I think honestly what needs to happen to STO in 2013 is that the entire "this is the path from 1 to 50 like mmos are played" needs to change. Just make content and have it scale or whatever, make it so it follows a story like it does now but just try to unhook everything so you just go out and do stuff. Make it all abstract. It's half way there now. Want to add a romulan faction? Just give them a bunch of missions that are repeatable to try to rebuild the romulan empire. Want to be a fed? Add more explore missions. Want to play a Klink? Add more house missions and raids and such. You can see that people are playing more queues than anything else, so make standalone challenge missions for the factions. That's your content. You can add some story missions on top of that and they're great, but there's no need to have 50 quests at one per level for the factions. Give a faction a social map, some repeatable missions and their own ships. Done. If that's half TRIBBLE than so be it, but I think you could do a lot more that is more impactful on the game than trying to make a mission that works for 2 or 3 factions storywise and has more money spent on tech upgrades and hammy voice acting.
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.
to me that just sounds like a excuse more then a concern
but i 100% agree with what you said
i hardly even play this game any more for i have dun all it has to offer beside foundry mission as i dont care for them i did not play 300 $ for player to do the Dev job dont get me wrong there maybe be great one out there i should play but to me the Dev need to adopt them and make them part of the sto story line like i would not go to the foundry to find it i would go to the same place i get all the Dev made mission and im not in any way saying take the credit from the player who made it give that where it due
dont take my word to the bank on this but to something elss he said in that post dont be surprise if equal numbers to the feds or more then KDF more ppl play romulan if they are ever addid as a stand alone faction face it looks like more want to play a shortcut romulan then get get KDF more content yes the forums are a minority to the hole of the player base but dont again be surprise if that number dont skyrocket if they did a poll where it ASKED the hole player base like on the games launcher or like a pop up in game like they do for the foundry spotlight mission as you log in the game there are ways of asking the hole player base thing is is cryptic willing to do thes things to ask not to say thing poll is rigged any one with more then one account and i know frist hand i have 3 can vote more then ones
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 are speaking for everyone, both saying what all RSE players want and how all KDF players are.
There is no all, it's a mistake to speak in absolutes. Just as there are RSE players who want a full faction (I've spoken to more then a couple in game) there are full KDF players, full Fed players, and players like me who split my time between who want to see full content. To me, and it seems from reading and listening in the game. Cryptic has to do some things. They have countless times made statements to the effect of full treatment for the KDF, they need to finally keep them. Not just for the KDF. For the whole player base. For the next faction that comes along. To show the PvP players, science captains, and everone else they can go back and repair the damage instead of saying "we will get to it, someday". At some point, someday needs to be now.
Now with me I understand that getting unique content for say the KDF isn't as likely as getting some unique and some cross faction. That it is hard to ask all the players to wait for new content and easier to put out shared content and some unique content also.
Also, you are still saying you want to play as a Romulan in the RSE. Playable race can easily mean just a unlockable Romulan flying around in a Fed or Klingon ship, till they put a Romulan one out in a lockbox. Part of why I do not like the wording of some of these choices.
Don't you think that before we have a new faction ingame, there should be content designed purely for that faction to do, or am I missing something here?
Oh and by the way, I haven't looked through all this thread, so if this has been discussed before, soz
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.
Some of what you're saying simply won't fly on the forums.
What I will say is this:
If you have Fed and KDF Romulans, DON'T try to make them a pure substitute or surrogate for a Romulan faction. Please, stop and think about what KIND of Romulans would take each route. Think about how they fit in.
The Fed versions would almost have to be Unificationists.
The KDF version would be glorified slaves. Poor. Hungry, Desperate. Mistrusted. Quite likely disfigured. I threw it out there and it may seem gruesome for a Teen game but I'd probably throw in something like a mandatory shaved head, KDF-emblem face tattoos, and an idea like J'mpok requiring any Romulan who defects to cut off one of their own ears, with some kind of loyalty oath about how the clever need two ears but the obediant need only one.
The Fed version would be practically Vulcan, like T'Pol or Valeris (both intended as half-Romulan).
The KDF version, I think, would have to make Nero look pampered and cosmopolitan by comparison. Because it means selling out or rising up out of Klingon slave pens. And it should almost echo those dark chapters of history where slaves fought for slave holders or oppressed people fought for enemy tyrants against their own. These almost have to be Theta radiation scarred beasts, the worst of the criminals and most desperate of the survivors, Romulans without faith or pride.
