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.
hmmmm what concerns me is your gonna balls this up with thinking it could cause harm. are you worried that when a romulan faction is added next year that some people leave the FEDS for the RSE or even worse lol KDF players also leave for the RSE???? making the KDF even smaller? it could happen but thats the reality of choice which we don't have but should have.
i have 5 toons, 3 fed & 2 kdf i will be joining a romulan faction when added and i couldn't give a hoot about all the money(c/zen-store, lifer, aswell as in game resouces etc) and work i've spent over in my fleet bases and such on both sides. i'm fully prepared to do it all over again. anyway by the time RSE hits holodeck most starbase would most likely be T5.
when you talk of the 'confines of our two faction game' thats where sto went wrong from day 1! it never should have been just a 2 faction game.
kdf content. well you could use this as an idea.... propmoting some foundry mission to episodes. any authors mission that gets selected gets rewarded. more slots, maybe a huge chunk of zen and dilth. almost like paying them thru an ingame process for their work??
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.
Dude, what's to discuss, we want playable Romulans with Romulan ships supporting the Romulan Empire. Why are we being treated like we're asking for as I said in another thead an Aston Martin made out of platinum?
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
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.
Retrait and Respecies tokens could help with that. Personally having collected around 15k accolade points on my main I would delete him in a heartbeat and start all over with the friggin starbase, if it were a romulan starbase. Quite frankly the only reason I have invested that heavily into this game is so that maybe one day i could do just that .
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.
/snip
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.
What happened to "CBS won't allow too many [insert lockbox ship] flying all over the Federation." But they are fine with D'deridex? Romulans are not part of the Federation or the KDF. So what are some ways to achieve their own experience in a cost dev time efficient manner? Certainly not by allowing federation players to create a Romulan character with a blue hud and access to the mogai.
Brainstorming wall of text: TL;DR below.
The basics as I see them:
General:
Different UI, yes it is that simple.
Doffs, since they are a must have item we need RSE artwork, no way am I letting Fed or Klingon targs run my warbird, we need new face pictures, everything else can be copied form KDF FED standard doffs Would be nice to have a few true romulans with a special trait, but no must have. MOst important my roster is filled with pointy eared green blooded heroes.
In our home sector we could hav a few unique missions, but generally we just have the same missions as the FED/KDF, but if RSE accepts Doff missions in a FED/KDF sector we get an infiltration bonus.
Ship: Dohh, obviously we want to fly our top of the line T5 RSE ships. Before reaching T5 we could infiltrate s.b. other factions and be able to fly their ships. more c-store sales from existing content, and we only have to deal with balancing the consoles already in game. RSE can buy both KDF and FED T1-4 ships. They could get a special skin to make it obvious that they are not KDF or FED ships, if art department has the time.
PvP: Abolish it, or end those stupid FvF queues, and get all those people that have been hired to start working on balance already. The miserable state that PvP is in has nothing to do with the RSE...moving on. Yes open world, for the green ones would be grande....*sigh*
Items: Romulans should have their own STF set, can't be that hard to make it, is it?
Crafting: No clue how this trainwreck is going to be salvaged in general, but hell give the RSE disruptor a similar visual effect to the ground gun already in game and everybody happy.
Lvling:
About these high quality two faction missions: check their dialogues, the single most immersion breaking thing about them, is the fact that my KDF cpt is still addressed as a Federation VA. But the idea is still solid.
Would it be too much to remaster some fed episode, giving replay value to feds, while opening up dialogue and objective paths for both RSE and KDF?
Finally give us an infiltration intro so we can play in some FED missions as Vulcans. Lets say after a quick tutorial, even flying FED ships for that time, giving you C-store revenue for lower level ships/consoles? Once we hit lvl, we go back to Rator and get promoted, now we infiltrate the KDF, rinse repeat, new players learn to use cloak. Finally some remastered missions and the existing FEs and we should have more then enough PvE to get us from what 30-50?
One we're done infiltrating each faction the BOs we accumulated during our trip stay with us, or can be traded at Rator, so they become PoW and we get Rom/Rem officers in exchange. If you have to tech to ensure they keep their stats that would enable RSE players to buy up officers form the exchange and change the paper doll to something romulan, while giving RSE access to the space traits and BO skills currently in game.
Rator map: Yes we need it, with Respec guy, BO trainer, ....
This could be a season long stand in for our Starbases. Let Fleets gain [reputation] by donating resources to the colony. Which would then help to upgrade Raotr 3.
The main problem with Friends being kept seperate is that KDF-FED partner fleets have no way of interacting, and that outside STFs things are not cross faction.
Just a thought: Once the community has spend the better part of SX building up Rator (by that time most fleets will be T5 anyway) individual fleets can decide to donate provision to a Romulan starbase/partner fleet. This would be an excellent time point to rethink how partner fleets work. maybe they have the same calendar, fleet chat, bank.... The problem is not having a third faction per se, but the way that the minor and the major factions can interact via the fleet system. Learn from the KDF and the RSE will be fun, while feeling independent enough.
Why can't partner fleets not visit each others starbases? Involve the house system for the KDF, and make loose ties between the faction possible, with a solid in-game explanation.
TL;DR: The reason why a third faction becomes a problem has something to do with how STo handles faction and fleets in general. Not with the population bias. Fix the former and the second won't be an issue for the RSE.
Retrait and Respecies tokens could help with that. Personally having collected around 15k accolade points on my main I would delete him in a heartbeat and start all over with the friggin starbase, if it were a romulan starbase. Quite frankly the only reason I have invested that heavily into this game is so that maybe one day i could do just that .
What happened to "CBS won't allow too many [insert lockbox ship] flying all over the Federation." But they are fine with D'deridex? Romulans are not part of the Federation or the KDF. So what are some ways to achieve their own experience in a cost dev time efficient manner? Certainly not by allowing federation players to create a Romulan character with a blue hud and access to the mogai.
Brainstorming wall of text: TL;DR below.
The basics as I see them:
General:
Different UI, yes it is that simple.
Doffs, since they are a must have item we need RSE artwork, no way am I letting Fed or Klingon targs run my warbird, we need new face pictures, everything else can be copied form KDF FED standard doffs Would be nice to have a few true romulans with a special trait, but no must have. MOst important my roster is filled with pointy eared green blooded heroes.
In our home sector we could hav a few unique missions, but generally we just have the same missions as the FED/KDF, but if RSE accepts Doff missions in a FED/KDF sector we get an infiltration bonus.
