUNDRY!
To be able to play as a Romulan, would give me yet another new experience I crave. I don't bloody care if I get the whole experience like the Federation. I would be perfectly happy running around doing all the old missions, fleet missions, red alerts, dilithium grind thing and the occasional pvp with friends as a Romulan. Why? because it would be something NEW to experience.
Do I want to level a Romulan from the start all over again? Me personally no. I wouldn't mind buying a playable captain level Romulan expansion with a few unique missions. I'm sure once introduced. All those great Foundry authors will keep me entertained as a Romulan.
After that? I would LOVE to play a Hirogen, and after that, who knows.
I would HATE to think that in a universe as big and exciting as Star Trek, I would never be able to play some of the other iconic races because of Cryptic's lack of resources. And let's be honest, Cryptic will NEVER be able to fully flesh out this game for every faction and still pump out new things to bring in revenue, unless they are done as mini faction expansions.
This would kills two birds with one stone.
I also think selling other mini factions would flesh out the rest of the Trek verse pretty fast.
To me, that would be very exciting.
romulan, true way, dominion, and breen factions that are level 40-50 and consists of 1 home sector block, 1 social map, 1 ship tier, and qued content access is all i want.
for full or partial pve content, the fed and klingon can fill that roll. it would be a huge waist of resources to build any more pve for new factions, people want to pretend being starfleet captains or klingon warriors, they don't want to roll play the rest especially, they just want to fly their ships.
Ehhh What he said...
Also to fix the whole leveling problem, dont make it where 1 episode levels a person, make it where you do 1 Episode, then do a couple Patrols and other PvE side missions before you can start the next mission/level. To go along with that, nerf the heck out of Mirror Universe Event.
A Romulan Faction should (in my opinion) be a major part of the game since they play a major part in the series.
A 3rd faction with a science focus should be good...
True Way, Cardassian, Breen, and Borg should all be what the quoted post suggested
The Average PvP player
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
1) Teamwork and timing is #1
2) You cannot "Kirk It" in every ship
3) You are going to die, just get back up
When it comes to a Romulan faction, the question still remains, would it be healthy for the game to introduce an entirely new faction that is now in the situation we just worked to solve? More than likely, if we were to add the ability to play as a Romulan, we would want to make it so that they could have their own experience, but ultimately fit somehow into the confines of our two faction game. Whether or not this means Romulans ultimately having to choose between which faction they support or something else entirely, the idea that Romulans would be a 3rd unique faction unto itself is a road STO may not take, if only to ensure the future health of the game.
If that is your stance Dan. Then leave the Romulans out, I will have no part of a Romulan faction that is tacked on to the Federation or KDF or any other faction. If you want it to remain a two faction game that is fine, at least that clears up the status of the Romulans. For me the only reason I still do anything in this game is because I have been patiently waiting for the Romulan Star Empire to be added (key phrasing there the Empire, not some vassal to another faction) if this is not going to happen just tell us and I can stop waiting and move on to something else.
I don't PVP, have no desire to PVP and even I voted for more KDF content. I'd love a Romulan faction but the KDF needs to be finished first for all the reasons that have already been given. Build it and they will come!
I have to agree with shadowjwc above. The Romulan Empire would never willingly be a lackey to the Federation or the Klingons. The Iconians are a different story, there's a tangible power there that could be used to reclaim the former glory of the Empire. Can the Federation, Klingons, or any other government offer the Romulans that?
I have seen what power does. And I have seen what power costs. The one is never equal to the other.
Whenever I think of Federation and KDF mission equality, it reminds me of the challenges we had before we launched the game. There was a drive to get "X hours of mission gameplay" into the box before it shipped. This resulted in a decent amount of episodes and a large amount of lesser quality patrol missions.
Since then we recognized that we wanted to make higher quality episodes AND add KDF as a full PVE faction. What we've been doing over the last two years is adding premium new high quality episodes playable by either faction because it was hitting two birds with one stone.
Add in all of the STF changes, the new Fleet Actions, the DOFF system and now we have a situation where there is almost TOO much leveling content on the Fed side and a decent amount on the KDF side. After looking at a lot of data, it is clear that Fed characters that use the duty officer system and run queued event outlevel the patrol and episode content to the point where most players hit max level before completing the Romulan episode series. In our goal to introduce more quality episodes, we now have a leveling curve that is very fast for the FED side.
When I think of creating "Parity" for the KDF, the goal would *not* be to get KDF to the same place as the FED, because the fact is, the FED curve is too fast. In addition to adding just a few more Episodes for the KDF, we need to weed out some of the less important FED patrols from the leveling path. That is what will get both factions to 1-50 leveling curve parity.
