KDF, because dilithium grinding is so much easier. Also because I generally like KDF better. I can blow stuff up all day and don't have to feel bad about it.
I can assure you that some of us on the UFP side don't feel bad about blowing some deserving soul straight to hell. Not one bit.
As for the thread topic....
I went Federation with my Romulan. It made sense from a Trek backstory perspective.
The Federation politicos and diplomats can be annoying. But many in Starfleet deserve a measure of respect for their ingenuity and cleverness. And they did try to help in the dark years after Hobus.
The Klingon Empire, on the other hand, just offered to shed more Romulan blood. And this was when Martok, the general who led his forces alongside Romulans against the Dominion, held the Chancellor's seat. The Empire didn't change it's tune until D'Tan set up a stable, and fast growing, Romulan splinter state on the Klingon's doorstep.
My Romulan is ex-Tal'Shiar. So he knows the ins and outs of the Orion Syndicate. The High Council went along with those shifty hoes wiggling their hips into the Klingon sphere of influence. In a couple of decades, they'll be running the Empire from behind the scenes, in his opinion. So, it's a good idea, from his perspective, to keep the Empire at a cordial distance from the Republic.
So, allying with the UFP was a logical choice for him.
So he knows the ins and outs of the Orion Syndicate. The High Council went along with those shifty hoes wiggling their hips into the Klingon sphere of influence. In a couple of decades, they'll be running the Empire from behind the scenes, in his opinion.
In a couple of decades? They already are (as one of my alts, a cousin of Melani D'ian, knows well).
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
I started out with the kdf, and played for 2 years or so. Eventually I tired of cryptic's attitude towards them so I tried the feds out cause they get all the shiny stuff. Even though both faction were in the release together the kdf has got 30% of the ships that the feds got. Quite soon I am sure the Romulans will have more ships as well. I love the klingons due to their rich heritage and culture, but unfortunately I felt forced to abandon them. Cryptic's take on the kdf is the same as that of the pvp in sto, not many players pvp so therefore we will not allocate any resources for that. It is sad that season after season it's just more of the same stuff. Star trek is a fantastic ip, but it is becoming more and more generic.
A contract is a contract...(but only between Ferengi).
Lets face it tho.. the KDF Reman uniform is badass and sexy :P
While I can agree that the kdf has stylish uniforms, they at the same time on male toons appear to clunky and oversized like wearing a TRIBBLE on a medium sized person and the shoulder pads hang way to far past the shoulders. :mad:
The first Romulan I made went Fed-side because its Star Trek, and I felt that I should do a Fed side playthrough with my first character when presented with the choice. I had originally assumed that the Romulans were their own seperate faction so finding out they were not was a bit of a suprirse.
Second Romulan went Fed as well, but it was a pretty close thing. I already had run some Klingon characters at that point, so I wasn't really choosing anything I hadn't seen before. In the end, what swung it was that as a Fed I could access Earth Space Dock.
Aye - I am a new player around and do not have any (literally : ANY ) experience in the game at all.
I have created a romulan "alien" engineer character who is now faced with sides' choice.
From the new player perspective - which side will benefit my engineer mostly (geame-wise/money-wise etc?).
I have one on both, but if im being pragmatic i would say join the fed, because its easier to get into queued events. But if you're not worried about that then the KDF side is still fun as their ships go well with the romulans, and they have some cool consoles.
My Romulan is stuck at level 9, cause I can't decide which faction to join.
looking for some opinions on each side here...
thoughts?
Story is the exactly SAME if you pick one or another side. You can imagine RR as one state with two factions : first DTan's (Spock's) unificationist who like Vulcans and second side capable of anything (thalaron weapons) for Freedom led by Obisek.
In Federation, same like in KDF are groups who are able to cooperate with RR and group who don't like them. Vulcan Unificationist + Sugihara's "I love everybody" vs. TNae's "I don't trust them because they are tricky and treacherous" + Starfleet inquisitors from episode TNG The Drumhead. In KDF House of Duras - ally of the Romulans more than 80 years vs. that Houses who can not forget long-time enemity between their species (Mogh).
I think it depends which style of play do you like, but still it not depends on which side you choosed.
I still can not understand how can Federation allow bio mass destruction weapons like thalaron wave , bio-neural warhead or theta radiation.
KDF: low lvl D7 ship known from TOS , marauding - very cheap contraband, fleet disruptor, better universal consoles if you have them already unlocked
FED: cheaper doffs, faster queues , better universal consoles from exchange if you have not unlocked them in Z-store in KDF side.
