Well, Ok, I did some digging, and it took a damd long time to find the info.
I went looking for Romulan player numbers for the Starfleet Command series.
SFC-II, and Orion Pirates in Dynaverse play.
Federation 60%, Klingons 15% Romulan 7% Gorn 5% Kizinti, 5%, Lyran 5% Hydran 3%
(Orion players in Dynaverse play of SFC-II:OP tended to be player second accounts as they didn't really have a direct interaction with the player empires)
In SFC-III
Federation 35% Klingon 25% Romulan 15%, Borg 25%
Yep, Rommies are sexy.. but not quite THAT sexy. Still, in the long term I would like to see a strong Romulan faction in STO. In SFC-III they were behind the Klingons for numbers, whio were in a dead heat with the Borg, with Federation having the largest numbers, but not by much.
The SFC-III numbers though are the ones I consider the most important. SFC-III in multiplayer dynaverse play was purely a territorial game. Most fights were one on one, but the game had a mechanic where other players could warp in in the middle of a fight.
It tended to be wild and wolly. In the single player game only the Federation, Klingon, and Romulans had a story arc. The Borg were strictly reserved for monster play in multiplayer.
It looks at this point that even if the KDF does not get its polishing this May, it IS going to happen before the Romulans are introduced. I suspect if the KDF numbers don't come up, it is likely the Romulans will get introduced as a player faction before the massive change that territorial PvP would intoduce gets added. The reason they would get introduced would be to dulute Federation numbers. KDF would loose some players to RSE faction, but the majority would come from the Federation. In multoplayer PvP the KDF and RSE would tend to be allied against the Federation, even though in the games historical universe they would decidedly unfriendly to each other. Thats going to happen because both sides even together would still be massivly outnumbered by the federation players.. but with the percentage of PvP player being much larger in the KDF and RSE factions there would be a greater chance for overall parity in actuall PvP. Players in multiplayer are not that dumb.. the RSE and KDF would ally. If they don't the Federation either taked them each down in isolation, gaining what ever faction benifit this provides, or to prevent it, we dont have persistant territorial PvP but some sort of expandeded arena combat over what we have now.
What we won't have is a meta "War" game.. just a score board, which is not something thats going to have any draw what so ever for the non PvP crowd. Call me spoiled by the other war games I've played over the decades, but abstract score board type player combat just isn't as satisfying as getting inthere and taking territory, and then having to fight to hold it. Non combat elements could be incorporated to involve the PvE crowd.. Diplomacy, non combat missions. PvE combat missions, and PvEvP opjective missions.
Sooner the KDF is done, the sooner that STO can move on to bigger and better things.
P.S> feel free to take the percentage I presented with BIG grain of salt.. my numbers were rounded off significantly, and are ONLY provided to give a general feel, which is all statistic gan ever give you. Ones conclusions are only as good as ones base numbers are tobegin with.. ...and if ones base numbers are flawed.. well, then the whole premis is flawed.. happenes in statistical atudies all the time *SIGH*
Khemaraa sends..
P.P.S.
The one bit that is utterly true though is only a very tiny sub percentage of STO players actually post to the forums. All MMO's have this issue of getting reliable feedback from the user base. Some MMO's regularly poll the players In game (NCSoft for example) But the Studios/Developers that do this are a distinct minority.
Well, Ok, I did some digging, and it took a damd long time to find the info.
I went looking for Romulan player numbers for the Starfleet Command series.
SFC-II, and Orion Pirates in Dynaverse play.
Federation 60%, Klingons 15% Romulan 7% Gorn 5% Kizinti, 5%, Lyran 5% Hydran 3%
(Orion players in Dynaverse play of SFC-II:OP tended to be player second accounts as they didn't really have a direct interaction with the player empires)
In SFC-III
Federation 35% Klingon 25% Romulan 15%, Borg 25%
Yep, Rommies are sexy.. but not quite THAT sexy. Still, in the long term I would like to see a strong Romulan faction in STO. In SFC-III they were behind the Klingons for numbers, whio were in a dead heat with the Borg, with Federation having the largest numbers, but not by much.
The SFC-III numbers though are the ones I consider the most important. SFC-III in multiplayer dynaverse play was purely a territorial game. Most fights were one on one, but the game had a mechanic where other players could warp in in the middle of a fight.
It tended to be wild and wolly. In the single player game only the Federation, Klingon, and Romulans had a story arc. The Borg were strictly reserved for monster play in multiplayer.
<snip>
Khemaraa sends
It may help to remind some that in other games the Plasma torps were a major appeal as they were among the most powerful available, and also the least useful because they took so long to arm, required much more power to launch and had a significantly shorter range- NONE of those qualities are similarity modeled in STO. In STO the plasma torpedo moves slowly and is also the second least powerful torpedo in the game but is otherwise the same as every other torpedo.