Ship: Dohh, obviously we want to fly our top of the line T5 RSE ships. Before reaching T5 we could infiltrate s.b. other factions and be able to fly their ships. more c-store sales from existing content, and we only have to deal with balancing the consoles already in game. RSE can buy both KDF and FED T1-4 ships. They could get a special skin to make it obvious that they are not KDF or FED ships, if art department has the time.
PvP: Abolish it, or end those stupid FvF queues, and get all those people that have been hired to start working on balance already. The miserable state that PvP is in has nothing to do with the RSE...moving on. Yes open world, for the green ones would be grande....*sigh*
Items: Romulans should have their own STF set, can't be that hard to make it, is it?
Crafting: No clue how this trainwreck is going to be salvaged in general, but hell give the RSE disruptor a similar visual effect to the ground gun already in game and everybody happy.
Lvling:
About these high quality two faction missions: check their dialogues, the single most immersion breaking thing about them, is the fact that my KDF cpt is still addressed as a Federation VA. But the idea is still solid.
Would it be too much to remaster some fed episode, giving replay value to feds, while opening up dialogue and objective paths for both RSE and KDF?
Finally give us an infiltration intro so we can play in some FED missions as Vulcans. Lets say after a quick tutorial, even flying FED ships for that time, giving you C-store revenue for lower level ships/consoles? Once we hit lvl, we go back to Rator and get promoted, now we infiltrate the KDF, rinse repeat, new players learn to use cloak. Finally some remastered missions and the existing FEs and we should have more then enough PvE to get us from what 30-50?
One we're done infiltrating each faction the BOs we accumulated during our trip stay with us, or can be traded at Rator, so they become PoW and we get Rom/Rem officers in exchange. If you have to tech to ensure they keep their stats that would enable RSE players to buy up officers form the exchange and change the paper doll to something romulan, while giving RSE access to the space traits and BO skills currently in game.
Rator map: Yes we need it, with Respec guy, BO trainer, ....
This could be a season long stand in for our Starbases. Let Fleets gain [reputation] by donating resources to the colony. Which would then help to upgrade Raotr 3.
The main problem with Friends being kept seperate is that KDF-FED partner fleets have no way of interacting, and that outside STFs things are not cross faction.
Just a thought: Once the community has spend the better part of SX building up Rator (by that time most fleets will be T5 anyway) individual fleets can decide to donate provision to a Romulan starbase/partner fleet. This would be an excellent time point to rethink how partner fleets work. maybe they have the same calendar, fleet chat, bank.... The problem is not having a third faction per se, but the way that the minor and the major factions can interact via the fleet system. Learn from the KDF and the RSE will be fun, while feeling independent enough.
Why can't partner fleets not visit each others starbases? Involve the house system for the KDF, and make loose ties between the faction possible, with a solid in-game explanation.
TL;DR: The reason why a third faction becomes a problem has something to do with how STo handles faction and fleets in general. Not with the population bias. Fix the former and the second won't be an issue for the RSE.
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 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.
A Klingon, raised by Humans, did NOT act like a Human. He may have learnt some of the "foolish" Human values, like compassion and empathy, but he still had his Honor, and pride of the Empire.
Speaking ofcourse, of "Ambassador" Worf (later General, in STO).
A Klingon, raised by Humans, did NOT act like a Human. He may have learnt some of the "foolish" Human values, like compassion and empathy, but he still had his Honor, and pride of the Empire.
Speaking ofcourse, of "Ambassador" Worf (later General, in STO).
not to say he left starfleet ones for gowron to serve the klingon empire for he did not like the oders picard gave him
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.
Then don't bother doing FED and KDF Romulans, it's definitely not worth it, and you'll likely make the game so far away from the Star Trek series that it couldn't really be named "Star Trek". I would likely play a lvl 50 faction only, but I voted for KDF content instead since I have more interest in factions than in new costumes.
Also, the fleet issues are a false concern, many people would create a mirror RSE fleet. They would likely not invest as much time and ressources into it, but it wouldn't break current fleets at all.
Then don't bother doing FED and KDF Romulans, it's definitely not worth it, and you'll likely make the game so far away from the Star Trek series that it couldn't really be named "Star Trek". I would likely play a lvl 50 faction only, but I voted for KDF content instead since I have more interest in factions than in new costumes.
Also, the fleet issues are a false concern, many people would create a mirror RSE fleet. They would likely not invest as much time and ressources into it, but it wouldn't break current fleets at all.
i 100% agree with every word you just said you my friend sounds like you know the heart of romulan
A little bit off-topic but mentioned in this thread:
I do not copy the "Romulans are all dead because of homeworld-boom". I will not even start the JJ-storytelling-what-ever. It is here and we have to handle it but it is still TRIBBLE. Just like the Federation or KDF will vanish when there homeworld would explode. Because there is no backup or lower administraion level that could take over and run the official business of an existing Star Empire.
Yes they have lost many people. But there are more things to consider if and how this would effect the state of the RSE.
Before Hobus the RSE was described as one of the three major powers in the Alpha quadrant. I believe the RSE was even more focused on the Beta quadrant but I may be wrong with this. The RSE was not only the Romulus system. Does anyone know the number of systems the RSE controlled before Hobus ? Memory Beta tells something about "dozen of star systems over many sectors of space".
After reading the Path to 2409 I had the impression of multiple facitons fighting for control of the RSE after the central command was gone. More like the Klingon Civil in TNG. The former control from the powerful central command is gone and many smaller lord/ladies try to get the best out of the situation. The RSE is still strong enough to defend the hold of a Klingon invasion (Path to 2409 and Daily-Lore Mission). The Path of 2409 does not make the impression that all Romulans are dead.
I find it hard to believe that all high-ranked Romulans from all branches (like : politicians, military, security agencies, science, ... ) had no exit strategy or emergency plan if the Vulcans-will-safe-us-plan is not working. It would have taken six weeks to evacuate all Romulans from the homeworld (if I remember the lore correct) but a much smaller part could be evacuated with just a few ships. And I can not believe that all high-ranked politicians/military generals/admirals and Tal Shiar leaders would be so naive. They are Romulans after all.
Is there more information what happend when Romulus exploded?
A little bit off-topic but mentioned in this thread:
I do not copy the "Romulans are all dead because of homeworld-boom". I will not even start the JJ-storytelling-what-ever. It is here and we have to handle it but it is still TRIBBLE. Just like the Federation or KDF will vanish when there homeworld would explode. Because there is no backup or lower administraion level that could take over and run the official business of aa existing Star Empire.
