Really.....since season 2 it has been down hill if you want play fed side in a f vs K...its ridiculous how frustrating it becomes being a fed escort pilot and having to deal with all the various forms of disables/ spam/ and just all out WTF moments when playing versus Klinks.
Unless you have a well organised team (Pre-made) dont bother going FvK with a fed toon. I remember the good ol days
before the carrier got its uber buff and spam began to control the game. You can just do a FVK pug vs pug and it was not always the klink pug owning the fed pug, it was a 50-50 battle and the fight could go either way.
For example I decided to do some C&H and what do I run into is this cloaking BOP that can drop mines that hit my DEF-R for 39k- 42k, one shot kills basically. Didn't matter I had full shields up, but it was not worth a cent....and all he did was just fly around and drop mines while cloaked and do absolutely nothing else and rack up
1.9 million in dmg...SKILL???NO!!!
one of those WTF moments

...yes. And its hard to keep track of all these mines when you have carrier spam + other Raptors + Bops trying to shoot you down. You cant even chase down a bop or a raptor with these things obliterating your hull in one shot or 2 hits...and this is fair?!?!?! one shot kills..LOL!!
Klink ships turn better, hit harder and overall just control maps better if you know what you are doing with them, klink pugs will on any given day out perform fed pugs no ifs ands or buts about it and that's nothing to do with player skill. I have played both sides, and yes the klink side is easier, that i deleted my klink toons
Then we have the Jem ships which are again really strong ships for their size (yes it is available for both sides i know), all though in the real trek universe they were about as effective as a front line fighter, those of us who got stuck without these beautiful broken ships (lack of better words) have to just put up and shut up...sigh!!
No its not about asking for a game breaking uber tank escort ship, its just about asking for balance, will it ever arrive?? Nope not in this life time..
And NO i dont always have time to put together a OPVP made or pre-made fleet group to go play FvK, some times I just want to pop in do some pvps quickly and leave cuz RL is really busy.
Comments
1- dont be an escort pilot then, escorts are smooshie in the wrong hands.
2- Klingons have mostly the same abilities as feds, a few cross faction consoles are even available, both feds and kdfs have 'overpowered consoles' but most have a defence.
3- Federation has carriers and flight decks now, meaning KDF isnt at some huge advantage
4- Guess the KDF player base is more experianced
5- I ran into a fed cardassian galor pulling the same stunt (tricobalt mines and liked to hide them in warp plasma) be vigilant is my only suggestion
6- KDF = Races who fight, FED = Races who talk, thats the nature of it from the TV show, want a more aggressive FED then you'd need the Terran Empire.
7- Kdf more expericanced players.. again.
8- Well that's your own opinion,
9- Not relevant to the statement 'Klinks have it so easy in PVP - Sigh!'
10- then 'op klingons' is great for you, VERY quick matches when the kdf beat the federation hands down.
Personally i shy away from pvp, im not a great pvper, ill try it now and again when i fancy a break from pve. I've played both as a fed and Kdf for a while, and noticed;
- Federation players are not always the best, quite a lot are inexperianced at pvp,
- They fly cruisers as tactical captains and do not understand what tactical team is
- KDF players by nature are likely to be more experianced (you must have at least progressed to level 23 to play for a start, and most people are likely to carry on with their fed character til they fancy something new).
-You'll find Kdf pugs actually talk in team chat,
-Kdf actually support each other with healing abilities and work together.
Ultimately dont blame the tools (ships/consoles), or the people you fly with, sometimes the group you fight is more experienced and more supportive to their team.
I don't think I will ever stop queuing for FvK, but there are times I think about it... usually after 2 or 3 carriers spend an entire match pumping out wings of Siphon Drones every 8 or 9 seconds. Of course, that's not much worse than 2 or 3 Atrox Carriers dropping Danubes at the same rate.
The idea that KDF ships are superior to Fed ships is (mostly) not true. Most Escort Pilots would prefer a Defiant-R or MVAM to a Qin Raptor.
There is only 1 true KDF sci ship and it is Z-Store only and comparable only to the DSSV.
Arguably, the Negh'Var or F-Vorcha make for much better assault cruisers than their fed counterparts, but suffer survivability/support issues when used this way. Otherwise, they're not much different than fed cruisers.
BOPs... well, BOPs are BOPs, and my favorite thing to kill in my sci ship. Full Aux power, and some SP into sensors helps with this by negating their battle cloak anytime they get within 6 or 7 kilometers. A creative pilot can make something happen in a BOP, but a good opponent can negate almost anything a BOP tries to do.