You can use only RR ships (+neutral) if you are 50lvl.
I had to delete a Romulan BOFF previously owned by a Klink, because there was no green in the palette. I do not care about any faction other than the Romulan one. But they most definitely need that green option.
My main is a Fed, because only they get the highest-level Defiants.
That main is an Engineer, because a Defiant should be able to take a beating.
I do everything I can afford to pump up her DPS, but if your suggestion is "only TACs in escorts because PvP!!", you might as well skip it. After a certain point, that min/maxer TRIBBLE sucks the joy out of it.
I chose the Feds because the Klingons can be a bit crazy (my only perpetually open DOFF mission as a Klingon being "Execute for Incompetence") and that they put personal honor over the safety, stability, and happiness of the group; my character as I've decided he is just is not okay with that style of command. On another note Vulcan is our lovely homeland of ancient days and you can't go there as a Klingon allied Romulan.
My Roms always go Fed simply because the Klingons are morons. They use the excuse of 'honor' to murder and 'glory' to excuse attacking a ship full of recruits on a training run.
And B'Vat? He's the biggest moron of all.
I have more respect for Hakeev. The Tal Shiar don't have a code of honor as the Klingons do and B'Vat breaks that every time he cuts and runs when you're about to blow him apart.
Now a LTS and loving it.
Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything.
Well I went with the kdf primarily for role playing reasons. But ultimately I regret that choice. I still can't find enough kdf players for groups, it's still an annoying issue.mpve queries of any faction specific mission are empty.
And also, I bought the scimitar. And the drone ships are Mirandas most of the time while fed romulans get Klingon bops when the drones find nothing to adapt and have a wider choice of pets in general...
I mostly play KDF so the choice was easy for me. I find the Federation to be irritating and self absorbed.
If you are just starting and have nothing invested in the game, I would suggest KDF. The KDF has Marauding duty officer missions which are an easy source of EC and prisoners, which can be converted into dilithium via labor colony missions. Marauding missions are also an easy source of contraband which can be converted to dilithium via starbase Security officers.
KDF also has a couple more dilithium gaining missions than the Federation.
A good fleet can alleviate issues with grouping. Though I haven't had any issues with groups from the queue, that's just my experience. My experience Fedside is the same, no issues with grouping via the queue. This is for 5 man events, it's a different story for larger faction only events. Since most end game stuff tends to be cross faction, it really doesn't matter too much (aside from fleet stuff and faction specific things).
The KDF have better ship consoles, like the plasmotic leach, the aceton assimilator, Isometric charge, subspace jump and they also have better carrier pets.
If you want pretty, go fed. If you are looking for practical, go KDF.
As I st in my quarters going over the duty officer mission reports, I am mindful of this decision on a regular basis. As the diplomatic representative serving the New Romulan Republic on this occassion, it was a decision which took me some time in making. The choice was not so cut and dry for me, as I did feel pressured one way or the other. Becoming allied with the Klingon Empire would provide our small (but growing) fleet with strong warships as well as providing us a sense of street-cred so that minor races would not so easily choose to take advantage of our "survivor" status. Becoming allied with the Federation would provide opportunities of research and growth which I feel our small colony would need to better secure our civilization's own unique destiny. We're a proud people who excel at reaearch and are capable warriors. So either choice had merit that would serve our immediate militaristic needs. Then I looked around the room and wondered what future that our children in the colony could expect. With a burdened heart, I approached the Klingon diplomatic ambassador and honored his presence in this negotiation. Informing him that his Empire would strengthen an already proud and strong people. But that this decision would echo into the future of our children. That they will need the particular research into botany, biology, and farming which the Federation scientists have gathered from the many different worlds that they have contacted. I then walked over to the Federation ambassador and accepted his offer to ally with our Republic. In my heart, the thought that I did not voice, was that I was not at peace in our children having a future spent as cannon fodder to a race who lived for battle. It was better that they had opportunities for personal growth and to pursue fields of research and study that would become available with the Federation. The field experience and expertise that they would bring back, would more impact our colony's future than what a returning warrior would bring back. Being a scientist myself, I do value the strength of the military and respect their courage in putting their lives into the line of fire to protect the innocent. Without a strong science founddation, however, our future would be in jeopardy as we could not continue to develop our own unique technologies in remaining distinctly in control of our own destiny, as Romulans. We mastered the destructive forces of a black hole to power our warbird's, we developed cloaking technology and held our own against the best ships which the Federation and the Klingons could come up with. We are a proud people, we are Romulans. Though we have suffered a major setback, we will learn and better ourselves through knowledge and research. We will once again reclaim our rightful place as a major power in the Alpha Quadrant.