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).
Wasn't Klingon Academy seen as a pretty colossal commercial failure, despite being a good game?
Some of what you're saying simply won't fly on the forums.
What I will say is this:
If you have Fed and KDF Romulans, DON'T try to make them a pure substitute or surrogate for a Romulan faction. Please, stop and think about what KIND of Romulans would take each route. Think about how they fit in.
The Fed versions would almost have to be Unificationists.
The KDF version would be glorified slaves. Poor. Hungry, Desperate. Mistrusted. Quite likely disfigured. I threw it out there and it may seem gruesome for a Teen game but I'd probably throw in something like a mandatory shaved head, KDF-emblem face tattoos, and an idea like J'mpok requiring any Romulan who defects to cut off one of their own ears, with some kind of loyalty oath about how the clever need two ears but the obediant need only one.
The Fed version would be practically Vulcan, like T'Pol or Valeris (both intended as half-Romulan).
The KDF version, I think, would have to make Nero look pampered and cosmopolitan by comparison. Because it means selling out or rising up out of Klingon slave pens. And it should almost echo those dark chapters of history where slaves fought for slave holders or oppressed people fought for enemy tyrants against their own. These almost have to be Theta radiation scarred beasts, the worst of the criminals and most desperate of the survivors, Romulans without faith or pride.
to sum it up lap dogs and to me that dont sound like romulans romulans do not trust outsiders or like them this sould be evident from all of star trek movie and show
to sum it up lap dogs and to me that dont sound like romulans romulans do not trust outsiders this sould be evident from all of star trek movie and show
I have a problem with the idea that "races are a certain way" in Star Trek.
Cultures are, maybe.
But a Klingon raised by Ferengi will act like a Ferengi.
And we're talking about a setting where there hasn't BEEN a Romulan Empire for a full generation, where what passed for a Romulan Empire was a few cosplaying Tal'Shiar.
The species is nearly gone. Most have been enslaved or turned into laborers. There are adult Romulans (and they may account for the majority of living Romulans in the galaxy) who have never seen the Empire. They've never served it. They only know it from books and records, provided they have access to those.
The only ones really "living the dream" are a small elite who are working for the Iconians.
Even if Cryptic had the resources, I don't think Romulans should really be all that much like they were pre-Hobus. For that, you'd need a TNG era MMO and this game needs to make some hard breaks with TNG and TOS somewhere. The destruction of Romulus shouldn't be something that gets glossed over. It should redefine Romulans.
That's one of my problems with a Romulan or a Cardassian faction. If it resembles the faction that people who enjoyed them on TNG and DS9 want, it's wrong for the setting.
Great to see you posting and getting involved with the thread, Dan.
I hear what you say, and actually understand what you mean. The levelling on Fed side IS fast compared to the KDF. I don't want faster levelling on the KDF (truthfully, I want less XP per mission on BOTH sides to slow it down so I can enjoy my ship but that's a different matter).
I even understand your reservations about creating a third faction in its own right but I quote your own attitude towards the KDF of "build it and they will come".
On the forums you have Romulan supporters being almost as vocal as the KDF. In game you have players creating their own "alien" Romulans because they have no other option. On this very thread you have players talking about their own Romulan "RP" fleet (I say "RP" because they are having to pretend it's a real Romulan). Then you have players like me.
I want the KDF to have more stories so I can enjoy my favourite race doing that it's supposed to do, not shoehorned into doing what the Federation does.
I also want to spend money on character slots to play a Romulan. I want to play for the RSE as a Romulan or even a "loyal" Reman. I want to play a Vulcan Unificationist on the RSE. I want to play Selay, Hirogen or whatever other race is exclusive to the RSE on ships whose cloaks don't break as easily as the Klingon's. Heck the lower level ships can even be re-skinned Klingon ships for all I care (House of Torg selling old D5 and D7 ships to a broken people? Happened before which is how the Romulans got many ships in the first place). I could even see some House of Torg Klingons on the RSE side (without the traits which make a Klingon honourable of course).
I voted Klingon content because that is where my heart lies. I would be happy to see the RSE because I am a Star Trek fan and a STO gamer and this would be best for the game (maybe not the devs, who would have to work their mivoks off ).