Ya, I used to play a rommie on dyna until the futility of it sunk in.
I dont think there will be a romulan faction , the people at cryptic cant be that out of touch with there own product, just look at their problems with a unfinished KDF
I think there may be a shared faction
Romulan refugee's with there ships and stuff on the /fed side
Romulan tal'shiar on the / KDF side
You buy a character at level 50 ! and have access to the ( Romulan ) ships and content but cant use it on your Fed or KDF characters just the romulan character
Honestly, that would suck on so many epic levels that it's not fun even discussing it.
The Romulan fans deserve to play in their own faction and have their own agenda. Imagine their dissapointment if this happens.
I stay by my assumption that a RSE developed at the level of the KDF is a far better choice then to tag along Rommies to the Fed. and the KDF.
To be honest the statistic parts of your post is really not in favour of your argument.
It says the Klingons were in around 16,6% of the tv episodes.
Such a low percent seems to be .... exactly presumptious.
Now since we all love battlecruisers, you should not mention such mathematical values. Even if the movie percentage is much better.
It depends on how you read it.
You mentioned the percentage not going in favour of Roach's argument.
One can see it as this - In a human/Federation centered series, out of something like 200 (or more) alien species, Klingons were present in roughly 1/5 of the series with their dedicated episodes. Doesn't sound so bad now, does it?
Honestly, is there any fact that actually shows, that people want KDF more then they want the Romulans?
The only thing that showed a little fact about it was the poll, and there the romulans were more popular.
You know, there might be a lot of players about who would prefer the romulans over the klingons.
The poll (And you can cry foul that a single romulan fan or a PWE employee TRIBBLE it, and I still won't believe you) shows that more people want a romulan faction then improved KDF.
I know that a lot of my friends beside me feel like that, for them the romulans just simply have much more appeal then the klingons.
Maybe they like the romulan culture better, or the looks of their ships and uniforms, etc.
It does not matter, for Cryptic should do what the majority wants.
Why? The same reason Feds get more C-store ships. The better something sells, the more priority it should have.
It's natural for people to desire something new, something unexplored, something that is yet to come. Hence the big interest of a Romulan faction. I'm speaking globaly, I know that the core RSE fans are fighting their own fight for the right to play as their favourite faction, they have done so always in the past and will continue in the future. Just as the KDF core.
But, it's not surprising at all for the players to have a vast interest in a whole new faction in STO, hell, that would be the biggest content injection in STO ever!
Everyone will join to try it out, but after a while and the initial passion and curiosity calms down, I assume that many Feds. will return to their Vestas, Oddys, Kumaris & Defiants.
I believe that if we ever have fully developed KDF & RSE in STO, when all the initial drama of a new faction is settled, the number of players would be something like roughly 40-50% Fed., and 25-30% RSE & KDF each.
I have always been a strong supporter of a Romulan faction in STO, even if I don't plan of playing it. But the fact being is that there already is a Klingon faction in STO. I just want the KDF to be provided with continuous content/ships/uniforms even if they are at slower rate. Just don't want to see KDF being killed off in favour of RSE.
P.S.Oh, and Khemaraa, sorry, but I can't agree with you on RSE & KDF players grouping to fight Feds.
The way I plan it is to enter a war zone under battlecloak, drink raktajino and observe your everyday Fed. messing around in his ship. Then when a Romulan Warbird decloaks and takes the Fed. by surprise, while they're engaged it's time to buff up - decloak and it's bye bye Rommie time!
Might as well give the Feds. reason to like Klingons more than Romulans!:P
It may help to remind some that in other games the Plasma torps were a major appeal as they were among the most powerful available, and also the least useful because they took so long to arm, required much more power to launch and had a significantly shorter range- NONE of those qualities are similarity modeled in STO. In STO the plasma torpedo moves slowly and is also the second least powerful torpedo in the game but is otherwise the same as every other torpedo.
Ya, I used to play a rommie on dyna until the futility of it sunk in.
Yeah, I never played the dynaverse stuff (wish I had, tbh), but I never even liked playing Romulans in the PvE/campaign. Romulan ships always seemed to have weaker shields, weaker disruptors, and the plasma torps were too unreliable. They were just as inaccurate as other torps, but had the added disadvantage of taking so long to recharge.
I'm torn as to whether I liked Fed or Klingon more. I liked the Fed campaign more (bigger battles), but the Klingon ships were cool.
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
And, regarding the RSE faction concept in general: I feel the best approach would be to keep RSE as end-game only, something that probably should've been done with the KDF at the start until Cryptic was ready to advance it further.
End-game only means levels 40-50, 5-6 ships (two of each 'class' and maybe their own carrier?), 1-2 Romulan-themed story arcs, and access to the universal content (including STFs and fleet missions).
