Feds make up 3/4th of the entire game population and KDF makes up only 4/25th, that's 2.8 million versus 594 thousand. I would bet a good number of those 594k have Fed captains that are their primary captains, so they don't really play the KDF anyway (Now I want too see an infographic that details playing time spent in each faction per week). If some KDF players get pissed (or more pissed in cases) and leave it won't make a difference and would only encourage Cryptic to spend less effort on the KDF, meaning no ships or disruptor variants in rep items.
A return on time and effort invested is far more important than angry fans and always will be.
Feds make up 3/4th of the entire game population and KDF makes up only 4/25th, that's 2.8 million versus 594 thousand. I would bet a good number of those 594k have Fed captains that are their primary captains, so they don't really play the KDF anyway (Now I want too see an infographic that details playing time spent in each faction per week). If some KDF players get pissed (or more pissed in cases) and leave it won't make a difference and would only encourage Cryptic to spend less effort on the KDF, meaning no ships or disruptor variants in rep items.
A return on time and effort invested is far more important than angry fans and always will be.
And what do you think caused those numbers in the first place? Don't buy into their lame excuses man, be smarter than that.
But for the lulz, if you want to play the number game - I bet a good number of those 2.8 million Fed. Captains are leftover alts of KDF players that had to make a Fed. Captain in order to unlock the KDF for 3+ years before LoR. And I bet that a good number od those 2.8 million Fed.Captains are Captains made by people that tried out STO, but then left because they didn't like the game.
Not saying there won't always be more players playing and interested in playing as Federation in any Star Trek game. That is very natural. I'm just saying forget about trying to extrapolate evidence from purely PR spin numbers posted as a marketing shtick on the official website. If this game really has 2.5 million active accounts, it would mean it's the second most succesfull MMO in existence and I somehow find that very hard to believe.
Regarding the reality shared by Geko, IMO, it's actually refreshing to be told what the current thinking actually is regarding the KDF. It has been five years of waffling back and forth that leaves player's confused. Now I don't have to wonder if Cryptic will ever offer a KDF-centric expansion ala Legacy of Romulus. The answer is obviously now No.
All I want is to have cross-faction fleet joining available as soon as a player finishes Surface Tension.
Saving both Mother-Fin' homeworlds in one of the most epic missions in the game means I should bloody well be allowed to join my fed fleet with my KDF char. Instead, KDF fleets languish because there aren't enough people to mitigate the extortion rates of fleet upgrade projects. Fleets are a social thing. It shouldn't be factional.
I concur with this desired improvement to our game. For exactly the reason you cite. There needn't be any other reason.
According to Daniels, the Klingons joined the Federation by the 26th century. (ENT: "Azati Prime")
Like the Anti-timeline from All Good Things, the events suggested in Azati Prime won't necessarily unfold the same way in the prime timeline. Something STO's story already acknowledges by it having included some details differently. Both Olympic and Galaxy-X starships came to pass. But the conquering of the Romulan Empire by the Klingon Empire did not.
But with the advent of the Romulan Republic, the Klingon Empire could still defeat the Romulan Empire aka the Tal Shiar in the not-so-distant future. But not likely alone.
That the Empire joined the Federation to fight the Sphere Builders could have happened the day before the 26th century Battle of Procyon V or any moment previous. Since that future was altered when the Sphere Builders were defeated in the 22nd century, Empire admission into the Federation is wide-open. Azati Prime doesn't set this in stone one way or the other. It could happen during 2410, 2411 or just not at all.
(/\) Exploring Star Trek Online Since July 2008 (/\)
Don't put much faith in extracting much info from that infographic. Let's just call it a poster. That's what it is. It holds little useful info and probably is quite inflated (using the best numbers, counting dormant or dead accounts, etc.) to show STO in the best light.
Intentional or otherwise, it's more advertising than fact.
And Federation starships look on the inside like Cardassian space stations
I approve of this architectural future. Alien steampunk Deco for the win!!
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I like to add that a bit of the reasoning was "so we wouldn't have to make content for klingons any more". "Have to", "just for klingons" and "any more". It sounds like they completely tired out on just shoving klingon contnt after klingon content out there XD
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
2014 : Fed and KDF makes peace
2015 : KDF join the Federation. No more unique ship, costume and story
2016 : Romulan join the Federation. Same as above
2017 : No more story added in STO, because story is overrated. Now, we have more sliders, more grind, and a lot of cash grab. And star wars ship with lazerz. Because it's cool.