Please, don't shoehorn Romulans and Remans into the remaining factions.
PS Oh and if you are thinking of removing content from the Fed side, please start with the "Bring a Jumja stick to Memory Alpha mission". What? We can build personal shield generators but can't replicate a Jumja stick?
"...we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things that divide us.”
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
The Star Trek Universe is so vast that you can never really finish it anyway. But giving people more options is good, as it binds people to the game. People who will buy Romulan C-Store ships, for example.
On content, I think the solution is simple:
The Foundry is full of awesome (truly awesome) Klingon missions. Choose 50 of them, attach appropriate levelling XP rewards to them, and you have a level 1 to 50 KDF faction with a man-week of work.
Likewise, add Level 40-50 Romulans with tier 5 ships and some dailies, open up the Foundry for creating Romulan content, wait a bit, then add 50 Foundry missions as full story missions, add 1 ship per tier, and lower the starting level to 1.
Let the community do the work for you.
Do you think those missions really teach people how to play?
The Fed missions are supposed to.
That's part of why they require the 1-20 Fed content to be played.
They could have unlocked Klingons at level 1. They didn't.
Playing 50 missions doesn't teach you the game and, in theory, the Klingon War front Fed side does.
I have a problem with the idea that "races are a certain way" in Star Trek.
Cultures are, maybe.
But a Klingon raised by Ferengi will act like a Ferengi.
And we're talking about a setting where there hasn't BEEN a Romulan Empire for a full generation, where what passed for a Romulan Empire was a few cosplaying Tal'Shiar.
The species is nearly gone. Most have been enslaved or turned into laborers. There are adult Romulans (and they may account for the majority of living Romulans in the galaxy) who have never seen the Empire. They've never served it. They only know it from books and records, provided they have access to those.
The only ones really "living the dream" are a small elite who are working for the Iconians.
Even if Cryptic had the resources, I don't think Romulans should really be all that much like they were pre-Hobus. For that, you'd need a TNG era MMO and this game needs to make some hard breaks with TNG and TOS somewhere. The destruction of Romulus shouldn't be something that gets glossed over. It should redefine Romulans.
That's one of my problems with a Romulan or a Cardassian faction. If it resembles the faction that people who enjoyed them on TNG and DS9 want, it's wrong for the setting.
to me the romluans are in disarray no more then that only take one thing to unite them again if i can only play i romulan lap dog then they just need to stay out of the game and stay as NPC
I think you're confusing the RSE with High Elves in WoW. The Romulan race is not almost extinct, while losing Romulous was as big a blow to the RSE as losing Earth would be to the Federation it wouldn't mean the extinction of humanity.
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.
The Star Trek Universe is so vast that you can never really finish it anyway. But giving people more options is good, as it binds people to the game. People who will buy Romulan C-Store ships, for example.
On content, I think the solution is simple:
The Foundry is full of awesome (truly awesome) Klingon missions. Choose 50 of them, attach appropriate levelling XP rewards to them, and you have a level 1 to 50 KDF faction with a man-week of work.
Likewise, add Level 40-50 Romulans with tier 5 ships and some dailies, open up the Foundry for creating Romulan content, wait a bit, then add 50 Foundry missions as full story missions, add 1 ship per tier, and lower the starting level to 1.
Let the community do the work for you.
this is great ide for KDF and a romulan stand alone
I think you're confusing the RSE with High Elves in WoW. The Romulan race is not almost extinct, while losing Romulous was as big a blow to the RSE as losing Earth would be to the Federation it wouldn't mean the extinction of humanity.
bigo ding ding ding we have a winer think ppl still bying into that supernova that threatens the entire galaxy and think most if not the entier fleet of the RSE got destroyed JJ and that movie .......
I think you're confusing the RSE with High Elves in WoW. The Romulan race is not almost extinct, while losing Romulous was as big a blow to the RSE as losing Earth would be to the Federation it wouldn't mean the extinction of humanity.
Losing Vulcan in Star Trek 2009 left behind only a few thousand Vulcans.
If we're going with Rome (since that's the relevant metaphor for Romulus) then they went from 5 million to around 30,000 during their fall. So that may be a useful percentage. Or it may be helpful to consider that the Roman Empire was 40% urban and highly centralized, much more so than contemporary societies. Given that the United States TODAY is relatively urban (around 80%) and using that as a benchmark for how urban the future of Trek would be, for Romulus to feel Roman, most of the population would have to be on the planet Romulus.