Hello there. I'm a new player and have gotten my Rommulan engi officer to about the level I have to choose sides. (It's a shame one can't side with the Tal Shiar and the Empress...but what can you do.)
My current long-term goal with this character is to do primarily pve in a cruiser, specifically the D'Deridex, with tanking in mind for group content. Would the KDF suit me better here or would the Feds?
Hello there. I'm a new player and have gotten my Rommulan engi officer to about the level I have to choose sides. (It's a shame one can't side with the Tal Shiar and the Empress...but what can you do.)
My current long-term goal with this character is to do primarily pve in a cruiser, specifically the D'Deridex, with tanking in mind for group content. Would the KDF suit me better here or would the Feds?
By end game, you're going to be in Romulan or lock box/event ships... my suggestion would be to compare what you like that factors into your Romulan character.
If, for example, you spec'd into Flow Capacitors in anticipation of using the Plasmonic Leech, will it be easier getting 15 mil EC's for one off the Exchange or 1000 Zen to unlock the Vandal (either from Zen purchases or the dilithium exchange) for an account unlock? If you enjoy doffing, do you have more fun with the Diplomacy or Marauding assignments? For cheaper bridge officers while you recruit your Romulan/Remans, would you rather have the disable resistance of Humans or the damage/stealth bonus of Nausicaans? Do you want easier access to high-tier fleets, or easier access to Fleet Credit earnings?
It's not a cut and dry line between which is better or worse, because there are benefits to both allies. Personally, I have 1 Federation ally and 2 Klingon allies... I tend to spend my time on the KDF side of our allied Fleets anyway, so that's the half I favor. Marauding is also way cooler, though I'll admit for some reason I rarely bother to sell the Contraband that rewards... I'm honestly not sure why not, it's a good source of EC's. Anyway, weigh your own preference, or just make two Romulan characters and try both out... and either way have fun
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Cliff Notes version: Romulan = Federation, Reman could go either way.
Full reasoning:
- The ideals of the Romulan Republic line up much more with the Federation than the Klingons.
- The Federation actually tried to help after Hobus, while the Klingons were just violent opportunists.
- The Federation (for the most part) understands the differences between the "conservative" Tal Shiar and the "progressive" Romulan Republic, and is relatively willing to leave the past behind and welcome new allies. The Klingons, not so much on all counts. Romulans may get some funny looks visiting the Starfleet Academy, but in KDF territory, they might get killed on sight. Bottom line, it's physically safer to be Federation.
- As a Reman...it's complicated. Many Remans certainly resent their former slavery to the Romulans, but that aspect of Romulan culture now belongs only to the Tal Shiar. The Romulan Republic has renounced slavery, and it could be argued that the Romulans lost as much or more than the Remans when Hobus went BOOM. So a less open-minded Reman might paint Romulans with a wider brush and join the KDF (where they would find much in common with the Letheans) while more tolerant Remans could enjoy their new equality in the Republic with the Federation.
- As far as Cryptic and actual gameplay are concerned, if you're not Federation, you're a second class citizen. That's just the ugly truth. Uniforms, ships, game content, the list goes on. With the notable exception of female Orions as eye candy, there simply is more and better stuff in the game on the Federation side.
- From a PVE-RP questing perspective, the episode writing on the KDF side seems to generally assume that everyone is a male Klingon. The Federation side is more open ended regarding race and gender; it's easier to feel your characters fitting into the Federation stories, at least for me.
- Unlimited free access to the leech for any KDF character after you buy the Vandal. A must-have for power-starved Romulan ships.
- KDF doffing, and specifically marauding, is much better than what you're offered Fed-side. I use my KDF alts to bankroll all my poverty-stricken Fed characters.
- The "shoot first, ask questions later" nature of STO has a tendency to make the Fed look extremely hypocritical a lot of the time. At least the Klingons are being portrayed as true-to-character.
KDF- All of the small annoyances for the KDF like not being able to turn over prisoners or mine until a later level apply to KDF Romulans. The Marauding seems to be very good in Tau Dewa, even better than DS9. The Romulan KDF uniforms are cool looking.
