The only radiation-generating device that's in Cryptic's lunch room is... a microwave for heating food. Let's keep it that way. Safety for the devs!
I can easily understand not wanting a 'bad' faction in the game, from a couple perspectives.
Focusing for a long time on the story of a bad group in Star Trek has always been about seeing how bad they are, just to have the good guys' win all the more justified. That's always been a pillar of Star Trek storytelling. Mind you, that's largely due to the total focus on the Federation, but it's hard to justify anything totally negative being given the centre stage, unless we want STO to really throw the Star Trek feel out of the game.
And yeah, from a monetary perspective, a 'bad' faction isn't likely to be a long-term money maker. If there were a bad faction, it'd have only a shallow story because it couldn't survive long - eventually, the good guys would have to win and the bad faction would either cease to exist or be shoved off into their own lonely corner of the galaxy. It just wouldn't be sustainable from a story perspective in a Star Trek universe. And it would limit the storytelling that STO can go through if there's always a consistent, front-and-centre conflict to sustain.
As for Tal Shiar integration into the Republic... hard to say. I always go back to that great TNG episode, "Face of the Enemy," where Troi is abducted as an undercover Tal Shiar agent. I'd dare say that the Romulan commander's vocal dislike of the Tal Shiar is probably a majority opinion. The Tal Shiar itself was created for a greater purpose of course, and it's hard to imagine that it wasn't a respected and well-received agency in the first place. But by the 24th century, it was clear that the Tal Shiar had taken too many liberties, even before the lore of STO kicks in.
The Republic needs internal safety and security, for sure. But it needs to be a successor to the Tal Shiar, that goes back to traditional Romulan values: the traditions of a strong military, a stable government, and a united populace that lives for the good of the Romulan people (now through the Republic). If there was any hope of getting the Tal Shiar involved in the Republic effort, it died off with their experiments and indoctrination attempts that we've seen in the game.
At first I would say in my point of view that lack a bit of logic if you step back some steps. Why would be a RSE-fied Republic or even the RSE/TS himself be bad in a way which is beyond that what allready exist? Only because they are portrait as very one-dimensional BAD BAD BAD in legacy (I am bad because I am bad, I am a psychopathic villain muahahaha - well that kind of reason for behavior convinces not much, at least not me and surely also not a lot of other players which have said such things longe before I guess). The original RSE was not worse than you can act as STO-Klingon on daily routine. Crushing rebellions, execute members of your crew, raiding up to twenty or thirty, perhaps even more targets a day (Federation and independent - frighters, outposts, archaeological sites etc.), committing acts of sabotage, assassination, kidnapping, selling prisoners (or even refugees and colonists) to the Orions, make bio-weapons ready for use and, and, and. Of course you MUST not do that, but you could, and nobody looks down on you if you did. Hard to say how a RSE-assignment-system (and by that the daily routine of a Romulan captain) could be worse, so I would say a normal Romulan tour of duty must not be "worse" than that of a Klingon. So I see not reason why a RSE-faction would be "bad" - beside the biased way in which the RSE/TS is shown in STO (which seems sometimes even worse than the biased point of view in Next Generation etc. - Hakeev is more the villain out from a Superman-comic etc. Ok you could say the same about Shinzon and Nero, so such a silly and simple way of showing the enemy is not STO alone - what made it not better, of course.). And even that could be corrected easily if some people on the top and in the middle of the TS are removed or modified.