This also matches what we know of Romulus.
Whereas Earth had 9 billion inhabitants, Romulus had 18 billion despite a presumably matched fleet size and number of people in the larger empire. Nearly all of whom were lost in the supernova.
bigo ding ding ding we have a winer think ppl still bying into that supernova that threatens the entire galaxy and think most if not the entier fleet of the RSE got destroyed JJ and that movie .......
This game is based around the aftermath of that supernova. This game explains why the supernova was a threat to the galaxy.
If you don't buy into the supernova, you're rejecting STO's setting to begin with.
I think a Romulan full faction is important. Not as a sub-set of Federation of Klingons, but in its own right.
Let players make Romulan foundry missions before we can create Romulan characters, and integrate the best into the flow.
you know to me the foundry again to me was the Dev way to make a excuse to not make mission as much and it has showing over 2 years but they could take like doing a poll for the say top 5 Dev picked foundry mission the player base votes number one get adopted to Dev mission and i could do with out Voice overs and cute scenes i would more likely play a Dev adopted mission then i will looking for mission in the foundry
let me give you example of why i dont like foundry mission they are like the books to me they are not cannon what the Dev makes or if they took the ide of adopting mission it would be like prime universe cannon to me
This game is based around the aftermath of that supernova. This game explains why the supernova was a threat to the galaxy.
If you don't buy into the supernova, you're rejecting STO's setting to begin with.
hmmmm thot it said in a mission it threatened the system not the galaxy but its been since year one since i played any of the story line mission so i could be off
[...]
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 is just one minor thing that will bite you in the back most certainly then. Territorial control pvp just doesn't work right in a two faction game with huge population gaps between the factions. I've been there. I've played more than 5 years on a **** Server with a 2.5A/1M/0.75H relation and that server was considered 'mostly' balanced because most of the time there was some kind of truce between the smaller realms. When some parts of the community switched to warhammer and its two faction game the smaller faction got steamrolled over and over again, with a much smaller advantage of population (1 Chaos/1.2 Order [yes that is correct, I had the 'luck' to play on one of the few servers were order actually had more players]). Same company, mostly the same playerbase, very different outcomes.
Losing Vulcan in Star Trek 2009 left behind only a few thousand Vulcans.
If we're going with Rome (since that's the relevant metaphor for Romulus) then they went from 5 million to around 30,000 during their fall. So that may be a useful percentage. Or it may be helpful to consider that the Roman Empire was 40% urban and highly centralized, much more so than contemporary societies. Given that the United States TODAY is relatively urban (around 80%) and using that as a benchmark for how urban the future of Trek would be, for Romulus to feel Roman, most of the population would have to be on the planet Romulus.
This also matches what we know of Romulus.
Whereas Earth had 9 billion inhabitants, Romulus had 18 billion despite a presumably matched fleet size and number of people in the larger empire. Nearly all of whom were lost in the supernova.
lets not take jj movie as example for alot of his story had lots of holes
also i dont beleave most of the RST was bottled up in one system galaxy is a big place ya know
and to be blunt stop compering star trek to real life equations you dont know how many planet where in the RSE how many system they had or even what the entier population of RSE is all you do is a guessing game
IMHO this is one of the lower prioities. Put done the PvP-forks for a second and please listen first. Why do I come to this conclusion ?
If I remember correctly (please correct me if I remember this wrong) the devs mentioned that the total number of players doing PvP are that low (compared to the people doing PvE) that dropping PvP completly from the game would not effect the game population at all.
This should tell us much about the need to improve PvP. But it also tells us that there are not many people doing PvP. IMO STO was always heavy PvE-sided and I believe it will always be. Improving PvP (what-ever-that-should-mean if not balancing) would improve the game only for a small part of the STO population.
If PvP is improved/fixed/balanced new PvP players are also needed. At the current distribution of player population and chooseable faction from start I do not see that happen very quickly.
The entry for completly new players also needs to be simplfied. Not everyone wants to play as Federation or even worse Fed-vs-Fed PvP (you do not really fight, only ... aeehmm ... do Wargames! ... right) because of lack of factions. What are with the people who want to play the "Bad Guys" only ?