It'd be a lot of work, but I feel that would be viable and an acceptable bone to throw at the RSE fans.
Trying to create a Romulan faction as a complete faction would be a disaster of KDF proportions.
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
Yeah, I never played the dynaverse stuff (wish I had, tbh), but I never even liked playing Romulans in the PvE/campaign. Romulan ships always seemed to have weaker shields, weaker disruptors, and the plasma torps were too unreliable. They were just as inaccurate as other torps, but had the added disadvantage of taking so long to recharge.
I'm torn as to whether I liked Fed or Klingon more. I liked the Fed campaign more (bigger battles), but the Klingon ships were cool.
I can't even remember the campaigns but the PvP was so good I remember some battles like it happened yesterday (tho over 5 years ago). The Klinks were always my first choice to play but thought I would try the romulans because I always liked the TOS warbird (BoP). I had hopes STO would become a suitable replacement for dynaverse, and I'm still waiting.
It may help to remind some that in other games the Plasma torps were a major appeal as they were among the most powerful available, and also the least useful because they took so long to arm, required much more power to launch and had a significantly shorter range- NONE of those qualities are similarity modeled in STO. In STO the plasma torpedo moves slowly and is also the second least powerful torpedo in the game but is otherwise the same as every other torpedo.
Ya, I used to play a rommie on dyna until the futility of it sunk in.
The downtime was the counter, but you could kill in one pass if you did it right. Again, ISC was the best of plasma races because they used plasma in concert with other weapons, Roms and Gorn used almost all plasma.
As for STO, all the torps are too slow. I outrun not just plasma and tricos with evasive+ engine, but aslo every other torp. And thats stupid. Weapons (Energy included) should hit tgts faster and stop heat seeking across the map. Just watch the fed scorts out run your shots for long enough to cloak :cool:
The downtime was the counter, but you could kill in one pass if you did it right. Again, ISC was the best of plasma races because they used plasma in concert with other weapons, Roms and Gorn used almost all plasma.
As for STO, all the torps are too slow. I outrun not just plasma and tricos with evasive+ engine, but aslo every other torp. And thats stupid. Weapons (Energy included) should hit tgts faster and stop heat seeking across the map. Just watch the fed scorts out run your shots for long enough to cloak :cool:
You know it, get caught offguard and those plasma-chukkers kill you dead on the spot. ISC was great with their variety but their ships had thin skin compared to the Klinks.
The Klinks also had the best spam launcher in the game- the D5D.
I can't even remember the campaigns but the PvP was so good I remember some battles like it happened yesterday (tho over 5 years ago). The Klinks were always my first choice to play but thought I would try the romulans because I always liked the TOS warbird (BoP). I had hopes STO would become a suitable replacement for dynaverse, and I'm still waiting.
The forum PvP is much better in STO tho.
<grin>
The gist is this: Klingon campaign - you're a member of a powerful house, and you uncover a plot by your brother to disrupt the alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. You have to work to stop him from destroying Unity Station, and then later kill him in 1v1 combat between your ships.
Romulan Campaign: You're a rising star in the Tal Shiar, and engage in numerous covert operations against the Klingons and the Federation, eventually stealing a mimic-cloak device and carrying out raids against both entities posing as allies. Eventually you destroy Unity Station.
Federation Campaign: You're a member of Starfleet, working to unveil the real culprits behind the destruction of Unity Station. You eventually start working with Captain Picard to 'investigate' the Romulans, engaging in several larger fleet-sized actions against Romulan saboteurs and Romulan defenses. Culminates in a large battle involving several waves of Romulan opponents.
I liked the Federation one, mostly because it was more 'pew pew' against more enemies, and more variables as a result.
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
There's probably some issues, because of how old the game is. Starfleet Command 2: Empires at War is 13 years old by now, and several OSs generations behind. It could run if you know how to configure your computer to run games that old, but it probably won't be ideal.
Similar issues with Starfleet Command 3, it's 11 years old. I tried to play it on my comp a little while back, and it encountered some problems. Either my disk is damaged, or I have to change a few things to make it compatible. . .and I can't be arsed to find out what I need to do :P
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
And, regarding the RSE faction concept in general: I feel the best approach would be to keep RSE as end-game only, something that probably should've been done with the KDF at the start until Cryptic was ready to advance it further.
End-game only means levels 40-50, 5-6 ships (two of each 'class' and maybe their own carrier?), 1-2 Romulan-themed story arcs, and access to the universal content (including STFs and fleet missions).
.
I second that idea. I believe that Cryptic needs to make an RSE faction available to the Community...some of us have been patiently waiting for over 3 years. I also agree that building a full faction experience would only result in the same mess that we saw with the KDF. Of course, without some seriously competitive PVP ships and skills, it won't be considered a success by the core players, imho.