And just because it is a pillar in Star Trek storytelling to show bad vs evil in a biased on-sided and simple way is a little reason for me to see that as written in stone. For example the Sith/ the Empire were seen as EVIL in Star Wars for years and years, but that did not force Bioware to not let the option to follow their agenda (partly in the Knights of the Old Republic-games, and even more in Star Wars Online). The Klingons were shown in the original Star Trek also as very bad (and often in some kind incometent - how other could Kirk and co save the day over and over again). That changed over the years, but it HAD to be changed. It needs some courage, sure, to soften up the one-sided point of view, but it could and do work if you throw some work in it, and make the play/stories much more rich than following the naive black-white-shema which in Star Trek is often used. And as I said, the episodes of the glorious adventures of Enterprise and others show us the events around a small group of Federation-members. They are biased, and in that "of course" the heroes must win (often against BAD people) because in that way simple hero-stories work (and nobody could claim that Star Trek is a thing of grey, much more often black and white, compared for example with the Narn-Centauri-conflict in B5). Hard to claim that this show the whole truth. What would be if you see events through the eyes of the crew of a Romulan Warbird? On that the TS-officer could be a valuable member of the crew. Not trusted in any way by any member of the crew, but serving the Empire as the rest of the crew, sometimes in another way. If at least foreign values and ideology would be accepted a little bit more instead of judging the Federation (or better, the HUMAN) point of view, values and ideology high above all other in the Galaxy this would change a lot, I guess. And would be a move to the better. It worked for the Klingons - why should the Romulans not get the same chance and justice?
Hard to say that all the TS is "corrupted" in they way you claim (and if the majority of the Romulans see that ins this way). Nobody deny the Remans to become a part of the Republic, nobody even try to punsih them for the crimes they committed during their "fight for freedom" - while what they have done in the past since Shinzons Rebellion is surely a lot of great crimes in the eyes of many Romulans.
I highly agree with the idea of a internal safety and security in the Republic, and I would add that the Republic itself should be much more organized alongside the values which were mentioned (the traditions of a strong military, a stable government, and a united populace that lives for the good of the Romulan people - plus perhaps a more aggressive attitude towards minor powers to rebuild the Empire). But such a Republic (which may also be called New Romulan Empire, Raptor Empire or whatsoever) had to be much less open towards foreign ideas and powers (which means less open towards the Vulcans and of course towards longtime enemies like the Federation and the Klingons) und much more open towards the traditional parts of the Romulan society and their values. This would be not as someone called it "Mr. Nice Romulan", but it would also not mean that the Romulans would be EVIL BAD OVERLORDS with manic giggle and the thirst of torturing a cute little Epohh every day to show how BAD they are...
A new Republic/Nation which is truly independent could in my eyes only be reached through a power-sharing deal between the today Republicen Leadership, the Remans and the leaders of the Imperial Remnants/TS which controll enough ressources to be treated as eaquel partners. They controll so great parts of what was the former Empire that anything other would be impossible and only fueling ongoing war. Would be fun to see such a thing happen, and could work as explanation for possible recuitment of new officers. That would mean that members of their ranks would form TOGETHER with the members of the Republican/Reman forces the new military, political leadership and internal security. Surely not easy to achieve, and surely this would mean that an Republican side some people had to give up their dreams (and on the other side, too), but I guess many Romulans would see that as much better than D'Tans policy until now. And it would give stuff for a lot of assignments and missions etc.
Comments
I can easily understand not wanting a 'bad' faction in the game, from a couple perspectives.
Focusing for a long time on the story of a bad group in Star Trek has always been about seeing how bad they are, just to have the good guys' win all the more justified. That's always been a pillar of Star Trek storytelling. Mind you, that's largely due to the total focus on the Federation, but it's hard to justify anything totally negative being given the centre stage, unless we want STO to really throw the Star Trek feel out of the game.
And yeah, from a monetary perspective, a 'bad' faction isn't likely to be a long-term money maker. If there were a bad faction, it'd have only a shallow story because it couldn't survive long - eventually, the good guys would have to win and the bad faction would either cease to exist or be shoved off into their own lonely corner of the galaxy. It just wouldn't be sustainable from a story perspective in a Star Trek universe. And it would limit the storytelling that STO can go through if there's always a consistent, front-and-centre conflict to sustain.
As for Tal Shiar integration into the Republic... hard to say. I always go back to that great TNG episode, "Face of the Enemy," where Troi is abducted as an undercover Tal Shiar agent. I'd dare say that the Romulan commander's vocal dislike of the Tal Shiar is probably a majority opinion. The Tal Shiar itself was created for a greater purpose of course, and it's hard to imagine that it wasn't a respected and well-received agency in the first place. But by the 24th century, it was clear that the Tal Shiar had taken too many liberties, even before the lore of STO kicks in.