Currently there is only the KDF option after unlocking by playing Federation. It is like being allowed to join the Dark Side only after you managed to played halve of the game on the Light Side. I believe this is a problem. In a perfect situation all factions would be available from first day of playing. Maybe you can not start every race/faction from level 1 but thats ok (and can be fixed with a later release if needed) because of total mission selection for that race/faction.
I think both big SciFi IPs can be compared: both are very one-sided and focused regarding the official storytelling side (Light Side/Federation). If my memory works correct the Dark Side has a bigger or at least comparable player base in SWTOR. There are many people that just want to play as the "Bad Guys". But it needs to be a option first. Diversity is the key to success. I would even go so far to say STO will never outgrow it is current population level by big extent without more diversity. At the moment many Fed mission make you feel to be the Bad Guy and not a Federation captain honouring the Prime Directive and the high morale code of the UFP. But maybe Im alone with this ...
The leveling speed is too fast for enough PvP at something other than endgame level. Do you play some PvP matches or do two missions and go to the next rank with new powers and ships? Even when you only do PvE you can hit endgame before you finish all mission content. I believe that fast level process works against low- and mid-level PvP. I do not know how and if this can be fixed at all.
Everything that helps bringin more (paying) customers into STO is good. But do you really think improving PvP is the best method ? I believe players need to be able to play as a faction/race/career they want and fly a ship/do things they like to be happy and continue playing the game.
Thanks for listening.
Now you can raise the PvP-forks again ...
Thinking about the "Improve Exploration" option ...
Like a other poster already said. "No true exploration possible." The exploration engine would need an almost infinite list of options to generate new missions on-the-fly which do not repeat after a few runs. It can be done but it would requiere a very solid SOA like architecture to make the immersion of exploring the universe.
Multiple option count in a mission, variable length / duration, decision based routing and further option selectiong .... the list of to-do's to get this running is a major task for a developer.
Regarding KDF content update & Romulan faction.
Cryptic has shown & mentioned that content in mission form is not devliered easy and fast. Cryptic can not deliever new missions on a regular level (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). Maybe there are plans to change this. We do not know.
All is focused on endgame. Missions for leveling are nice to have but not what you will use on daily basis after you hit endgame. I personally do not want to get more level-up-mission for Federation or KDF that need months of developemtn time and are consumed in minutes and never touched again. It will not extend my game experience.
If "normal" mission will not give you any reward comparable to the STF loot system or tokens to get high-level gear from a STF-gear-store system it will not be replayed very often. Why should you replay the mission (Im aware I only using the reward argument here)?
And to the devs : Thanks for the Ask Cryptic and the poll in this !
Please continue your great work :-)
reflecting on what Dstahl wrote, i think it would benefit the game more, if the romulans became an additional race for the KDF.
a.) more content for KDF
b.) more ships for KDF
c.) more people, playing KDF
all the story elements could be done in a 3 episode feature series. But the klingons do not invade romulan territory, they rather overthrow what is left of the senat while sela is gone with the iconians.
reflecting on what Dstahl wrote, i think it would benefit the game more, if the romulans became an additional race for the KDF.
a.) more content for KDF
b.) more ships for KDF
c.) more people, playing KDF
all the story elements could be done in a 3 episode feature series. But the klingons do not invade romulan territory, they rather overthrow what is left of the senat while sela is gone with the iconians.
i will delete my account if this gose down
but would make for a ide to get the hole RSE united again
Comments
to me that just sounds like a excuse more then a concern
but i 100% agree with what you said
i hardly even play this game any more for i have dun all it has to offer beside foundry mission as i dont care for them i did not play 300 $ for player to do the Dev job dont get me wrong there maybe be great one out there i should play but to me the Dev need to adopt them and make them part of the sto story line like i would not go to the foundry to find it i would go to the same place i get all the Dev made mission and im not in any way saying take the credit from the player who made it give that where it due
dont take my word to the bank on this but to something elss he said in that post dont be surprise if equal numbers to the feds or more then KDF more ppl play romulan if they are ever addid as a stand alone faction face it looks like more want to play a shortcut romulan then get get KDF more content yes the forums are a minority to the hole of the player base but dont again be surprise if that number dont skyrocket if they did a poll where it ASKED the hole player base like on the games launcher or like a pop up in game like they do for the foundry spotlight mission as you log in the game there are ways of asking the hole player base thing is is cryptic willing to do thes things to ask not to say thing poll is rigged any one with more then one account and i know frist hand i have 3 can vote more then ones
system Lord Baal is dead
You are speaking for everyone, both saying what all RSE players want and how all KDF players are.