Not to be rude, Roach, but the words that the honorable Azetbur said were, 'Homo-sapiens only club'. :P
Anyways, one major thing I feel is that a good majority of these KDF-hating Feds seem to not get, is that the KDF is for some reason wanting 'special treatment' or whatever, and take ALL of Cryptic's attention away from the Fed side.
Not true in the slightest. KDF doesn't want special treatment, it wants EQUAL treatment. Or at least a lot closer to equal than we have now. We just want KDF-centric missions of our own, rough KDF-equivalents to some of the newer Fed ships, and other such things.
Once the KDF is treated equally to the Fed side, to me that is what I will consider the faction to be finished, whether or not there is 1-20 (I don't consider that a major issue, and fully expect the Romulan faction to have that happen as well).
Equality is the real thing we want more than anything else, once that is given, and stays given, then most of these complaints will vanish very quickly.
yes equality. agreed. inequality really shows up in pvp, once again, if its a benefit to klingon....get rid of it. On tribble they are taking away rom boffs cloak dmg buff. yet keeping the tac rom boff crit stack. why you ask? because one is only useful to klingons. Yet they keep fed only leadership stacking...why you ask? because it only benefits fedbears.
its TRIBBLE like this and fed only uber ship releases that really slap kdf players in the face. its so blatant of a bias its laughable
yes equality. agreed. inequality really shows up in pvp, once again, if its a benefit to klingon....get rid of it. On tribble they are taking away rom boffs cloak dmg buff. yet keeping the tac rom boff crit stack. why you ask? because one is only useful to klingons. Yet they keep fed only leadership stacking...why you ask? because it only benefits fedbears.
its TRIBBLE like this and fed only uber ship releases that really slap kdf players in the face. its so blatant of a bias its laughable
I really dont get the KDF-Faction. You have a nice sum of ships (Battlecruiser as opposed no normal cruisers on FED side), you get dilithium easier than FED, you have nice gadgets (Plasmonic leech, Aceton etc.), the only thing you lack is a story thats as big as the FEDs one.
I really dont get the KDF-Faction. You have a nice sum of ships (Battlecruiser as opposed no normal cruisers on FED side), you get dilithium easier than FED, you have nice gadgets (Plasmonic leech, Aceton etc.), the only thing you lack is a story thats as big as the FEDs one.
I think you are just too greedy
Ever actually tried the KDF out?
Given I recently read people were totally disappointed by the Bio-Neural torp after it had become available to the Feds because of all the (and I quote) "horror stories" they'd come to hear about it in PvP it seems the people who don't get it are the ones who haven't actually tried the stuff.
I really dont get the KDF-Faction. You have a nice sum of ships (Battlecruiser as opposed no normal cruisers on FED side), you get dilithium easier than FED, you have nice gadgets (Plasmonic leech, Aceton etc.), the only thing you lack is a story thats as big as the FEDs one.
I think you are just too greedy
Considerimg one of the biggest complaints about the KDF is lack of a linear storyline is keeping many from sticking to playing the faction I do not see how us KDF fans wanting a complete 1-50 storyline for the enjoyment of playing the faction is being greedy.
Whats the point of the only thing a new to the KDF player hangs around for is the ease of acquiring dilithium?
We KDF need a complete faction to complete the Kdf part of the game and add more to the STO han just being fed alt farmers.
I really dont get the KDF-Faction. You have a nice sum of ships (Battlecruiser as opposed no normal cruisers on FED side), you get dilithium easier than FED, you have nice gadgets (Plasmonic leech, Aceton etc.), the only thing you lack is a story thats as big as the FEDs one.
I think you are just too greedy
I think, the fact alone, that you start in your Bird of Prey at level 20 with only common equipment, no energy credits, dilithium and even no bridge officers (you have to do an boring 30 min tutorial to get some) reject already 80% of people considering to start playing KDF.
The next point is that the ship and character customization seroisly lacks behind FED. This, and the fact, that there is beside the Omega / Romulan REP no development of your character / ship, because there are nearly no C-store goodies for KDF, leads to resignation of another 15%.
I really dont get the KDF-Faction. You have a nice sum of ships (Battlecruiser as opposed no normal cruisers on FED side), you get dilithium easier than FED, you have nice gadgets (Plasmonic leech, Aceton etc.), the only thing you lack is a story thats as big as the FEDs one.
I think you are just too greedy
Nah, most of us are just being logical and practical.
I don't have an issue with the range of ships the KDF has atm. Maybe except the utter lack of sci. vessels. Guess I could go by with the reference - KDF has prime access to raiders and Fed. does not, so Fed. gets prime acess to sci. vessels and no raiders. But, somehow does not seem fair to the sci.class of the KDF not to be able to use a proper science ship at end-game except the Varanus, or to be forced to gamble for a Korath. If we shouldn't have acess to sci. ships then there should be a different class for the KDF.