Fed- You get everything pretty much immediately. You get the patrol and exploration missions at the same low levels if you need a bit of extra XP or are just sick of chasing Hakeev around to level. The downside is that you have to transwarp to ESD to do them up to a certain level due to plot not letting you cross space borders.
Both faction uniforms have clipping issues and tailor coloring bugs.
Feds have far more Foundry missions available to them.
It's a bit of an immersion-breaker to be treated as either KDF or Fed in the FEs as opposed to Romulans. Especially the last two where you're not siding with your own people when everyone is arguing over what to do about the Dyson Spheres.
Over all, it matters little which one you choose if you stick with the Romulan storyline and don't want to do the extra stuff. The rest of it is flavour.
- The "shoot first, ask questions later" nature of STO has a tendency to make the Fed look extremely hypocritical a lot of the time. At least the Klingons are being portrayed as true-to-character.
This is why I don't understand people who want a villain faction. The Federation already is one.
This is why I don't understand people who want a villain faction. The Federation already is one.
Well, personally, I think it would be less immersion-breaking to play Romulans as a villain faction than Federation
I chose Federation. marauding missions and elite disruptors were tempting, but I already know how much more content the Federation has in contrast, and I kinda resented how heavy-handedly Cryptic was trying to nudge players towards the Klingons in the episode you get to choose-Fed ambassadors acting less diplomatically than the KDF, KDF ship helping you in orbit but not federation, the Romulan specifically saving a Klingon, Klingons going on (on more than one occasion) how they were wrong about Romulans and their honor, etc. It all seemed rather transparent, IMO.
Comments
I can assure you that some of us on the UFP side don't feel bad about blowing some deserving soul straight to hell. Not one bit.
As for the thread topic....
I went Federation with my Romulan. It made sense from a Trek backstory perspective.
The Federation politicos and diplomats can be annoying. But many in Starfleet deserve a measure of respect for their ingenuity and cleverness. And they did try to help in the dark years after Hobus.
The Klingon Empire, on the other hand, just offered to shed more Romulan blood. And this was when Martok, the general who led his forces alongside Romulans against the Dominion, held the Chancellor's seat. The Empire didn't change it's tune until D'Tan set up a stable, and fast growing, Romulan splinter state on the Klingon's doorstep.
My Romulan is ex-Tal'Shiar. So he knows the ins and outs of the Orion Syndicate. The High Council went along with those shifty hoes wiggling their hips into the Klingon sphere of influence. In a couple of decades, they'll be running the Empire from behind the scenes, in his opinion. So, it's a good idea, from his perspective, to keep the Empire at a cordial distance from the Republic.
So, allying with the UFP was a logical choice for him.
In a couple of decades? They already are (as one of my alts, a cousin of Melani D'ian, knows well).
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Personally, I prefer the KDF Romulan uniforms to the Fed Romulan uniforms.
Hehe, Orion "ins and outs". I bet he does.
Yeah, a moment of maturity there... :P
While I can agree that the kdf has stylish uniforms, they at the same time on male toons appear to clunky and oversized like wearing a TRIBBLE on a medium sized person and the shoulder pads hang way to far past the shoulders. :mad:
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Second Romulan went Fed as well, but it was a pretty close thing. I already had run some Klingon characters at that point, so I wasn't really choosing anything I hadn't seen before. In the end, what swung it was that as a Fed I could access Earth Space Dock.
I have created a romulan "alien" engineer character who is now faced with sides' choice.
From the new player perspective - which side will benefit my engineer mostly (geame-wise/money-wise etc?).
[Combat (Self)] You lose 6549 (7572) Cold from the torment of the underworld.
In-game handle @Janetza
Story is the exactly SAME if you pick one or another side. You can imagine RR as one state with two factions : first DTan's (Spock's) unificationist who like Vulcans and second side capable of anything (thalaron weapons) for Freedom led by Obisek.
In Federation, same like in KDF are groups who are able to cooperate with RR and group who don't like them. Vulcan Unificationist + Sugihara's "I love everybody" vs. TNae's "I don't trust them because they are tricky and treacherous" + Starfleet inquisitors from episode TNG The Drumhead. In KDF House of Duras - ally of the Romulans more than 80 years vs. that Houses who can not forget long-time enemity between their species (Mogh).
I think it depends which style of play do you like, but still it not depends on which side you choosed.