There is no all, it's a mistake to speak in absolutes. Just as there are RSE players who want a full faction (I've spoken to more then a couple in game) there are full KDF players, full Fed players, and players like me who split my time between who want to see full content. To me, and it seems from reading and listening in the game. Cryptic has to do some things. They have countless times made statements to the effect of full treatment for the KDF, they need to finally keep them. Not just for the KDF. For the whole player base. For the next faction that comes along. To show the PvP players, science captains, and everone else they can go back and repair the damage instead of saying "we will get to it, someday". At some point, someday needs to be now.
Now with me I understand that getting unique content for say the KDF isn't as likely as getting some unique and some cross faction. That it is hard to ask all the players to wait for new content and easier to put out shared content and some unique content also.
Also, you are still saying you want to play as a Romulan in the RSE. Playable race can easily mean just a unlockable Romulan flying around in a Fed or Klingon ship, till they put a Romulan one out in a lockbox. Part of why I do not like the wording of some of these choices.
Oh and by the way, I haven't looked through all this thread, so if this has been discussed before, soz
Some of what you're saying simply won't fly on the forums.
What I will say is this:
If you have Fed and KDF Romulans, DON'T try to make them a pure substitute or surrogate for a Romulan faction. Please, stop and think about what KIND of Romulans would take each route. Think about how they fit in.
The Fed versions would almost have to be Unificationists.
The KDF version would be glorified slaves. Poor. Hungry, Desperate. Mistrusted. Quite likely disfigured. I threw it out there and it may seem gruesome for a Teen game but I'd probably throw in something like a mandatory shaved head, KDF-emblem face tattoos, and an idea like J'mpok requiring any Romulan who defects to cut off one of their own ears, with some kind of loyalty oath about how the clever need two ears but the obediant need only one.
The Fed version would be practically Vulcan, like T'Pol or Valeris (both intended as half-Romulan).
The KDF version, I think, would have to make Nero look pampered and cosmopolitan by comparison. Because it means selling out or rising up out of Klingon slave pens. And it should almost echo those dark chapters of history where slaves fought for slave holders or oppressed people fought for enemy tyrants against their own. These almost have to be Theta radiation scarred beasts, the worst of the criminals and most desperate of the survivors, Romulans without faith or pride.
Wasn't Klingon Academy seen as a pretty colossal commercial failure, despite being a good game?
to sum it up lap dogs and to me that dont sound like romulans romulans do not trust outsiders or like them this sould be evident from all of star trek movie and show
system Lord Baal is dead
I have a problem with the idea that "races are a certain way" in Star Trek.
Cultures are, maybe.
But a Klingon raised by Ferengi will act like a Ferengi.
And we're talking about a setting where there hasn't BEEN a Romulan Empire for a full generation, where what passed for a Romulan Empire was a few cosplaying Tal'Shiar.
The species is nearly gone. Most have been enslaved or turned into laborers. There are adult Romulans (and they may account for the majority of living Romulans in the galaxy) who have never seen the Empire. They've never served it. They only know it from books and records, provided they have access to those.
The only ones really "living the dream" are a small elite who are working for the Iconians.
Even if Cryptic had the resources, I don't think Romulans should really be all that much like they were pre-Hobus. For that, you'd need a TNG era MMO and this game needs to make some hard breaks with TNG and TOS somewhere. The destruction of Romulus shouldn't be something that gets glossed over. It should redefine Romulans.
That's one of my problems with a Romulan or a Cardassian faction. If it resembles the faction that people who enjoyed them on TNG and DS9 want, it's wrong for the setting.
I hear what you say, and actually understand what you mean. The levelling on Fed side IS fast compared to the KDF. I don't want faster levelling on the KDF (truthfully, I want less XP per mission on BOTH sides to slow it down so I can enjoy my ship but that's a different matter).
I even understand your reservations about creating a third faction in its own right but I quote your own attitude towards the KDF of "build it and they will come".
On the forums you have Romulan supporters being almost as vocal as the KDF. In game you have players creating their own "alien" Romulans because they have no other option. On this very thread you have players talking about their own Romulan "RP" fleet (I say "RP" because they are having to pretend it's a real Romulan). Then you have players like me.