Once again, personally I don't have an issue with the range of ships availible to the KDF. I however might have an issue with KDF ships in the near future if there is no story content for lvl 1-20 and the possibility of starting as a KDF from the begining. Because if there are not more players in the KDF, the devs. will not overwhelm theirselves to make new KDF ships on regular basis, as they already stated. Then the KDF might really suffer from disparity. You tell me, is this greed or pure logic and survival?
But what actually really bugs me is the romulan rep. and NR for the KDF. IMO it's completely out of character for the faction. For ex., if I want to enhance the battlecloak on my BoP, I need to get a Romulan Boff. But, when I think of looking at Romulans when I go to my bridge I get a strange feeling in my stomach. One would think that they'd at least also make Remans availible to get, because I don't want to see Romulans serving on my BoP.
I actually skim over a lot of the threads in many of the different areas of the forums. I am thinking that most of us do.
I am picking up on a common theme amongst the Federation-centric and general forums that has me a bit down. That theme is a yearning for a true Romulan faction...and married to that theme are the ideas that for all intents and purposes the KDF as a faction should be considered "done" because it is likely that more players will flock to the Romulan faction anyway, and the KDF really does not need much new content...or ships...or storyline..and that it has been three years...and this is all the KDF should expect, other than the ability to start at level 1. I even saw one guy say that the number of ships are like 50 or so available at Tier 5, and that the KDF has more variety of vessels than the Feds do, and don't need any more ship types at all.
You know...if that happens (a new rom faction with the KDF being considered "done" as is)..well, I am a lifetime subscriber, so "leaving" the game is not really an option since I can pick it back up wherever I may have left off at...but if it goes down in this way, I will be extremely dissapointed.
I know that what is driving this is a certain demographic in the Federation player base that does not care the slightest for Klingon content or the KDF faction -- all they care about is getting into that sexy Romulan War Bird as soon as they can...and so they view the KDF as an obstacle to that goal...and obstacle that they really do not see as an obstacle because they -- in their own minds at least -- do not recognize the KDF as a true faction in this game.
It is sad. And depressing.
Easy Solution, force players to have to make it through a level 50 Federation, and a level 50 Klingon Account before they are allowed to go into the Romulan Faction. It would create a bigger level of respect and wants/demands for the Klingon Faction to make the grind "funner".
As far as ship availability, Romulan Faction will have far, far less ship types available. The entire Romulan Empire is designed/constructed around Espionage like styles. Even found in their Warhorse, the Warbirds, they are all geared towards espionage.
Every ship would be battlecloak capable, as seen when fighting the NPC Romulan ships. Even the Warbirds can battle cloak. How they will balance Romulan ships vs Klingon and Federation, we'll soon find out. but it should absolutely be a requirement to have a level 50 Fed, and Klingon account before being permitted to take on a Romulan Account.
They should also have a massive array of Romulan Birds of Prey instead of just the Shriek, etc. Romulans historically via Federation Lore if you've read the Star Trek books, aren't the types to typically go head on into battle. They are the kind of foe who would heavily favor plotted through tactics, they want to do as much possible damage, and kill as many as possible with as few as possible assets.
They like to work as many sides against each other towards their benefit. If Klingons are considered "Medium Difficulty", than the Romulans should be put down as "Hard Difficulty". It should lead to play styles that make every player think twice before thye just jump into a battle.
It should also effect player decisions in cloaking/anti-cloaking modules and abilities, etc.
Every ship would be battlecloak capable, as seen when fighting the NPC Romulan ships. Even the Warbirds can battle cloak.
i don't know what NPCs you've been facing off against, but i've been fighting romulan ships for over a year, and not once have i ever seen them cloak in combat; i've only seen klingon BoPs doing that
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
From what I've been able to gather, KDF lacks not only content, but any sort of feel to really distinguish it from the Fed side. It's hard to immerse yourself in the setting, although I would argue that this is very much the same case for the Federation side as well... it would seem that the essence of Star Trek from either the familiar Federation perspective or a hypothetical Klingon one isn't quite as well captured in this game...
If it were up to me, I'd compress all the existing single-player missions into much smaller episodes of no more than 5-7 missions, and shuffle off the remainder to be incorporated into exploration missions. Insofar that idea is concerned, I actually think that the KDF fits this ideal most closely, because I feel that the Federation side of things is bloated with too many missions that revolve around similar gameplay elements. I've been at VA level for about 2 months now, but haven't really found the motivation to finish off the Cardie missions.
i don't know what NPCs you've been facing off against, but i've been fighting romulan ships for over a year, and not once have i ever seen them cloak in combat; i've only seen klingon BoPs doing that
Really? Than how does a Mogai suddenly cloak after taking a cannon rapid fire?