The Republic needs internal safety and security, for sure. But it needs to be a successor to the Tal Shiar, that goes back to traditional Romulan values: the traditions of a strong military, a stable government, and a united populace that lives for the good of the Romulan people (now through the Republic). If there was any hope of getting the Tal Shiar involved in the Republic effort, it died off with their experiments and indoctrination attempts that we've seen in the game.
And just because it is a pillar in Star Trek storytelling to show bad vs evil in a biased on-sided and simple way is a little reason for me to see that as written in stone. For example the Sith/ the Empire were seen as EVIL in Star Wars for years and years, but that did not force Bioware to not let the option to follow their agenda (partly in the Knights of the Old Republic-games, and even more in Star Wars Online). The Klingons were shown in the original Star Trek also as very bad (and often in some kind incometent - how other could Kirk and co save the day over and over again). That changed over the years, but it HAD to be changed. It needs some courage, sure, to soften up the one-sided point of view, but it could and do work if you throw some work in it, and make the play/stories much more rich than following the naive black-white-shema which in Star Trek is often used. And as I said, the episodes of the glorious adventures of Enterprise and others show us the events around a small group of Federation-members. They are biased, and in that "of course" the heroes must win (often against BAD people) because in that way simple hero-stories work (and nobody could claim that Star Trek is a thing of grey, much more often black and white, compared for example with the Narn-Centauri-conflict in B5). Hard to claim that this show the whole truth. What would be if you see events through the eyes of the crew of a Romulan Warbird? On that the TS-officer could be a valuable member of the crew. Not trusted in any way by any member of the crew, but serving the Empire as the rest of the crew, sometimes in another way. If at least foreign values and ideology would be accepted a little bit more instead of judging the Federation (or better, the HUMAN) point of view, values and ideology high above all other in the Galaxy this would change a lot, I guess. And would be a move to the better. It worked for the Klingons - why should the Romulans not get the same chance and justice?
Hard to say that all the TS is "corrupted" in they way you claim (and if the majority of the Romulans see that ins this way). Nobody deny the Remans to become a part of the Republic, nobody even try to punsih them for the crimes they committed during their "fight for freedom" - while what they have done in the past since Shinzons Rebellion is surely a lot of great crimes in the eyes of many Romulans.
I highly agree with the idea of a internal safety and security in the Republic, and I would add that the Republic itself should be much more organized alongside the values which were mentioned (the traditions of a strong military, a stable government, and a united populace that lives for the good of the Romulan people - plus perhaps a more aggressive attitude towards minor powers to rebuild the Empire). But such a Republic (which may also be called New Romulan Empire, Raptor Empire or whatsoever) had to be much less open towards foreign ideas and powers (which means less open towards the Vulcans and of course towards longtime enemies like the Federation and the Klingons) und much more open towards the traditional parts of the Romulan society and their values. This would be not as someone called it "Mr. Nice Romulan", but it would also not mean that the Romulans would be EVIL BAD OVERLORDS with manic giggle and the thirst of torturing a cute little Epohh every day to show how BAD they are...
A new Republic/Nation which is truly independent could in my eyes only be reached through a power-sharing deal between the today Republicen Leadership, the Remans and the leaders of the Imperial Remnants/TS which controll enough ressources to be treated as eaquel partners. They controll so great parts of what was the former Empire that anything other would be impossible and only fueling ongoing war. Would be fun to see such a thing happen, and could work as explanation for possible recuitment of new officers. That would mean that members of their ranks would form TOGETHER with the members of the Republican/Reman forces the new military, political leadership and internal security. Surely not easy to achieve, and surely this would mean that an Republican side some people had to give up their dreams (and on the other side, too), but I guess many Romulans would see that as much better than D'Tans policy until now. And it would give stuff for a lot of assignments and missions etc.