I want the KDF to have more stories so I can enjoy my favourite race doing that it's supposed to do, not shoehorned into doing what the Federation does.
I also want to spend money on character slots to play a Romulan. I want to play for the RSE as a Romulan or even a "loyal" Reman. I want to play a Vulcan Unificationist on the RSE. I want to play Selay, Hirogen or whatever other race is exclusive to the RSE on ships whose cloaks don't break as easily as the Klingon's. Heck the lower level ships can even be re-skinned Klingon ships for all I care (House of Torg selling old D5 and D7 ships to a broken people? Happened before which is how the Romulans got many ships in the first place). I could even see some House of Torg Klingons on the RSE side (without the traits which make a Klingon honourable of course).
I voted Klingon content because that is where my heart lies. I would be happy to see the RSE because I am a Star Trek fan and a STO gamer and this would be best for the game (maybe not the devs, who would have to work their mivoks off
Please, don't shoehorn Romulans and Remans into the remaining factions.
PS Oh and if you are thinking of removing content from the Fed side, please start with the "Bring a Jumja stick to Memory Alpha mission". What? We can build personal shield generators but can't replicate a Jumja stick?
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
Do you think those missions really teach people how to play?
The Fed missions are supposed to.
That's part of why they require the 1-20 Fed content to be played.
They could have unlocked Klingons at level 1. They didn't.
Playing 50 missions doesn't teach you the game and, in theory, the Klingon War front Fed side does.
to me the romluans are in disarray no more then that only take one thing to unite them again if i can only play i romulan lap dog then they just need to stay out of the game and stay as NPC
system Lord Baal is dead
this is great ide for KDF and a romulan stand alone
system Lord Baal is dead
bigo ding ding ding we have a winer think ppl still bying into that supernova that threatens the entire galaxy and think most if not the entier fleet of the RSE got destroyed JJ and that movie .......
system Lord Baal is dead
just thinking outside the box here but is this not what the tutorial is for?
this game not that hard to get as ive always side a 4 year old could play this game
system Lord Baal is dead
Let players make Romulan foundry missions before we can create Romulan characters, and integrate the best into the flow.
Losing Vulcan in Star Trek 2009 left behind only a few thousand Vulcans.
If we're going with Rome (since that's the relevant metaphor for Romulus) then they went from 5 million to around 30,000 during their fall. So that may be a useful percentage. Or it may be helpful to consider that the Roman Empire was 40% urban and highly centralized, much more so than contemporary societies. Given that the United States TODAY is relatively urban (around 80%) and using that as a benchmark for how urban the future of Trek would be, for Romulus to feel Roman, most of the population would have to be on the planet Romulus.
This also matches what we know of Romulus.
Whereas Earth had 9 billion inhabitants, Romulus had 18 billion despite a presumably matched fleet size and number of people in the larger empire. Nearly all of whom were lost in the supernova.
This game is based around the aftermath of that supernova. This game explains why the supernova was a threat to the galaxy.
If you don't buy into the supernova, you're rejecting STO's setting to begin with.
Nope.
That's what leveling is for in an MMO.
you know to me the foundry again to me was the Dev way to make a excuse to not make mission as much and it has showing over 2 years but they could take like doing a poll for the say top 5 Dev picked foundry mission the player base votes number one get adopted to Dev mission and i could do with out Voice overs and cute scenes i would more likely play a Dev adopted mission then i will looking for mission in the foundry
let me give you example of why i dont like foundry mission they are like the books to me they are not cannon what the Dev makes or if they took the ide of adopting mission it would be like prime universe cannon to me
system Lord Baal is dead
hmmmm thot it said in a mission it threatened the system not the galaxy but its been since year one since i played any of the story line mission so i could be off
system Lord Baal is dead
There is just one minor thing that will bite you in the back most certainly then. Territorial control pvp just doesn't work right in a two faction game with huge population gaps between the factions. I've been there. I've played more than 5 years on a **** Server with a 2.5A/1M/0.75H relation and that server was considered 'mostly' balanced because most of the time there was some kind of truce between the smaller realms. When some parts of the community switched to warhammer and its two faction game the smaller faction got steamrolled over and over again, with a much smaller advantage of population (1 Chaos/1.2 Order [yes that is correct, I had the 'luck' to play on one of the few servers were order actually had more players]). Same company, mostly the same playerbase, very different outcomes.
lets not take jj movie as example for alot of his story had lots of holes
also i dont beleave most of the RST was bottled up in one system galaxy is a big place ya know
and to be blunt stop compering star trek to real life equations you dont know how many planet where in the RSE how many system they had or even what the entier population of RSE is all you do is a guessing game
system Lord Baal is dead
IMHO this is one of the lower prioities. Put done the PvP-forks for a second and please listen first. Why do I come to this conclusion ?