I totally expect something like that. Cryptic is following the path of the lazyness. Proof recently with DR and his patrol filler, level gap, same story for everyone (down to most dialogues), or the Grindversary with the same alien ship for everyone.
Sure, we'll continue to have "unique" ship for some time, but according to what they say, they are going to be the same, with a faction costume. Same stats and everything, different appearance. Woot.
Sadly, Geko never enjoyed anything but Feds. He is not going to understand and do anything for KDF/Rom player.
No more kdf only content because they made peace with the Feds.
Ok.
But please allow the Feds and kdf to be able to group together.
And allow the them to go to each other's home world.
They are reworking basic KDF costumes to be more compatible with other faction parts, I think. Maybe they'll finally have the baldrics go over the shoulderpads!
None of this discounts new Klingon-themed content. Heck, that could be likelier than ever.
Klingon-themed content doesn't have to be KDF exclusive but it could certainly put Klingon lore center stage and have the Klingons lead the action more while the Federation and Romulans follow their lead and assist them.
The infographic only tracks/displays number of characters, including toons from inactive accounts, spambots, the Feds ninety percent of the pre-Legacy of Romulus KDF Players had to level to even GET to play a KDF character...
in other words, it's meaningless except as a rationalization exercise.
You can level one character to Fed and then use all the other slots to make KDF characters.
Spam Accounts seem to exist plenty KDF side, too.
2014 : Fed and KDF makes peace
2015 : KDF join the Federation. No more unique ship, costume and story
2016 : Romulan join the Federation. Same as above
2017 : No more story added in STO, because story is overrated. Now, we have more sliders, more grind, and a lot of cash grab. And star wars ship with lazerz. Because it's cool.
I totally expect something like that. Cryptic is following the path of the lazyness. Proof recently with DR and his patrol filler, level gap, same story for everyone (down to most dialogues), or the Grindversary with the same alien ship for everyone.
Sure, we'll continue to have "unique" ship for some time, but according to what they say, they are going to be the same, with a faction costume. Same stats and everything, different appearance. Woot.
Sadly, Geko never enjoyed anything but Feds. He is not going to understand and do anything for KDF/Rom player.
Funny thing is he mentioned that they have a lot of content planned for 2015.
But yeah. DOOOM!
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
2015~16: In addition to adding KDF and Romulans to the Fed side, Feds now have full access to Romulan and KDF clothing, equipment, starbases, Fleet holdings, and vessels.
2017~18: Cardassian Fraction and mini-arc. Temporarily given its own massive arc and sidestory independent of the rest of the existing storylines.
2019~20: Cardassian frenemies with the Alliance. Depending on how long Cryptic wants to play that out before they invariably ally against the Iconians.
2021~22: Cardassians cast aside as new species/races, places, and plot expand with more focus on the Iconians and the need to ally against them as well. Alliance allies with the Voth and Vaadwaur remnants; if only temporarily.
Scattered throughout this timeline:
New Micro-Race Bundles: Each consisting of access to play as one of the otherwise not-100% friendly races, and restricted versions of their existing ships at lower tiers.
Tholian Micro-Race Bundle: Access to playing as a Tholian. Includes Tholian-only access to Scaling T1~T2 Mesh Weaver and Scaling T3~T4 Orb Weaver. Only Tholian players can use these ships. Their T6 ships however, are usable by any player on the account, and consist of a T6 Science Dreadnought Tarantula.
Voth Micro-Race Bundle: Access to playing as a Voth. Includes Voth-only access to Scaling T1~T2 Palisade and Scaling T3~T4 Bastion. All players on the account have access to the T6 Voth Bulwark.
Vaadwaur Micro-Race Bundle: Access to playing as a Vaadwaur. Includes Vaadwaur-only access to Scaling T1~T5 Manasa and T1~T5 Astika.
Vulcan Enhanced Micro-Race Bundle: Access to more Vulcan clothing options, and a Fed-usable Vulcan ship at T1, T3, and T6.
Andorian Enhanced Micro-Race Bundle: Access to additional Andorian clothing options, and adds in the T2 Andorian Escort and a T4 and T6 Andorian ship.
Ferengi Enhanced Micro-Race Bundle: Access to more Ferengi clothing, a T3 D'Kora and a T6 Ferengi ship. Also adds a starting set of 100k GPL only on Ferengi characters. Which can be used as alternative spending on vendor goods onboard the Ferengi ships.
20XX: Game is about to close. We get access to overpowered Iconian ships. But still no Borg ships.
They are reworking basic KDF costumes to be more compatible with other faction parts, I think. Maybe they'll finally have the baldrics go over the shoulderpads!