Yes they have lost many people. But there are more things to consider if and how this would effect the state of the RSE.
Before Hobus the RSE was described as one of the three major powers in the Alpha quadrant. I believe the RSE was even more focused on the Beta quadrant but I may be wrong with this. The RSE was not only the Romulus system. Does anyone know the number of systems teh RSE controlled before Hobus ? Memory Beta tells something about "dozen of star systems over many sectors of space".
After reading the Path to 2409 I had the impression of multiple facitons fighting for control of the RSE after the central command was gone. More like the Klingon Civil in TNG. The former control from the powerful central command is gone and many smaller lord/ladies try to get the best out of the situation. The RSE is still strong enough to defend the hold of a Klingon invasion (Path to 2409 and Daily-Lore Mission). The Path of 2409 does not make the impression that all Romulans are dead.
I find it hard to believe that all high-ranked Romulans from all branches (like : politicians, military, security agencies, science, ... ) had no exit strategy or emergency plan if the Vulcans-will-safe-us-plan is not working. It would have taken six weeks to evacuate all Romulans from the homeworld (if I remember the lore correct) but a much smaller part could be evacuated with just a few ships. And I can not believe that all high-ranked politicians/military generals/admirals and Tal Shiar leaders would be so naive. They are Romulans after all.
Is there more information what happend when Romulus exploded?
here here and any thing that happen to romulas after going bye bye is only in sto now till a new show or movie dun in the prime universe will we know any more then what sto gives us
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.
I dunno what you mean about outlevel the episode content, the missions level with you.
I rolled out a new FED alt a few months ago and I hit VA at the end of the Romulan series and it was great. The DS9 series, Breen front, the PVE Borg & Undine missions ALL endgame content. It was great having a use for the T5 ships I bought.
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.
Looking from one perspective you are right. But what about the other perspective: called auto-leveling content?
See, you have something really awesome in the game which many other successfull MMORPGs do not have. Even after years in the business. You take Lotro as an example - and I do also play Lotro. They do not have that. Only just a few instances which scale with your level and that's it. Compared to STO it is way boring.
Be proud of what you have already!
It is no problem out-leveling content as long as they adjust to you. Playing the outlevel Missions can be endgame. You have your Fleet/VA ships and you are more flexible than perhaps at LV.30.
Simply said: Add one additional universal barter currency to the outleveled missions a player can get and you have a ton of meaningfull and desireable content! Instead stupidly grinding the same 4 missions for - let's say Fleet Marks you could go and play the whole Romulan Arc. Re-live the story and earn a usefull token instead of vendor trash.
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.
It certainly would be a difficult task for you to introduce a 3rd faction with meaningful content. Given the fact that you guys struggle hard with meaningful content for FED already, not to speak of the KDF.
But in the end I'd say YES, it would be good to see something different in the game after 3 years. The game desperately needs a different perspective. It needs evolvement.
You seem to follow the idea to create a Romulan faction character and give the character/player the choice to either enter the Federation or the KDF.
It would certainly fit into the left off canon (non JJ-Verse) Timeline which STO also tries to follow. Romulans are scattered, leaderless, divided. There is hardly a unification of a single faction called "The Romulan Star Empire" in sight in the coming decades. Their Homeworld is gone, too many persons claiming power etc. And let's also face the fact that both - Federation and Klingon Empire accept different species with open arms now. Fed through the new charta and KDF due political influences.
So, why not simple open a 3rd faction and let the Romulan/Reman character choose between FED or KDF and play their Missions. Surely the whole FED Romulan Arc would be problematic, but you could cut it out until you can fill in a fitting Episode arc as a compensation - which isn't even needed since FED has an overflow of Missions.
The positives for us would be:
- new faction
- new ships, art, concepts
- new story approach/PoV
The positives for you:
- new faction (as like a new class in other MMOs)
- interesting/additional opportunities to explore
- new lore development
- more Store options; therefore, more $ (let's face it, you need it)
While there is nothing that would make me more happy than playing a Romulan in a separate Romulan faction, I could settle for playing the fed side. This however would depend on the in game explanation for this, cause I'm not interested in plying a romulan traitor/separatist or unificationist.
I don't want to be what Worf was in TNG, but I could accept being what Kira was in DS9 (except Bajor was on the mercy of the federation and RSE doesn't need mercy from anyone). I can imagine many situations where RSE would temporarily allay itself with Feds and send a fleet of ships to federation space in order in fight a common threat (Borg, Iconians, Tholians, whatever). They did it during Dominion wars and history likes to repeat itself.
It's a little different with the Klingons, cause no respected Romulan would ever allay himself with them. But what if the alliance was just a ruse, a deception? You know the saying "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Officially the Romulans on the KDF side would be allies, but their true, secret, and more important mission would be to gather intelligence and find ways to destabilize the kilngon empire in order to conquer it later.
[SIGPIC]Join Date: August 2009[/SIGPIC] I live in an alternate universe, where j.j. abrams and cryptic never existed,
where R.S.E. is what it always should be.
first, Romulans should make sense for the Story and the Universe.
Will the Romulans rebuild their empire? Will they join the Federation as Member?
ally with the Klingons?
or fall apart into multiple smaller factions that may or may not join either side.
That is a STORY question first !
*Game Design* should really take the backseat here.
Do we really want that JJ Abrams' movie that destroyed Romulus in our Prime Universe to be responsible for the falling apart of the complete Romulan Empire?
IMHO these things are bigger than just STO.
Personally i wouldn't mind a Romulan Faction that starts at Level 40 with 3 Endgame Ships and 5-10 Story Missions but grows only slowly like the KDF does.
That STO does not deliver nearly enough STORY content is no secret.
At this point it's not a question of KDF Content, it is a question about Content, period.
FED players crave new story mission just as much as KDF players do, we've gotten the same lousy 15 missions in the last 2 or 3 years. There is no difference in the entertainment value of either faction at this point.
Let me put it this way, a friend of mine had quit shortly after launch.
He came back a Year later and told me as conclusion of his short return
"if i can play through all missions that were released this Year in a weekend, then this says all i need to know about this game".
:-|
as a player do i WANT a Romulan Faction that is going to be pushed into the FED or KDF side of things, after say, playing 10 hours of mission content?