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
Comments
I went looking for Romulan player numbers for the Starfleet Command series.
SFC-II, and Orion Pirates in Dynaverse play.
Federation 60%, Klingons 15% Romulan 7% Gorn 5% Kizinti, 5%, Lyran 5% Hydran 3%
(Orion players in Dynaverse play of SFC-II:OP tended to be player second accounts as they didn't really have a direct interaction with the player empires)
In SFC-III
Federation 35% Klingon 25% Romulan 15%, Borg 25%
Yep, Rommies are sexy.. but not quite THAT sexy. Still, in the long term I would like to see a strong Romulan faction in STO. In SFC-III they were behind the Klingons for numbers, whio were in a dead heat with the Borg, with Federation having the largest numbers, but not by much.
The SFC-III numbers though are the ones I consider the most important. SFC-III in multiplayer dynaverse play was purely a territorial game. Most fights were one on one, but the game had a mechanic where other players could warp in in the middle of a fight.
It tended to be wild and wolly. In the single player game only the Federation, Klingon, and Romulans had a story arc. The Borg were strictly reserved for monster play in multiplayer.
It looks at this point that even if the KDF does not get its polishing this May, it IS going to happen before the Romulans are introduced. I suspect if the KDF numbers don't come up, it is likely the Romulans will get introduced as a player faction before the massive change that territorial PvP would intoduce gets added. The reason they would get introduced would be to dulute Federation numbers. KDF would loose some players to RSE faction, but the majority would come from the Federation. In multoplayer PvP the KDF and RSE would tend to be allied against the Federation, even though in the games historical universe they would decidedly unfriendly to each other. Thats going to happen because both sides even together would still be massivly outnumbered by the federation players.. but with the percentage of PvP player being much larger in the KDF and RSE factions there would be a greater chance for overall parity in actuall PvP. Players in multiplayer are not that dumb.. the RSE and KDF would ally. If they don't the Federation either taked them each down in isolation, gaining what ever faction benifit this provides, or to prevent it, we dont have persistant territorial PvP but some sort of expandeded arena combat over what we have now.
What we won't have is a meta "War" game.. just a score board, which is not something thats going to have any draw what so ever for the non PvP crowd. Call me spoiled by the other war games I've played over the decades, but abstract score board type player combat just isn't as satisfying as getting inthere and taking territory, and then having to fight to hold it. Non combat elements could be incorporated to involve the PvE crowd.. Diplomacy, non combat missions. PvE combat missions, and PvEvP opjective missions.
Sooner the KDF is done, the sooner that STO can move on to bigger and better things.
Khemaraa sends
Khemaraa sends..
P.P.S.
The one bit that is utterly true though is only a very tiny sub percentage of STO players actually post to the forums. All MMO's have this issue of getting reliable feedback from the user base. Some MMO's regularly poll the players In game (NCSoft for example) But the Studios/Developers that do this are a distinct minority.
It may help to remind some that in other games the Plasma torps were a major appeal as they were among the most powerful available, and also the least useful because they took so long to arm, required much more power to launch and had a significantly shorter range- NONE of those qualities are similarity modeled in STO. In STO the plasma torpedo moves slowly and is also the second least powerful torpedo in the game but is otherwise the same as every other torpedo.
Ya, I used to play a rommie on dyna until the futility of it sunk in.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
Honestly, that would suck on so many epic levels that it's not fun even discussing it.
The Romulan fans deserve to play in their own faction and have their own agenda. Imagine their dissapointment if this happens.
I stay by my assumption that a RSE developed at the level of the KDF is a far better choice then to tag along Rommies to the Fed. and the KDF.
It depends on how you read it.
You mentioned the percentage not going in favour of Roach's argument.
One can see it as this - In a human/Federation centered series, out of something like 200 (or more) alien species, Klingons were present in roughly 1/5 of the series with their dedicated episodes. Doesn't sound so bad now, does it?
It's natural for people to desire something new, something unexplored, something that is yet to come. Hence the big interest of a Romulan faction. I'm speaking globaly, I know that the core RSE fans are fighting their own fight for the right to play as their favourite faction, they have done so always in the past and will continue in the future. Just as the KDF core.
But, it's not surprising at all for the players to have a vast interest in a whole new faction in STO, hell, that would be the biggest content injection in STO ever!
Everyone will join to try it out, but after a while and the initial passion and curiosity calms down, I assume that many Feds. will return to their Vestas, Oddys, Kumaris & Defiants.
I believe that if we ever have fully developed KDF & RSE in STO, when all the initial drama of a new faction is settled, the number of players would be something like roughly 40-50% Fed., and 25-30% RSE & KDF each.