I still can not understand how can Federation allow bio mass destruction weapons like thalaron wave , bio-neural warhead or theta radiation.
KDF: low lvl D7 ship known from TOS , marauding - very cheap contraband, fleet disruptor, better universal consoles if you have them already unlocked
FED: cheaper doffs, faster queues , better universal consoles from exchange if you have not unlocked them in Z-store in KDF side.
You can use only RR ships (+neutral) if you are 50lvl.
---
That main is an Engineer, because a Defiant should be able to take a beating.
I do everything I can afford to pump up her DPS, but if your suggestion is "only TACs in escorts because PvP!!", you might as well skip it. After a certain point, that min/maxer TRIBBLE sucks the joy out of it.
And B'Vat? He's the biggest moron of all.
I have more respect for Hakeev. The Tal Shiar don't have a code of honor as the Klingons do and B'Vat breaks that every time he cuts and runs when you're about to blow him apart.
And also, I bought the scimitar. And the drone ships are Mirandas most of the time while fed romulans get Klingon bops when the drones find nothing to adapt and have a wider choice of pets in general...
If you are just starting and have nothing invested in the game, I would suggest KDF. The KDF has Marauding duty officer missions which are an easy source of EC and prisoners, which can be converted into dilithium via labor colony missions. Marauding missions are also an easy source of contraband which can be converted to dilithium via starbase Security officers.
KDF also has a couple more dilithium gaining missions than the Federation.
A good fleet can alleviate issues with grouping. Though I haven't had any issues with groups from the queue, that's just my experience. My experience Fedside is the same, no issues with grouping via the queue. This is for 5 man events, it's a different story for larger faction only events. Since most end game stuff tends to be cross faction, it really doesn't matter too much (aside from fleet stuff and faction specific things).
The KDF have better ship consoles, like the plasmotic leach, the aceton assimilator, Isometric charge, subspace jump and they also have better carrier pets.
If you want pretty, go fed. If you are looking for practical, go KDF.
As I st in my quarters going over the duty officer mission reports, I am mindful of this decision on a regular basis. As the diplomatic representative serving the New Romulan Republic on this occassion, it was a decision which took me some time in making. The choice was not so cut and dry for me, as I did feel pressured one way or the other. Becoming allied with the Klingon Empire would provide our small (but growing) fleet with strong warships as well as providing us a sense of street-cred so that minor races would not so easily choose to take advantage of our "survivor" status. Becoming allied with the Federation would provide opportunities of research and growth which I feel our small colony would need to better secure our civilization's own unique destiny. We're a proud people who excel at reaearch and are capable warriors. So either choice had merit that would serve our immediate militaristic needs. Then I looked around the room and wondered what future that our children in the colony could expect. With a burdened heart, I approached the Klingon diplomatic ambassador and honored his presence in this negotiation. Informing him that his Empire would strengthen an already proud and strong people. But that this decision would echo into the future of our children. That they will need the particular research into botany, biology, and farming which the Federation scientists have gathered from the many different worlds that they have contacted. I then walked over to the Federation ambassador and accepted his offer to ally with our Republic. In my heart, the thought that I did not voice, was that I was not at peace in our children having a future spent as cannon fodder to a race who lived for battle. It was better that they had opportunities for personal growth and to pursue fields of research and study that would become available with the Federation. The field experience and expertise that they would bring back, would more impact our colony's future than what a returning warrior would bring back. Being a scientist myself, I do value the strength of the military and respect their courage in putting their lives into the line of fire to protect the innocent. Without a strong science founddation, however, our future would be in jeopardy as we could not continue to develop our own unique technologies in remaining distinctly in control of our own destiny, as Romulans. We mastered the destructive forces of a black hole to power our warbird's, we developed cloaking technology and held our own against the best ships which the Federation and the Klingons could come up with. We are a proud people, we are Romulans. Though we have suffered a major setback, we will learn and better ourselves through knowledge and research. We will once again reclaim our rightful place as a major power in the Alpha Quadrant.
My current long-term goal with this character is to do primarily pve in a cruiser, specifically the D'Deridex, with tanking in mind for group content. Would the KDF suit me better here or would the Feds?
By end game, you're going to be in Romulan or lock box/event ships... my suggestion would be to compare what you like that factors into your Romulan character.