My two bars of latinum:
STO was my first MMO. I remember playing at launch and working my way through sectors. I recall the level curve fairly matching my progression from Fed Space (Lt) > Klingon Front (LtC), Romulan Front (Cmdr), Cardassian Front (Capt), and the Borg (Adm).
I wonder if new players get that same experience leveling through the sectors or just burn to max level.
I've been waiting for a similar Klingon experience, even though my toon on that side is already max level, I want the story.
For me Star Trek has always been about the story, and not so much about the battles. I say that as an owner of the original Starfleet Command and Elite Force (which I loved both).
If we could get a faction with (rough estimate) 20-30 solid story missions. Doesn't have to be fancy new tech, but explores the universe of 2409, I'd be a happy camper. That goes for KDF or future factions. If there's stuff to do after the story, great. But I think the story should be what gets you there.
<signature under reconstruction>
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Want cheap commodities? Yeah you do. Commodity Cheat Sheet (includes food and data samples)
Want to make the game better? Might I suggest this form
If that is your stance Dan. Then leave the Romulans out, I will have no part of a Romulan faction that is tacked on to the Federation or KDF or any other faction. If you want it to remain a two faction game that is fine, at least that clears up the status of the Romulans. For me the only reason I still do anything in this game is because I have been patiently waiting for the Romulan Star Empire to be added (key phrasing there the Empire, not some vassal to another faction) if this is not going to happen just tell us and I can stop waiting and move on to something else.
Come on don't you like following the carrot stuck to the stick out in front of you?
Maybe Dan should not have said anything - that carrot seems to have been working well.
or as in the Cloak issue or the doff TRIBBLE-up "working as Intended"
Romulan fans have no expectation to be equal to the Federation, we never have in any game and to expect to be so now would be ridiculous. The Federation is the big dog in any Star Trek game featuring other factions. To expect otherwise is delusional. We are not denying you any game play, after all you can currently play as a Klink and a member of the KDF, we can not play as a Romulan in the RSE. There is a big difference between what we are arguing and what you are arguing, but I'm not surprised you don't see that. You are Klingon after all.
You stated you desired an "equal playing experience." Your words. Equal to whom? It's a simple enough question for even you to answer. Or is your Romulan heart filled with cowardice?
Actually I'm Lethean.
Jack Emmert: "Starfleet and Klingon. ... So two factions, full PvE content." Al Rivera hates Klingons Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert All cloaks should be canon.
So, Might I ask again...since it seems to be overlooked...what more does the kdf want? Im all ears.
You keep asking for more content and to be equal to the federation mission wise. I understand this demand but dont understand the result...as I had stated before so you want 1 more day tacked on to your leveling for months of development work am I to understand this correctly?
I enjoy the constant reminders certain KDF members bring to attention...the since beta we were promised...
And since beta...with a limited staff, constant company changes, a f2p change..they kdf has recieved a decent amount of stuff..far be it a great amount but any is better than none...for 2.5 years we Romulans have been sitting, waiting, and quitting in mass droves while we watch update after update with no Romulan faction to become playable...
Klingon count (my numbers might be slightly off) but I count 34 klingon vessels to run around in, with an additional 10 non klingon ...gorn orion nausican vessels...we romulans have...0
Let me repeat this...0...costumes...we have 0...race...we have 0....starbase..0..an intact community....this sadly is 0 as well...
someone mentioned earlier that they think there is still a romulan fleet ingame...there is...
The IRF...Imperial Romulan Fleet...no one can say we havent been kicked from one side to the other and have the most people leave a fleet...we gain 3 new members a month...and lose twice that each month..with the general response...will come back when the faction is playable...
You know how bloody hard it is to build a starbase with like 6 active members because no one wants to play as federation or klingon to begin with?
So ...to my esteemed boistorous KDF community...I humbly ask you all to sit back down and let us have our half thought half loved half produced faction...because when we can finaly have our warbirds...we will support the game in full and ask what everyone else ask for and thats endgame/pvp/finish the kdf...
I gladly accept cryptic giving me 3 romulan ships a couple costumes and no unique missions to a faction that we believed would happen after the first poll we won with almost 70% of the vote 2 years ago.