So i play a few missions that may or may not be good, and then i have the same experience as i would have with a Romulan C-Store Species unlock and a Romulan Warbird from a LockBox ?
Because if i get FED or KDF endgame, then i play the same old stuff all over again with a green UI and some new Toy Ships...
DO NOT WANT!
The Romulan faction NEEDS to be a full faction or it is not wort the effort to build it in the first place.
3 Factions also open up completely new possibilities if you start to think about things like faction controlled sector space / open pvp stuff or just PvP Maps in general.
A statement i just heard a few days ago from a pure Fed player, was that some people don't like the KDF because they are just a mirror image of the Federation anyway.
KDF has that Fe'khiri story arc, and then it is all the same missions like the FEDs got, be it Featured Episodes, STFs, PvP, Fleetactions or the new Fleet Missions.
The biggest difference is a red UI and a non functional Cloaking Device.
Romulans need to be a game changer!
NEW Kits, NEW Powers, NEW Professions, NEW UI, NEW Ships, NEW Missions, NEW Social Zones, NEW Sector Blocks, NEW Gameplay, NEW Roles to Play ... and a WORKING Cloaking Device.
...in short, it needs to be all the things that have been neglected on FED+KDF side, if it will be the same, then who needs that?
I have 11 Chars, i certainly don't need a 12th Fed or KDF char, Romulan Ship+Species or not.
Also, if the Romulans will ultimately be an even smaller faction than the KDF, there will be even less reason to add new species specific mission content, or even C-Store items than the KDF gets.
Either you take the "build it and they will come" approach, or don't waste your and our time with this.
A statement i just heard a few days ago from a pure Fed player, was that some people don't like the KDF because they are just a mirror image of the Federation anyway.
Well lets be truthful here, the entire game needs a complete rework. They should just shut down the servers and develop Star Trek: Online 2 which instead focuses on the Khitomer Accord vs the Typhon Pact.
Khitomer Accord
- United Federation of Planets
- Klingon Empire
- Ferengi Alliance
- Cardassian Union
Think about it, scrapping the ridiculous story that they have now. Which I am not kidding, is a complete rehash of Season 4-5 of DS9 with the Undine taking the role of the Founders. Allowing much more flexibility in races, ships, doing away with a leveling system all together and have much more of a skill based system where you learn skills over time. (Kinda like EvE), meaning that you would only have to develop missions for either Khitomer or Typhon.
This would allow everyone to play as their favourite races, provide fun and functional PvP, especially if they introduce the "Phasing" Technology that WoW so cleverly made use of. You could create more STF's such as a Typhon Pact on to steal Quantum Slipstream plans from the Federation causing a response and a counter STF.
I recognise that cryptic is a small company so you would not have to fully develop new factions with their own missions. There would simply be two factions and a choice of races to provide flexibility such as.
You choose...
Khitomer Accord > Federation > Bajoran
Or...
Typhon Pact > Romulan > Reman
The character creation possibilities are endless and makes the game much more exciting, using the strength of cryptics famous character creation system.
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.
IMHO what needs to be done is have a full unique romulan faction and you could do it by this route.
1. Have basic setup of romulan faction e.g. hubworld (Romulas) , hubmaps (Social map), UI, Skills,BOFF's, Ships (1 Tier), start at level 1.
2. Update with new hubmaps, ships 1 tier at a time, a tutorial,Fleet starbases,DOFF's and dallies. Do this in modules say 1 or 2 a year.
3. Feature Episodes Series, 1 a year to advance the plot and introduce new tech.
4. Outside FE's for Missions & Dallies have foundry competitions for each. Have cryptic write and outline general plot for each, run competition, 10 best voted goes forward, Have QA choose top 5, You and rest of sto team choose 1! Author gets nice reward, say 1 lockbox ship and Some Zen, Dilithium and accolade.
You can rinse & repeat point 4 for any faction ingame or in future, this taking the burden off sto team for content, and being able to concentrate on other stuff. Pvp, Crafting etc.
I would love to see a FE that brings romulas back(You already built some of the map before launch right?) and use that to launch RSE faction with.
Have hubmaps as starting gates for adding missions, dallies etc like Invasion of defera and Nukara prime are. Padd these out over time.
RSE faction with Romulans, Remans with liberated Vulcans ,Borg, Iconians. And a science & stealth Focus to the faction & missions. Also Hirogen & Yridians Reputation System Character reward unlock.
FED side Reputation System Character reward unlock would be Remans (Obisek's Gang ?) Romulan Unification (Vulcan Brainwashed nutjobs!!). KDF's Version would be Remans & Hirogen.
Leveling speed slowed down Fed side.
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.
You make a good point, but allow me to make a counter argument. A Romulan Faction will bring new life into this game for a player like myself, that has already done all there is to do in the Federation Faction and who already owns two thirds of all the Ships available from the C-Store.
One might suggest to play KDF? however, I simply have no desire to play KDF because of the UI color scheme and because the KDF really are not for me. I would however love to play Romulans. It would be like starting a new character and playing the game anew, however, without the same old overplayed missions. As far as disruption between fleets and things like that, I believe it would be minor! While I would spend a majority of my time playing the New Romulan Faction, I would still keep my Federation Toon and play it, heck, without overplaying it the game might be more fun!!!
Well lets be truthful here, the entire game needs a complete rework. They should just shut down the servers and develop Star Trek: Online 2 which instead focuses on the Khitomer Accord vs the Typhon Pact.
Khitomer Accord
- United Federation of Planets
- Klingon Empire
- Ferengi Alliance
- Cardassian Union
Think about it, scrapping the ridiculous story that they have now. Which I am not kidding, is a complete rehash of Season 4-5 of DS9 with the Undine taking the role of the Founders. Allowing much more flexibility in races, ships, doing away with a leveling system all together and have much more of a skill based system where you learn skills over time. (Kinda like EvE), meaning that you would only have to develop missions for either Khitomer or Typhon.
This would allow everyone to play as their favourite races, provide fun and functional PvP, especially if they introduce the "Phasing" Technology that WoW so cleverly made use of. You could create more STF's such as a Typhon Pact on to steal Quantum Slipstream plans from the Federation causing a response and a counter STF.
I recognise that cryptic is a small company so you would not have to fully develop new factions with their own missions. There would simply be two factions and a choice of races to provide flexibility such as.
You choose...
Khitomer Accord > Federation > Bajoran
Or...