Seriously, I think the main reason for this stigma is the lower KDF population, especially PvP population. When I log in my Klink toon for some PUG matches, I usually end up teamed with the same few people over and over. After a while, you pick up on each other's strengths and weaknesses and begin to faceroll most opposition as you begin to work more cohesively.
I know it sounds arrogant, but it has been my observation that KDF tends to attract higher caliber players on average.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpfbJLLbczs
You do realize that the feds have better ships right?
Klingons usually are more experienced players. The good Klingons don't use siphon drones.
there is a reason why the most successful pvp fleets are fed fleets. Feds have the better toys all around.
if you are looking for a KDF fleet, and want to see for yourself, feel free to post in opvp or pm me in game
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Just be thankful that PSW has been nerfed several times, or you'd get one passed by them instead of 2 or 3 passed. :P
CnH is pure chaos. If you don't want to get tagteamed stick with your teammates.
I remember when Pengs were given to Klingons. Pure fun B'rel action. I never did run that boat. :P I got bored of the idea, but it was hilarious watching Feds blow up after Klings got denied that weapon for so long.
Oh well, at least young Kirk has a nice chest. :P Neat haircut on Chang though.
Yeah, that's right.
R.I.P
Yeah, considering that everyone who knows even just a little bit about pvp knows that Klingons have been nerfed to the point where <besides leech> they are rapidly becoming obsolete.
Yeah, that's right.
kdf dont even have sci ships to speak of, so again it really falls back to relying on tactical ships that fly with 1 arm behind their back, and cruisers that have to make up for that by dealing lots of damage as well. but if you just bring damage its easy for just a few fed cruisers to out heal all that easily. the carrier cheese can be helpful, but now the feds have arguably a better standard carrier and pets.
the only reason kdf tear apart the pugs is because the average kdf player is simply a more talented player then your average fed player. fed ships can be min/maxed to their intended roles easier, and thus be more effective when its not just an unorginized pub battle.
This. KDF has attracted the best PvPers since the day they first became available for play. PvP folks almost always play the "bad guys". When they don't, it's usually an organized grudge thing against a specific other clan/alliance that did.
That's why some at Cryptic (the most vocal being Gozer, at least where us non-Cryptics could hear) thought releasing the KDF as a PvP faction, instead of not releasing them at launch at all (which was the only alternative given the contracts involved) would work. It might have, if PvP was better.
Agreed.. Though it could also be argued that it is cryptic's fault for not providing a better PVP experience to have allowed the KDF faction to flurish and grow as a true PVP Opposite side of the game. Especially one that has been driven mostly with PVE due to the ease of leveling on the Federation side since Day one (Yes with a few Gaps that have since been "tweeked"*coughmirrorcough)
Think about this:
American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
Could be argued? I'd say you're inarguably correct; when Cryptic decided to go with that choice, there was an implicit responsibility to therefore put the effort that would have gone into Klingon PvE into making PvP compelling enough to match their early oft-touted vision that "it will be so good people who don't PvP will want to do it".
If I'd known they weren't going to keep up with that end of the bargain, I'd have been on the other side of the argument, suggesting the KDF be kept out until they could be finished; which might have freed up resources that could have made FvF much better. Cryptic had already proven they could succeed with a game launching without a second faction, although they also learned from that game (CoH) that PvP had to be very different for a single faction.
You'd probably have ladders and tournaments if you didn't have Klingons. I wonder if that would have been a fair trade or not.
I actually wonder something slightly different... and it is more along the lines of.. what if the war had been against the Romulans instead the Klingons.. how different would the game have been...
Think about this:
American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
Ya I think the fed klink war idea was completely bone headed myself. It makes no sense to the hard core trek people... and it doesn't really help game play at all cause there really is and never has been a war in game... other then not being able to cross into each others territory, where was the war... one mini game pvp zone in kerrat and otha... and arenas, that could have been explained away as training right from launch.
The story could have been much more interesting had they had romulans be the "Story" PvE bad guys... along with the Cardassians, breen ect. That is pretty much how its evolved now anyway with the feature episodes... being playable by both Klingon and Fed... I mean why is it we are at war again ? And how the heck if we are at war is the Federation ok with my parking my Brel at DS9 ? lol
Seems to me its time to officialy correct that mistake... and have a nice short 2-3 mission feature episode run that revolves around a new round of Kitomer Accords... they could even throw a few story nods in to Star Trek VI... THEN around the same time, or even at the end of the run they....
Could intro the new Pay To Play Monster Play Classes.....
Games like LOTRO have introduced P2P factions for PvP only... they have rolled it into there F2P, where F2P can pay to unlock new classes ect....