Well if you want to be technical, Romulans couldn't have left in droves since Romulans don't actually exist (Lots of decent looking Romulan cosplay costumes though). Since Romulans don't actually exist, a non-existent race not having something is no different than saying Logitechians (They're a race of expert engineers and craft support hardware and peripherals for starships and outposts.) have zero of everything. Logitechians are being suppressed! Also if you're power leveling yourself through every rank to hit max level as soon as possible (months of dev time for one extra day of leveling. yada, yada, yada.) to rerun those oh so glorious stfs for the nth-1 time, you're missing out and I feel sorry for you.
Jack Emmert: "Starfleet and Klingon. ... So two factions, full PvE content." Al Rivera hates Klingons Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert All cloaks should be canon.
It is interesting to see all of the responses in this thread about the feature options for 2013. It is clear that the game has a lot of room to grow and over the next year it is going to be our goal to tackle as many of the features on that list as we can.
When it comes to "factions", one concern I share is that when it comes to Star Trek fans, it is predominantly made up of "Federation" fans. No matter how many other races or factions we consider, the Federation will always be the most popular because they have the "leading role" in the TV shows, Movies, and most Games/Books.
There is also the concern that players have put a lot of effort into their existing characters and fleets. It wouldn't necessarily be a healthy choice to introduce a 3rd faction that has its own fleets, duty officer system, ships, and bridge officers because it would be disruptive to the fleets and friendships you've made in game.
All of this is above and beyond the question of whether or not there would be enough "missions" for a faction to have a solid game experience.
Whenever I think of Federation and KDF mission equality, it reminds me of the challenges we had before we launched the game. There was a drive to get "X hours of mission gameplay" into the box before it shipped. This resulted in a decent amount of episodes and a large amount of lesser quality patrol missions.
Since then we recognized that we wanted to make higher quality episodes AND add KDF as a full PVE faction. What we've been doing over the last two years is adding premium new high quality episodes playable by either faction because it was hitting two birds with one stone.
Add in all of the STF changes, the new Fleet Actions, the DOFF system and now we have a situation where there is almost TOO much leveling content on the Fed side and a decent amount on the KDF side. After looking at a lot of data, it is clear that Fed characters that use the duty officer system and run queued event outlevel the patrol and episode content to the point where most players hit max level before completing the Romulan episode series. In our goal to introduce more quality episodes, we now have a leveling curve that is very fast for the FED side.
When I think of creating "Parity" for the KDF, the goal would *not* be to get KDF to the same place as the FED, because the fact is, the FED curve is too fast. In addition to adding just a few more Episodes for the KDF, we need to weed out some of the less important FED patrols from the leveling path. That is what will get both factions to 1-50 leveling curve parity.
When it comes to a Romulan faction, the question still remains, would it be healthy for the game to introduce an entirely new faction that is now in the situation we just worked to solve? More than likely, if we were to add the ability to play as a Romulan, we would want to make it so that they could have their own experience, but ultimately fit somehow into the confines of our two faction game. Whether or not this means Romulans ultimately having to choose between which faction they support or something else entirely, the idea that Romulans would be a 3rd unique faction unto itself is a road STO may not take, if only to ensure the future health of the game.
Please don't mistake any of this as the "plan of record" but instead me sharing my thoughts on the poll results and what it might mean for STO in 2013. Anything can happen and plans can and do change, but it is fun to discuss and get your feedback when it comes to these ideas.
good to see Stahl in here engaging the feedback, thanks Dan.
Yes I was hoping for a Romulan faction w/ Romulan ships, costumes & missions.
Yes it's disappointing to hear that we who wanted Romulans from day 1 and have been made to wait almost 3 years for them are now being told that what we "might" get isn't what we've been waiting for.
HOWEVER, I for one don't necessarily have an issue w/ playing a Romulan aligned w/ KDF or Fed. In fact I've suggested several times making Romulans a playable species for both factions, like Liberated Borg or Joined Trill.
Romulan fans have no expectation to be equal to the Federation, we never have in any game and to expect to be so now would be ridiculous. The Federation is the big dog in any Star Trek game featuring other factions. To expect otherwise is delusional. We are not denying you any game play, after all you can currently play as a Klink and a member of the KDF, we can not play as a Romulan in the RSE. There is a big difference between what we are arguing and what you are arguing, but I'm not surprised you don't see that. You are Klingon after all.
Bolded for emphasis.
I direct you to Star Trek: Klingon Academy. It IS possible to make good Star Trek games, without focusing on the "almighty Federation" or it's "Human masters".
Cryptic seems to have overlooked this little "gem" of a game. Released in 2000, 12 years later it's STILL being modded (albeit not as active anymore).