Typhon Pact > Romulan > Reman
The character creation possibilities are endless and makes the game much more exciting, using the strength of cryptics famous character creation system.
I love that idea. Only change I would make is to keep the current game running while they make #2.
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 still play it. The space combat in that game is still superior to any Star Trek game that i've ever played. That is my opinion. Some will say Bridge Commander is the best but i played both and Klingon Academy is by far the coolest Trek Space Combat game i've ever enjoyed and still enjoy to this day.
Ever fight the Borg in any of those mods? I love taking ships seen at Wolf 359 and fighting a borg cube. lol!
Thanks for posting Dan, you didn't have to do that but I appreciate it.
I do think many of us saw your post coming, I did. I don't have a great deal to say, too much flaming and such going on. I can understand peoples disappointment, I share it. I am for a Romulan faction down the track in a few years, but I do agree at the current state of the game a 3rd faction no matter who it is would hurt the game more than anything else.
What I will say, which is to everyone is don't rule out a Romulan faction, but you do need to understand Cryptic is a business, if they haven't been able to (for whatever reason) produced KDF content to make it on par somewhat with the Federation, then they couldn't do it with a third faction. But that is now, look how the game has shaped in two years, consider what it will be like in another two years? There is only so much they can do to the Fed and KDF before they milk the cow dry so to speak. So a Romulan and True Way faction are more than possible just in a couple of years.
Best thing any Romulan fan can do is show Cryptic that two equal factions are possible, as if two equal factions are possible then three and four can be as well at the right time, which isn't now.
As for playable Romulans, just remember a Romulan Colony is tied to the Federation in the Path to 2409 and Remans on the KDF would fit better than Romulans. If they bundle both up in one unlock like the Trill for both sides, then even better. Yes it might not be what you are after, when do we ever get what we want? I want KDF Cardassians and Sona but I doubt I will ever get them so I don't make a big fuss over it. Stay strong, show Cryptic that two factions can work and you'll probably find many KDF fans will join your cause after equality is achieved, I certainly would as I too would one day like to see a Romulan faction equal in content and uniqueness.
Support the Game by Supporting the KDF, equality and uniqueness for all factions!
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.
Thanks for commenting!
I think those of us who are interested in eventually playing Romulans won't really like being tied to either the Federation or the Klingon Empire.
Maybe it's time to consider the idea of a "Neutral" faction and roll up any and all mini-factions under that banner? A Neutral faction could share certain content with other Neutral factions and could be considered allied by the game engine if not the players. You could possibly leverage the Reputation system you've been talking about to further define a player's relationship to the other factions.
Given a high enough Reputation with the Klingons, for example, might even open up access to the Klingon home sector and KDF missions. Maybe even allow cross-teaming.
As far as providing more species-specific content goes, well, that's why we have the Foundry, right?
If the Romulans can't be a full and independent faction, I don't think the Romulan players would have a large heartburn over being "allied" with other neutral factions such as the Cardassians, Breen, etc. They could still fight each other in PvP and such and they'd still be distinct from the two main factions. We'd just need a system so that those who want to have purely Romulan ships and crew can do that without too much trouble.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
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.
NO!!!!!!!
Seriously, I'm all for new KDF content and new factions, but remove functional content from the game? Isn't that pretty much shooting yourself in the leg?
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
How about this, simply scrap the existing game, redevelop the engine, spend extensive time testing and not rushing with level design or content to make sure there is a real Star Trek feel, maybe get some of the people who worked on TNG, DS9 and VOY to give you ideas for a real Star Trek experience.
- Use "Phasing" Technology, as you progress, the boundaries of space change considering on the situation with the players of the 3 factions (Klingon, Romulan and Federation) are able to attack installations, do border incursions. So it actually feels like a "War"
- Redesign ground completely to work more like Mass Effect with you being about to take cover and return fire effectively.
- Flesh out ALL factions so they start from Lt 1 so that people can get invested in recurring characters or the story of their particular race.
- Provide people with actual CONTENT and not Lockboxes, Ships, Costumes and Shineys. If you need to make money, release an expansion pack and provide more customer support. For either general commercial release or digital download.
- Make more music for the game.
- Make Fleets able to own certain systems and fight other Fleets for control of those systems.
- Expanding the Galaxy and make it a GALAXY, Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma Quadrants!
- Rework the entire game and hire DECENT voice actors, not just somebody from the local pub.
- Make it so your Lieutenant and Lieutenant Command ranks allow you serve on "Fleet" vessels instead of having your own ship in specific roles.
- Add new careers such as "Command" for leadership, split Science and have "Science and Medical" Careers and introduce new powers for different abilities.
Basically, just scrap all this now, take the servers offline for 5-6 months and totally rework the game so its better. You have more then enough feedback Cryptic.
Sounds great! Now how exactly do they source the 15 million dollars to do it while also keeping their primary source of revenue supported?
Comments
hmmmm what concerns me is your gonna balls this up with thinking it could cause harm. are you worried that when a romulan faction is added next year that some people leave the FEDS for the RSE or even worse lol KDF players also leave for the RSE???? making the KDF even smaller? it could happen but thats the reality of choice which we don't have but should have.
i have 5 toons, 3 fed & 2 kdf i will be joining a romulan faction when added and i couldn't give a hoot about all the money(c/zen-store, lifer, aswell as in game resouces etc) and work i've spent over in my fleet bases and such on both sides. i'm fully prepared to do it all over again. anyway by the time RSE hits holodeck most starbase would most likely be T5.
when you talk of the 'confines of our two faction game' thats where sto went wrong from day 1! it never should have been just a 2 faction game.
kdf content. well you could use this as an idea.... propmoting some foundry mission to episodes. any authors mission that gets selected gets rewarded. more slots, maybe a huge chunk of zen and dilth. almost like paying them thru an ingame process for their work??
Dude, what's to discuss, we want playable Romulans with Romulan ships supporting the Romulan Empire. Why are we being treated like we're asking for as I said in another thead an Aston Martin made out of platinum?
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
Retrait and Respecies tokens could help with that. Personally having collected around 15k accolade points on my main I would delete him in a heartbeat and start all over with the friggin starbase, if it were a romulan starbase. Quite frankly the only reason I have invested that heavily into this game is so that maybe one day i could do just that .
What happened to "CBS won't allow too many [insert lockbox ship] flying all over the Federation." But they are fine with D'deridex? Romulans are not part of the Federation or the KDF. So what are some ways to achieve their own experience in a cost dev time efficient manner? Certainly not by allowing federation players to create a Romulan character with a blue hud and access to the mogai.