Why not add a Monstor Faction character Slot to the Zen Store, its a quick and dirty 1000-2000 zen per toon... start them at full level, with access to one of 3 starter ships, charge sell those ships for dilithium so people can change ships... add improved and possibly new ships to the zen store for the monster races.
Monster Play Races could include...
Romulans
Cardy Snake Heads
Breen
Feklari
Dominion Vorta
Suliban
Vidiian
Hirogen
My personal fav the Husnock
Don't think it would be massive amounts of work... most of the races already have art in the game... even the ship art could be recylced into the playable versions.
Breen Warships
Dominion Warships
Cardasian Attack Fighters
Hirogen Hunting Ships
All the Romulan ships... ect
PS... thinking about it as all the $$$ people are soaking into fleet bases slows down... this would be a good time to intro the P2P side of things... and instead of "monster" play fleet bases... they could setup a smaller personal version for that faction... where people can grind and unlock access to purchase there "fleet" version style ships... more $$$ for Cryptic lol
This should be carved into stone somewhere. Awesome, awesome evaluation of the current state of KDF ship. Thank you so very, very much.
The gear??? Thats not even half of it. I have had a completely noob'd out gear BOP in kerrat a while ago was still pooping fed cruisers. Its sad really.
But what really gets me...what kind of 'skill' oh mighty KDF players incorporate when they have a cloacking ship that goes around dropping mines and can rack up 1.9 million in damage without even having to worry about shooting a single disruptor cannon
I have played in PUG kdf FvK arena or C&H when I had and rolled my KDF toons, the KDF players blew..blew to the extent that the result was just a big "WTF" moment for me when I saw we were still winning..haha...
The problem is they've created all their PvP around the idea of two factions, and their "year of hell" conversion to F2P derailed all the story progression, so they're just in this limbo where anything they do to fix PvP entrenches a story they want to move past.
Maybe the solution is arenas, ladders, and tournaments; so they can remove the FvK entirely and just make it *v*, fleets vs fleets, competitive premades with ingame bragging rights (titles and costumes) etc. Then they could turn it all into one big purple party until they're ready to introduce a new huge open PvP megasector with a new PvP faction.
I kind of like this idea:
1) Anybody can choose to run flagged for PvP. You can only switch that choice at a console in a starbase, and all the starbases are safe zones. Flagged status is visible from a distance.
2) If two fleets agree to be at war (both have to agree), all members are automatically flagged in regards to each other.
3) If two fleets agree to be allied, they are never flagged to each other; but they inherit each other's wardecs.
Then every social map (except safe zones) becomes a PvP map, PvE folks aren't forced to participate, and people can't "stalk you" unflagged until your back is turned; they have to man up right up front and risk attack if they want to fly around flagged. Take factions out of it for PvP purposes entirely.
Basically it turns the game from a single PvE server to a PvE server and a PvP server, they just both happen to occupy the same space at the same time.
But they still need arena tournaments and ladders with ingame rewards for the top folks in a "season". It's cheap to implement the rewards, you just need a couple of new titles and some costume pieces, and you can reuse the same pieces for years.
One title each for the current champion, runner up, and perhaps third; the same for fleets. One costume piece for past winners, one for the current (and it vanishes from your account when somebody else wins).
I think the core thing missing for all of this to work, though, is a dev dedicated to PvP. I accept that it was prohibitively expensive before; but the team has doubled. It's time for Cryptic to take an employee who PvPs (half the old guard devs play EVE for Pete's sake) and say "congratulations, your new job title is PvP Lead, you get 20% of this artist's time, you get 20% of this map designer's time, and I expect to see your butt on the forums at least once a day making use of the dozens of people there who will help you with the numbers without us having to pay them."
I could support this, and it would also open up further down the lines the notion of territory control and the introduction of new factions.
The skill is in knowing what build will work for that and having the timing right, and also knowing when to stay the heck away. B'rels can be revealed by any competent sci captain or sci ship, because they know to run on high AUX when not actively fighting in Ker'rat and FvK, because we BoP pilots are infamous for stalking and ambushing feddies. If you're a Tac or Eng in an escort of eng-heavy cruiser, you might be out of luck. . .but really, all you have to do is stick together in a nice little fed-ball, and most sensible BoP pilots will stay away. Unless you've got it set up for more tanking/surviving than DPS, a BoP isn't gonna be able to ambush targets in a fed ball very well.
You can't go out and be all John Wayne or Captain Kirk in Ker'rat unless you're actually capable of tanking and taking burst damage. If a mine-dropper doesn't get you, an ambush-alpha striking BoP will, or a group of 'em.
^this 10char