When it comes to a Romulan faction, the question still remains, would it be healthy for the game to introduce an entirely new faction that is now in the situation we just worked to solve? More than likely, if we were to add the ability to play as a Romulan, we would want to make it so that they could have their own experience, but ultimately fit somehow into the confines of our two faction game. Whether or not this means Romulans ultimately having to choose between which faction they support or something else entirely, the idea that Romulans would be a 3rd unique faction unto itself is a road STO may not take, if only to ensure the future health of the game.
There's a reason most MMO's have two factions anyway. A romulan faction in any form is not impossible, nor is it an unreasonable thing to have. It just wouldn't work at this moment in time. I barely touch my KDF character, I would likely never play a Romulan beyond the story missions, I'm always with my Fed. I would bet money that most of the players feel and act the same way. It wouldn't matter if there was the KDF, RSE, Dominion, and Borg factions, each of them with content comparable to the Feds.
The Federation would still have more players than all of those factions combined. I would lay $500,000 USD on that bet. (If I had it. :P)
The only way Cryptic could justify more factions is if there were genuine reasons to "try the other side of the fence" for a while. (I have been asking for cross faction rewards for a very long time now) Unless Cryptic can do that to the extent that it would take to complete KDF, and then do it for other factions, (The scope of which would be gigantic) asking for more of them is kind of silly.
Like I said before, there's a reason most MMO's only have two factions. If they have factions at all.
I think you're misquoting me but regardless, I would be content with our own faction, our own ships, and our own social zones. A simple enough answer for you Lethean, I hope it's simple enough for you to comprehend
You stated you desired an "equal playing experience." Your words. Equal to whom? It's a simple enough question for even you to answer. Or is your Romulan heart filled with cowardice?
Actually I'm Lethean.
Like the Romulan Alliance System? Of course you do, it sounds fine to you because you aren't Romulans, you're FED or KDF who are going to make a Romulan alt, it makes a HUGE difference in perspective.
if they do a romulan shortcut like for example romulan join the feds remen join the KDF for you would never see you ship unless it came out of a lock box same for the uniforms and thats if your lucky
i want to see a full stand alone faction with a green Ui with a romulan home planet it or base or both with romulan uniforms
if we get them like my example you will most likely never see of any of what romulan should get think about for ppl that got them playble klingon on the Feds can you use any of there ships can you use any of there uniforms is there Ui red like the real klingons?
and knowing the history of this game you can almost write that in stone
and dont forget you can do them anyways called makeing a alien and you be haveing the same thing as if they do the romulan shortcut just them pixel's want say romulan but instead (alien)
You see the posts like the one above me and you wonder why Romulan fans hate Klingon fans? It's not just that our respective factions hate each other, it's that they're more then willing to deny us an equal playing experience to make their experience better. Any time one group denigrates and opposes another for their own gain the ones being denied are going to strongly dislike those opposing them.
I think you're misquoting me but regardless, I would be content with our own faction, our own ships, and our own social zones. A simple enough answer for you Lethean, I hope it's simple enough for you to comprehend
You forget we're telepathic. I cannot deny you that which you do not desire. If you claim you do not desire it then your point of experience denial cannot stand. Therefore, since you do not desire it, the experience you presently enjoy will suffice and playable Romulans in any form are not necessary. But you do indeed desire it all. Thus, the obvious animosity.
Jack Emmert: "Starfleet and Klingon. ... So two factions, full PvE content." Al Rivera hates Klingons Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert All cloaks should be canon.
Well then what I meant by an equal playing experience is plain as day, especially for a telepath such as yourself. It does not surprise me however, that hanging out with such animals as the Klingons would dull your mental capacities. Sad, just sad to see a species with such potential reduced so. Allow me to make it more obvious for your reduced capacities. Equal playing experience in this situation refers to having the same experience that the KDF currently enjoys which according to a post on the previous page has the perfect leveling curve
Like the Romulan Alliance System? Of course you do, it sounds fine to you because you aren't Romulans, you're FED or KDF who are going to make a Romulan alt, it makes a HUGE difference in perspective.
It is interesting to see all of the responses in this thread about the feature options for 2013. It is clear that the game has a lot of room to grow and over the next year it is going to be our goal to tackle as many of the features on that list as we can.
When it comes to "factions", one concern I share is that when it comes to Star Trek fans, it is predominantly made up of "Federation" fans. No matter how many other races or factions we consider, the Federation will always be the most popular because they have the "leading role" in the TV shows, Movies, and most Games/Books.