I have always been a strong supporter of a Romulan faction in STO, even if I don't plan of playing it. But the fact being is that there already is a Klingon faction in STO. I just want the KDF to be provided with continuous content/ships/uniforms even if they are at slower rate. Just don't want to see KDF being killed off in favour of RSE.
P.S.Oh, and Khemaraa, sorry, but I can't agree with you on RSE & KDF players grouping to fight Feds.
The way I plan it is to enter a war zone under battlecloak, drink raktajino and observe your everyday Fed. messing around in his ship. Then when a Romulan Warbird decloaks and takes the Fed. by surprise, while they're engaged it's time to buff up - decloak and it's bye bye Rommie time!
Might as well give the Feds. reason to like Klingons more than Romulans!:P
Yeah, I never played the dynaverse stuff (wish I had, tbh), but I never even liked playing Romulans in the PvE/campaign. Romulan ships always seemed to have weaker shields, weaker disruptors, and the plasma torps were too unreliable. They were just as inaccurate as other torps, but had the added disadvantage of taking so long to recharge.
I'm torn as to whether I liked Fed or Klingon more. I liked the Fed campaign more (bigger battles), but the Klingon ships were cool.
End-game only means levels 40-50, 5-6 ships (two of each 'class' and maybe their own carrier?), 1-2 Romulan-themed story arcs, and access to the universal content (including STFs and fleet missions).
It'd be a lot of work, but I feel that would be viable and an acceptable bone to throw at the RSE fans.
Trying to create a Romulan faction as a complete faction would be a disaster of KDF proportions.
I can't even remember the campaigns but the PvP was so good I remember some battles like it happened yesterday (tho over 5 years ago). The Klinks were always my first choice to play but thought I would try the romulans because I always liked the TOS warbird (BoP). I had hopes STO would become a suitable replacement for dynaverse, and I'm still waiting.
The forum PvP is much better in STO tho.
<grin>
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
The downtime was the counter, but you could kill in one pass if you did it right. Again, ISC was the best of plasma races because they used plasma in concert with other weapons, Roms and Gorn used almost all plasma.
As for STO, all the torps are too slow. I outrun not just plasma and tricos with evasive+ engine, but aslo every other torp. And thats stupid. Weapons (Energy included) should hit tgts faster and stop heat seeking across the map. Just watch the fed scorts out run your shots for long enough to cloak :cool:
You know it, get caught offguard and those plasma-chukkers kill you dead on the spot. ISC was great with their variety but their ships had thin skin compared to the Klinks.
The Klinks also had the best spam launcher in the game- the D5D.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
The gist is this: Klingon campaign - you're a member of a powerful house, and you uncover a plot by your brother to disrupt the alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. You have to work to stop him from destroying Unity Station, and then later kill him in 1v1 combat between your ships.
Romulan Campaign: You're a rising star in the Tal Shiar, and engage in numerous covert operations against the Klingons and the Federation, eventually stealing a mimic-cloak device and carrying out raids against both entities posing as allies. Eventually you destroy Unity Station.
Federation Campaign: You're a member of Starfleet, working to unveil the real culprits behind the destruction of Unity Station. You eventually start working with Captain Picard to 'investigate' the Romulans, engaging in several larger fleet-sized actions against Romulan saboteurs and Romulan defenses. Culminates in a large battle involving several waves of Romulan opponents.
I liked the Federation one, mostly because it was more 'pew pew' against more enemies, and more variables as a result.
Similar issues with Starfleet Command 3, it's 11 years old. I tried to play it on my comp a little while back, and it encountered some problems. Either my disk is damaged, or I have to change a few things to make it compatible. . .and I can't be arsed to find out what I need to do :P
I second that idea. I believe that Cryptic needs to make an RSE faction available to the Community...some of us have been patiently waiting for over 3 years. I also agree that building a full faction experience would only result in the same mess that we saw with the KDF. Of course, without some seriously competitive PVP ships and skills, it won't be considered a success by the core players, imho.
yes equality. agreed. inequality really shows up in pvp, once again, if its a benefit to klingon....get rid of it. On tribble they are taking away rom boffs cloak dmg buff. yet keeping the tac rom boff crit stack. why you ask? because one is only useful to klingons. Yet they keep fed only leadership stacking...why you ask? because it only benefits fedbears.
its TRIBBLE like this and fed only uber ship releases that really slap kdf players in the face. its so blatant of a bias its laughable
total bs i agree
I really dont get the KDF-Faction. You have a nice sum of ships (Battlecruiser as opposed no normal cruisers on FED side), you get dilithium easier than FED, you have nice gadgets (Plasmonic leech, Aceton etc.), the only thing you lack is a story thats as big as the FEDs one.
I think you are just too greedy
Ever actually tried the KDF out?