If, for example, you spec'd into Flow Capacitors in anticipation of using the Plasmonic Leech, will it be easier getting 15 mil EC's for one off the Exchange or 1000 Zen to unlock the Vandal (either from Zen purchases or the dilithium exchange) for an account unlock? If you enjoy doffing, do you have more fun with the Diplomacy or Marauding assignments? For cheaper bridge officers while you recruit your Romulan/Remans, would you rather have the disable resistance of Humans or the damage/stealth bonus of Nausicaans? Do you want easier access to high-tier fleets, or easier access to Fleet Credit earnings?
It's not a cut and dry line between which is better or worse, because there are benefits to both allies. Personally, I have 1 Federation ally and 2 Klingon allies... I tend to spend my time on the KDF side of our allied Fleets anyway, so that's the half I favor. Marauding is also way cooler, though I'll admit for some reason I rarely bother to sell the Contraband that rewards... I'm honestly not sure why not, it's a good source of EC's. Anyway, weigh your own preference, or just make two Romulan characters and try both out... and either way have fun
And because ... Leech
Full reasoning:
- The ideals of the Romulan Republic line up much more with the Federation than the Klingons.
- The Federation actually tried to help after Hobus, while the Klingons were just violent opportunists.
- The Federation (for the most part) understands the differences between the "conservative" Tal Shiar and the "progressive" Romulan Republic, and is relatively willing to leave the past behind and welcome new allies. The Klingons, not so much on all counts. Romulans may get some funny looks visiting the Starfleet Academy, but in KDF territory, they might get killed on sight. Bottom line, it's physically safer to be Federation.
- As a Reman...it's complicated. Many Remans certainly resent their former slavery to the Romulans, but that aspect of Romulan culture now belongs only to the Tal Shiar. The Romulan Republic has renounced slavery, and it could be argued that the Romulans lost as much or more than the Remans when Hobus went BOOM. So a less open-minded Reman might paint Romulans with a wider brush and join the KDF (where they would find much in common with the Letheans) while more tolerant Remans could enjoy their new equality in the Republic with the Federation.
- As far as Cryptic and actual gameplay are concerned, if you're not Federation, you're a second class citizen. That's just the ugly truth. Uniforms, ships, game content, the list goes on. With the notable exception of female Orions as eye candy, there simply is more and better stuff in the game on the Federation side.
- From a PVE-RP questing perspective, the episode writing on the KDF side seems to generally assume that everyone is a male Klingon. The Federation side is more open ended regarding race and gender; it's easier to feel your characters fitting into the Federation stories, at least for me.
Hope that helps...
- Unlimited free access to the leech for any KDF character after you buy the Vandal. A must-have for power-starved Romulan ships.
- KDF doffing, and specifically marauding, is much better than what you're offered Fed-side. I use my KDF alts to bankroll all my poverty-stricken Fed characters.
- The "shoot first, ask questions later" nature of STO has a tendency to make the Fed look extremely hypocritical a lot of the time. At least the Klingons are being portrayed as true-to-character.
KDF- All of the small annoyances for the KDF like not being able to turn over prisoners or mine until a later level apply to KDF Romulans. The Marauding seems to be very good in Tau Dewa, even better than DS9. The Romulan KDF uniforms are cool looking.
Fed- You get everything pretty much immediately. You get the patrol and exploration missions at the same low levels if you need a bit of extra XP or are just sick of chasing Hakeev around to level. The downside is that you have to transwarp to ESD to do them up to a certain level due to plot not letting you cross space borders.
Both faction uniforms have clipping issues and tailor coloring bugs.
Feds have far more Foundry missions available to them.
It's a bit of an immersion-breaker to be treated as either KDF or Fed in the FEs as opposed to Romulans. Especially the last two where you're not siding with your own people when everyone is arguing over what to do about the Dyson Spheres.
Over all, it matters little which one you choose if you stick with the Romulan storyline and don't want to do the extra stuff. The rest of it is flavour.
This is why I don't understand people who want a villain faction. The Federation already is one.
Well, personally, I think it would be less immersion-breaking to play Romulans as a villain faction than Federation
I chose Federation. marauding missions and elite disruptors were tempting, but I already know how much more content the Federation has in contrast, and I kinda resented how heavy-handedly Cryptic was trying to nudge players towards the Klingons in the episode you get to choose-Fed ambassadors acting less diplomatically than the KDF, KDF ship helping you in orbit but not federation, the Romulan specifically saving a Klingon, Klingons going on (on more than one occasion) how they were wrong about Romulans and their honor, etc. It all seemed rather transparent, IMO.