There is also the concern that players have put a lot of effort into their existing characters and fleets. It wouldn't necessarily be a healthy choice to introduce a 3rd faction that has its own fleets, duty officer system, ships, and bridge officers because it would be disruptive to the fleets and friendships you've made in game.
All of this is above and beyond the question of whether or not there would be enough "missions" for a faction to have a solid game experience.
Whenever I think of Federation and KDF mission equality, it reminds me of the challenges we had before we launched the game. There was a drive to get "X hours of mission gameplay" into the box before it shipped. This resulted in a decent amount of episodes and a large amount of lesser quality patrol missions.
Since then we recognized that we wanted to make higher quality episodes AND add KDF as a full PVE faction. What we've been doing over the last two years is adding premium new high quality episodes playable by either faction because it was hitting two birds with one stone.
Add in all of the STF changes, the new Fleet Actions, the DOFF system and now we have a situation where there is almost TOO much leveling content on the Fed side and a decent amount on the KDF side. After looking at a lot of data, it is clear that Fed characters that use the duty officer system and run queued event outlevel the patrol and episode content to the point where most players hit max level before completing the Romulan episode series. In our goal to introduce more quality episodes, we now have a leveling curve that is very fast for the FED side.
When I think of creating "Parity" for the KDF, the goal would *not* be to get KDF to the same place as the FED, because the fact is, the FED curve is too fast. In addition to adding just a few more Episodes for the KDF, we need to weed out some of the less important FED patrols from the leveling path. That is what will get both factions to 1-50 leveling curve parity.
When it comes to a Romulan faction, the question still remains, would it be healthy for the game to introduce an entirely new faction that is now in the situation we just worked to solve? More than likely, if we were to add the ability to play as a Romulan, we would want to make it so that they could have their own experience, but ultimately fit somehow into the confines of our two faction game. Whether or not this means Romulans ultimately having to choose between which faction they support or something else entirely, the idea that Romulans would be a 3rd unique faction unto itself is a road STO may not take, if only to ensure the future health of the game.
Please don't mistake any of this as the "plan of record" but instead me sharing my thoughts on the poll results and what it might mean for STO in 2013. Anything can happen and plans can and do change, but it is fun to discuss and get your feedback when it comes to these ideas.
If you are saying that you won't add a Romulan faction and that you also are not really planning to add more Klingon content and are planning to just continue with the plan of "oh well we'll shoehorn it so both factions can do the same content even though it doesn't make sense", than why did you include these options in your poll? The top two options are romulans and klingon content and now you're saying we'll get neither?
There is also the concern that players have put a lot of effort into their existing characters and fleets. It wouldn't necessarily be a healthy choice to introduce a 3rd faction that has its own fleets, duty officer system, ships, and bridge officers because it would be disruptive to the fleets and friendships you've made in game.
This should not be a concern. Most players already have several characters, either in different fleets or in the same one, and they make it work. It is also quite common to have "companion fleets" of the faction opposite from the primary fleet. True, they spend less time on any given character that way, but they still contribute throughout. Friends aren't even a consideration, because the friend system is account wide.
Personally, I spend about 60-75% of my play time on my single Fed character and the rest on my KDF, and a large part of that is the fact that I'm so determined to make a Science Ship work, whatever nerfs they throw at me. Actually, that's another thing I'd like to see: a decent balancing of the abilities. As it is a Lieutenant Tac ability and a Commander Sci ability give about the same DPS boost.
Please don't mistake any of this as the "plan of record" but instead me sharing my thoughts on the poll results and what it might mean for STO in 2013. Anything can happen and plans can and do change, but it is fun to discuss and get your feedback when it comes to these ideas.
Pretty much I don't think anyone really cares about more leveling episodes for the KDF... I certainly don't. I just want things to do with all my level 50 KDF characters. The fleet event stuff works out because its not exactly the same thing to fight over and over its random what you have to fight.
I'd just like to see equal costumes, weapons, etc on both sides. As well as reflect what each side is all about. The federation just seems like they were taken over by the Mirror Universe Terran Empire and is after everyone. The only thing KDF about the KDF probally is the ships that we can get. When it comes to weapons, costumes, and someone or something to conquer thats where its incomplete. At same token the Federation is too. You would also think with all these TWARP hubs going up that someone could get to the delta quadrant. I just expected so much on this game just to see it going no where with a casino replacing it.