Brainstorming wall of text: TL;DR below.
The basics as I see them:
General:
Different UI, yes it is that simple.
Doffs, since they are a must have item we need RSE artwork, no way am I letting Fed or Klingon targs run my warbird, we need new face pictures, everything else can be copied form KDF FED standard doffs Would be nice to have a few true romulans with a special trait, but no must have. MOst important my roster is filled with pointy eared green blooded heroes.
In our home sector we could hav a few unique missions, but generally we just have the same missions as the FED/KDF, but if RSE accepts Doff missions in a FED/KDF sector we get an infiltration bonus.
Ship: Dohh, obviously we want to fly our top of the line T5 RSE ships. Before reaching T5 we could infiltrate s.b. other factions and be able to fly their ships. more c-store sales from existing content, and we only have to deal with balancing the consoles already in game. RSE can buy both KDF and FED T1-4 ships. They could get a special skin to make it obvious that they are not KDF or FED ships, if art department has the time.
PvP: Abolish it, or end those stupid FvF queues, and get all those people that have been hired to start working on balance already. The miserable state that PvP is in has nothing to do with the RSE...moving on. Yes open world, for the green ones would be grande....*sigh*
Items: Romulans should have their own STF set, can't be that hard to make it, is it?
Crafting: No clue how this trainwreck is going to be salvaged in general, but hell give the RSE disruptor a similar visual effect to the ground gun already in game and everybody happy.
Lvling:
About these high quality two faction missions: check their dialogues, the single most immersion breaking thing about them, is the fact that my KDF cpt is still addressed as a Federation VA. But the idea is still solid.
Would it be too much to remaster some fed episode, giving replay value to feds, while opening up dialogue and objective paths for both RSE and KDF?
Finally give us an infiltration intro so we can play in some FED missions as Vulcans. Lets say after a quick tutorial, even flying FED ships for that time, giving you C-store revenue for lower level ships/consoles? Once we hit lvl, we go back to Rator and get promoted, now we infiltrate the KDF, rinse repeat, new players learn to use cloak. Finally some remastered missions and the existing FEs and we should have more then enough PvE to get us from what 30-50?
One we're done infiltrating each faction the BOs we accumulated during our trip stay with us, or can be traded at Rator, so they become PoW and we get Rom/Rem officers in exchange. If you have to tech to ensure they keep their stats that would enable RSE players to buy up officers form the exchange and change the paper doll to something romulan, while giving RSE access to the space traits and BO skills currently in game.
Rator map: Yes we need it, with Respec guy, BO trainer, ....
This could be a season long stand in for our Starbases. Let Fleets gain [reputation] by donating resources to the colony. Which would then help to upgrade Raotr 3.
The main problem with Friends being kept seperate is that KDF-FED partner fleets have no way of interacting, and that outside STFs things are not cross faction.
Just a thought: Once the community has spend the better part of SX building up Rator (by that time most fleets will be T5 anyway) individual fleets can decide to donate provision to a Romulan starbase/partner fleet. This would be an excellent time point to rethink how partner fleets work. maybe they have the same calendar, fleet chat, bank.... The problem is not having a third faction per se, but the way that the minor and the major factions can interact via the fleet system. Learn from the KDF and the RSE will be fun, while feeling independent enough.
Why can't partner fleets not visit each others starbases? Involve the house system for the KDF, and make loose ties between the faction possible, with a solid in-game explanation.
TL;DR: The reason why a third faction becomes a problem has something to do with how STo handles faction and fleets in general. Not with the population bias. Fix the former and the second won't be an issue for the RSE.
Waiting for romulans since beta, LLAP
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
are you after my romulan heart?
system Lord Baal is dead
Not in a billion years
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
my thots to
system Lord Baal is dead
A Klingon, raised by Humans, did NOT act like a Human. He may have learnt some of the "foolish" Human values, like compassion and empathy, but he still had his Honor, and pride of the Empire.
Speaking ofcourse, of "Ambassador" Worf (later General, in STO).
not to say he left starfleet ones for gowron to serve the klingon empire for he did not like the oders picard gave him
system Lord Baal is dead
Then don't bother doing FED and KDF Romulans, it's definitely not worth it, and you'll likely make the game so far away from the Star Trek series that it couldn't really be named "Star Trek". I would likely play a lvl 50 faction only, but I voted for KDF content instead since I have more interest in factions than in new costumes.
Also, the fleet issues are a false concern, many people would create a mirror RSE fleet. They would likely not invest as much time and ressources into it, but it wouldn't break current fleets at all.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
i 100% agree with every word you just said you my friend sounds like you know the heart of romulan
system Lord Baal is dead
I do not copy the "Romulans are all dead because of homeworld-boom". I will not even start the JJ-storytelling-what-ever. It is here and we have to handle it but it is still TRIBBLE. Just like the Federation or KDF will vanish when there homeworld would explode. Because there is no backup or lower administraion level that could take over and run the official business of an existing Star Empire.
Yes they have lost many people. But there are more things to consider if and how this would effect the state of the RSE.
Before Hobus the RSE was described as one of the three major powers in the Alpha quadrant. I believe the RSE was even more focused on the Beta quadrant but I may be wrong with this. The RSE was not only the Romulus system. Does anyone know the number of systems the RSE controlled before Hobus ? Memory Beta tells something about "dozen of star systems over many sectors of space".
After reading the Path to 2409 I had the impression of multiple facitons fighting for control of the RSE after the central command was gone. More like the Klingon Civil in TNG. The former control from the powerful central command is gone and many smaller lord/ladies try to get the best out of the situation. The RSE is still strong enough to defend the hold of a Klingon invasion (Path to 2409 and Daily-Lore Mission). The Path of 2409 does not make the impression that all Romulans are dead.
I find it hard to believe that all high-ranked Romulans from all branches (like : politicians, military, security agencies, science, ... ) had no exit strategy or emergency plan if the Vulcans-will-safe-us-plan is not working. It would have taken six weeks to evacuate all Romulans from the homeworld (if I remember the lore correct) but a much smaller part could be evacuated with just a few ships. And I can not believe that all high-ranked politicians/military generals/admirals and Tal Shiar leaders would be so naive. They are Romulans after all.
Is there more information what happend when Romulus exploded?