If I remember correctly (please correct me if I remember this wrong) the devs mentioned that the total number of players doing PvP are that low (compared to the people doing PvE) that dropping PvP completly from the game would not effect the game population at all.
This should tell us much about the need to improve PvP. But it also tells us that there are not many people doing PvP. IMO STO was always heavy PvE-sided and I believe it will always be. Improving PvP (what-ever-that-should-mean if not balancing) would improve the game only for a small part of the STO population.
If PvP is improved/fixed/balanced new PvP players are also needed. At the current distribution of player population and chooseable faction from start I do not see that happen very quickly.
The entry for completly new players also needs to be simplfied. Not everyone wants to play as Federation or even worse Fed-vs-Fed PvP (you do not really fight, only ... aeehmm ... do Wargames! ... right) because of lack of factions. What are with the people who want to play the "Bad Guys" only ?
Currently there is only the KDF option after unlocking by playing Federation. It is like being allowed to join the Dark Side only after you managed to played halve of the game on the Light Side. I believe this is a problem. In a perfect situation all factions would be available from first day of playing. Maybe you can not start every race/faction from level 1 but thats ok (and can be fixed with a later release if needed) because of total mission selection for that race/faction.
I think both big SciFi IPs can be compared: both are very one-sided and focused regarding the official storytelling side (Light Side/Federation). If my memory works correct the Dark Side has a bigger or at least comparable player base in SWTOR. There are many people that just want to play as the "Bad Guys". But it needs to be a option first. Diversity is the key to success. I would even go so far to say STO will never outgrow it is current population level by big extent without more diversity. At the moment many Fed mission make you feel to be the Bad Guy and not a Federation captain honouring the Prime Directive and the high morale code of the UFP. But maybe Im alone with this ...
The leveling speed is too fast for enough PvP at something other than endgame level. Do you play some PvP matches or do two missions and go to the next rank with new powers and ships? Even when you only do PvE you can hit endgame before you finish all mission content. I believe that fast level process works against low- and mid-level PvP. I do not know how and if this can be fixed at all.
Everything that helps bringin more (paying) customers into STO is good. But do you really think improving PvP is the best method ? I believe players need to be able to play as a faction/race/career they want and fly a ship/do things they like to be happy and continue playing the game.
Thanks for listening.
Now you can raise the PvP-forks again ...
Thinking about the "Improve Exploration" option ...
Like a other poster already said. "No true exploration possible." The exploration engine would need an almost infinite list of options to generate new missions on-the-fly which do not repeat after a few runs. It can be done but it would requiere a very solid SOA like architecture to make the immersion of exploring the universe.
Multiple option count in a mission, variable length / duration, decision based routing and further option selectiong .... the list of to-do's to get this running is a major task for a developer.
Regarding KDF content update & Romulan faction.
Cryptic has shown & mentioned that content in mission form is not devliered easy and fast. Cryptic can not deliever new missions on a regular level (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). Maybe there are plans to change this. We do not know.
All is focused on endgame. Missions for leveling are nice to have but not what you will use on daily basis after you hit endgame. I personally do not want to get more level-up-mission for Federation or KDF that need months of developemtn time and are consumed in minutes and never touched again. It will not extend my game experience.
If "normal" mission will not give you any reward comparable to the STF loot system or tokens to get high-level gear from a STF-gear-store system it will not be replayed very often. Why should you replay the mission (Im aware I only using the reward argument here)?
And to the devs : Thanks for the Ask Cryptic and the poll in this !
Please continue your great work :-)
a.) more content for KDF
b.) more ships for KDF
c.) more people, playing KDF
all the story elements could be done in a 3 episode feature series. But the klingons do not invade romulan territory, they rather overthrow what is left of the senat while sela is gone with the iconians.
i will delete my account if this gose down
but would make for a ide to get the hole RSE united again
system Lord Baal is dead