The RSE though... This story line kinda makes it tough though... If anyone spots a romulan ship they would be screaming iconians and on top of that the way sector travel works too its like their space is a free for all and romulans would never take that laying down. I wish we could have a romulan faction but I know after witnessing the disrespect for the KDF I've seen that it would be like the KDF except proportionally worse. Because it would need to be an espionage type faction because the non tal shiar are merely just refugees scattered across the galaxy and pretty much referred to as the new trash of the galaxy as Cartright put in Undiscovered Country about the Klingons
Comments
Any...when starving anything taste good. And the only point im trying to press at this time is this....There are Romulan fans within this community...but none of us feel like we are part of the community since we have no faction to play to begin with. Meanwhile enough members of this community are quick to point and mock the few that remain with the "why would you want a faction when we all see what cryptic did to the kdf" or "if the romulans become a playable faction before the kdf are finished we can count down the days till sto shuts down"
Things like that make me personally wonder if these individuals even watched trek and understood what Roddenberry was trying to say.
Good post dstahl. Fortunately there is a solution to your content disparity problem, and it is called the foundry. But until you guys actually make it so that foundry missions reward you equally to official content, that solution will continue to elude you. Yes, I saw your earlier post about Spotlight missions getting rewards in October, and that is good. But there are simply not enough spotlight missions to make up for the content disparity with the KDF.
You have to find a way to make it work for all foundry missions, and you also have to get the foundry missions out of the dark and dusty corner of the mission journal UI they are currently in and shine a light on them. Then and only then will you solve your content problem. And if you actually pull that off, then you wont have to worry about content disparity with future factions like Romulans either.
I havent played NW yet, but from the interviews I've read and seen it sounds like they are making their foundry missions just as visible as the official content. It also sounds like they are scaling rewards based on mission length, virtually solving exploit problems. Honestly, it should be your top priority to get this tech into STO. Until you do, you are always going to have the content disparity issue on your back and dragging this game down. The game is approaching the 3 year mark. Its time to solve this problem once and for all.
for full or partial pve content, the fed and klingon can fill that roll. it would be a huge waist of resources to build any more pve for new factions, people want to pretend being starfleet captains or klingon warriors, they don't want to roll play the rest especially, they just want to fly their ships.
When introducing the "Reputation System" in Season 7, why not tie it to the Federation and KDF as "Factions" ? A Human Player would begin with "Honored" or Higher reputation with Earth (and thus a "Starfleet player"), while a Klingon Player would begin with a "Honored" or Higher reputation with Qu'onos (and thus a "KDF player").
Would also like to see the Reputation system extended to have the ability to LOSE reputation, in order to gain it with a rival faction. Thus allowing players who "go rogue", to switch from being a FED player to a KDF player (and vice versa). An "Alien" player would be given a choice of which Faction to represent at the start of the new Season.
Current Federation member races (Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite etc), would start off at "Friendly" for the FED, while the KDF member races (Orion, Lethean, Gorn etc), would start off at "Friendly" for the KDF.
Obviously this may be a "long-term" goal, but would also solve the issue of if the game has 1 faction, 2 factions or MANY factions. In the world of "Star Trek", there isn't only 2 factions. There are in fact many different factions, some of which allied with other factions.
I agree on this fully...Im not asking for level 1-50 im asking for my costumes race and gosh darn ships......something that at this point seems itll be disruptive to the rest of the community and not healthy for sto....
might as well have just said wich faction do you think belongs in star trek online but never will....wed still win the damn vote..not that it matters as of now.
yes I know that the federation has more favored, but there is still people who would perfer another faction, example being: the people who perfer KFD and the people who like Romulans beter.
I LOVED the game when I first started with my first character. I was able to wander the game exploring this map, and this experience. It was fantastic.
Two years have flown by. I've leveled six characters to end game and have experienced nearly everything the game has to offer that I care to engage in.
I also have a KDF charachter that I leveled up before free to play. Simply to experience things on that side of the fence.
I've got all the fancy alien species under my belt, even a female character. I wanted to experience it all.
I have every ship from the C store and several of the lock box ships.
But here I am today, Starved for something/ANYTHING new. A new ship, a new mission, a new experience of ANY kind.
THANK GOD for the FOUNDRY!
To be able to play as a Romulan, would give me yet another new experience I crave. I don't bloody care if I get the whole experience like the Federation. I would be perfectly happy running around doing all the old missions, fleet missions, red alerts, dilithium grind thing and the occasional pvp with friends as a Romulan. Why? because it would be something NEW to experience.
Do I want to level a Romulan from the start all over again? Me personally no. I wouldn't mind buying a playable captain level Romulan expansion with a few unique missions. I'm sure once introduced. All those great Foundry authors will keep me entertained as a Romulan.