# edited for spell check
here here and any thing that happen to romulas after going bye bye is only in sto now till a new show or movie dun in the prime universe will we know any more then what sto gives us
system Lord Baal is dead
I dunno what you mean about outlevel the episode content, the missions level with you.
I rolled out a new FED alt a few months ago and I hit VA at the end of the Romulan series and it was great. The DS9 series, Breen front, the PVE Borg & Undine missions ALL endgame content. It was great having a use for the T5 ships I bought.
Oh ... My fear is also that we will get a nothing ship for the 1,000 day reward.
WELLS and KORATH-class ships would have been perfect.
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)
Looking from one perspective you are right. But what about the other perspective: called auto-leveling content?
See, you have something really awesome in the game which many other successfull MMORPGs do not have. Even after years in the business. You take Lotro as an example - and I do also play Lotro. They do not have that. Only just a few instances which scale with your level and that's it. Compared to STO it is way boring.
Be proud of what you have already!
It is no problem out-leveling content as long as they adjust to you. Playing the outlevel Missions can be endgame. You have your Fleet/VA ships and you are more flexible than perhaps at LV.30.
Simply said: Add one additional universal barter currency to the outleveled missions a player can get and you have a ton of meaningfull and desireable content! Instead stupidly grinding the same 4 missions for - let's say Fleet Marks you could go and play the whole Romulan Arc. Re-live the story and earn a usefull token instead of vendor trash.
It certainly would be a difficult task for you to introduce a 3rd faction with meaningful content. Given the fact that you guys struggle hard with meaningful content for FED already, not to speak of the KDF.
But in the end I'd say YES, it would be good to see something different in the game after 3 years. The game desperately needs a different perspective. It needs evolvement.
You seem to follow the idea to create a Romulan faction character and give the character/player the choice to either enter the Federation or the KDF.
It would certainly fit into the left off canon (non JJ-Verse) Timeline which STO also tries to follow. Romulans are scattered, leaderless, divided. There is hardly a unification of a single faction called "The Romulan Star Empire" in sight in the coming decades. Their Homeworld is gone, too many persons claiming power etc. And let's also face the fact that both - Federation and Klingon Empire accept different species with open arms now. Fed through the new charta and KDF due political influences.
So, why not simple open a 3rd faction and let the Romulan/Reman character choose between FED or KDF and play their Missions. Surely the whole FED Romulan Arc would be problematic, but you could cut it out until you can fill in a fitting Episode arc as a compensation - which isn't even needed since FED has an overflow of Missions.
The positives for us would be:
- new faction
- new ships, art, concepts
- new story approach/PoV
The positives for you:
- new faction (as like a new class in other MMOs)
- interesting/additional opportunities to explore
- new lore development
- more Store options; therefore, more $ (let's face it, you need it)
I don't want to be what Worf was in TNG, but I could accept being what Kira was in DS9 (except Bajor was on the mercy of the federation and RSE doesn't need mercy from anyone). I can imagine many situations where RSE would temporarily allay itself with Feds and send a fleet of ships to federation space in order in fight a common threat (Borg, Iconians, Tholians, whatever). They did it during Dominion wars and history likes to repeat itself.
It's a little different with the Klingons, cause no respected Romulan would ever allay himself with them. But what if the alliance was just a ruse, a deception? You know the saying "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Officially the Romulans on the KDF side would be allies, but their true, secret, and more important mission would be to gather intelligence and find ways to destabilize the kilngon empire in order to conquer it later.
I live in an alternate universe, where j.j. abrams and cryptic never existed,
where R.S.E. is what it always should be.
first, Romulans should make sense for the Story and the Universe.
Will the Romulans rebuild their empire? Will they join the Federation as Member?
ally with the Klingons?
or fall apart into multiple smaller factions that may or may not join either side.
That is a STORY question first !
*Game Design* should really take the backseat here.
Do we really want that JJ Abrams' movie that destroyed Romulus in our Prime Universe to be responsible for the falling apart of the complete Romulan Empire?
IMHO these things are bigger than just STO.
Personally i wouldn't mind a Romulan Faction that starts at Level 40 with 3 Endgame Ships and 5-10 Story Missions but grows only slowly like the KDF does.
That STO does not deliver nearly enough STORY content is no secret.
At this point it's not a question of KDF Content, it is a question about Content, period.
FED players crave new story mission just as much as KDF players do, we've gotten the same lousy 15 missions in the last 2 or 3 years. There is no difference in the entertainment value of either faction at this point.
Let me put it this way, a friend of mine had quit shortly after launch.
He came back a Year later and told me as conclusion of his short return
"if i can play through all missions that were released this Year in a weekend, then this says all i need to know about this game".
:-|
as a player do i WANT a Romulan Faction that is going to be pushed into the FED or KDF side of things, after say, playing 10 hours of mission content?
So i play a few missions that may or may not be good, and then i have the same experience as i would have with a Romulan C-Store Species unlock and a Romulan Warbird from a LockBox ?
Because if i get FED or KDF endgame, then i play the same old stuff all over again with a green UI and some new Toy Ships...
DO NOT WANT!
The Romulan faction NEEDS to be a full faction or it is not wort the effort to build it in the first place.
3 Factions also open up completely new possibilities if you start to think about things like faction controlled sector space / open pvp stuff or just PvP Maps in general.
A statement i just heard a few days ago from a pure Fed player, was that some people don't like the KDF because they are just a mirror image of the Federation anyway.
KDF has that Fe'khiri story arc, and then it is all the same missions like the FEDs got, be it Featured Episodes, STFs, PvP, Fleetactions or the new Fleet Missions.
The biggest difference is a red UI and a non functional Cloaking Device.
Romulans need to be a game changer!
NEW Kits, NEW Powers, NEW Professions, NEW UI, NEW Ships, NEW Missions, NEW Social Zones, NEW Sector Blocks, NEW Gameplay, NEW Roles to Play ... and a WORKING Cloaking Device.
...in short, it needs to be all the things that have been neglected on FED+KDF side, if it will be the same, then who needs that?
I have 11 Chars, i certainly don't need a 12th Fed or KDF char, Romulan Ship+Species or not.
Also, if the Romulans will ultimately be an even smaller faction than the KDF, there will be even less reason to add new species specific mission content, or even C-Store items than the KDF gets.