Given I recently read people were totally disappointed by the Bio-Neural torp after it had become available to the Feds because of all the (and I quote) "horror stories" they'd come to hear about it in PvP it seems the people who don't get it are the ones who haven't actually tried the stuff.
Considerimg one of the biggest complaints about the KDF is lack of a linear storyline is keeping many from sticking to playing the faction I do not see how us KDF fans wanting a complete 1-50 storyline for the enjoyment of playing the faction is being greedy.
Whats the point of the only thing a new to the KDF player hangs around for is the ease of acquiring dilithium?
We KDF need a complete faction to complete the Kdf part of the game and add more to the STO han just being fed alt farmers.
R.I.P
I think, the fact alone, that you start in your Bird of Prey at level 20 with only common equipment, no energy credits, dilithium and even no bridge officers (you have to do an boring 30 min tutorial to get some) reject already 80% of people considering to start playing KDF.
The next point is that the ship and character customization seroisly lacks behind FED. This, and the fact, that there is beside the Omega / Romulan REP no development of your character / ship, because there are nearly no C-store goodies for KDF, leads to resignation of another 15%.
Nah, most of us are just being logical and practical.
I don't have an issue with the range of ships the KDF has atm. Maybe except the utter lack of sci. vessels. Guess I could go by with the reference - KDF has prime access to raiders and Fed. does not, so Fed. gets prime acess to sci. vessels and no raiders. But, somehow does not seem fair to the sci.class of the KDF not to be able to use a proper science ship at end-game except the Varanus, or to be forced to gamble for a Korath. If we shouldn't have acess to sci. ships then there should be a different class for the KDF.
Once again, personally I don't have an issue with the range of ships availible to the KDF. I however might have an issue with KDF ships in the near future if there is no story content for lvl 1-20 and the possibility of starting as a KDF from the begining. Because if there are not more players in the KDF, the devs. will not overwhelm theirselves to make new KDF ships on regular basis, as they already stated. Then the KDF might really suffer from disparity. You tell me, is this greed or pure logic and survival?
But what actually really bugs me is the romulan rep. and NR for the KDF. IMO it's completely out of character for the faction. For ex., if I want to enhance the battlecloak on my BoP, I need to get a Romulan Boff. But, when I think of looking at Romulans when I go to my bridge I get a strange feeling in my stomach.
Easy Solution, force players to have to make it through a level 50 Federation, and a level 50 Klingon Account before they are allowed to go into the Romulan Faction. It would create a bigger level of respect and wants/demands for the Klingon Faction to make the grind "funner".
As far as ship availability, Romulan Faction will have far, far less ship types available. The entire Romulan Empire is designed/constructed around Espionage like styles. Even found in their Warhorse, the Warbirds, they are all geared towards espionage.
Every ship would be battlecloak capable, as seen when fighting the NPC Romulan ships. Even the Warbirds can battle cloak. How they will balance Romulan ships vs Klingon and Federation, we'll soon find out. but it should absolutely be a requirement to have a level 50 Fed, and Klingon account before being permitted to take on a Romulan Account.
They should also have a massive array of Romulan Birds of Prey instead of just the Shriek, etc. Romulans historically via Federation Lore if you've read the Star Trek books, aren't the types to typically go head on into battle. They are the kind of foe who would heavily favor plotted through tactics, they want to do as much possible damage, and kill as many as possible with as few as possible assets.
They like to work as many sides against each other towards their benefit. If Klingons are considered "Medium Difficulty", than the Romulans should be put down as "Hard Difficulty". It should lead to play styles that make every player think twice before thye just jump into a battle.
It should also effect player decisions in cloaking/anti-cloaking modules and abilities, etc.
i don't know what NPCs you've been facing off against, but i've been fighting romulan ships for over a year, and not once have i ever seen them cloak in combat; i've only seen klingon BoPs doing that
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
If it were up to me, I'd compress all the existing single-player missions into much smaller episodes of no more than 5-7 missions, and shuffle off the remainder to be incorporated into exploration missions. Insofar that idea is concerned, I actually think that the KDF fits this ideal most closely, because I feel that the Federation side of things is bloated with too many missions that revolve around similar gameplay elements. I've been at VA level for about 2 months now, but haven't really found the motivation to finish off the Cardie missions.
Really? Than how does a Mogai suddenly cloak after taking a cannon rapid fire?
How do Romulan BoPs cloak after being near death?
You've never paid much attention.
Wait there are Cardassian mission in the game? :eek:
The ones involving Deep Space Nine and the Dominion remnants, you know.
simple; they don't, because they don't have battle cloaks
and when you have a mogai and 3 romulan BoPs all spitting heavy plasma at you, not paying attention means death, and i don't like death
to put it more simply, pics or it didn't happen
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
ahhh, maybe that's why i've never seen them cloak then; even in a cruiser i usually finish them off quickly
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"