After that? I would LOVE to play a Hirogen, and after that, who knows.
I would HATE to think that in a universe as big and exciting as Star Trek, I would never be able to play some of the other iconic races because of Cryptic's lack of resources. And let's be honest, Cryptic will NEVER be able to fully flesh out this game for every faction and still pump out new things to bring in revenue, unless they are done as mini faction expansions.
This would kills two birds with one stone.
I also think selling other mini factions would flesh out the rest of the Trek verse pretty fast.
To me, that would be very exciting.
Ehhh What he said...
Also to fix the whole leveling problem, dont make it where 1 episode levels a person, make it where you do 1 Episode, then do a couple Patrols and other PvE side missions before you can start the next mission/level. To go along with that, nerf the heck out of Mirror Universe Event.
A Romulan Faction should (in my opinion) be a major part of the game since they play a major part in the series.
A 3rd faction with a science focus should be good...
True Way, Cardassian, Breen, and Borg should all be what the quoted post suggested
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
1) Teamwork and timing is #1
2) You cannot "Kirk It" in every ship
3) You are going to die, just get back up
If that is your stance Dan. Then leave the Romulans out, I will have no part of a Romulan faction that is tacked on to the Federation or KDF or any other faction. If you want it to remain a two faction game that is fine, at least that clears up the status of the Romulans. For me the only reason I still do anything in this game is because I have been patiently waiting for the Romulan Star Empire to be added (key phrasing there the Empire, not some vassal to another faction) if this is not going to happen just tell us and I can stop waiting and move on to something else.
I have to agree with shadowjwc above. The Romulan Empire would never willingly be a lackey to the Federation or the Klingons. The Iconians are a different story, there's a tangible power there that could be used to reclaim the former glory of the Empire. Can the Federation, Klingons, or any other government offer the Romulans that?
My two bars of latinum:
STO was my first MMO. I remember playing at launch and working my way through sectors. I recall the level curve fairly matching my progression from Fed Space (Lt) > Klingon Front (LtC), Romulan Front (Cmdr), Cardassian Front (Capt), and the Borg (Adm).
I wonder if new players get that same experience leveling through the sectors or just burn to max level.
I've been waiting for a similar Klingon experience, even though my toon on that side is already max level, I want the story.
For me Star Trek has always been about the story, and not so much about the battles. I say that as an owner of the original Starfleet Command and Elite Force (which I loved both).
If we could get a faction with (rough estimate) 20-30 solid story missions. Doesn't have to be fancy new tech, but explores the universe of 2409, I'd be a happy camper. That goes for KDF or future factions. If there's stuff to do after the story, great. But I think the story should be what gets you there.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Want cheap commodities? Yeah you do. Commodity Cheat Sheet (includes food and data samples)
Want to make the game better? Might I suggest this form
Come on don't you like following the carrot stuck to the stick out in front of you?
Maybe Dan should not have said anything - that carrot seems to have been working well.
or as in the Cloak issue or the doff TRIBBLE-up "working as Intended"
You stated you desired an "equal playing experience." Your words. Equal to whom? It's a simple enough question for even you to answer. Or is your Romulan heart filled with cowardice?
Actually I'm Lethean.
Al Rivera hates Klingons
Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert
All cloaks should be canon.
Well if you want to be technical, Romulans couldn't have left in droves since Romulans don't actually exist (Lots of decent looking Romulan cosplay costumes though). Since Romulans don't actually exist, a non-existent race not having something is no different than saying Logitechians (They're a race of expert engineers and craft support hardware and peripherals for starships and outposts.) have zero of everything. Logitechians are being suppressed! Also if you're power leveling yourself through every rank to hit max level as soon as possible (months of dev time for one extra day of leveling. yada, yada, yada.) to rerun those oh so glorious stfs for the nth-1 time, you're missing out and I feel sorry for you.
Al Rivera hates Klingons
Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert
All cloaks should be canon.
good to see Stahl in here engaging the feedback, thanks Dan.
Yes it's disappointing to hear that we who wanted Romulans from day 1 and have been made to wait almost 3 years for them are now being told that what we "might" get isn't what we've been waiting for.
HOWEVER, I for one don't necessarily have an issue w/ playing a Romulan aligned w/ KDF or Fed. In fact I've suggested several times making Romulans a playable species for both factions, like Liberated Borg or Joined Trill.
Bolded for emphasis.
I direct you to Star Trek: Klingon Academy. It IS possible to make good Star Trek games, without focusing on the "almighty Federation" or it's "Human masters".