Either you take the "build it and they will come" approach, or don't waste your and our time with this.
i call them the gangster federation
system Lord Baal is dead
Khitomer Accord
- United Federation of Planets
- Klingon Empire
- Ferengi Alliance
- Cardassian Union
vs
Typhon Pact
- Romulan Star Empire
- Breen Confederacy
- Gorn Hegemony
- Tzenkethi Coalition
- Tholian Assembly
Think about it, scrapping the ridiculous story that they have now. Which I am not kidding, is a complete rehash of Season 4-5 of DS9 with the Undine taking the role of the Founders. Allowing much more flexibility in races, ships, doing away with a leveling system all together and have much more of a skill based system where you learn skills over time. (Kinda like EvE), meaning that you would only have to develop missions for either Khitomer or Typhon.
This would allow everyone to play as their favourite races, provide fun and functional PvP, especially if they introduce the "Phasing" Technology that WoW so cleverly made use of. You could create more STF's such as a Typhon Pact on to steal Quantum Slipstream plans from the Federation causing a response and a counter STF.
I recognise that cryptic is a small company so you would not have to fully develop new factions with their own missions. There would simply be two factions and a choice of races to provide flexibility such as.
You choose...
Khitomer Accord > Federation > Bajoran
Or...
Typhon Pact > Romulan > Reman
The character creation possibilities are endless and makes the game much more exciting, using the strength of cryptics famous character creation system.
IMHO what needs to be done is have a full unique romulan faction and you could do it by this route.
1. Have basic setup of romulan faction e.g. hubworld (Romulas) , hubmaps (Social map), UI, Skills,BOFF's, Ships (1 Tier), start at level 1.
2. Update with new hubmaps, ships 1 tier at a time, a tutorial,Fleet starbases,DOFF's and dallies. Do this in modules say 1 or 2 a year.
3. Feature Episodes Series, 1 a year to advance the plot and introduce new tech.
4. Outside FE's for Missions & Dallies have foundry competitions for each. Have cryptic write and outline general plot for each, run competition, 10 best voted goes forward, Have QA choose top 5, You and rest of sto team choose 1! Author gets nice reward, say 1 lockbox ship and Some Zen, Dilithium and accolade.
You can rinse & repeat point 4 for any faction ingame or in future, this taking the burden off sto team for content, and being able to concentrate on other stuff. Pvp, Crafting etc.
I would love to see a FE that brings romulas back(You already built some of the map before launch right?) and use that to launch RSE faction with.
Have hubmaps as starting gates for adding missions, dallies etc like Invasion of defera and Nukara prime are. Padd these out over time.
RSE faction with Romulans, Remans with liberated Vulcans ,Borg, Iconians. And a science & stealth Focus to the faction & missions. Also Hirogen & Yridians Reputation System Character reward unlock.
FED side Reputation System Character reward unlock would be Remans (Obisek's Gang ?) Romulan Unification (Vulcan Brainwashed nutjobs!!). KDF's Version would be Remans & Hirogen.
Leveling speed slowed down Fed side.
You make a good point, but allow me to make a counter argument. A Romulan Faction will bring new life into this game for a player like myself, that has already done all there is to do in the Federation Faction and who already owns two thirds of all the Ships available from the C-Store.
One might suggest to play KDF? however, I simply have no desire to play KDF because of the UI color scheme and because the KDF really are not for me. I would however love to play Romulans. It would be like starting a new character and playing the game anew, however, without the same old overplayed missions. As far as disruption between fleets and things like that, I believe it would be minor! While I would spend a majority of my time playing the New Romulan Faction, I would still keep my Federation Toon and play it, heck, without overplaying it the game might be more fun!!!
I still play it. The space combat in that game is still superior to any Star Trek game that i've ever played. That is my opinion. Some will say Bridge Commander is the best but i played both and Klingon Academy is by far the coolest Trek Space Combat game i've ever enjoyed and still enjoy to this day.
Ever fight the Borg in any of those mods? I love taking ships seen at Wolf 359 and fighting a borg cube. lol!
I do think many of us saw your post coming, I did. I don't have a great deal to say, too much flaming and such going on. I can understand peoples disappointment, I share it. I am for a Romulan faction down the track in a few years, but I do agree at the current state of the game a 3rd faction no matter who it is would hurt the game more than anything else.
What I will say, which is to everyone is don't rule out a Romulan faction, but you do need to understand Cryptic is a business, if they haven't been able to (for whatever reason) produced KDF content to make it on par somewhat with the Federation, then they couldn't do it with a third faction. But that is now, look how the game has shaped in two years, consider what it will be like in another two years? There is only so much they can do to the Fed and KDF before they milk the cow dry so to speak. So a Romulan and True Way faction are more than possible just in a couple of years.
Best thing any Romulan fan can do is show Cryptic that two equal factions are possible, as if two equal factions are possible then three and four can be as well at the right time, which isn't now.
As for playable Romulans, just remember a Romulan Colony is tied to the Federation in the Path to 2409 and Remans on the KDF would fit better than Romulans. If they bundle both up in one unlock like the Trill for both sides, then even better. Yes it might not be what you are after, when do we ever get what we want? I want KDF Cardassians and Sona but I doubt I will ever get them so I don't make a big fuss over it. Stay strong, show Cryptic that two factions can work and you'll probably find many KDF fans will join your cause after equality is achieved, I certainly would as I too would one day like to see a Romulan faction equal in content and uniqueness.
Thanks for commenting!
I think those of us who are interested in eventually playing Romulans won't really like being tied to either the Federation or the Klingon Empire.
Maybe it's time to consider the idea of a "Neutral" faction and roll up any and all mini-factions under that banner? A Neutral faction could share certain content with other Neutral factions and could be considered allied by the game engine if not the players. You could possibly leverage the Reputation system you've been talking about to further define a player's relationship to the other factions.
Given a high enough Reputation with the Klingons, for example, might even open up access to the Klingon home sector and KDF missions. Maybe even allow cross-teaming.
As far as providing more species-specific content goes, well, that's why we have the Foundry, right?
If the Romulans can't be a full and independent faction, I don't think the Romulan players would have a large heartburn over being "allied" with other neutral factions such as the Cardassians, Breen, etc. They could still fight each other in PvP and such and they'd still be distinct from the two main factions. We'd just need a system so that those who want to have purely Romulan ships and crew can do that without too much trouble.
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NO!!!!!!!
Seriously, I'm all for new KDF content and new factions, but remove functional content from the game? Isn't that pretty much shooting yourself in the leg?
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
Sounds great! Now how exactly do they source the 15 million dollars to do it while also keeping their primary source of revenue supported?