Cryptic seems to have overlooked this little "gem" of a game. Released in 2000, 12 years later it's STILL being modded (albeit not as active anymore).
I'm less than thrilled and far from amused.
U.S.S. Maelstrom, NCC-71417 (Constitution III-class/flagship) --- Fleet Admiral Hauk' --|-- Dahar Master Hauk --- I.K.S. qu'In 'an bortaS (D7-class / flagship)
There's a reason most MMO's have two factions anyway. A romulan faction in any form is not impossible, nor is it an unreasonable thing to have. It just wouldn't work at this moment in time. I barely touch my KDF character, I would likely never play a Romulan beyond the story missions, I'm always with my Fed. I would bet money that most of the players feel and act the same way. It wouldn't matter if there was the KDF, RSE, Dominion, and Borg factions, each of them with content comparable to the Feds.
The Federation would still have more players than all of those factions combined. I would lay $500,000 USD on that bet. (If I had it. :P)
The only way Cryptic could justify more factions is if there were genuine reasons to "try the other side of the fence" for a while. (I have been asking for cross faction rewards for a very long time now) Unless Cryptic can do that to the extent that it would take to complete KDF, and then do it for other factions, (The scope of which would be gigantic) asking for more of them is kind of silly.
Like I said before, there's a reason most MMO's only have two factions. If they have factions at all.
As am I. Oh well... there's always the next lockbox....
Regardless, there will be new KDF and Fed ships for our 1000 day reward. Whatever comes our way, time will tell.
Member since December 2009
i want to see a full stand alone faction with a green Ui with a romulan home planet it or base or both with romulan uniforms
if we get them like my example you will most likely never see of any of what romulan should get think about for ppl that got them playble klingon on the Feds can you use any of there ships can you use any of there uniforms is there Ui red like the real klingons?
and knowing the history of this game you can almost write that in stone
and dont forget you can do them anyways called makeing a alien and you be haveing the same thing as if they do the romulan shortcut just them pixel's want say romulan but instead (alien)
system Lord Baal is dead
You forget we're telepathic. I cannot deny you that which you do not desire. If you claim you do not desire it then your point of experience denial cannot stand. Therefore, since you do not desire it, the experience you presently enjoy will suffice and playable Romulans in any form are not necessary. But you do indeed desire it all. Thus, the obvious animosity.
Al Rivera hates Klingons
Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert
All cloaks should be canon.
If you are saying that you won't add a Romulan faction and that you also are not really planning to add more Klingon content and are planning to just continue with the plan of "oh well we'll shoehorn it so both factions can do the same content even though it doesn't make sense", than why did you include these options in your poll? The top two options are romulans and klingon content and now you're saying we'll get neither?
*sigh*
This should not be a concern. Most players already have several characters, either in different fleets or in the same one, and they make it work. It is also quite common to have "companion fleets" of the faction opposite from the primary fleet. True, they spend less time on any given character that way, but they still contribute throughout. Friends aren't even a consideration, because the friend system is account wide.
Personally, I spend about 60-75% of my play time on my single Fed character and the rest on my KDF, and a large part of that is the fact that I'm so determined to make a Science Ship work, whatever nerfs they throw at me. Actually, that's another thing I'd like to see: a decent balancing of the abilities. As it is a Lieutenant Tac ability and a Commander Sci ability give about the same DPS boost.
Pretty much I don't think anyone really cares about more leveling episodes for the KDF... I certainly don't. I just want things to do with all my level 50 KDF characters. The fleet event stuff works out because its not exactly the same thing to fight over and over its random what you have to fight.
I'd just like to see equal costumes, weapons, etc on both sides. As well as reflect what each side is all about. The federation just seems like they were taken over by the Mirror Universe Terran Empire and is after everyone. The only thing KDF about the KDF probally is the ships that we can get. When it comes to weapons, costumes, and someone or something to conquer thats where its incomplete. At same token the Federation is too. You would also think with all these TWARP hubs going up that someone could get to the delta quadrant. I just expected so much on this game just to see it going no where with a casino replacing it.
The RSE though... This story line kinda makes it tough though... If anyone spots a romulan ship they would be screaming iconians and on top of that the way sector travel works too its like their space is a free for all and romulans would never take that laying down. I wish we could have a romulan faction but I know after witnessing the disrespect for the KDF I've seen that it would be like the KDF except proportionally worse. Because it would need to be an espionage type faction because the non tal shiar are merely just refugees scattered across the galaxy and pretty much referred to as the new trash of the galaxy as Cartright put in Undiscovered Country about the Klingons