None of this discounts new Klingon-themed content. Heck, that could be likelier than ever.
Klingon-themed content doesn't have to be KDF exclusive but it could certainly put Klingon lore center stage and have the Klingons lead the action more while the Federation and Romulans follow their lead and assist them.
I really don't need more content where Gorn and Orions praise the name of khaless. While the Klingon stories are good for a (narrow minded) Klingon character it is a ridiculous clusterbuck if you play anything other than klingon. I suspect that they will never, ever give the other species in the empire more thought now.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
No more kdf only content because they made peace with the Feds.
Ok.
But please allow the Feds and kdf to be able to group together.
And allow the them to go to each other's home world.
KDF and feds grouping together isn't a terrible idea, but allow Feds on Qu'nos is most certainly is.
I am not at all surprised by Geko's statement. He hates anything that detracts from his precious Federation and makes his pretty ships explode.
I like to add that a bit of the reasoning was "so we wouldn't have to make content for klingons any more". "Have to", "just for klingons" and "any more". It sounds like they completely tired out on just shoving klingon contnt after klingon content out there XD
Heh You know, I had that same thought yesterday.
The way he says it, you'd think Klingon and KDF exclusive content was glebbening* for the past couple of years, so much in fact that they're all creativelly dried out and need to take a break for a long while in order to get new ideas and fresh perspecive.
On the other hand, if you look the facts in the face, ever since STO went F2P early 2012 - the only time the KDF faction received content "just for Klingons" was LoR. So it's sth like this in the past 3 years:
- 2012: nothing
- 2013: The starting missions in LoR, other than that - nothing
- 2014: nothing
Not to mention that in the 2 years before F2P the content "just for Klingons" was scarce just as rain in the Atacama desert, but even then admitedly more than the timespan from F2P to now.
So considering this, Geko says that they specifically ended the war between the Federation and Klingons so they wouldn't have to make content just for Klingons anymore. lol Geko, as if you made much content "just for Klingons" before that. :rolleyes:
*glebbening - a Ferengi expression used to describe the heaviest rainfalls on Ferenginar
The excuse that Star Trek is about the the federation and that is why they aren't doing anything with the isn't true.
Star Wars is about the Jedi! Super heroes is about the heroes!
Nobody would
1) make a faction and then stop developing it because nobody plays it. ******** had a 80-20 for alliance. What did blizzard do? Fix the horde.
2) fix all other sub par parts of the game but ignore fixing the worst faction in mmo history.
Except cryptic. And they will defend that way forever.
So what do we do? Fight or help cryptic?
I say to fix it make the kdf and fed groupable, allow the kdf to go to earth space dock, and play fed missions (as a kdf representative).
Because all these changes that cryptic does for the federation (like the Romulus arc that I never played originally nor have I played the new one), and the space dock redesign, I don't get to see.
Maybe even buy fed ships.
That is the very very very least cryptic can do. And we all know that is what they do best.
The excuse that Star Trek is about the the federation and that is why they aren't doing anything with the isn't true.
Star Wars is about the Jedi! Super heroes is about the heroes!
Nobody would
1) make a faction and then stop developing it because nobody plays it. ******** had a 80-20 for alliance. What did blizzard do? Fix the horde.
2) fix all other sub par parts of the game but ignore fixing the worst faction in mmo history.
Except cryptic. And they will defend that way forever.
So what do we do? Fight or help cryptic?
I say to fix it make the kdf and fed groupable, allow the kdf to go to earth space dock, and play fed missions (as a kdf representative).
Because all these changes that cryptic does for the federation (like the Romulus arc that I never played originally nor have I played the new one), and the space dock redesign, I don't get to see.
Maybe even buy fed ships.
That is the very very very least cryptic can do. And we all know that is what they do best.
But what's the point of KDF then mate? I can just purchase a C-Store Klingon species for the Federation faction and play that content as Federation Klingon, it would ammount to the same.
We chose to play as KDF or RR for the diversity, for the different culture, outlook, aesthetics, experience, perspective on the game, etc....That's why I play my KDF chars.
If you like to play the Federation content so much, just roll a Fed. char. If you like Klingons you can even buy a Klingon for the Feds from the C-Store and do that, without promoting something that would take away from others on the forum.
Cryptic just failed in what they were trying to achieve.
Way back, STO was supposed to be a relaunched TOS Fed-Klingon war MMO set in "teh future". Literally none of their original plans persistet. The KDF startet out as a monsterplay/PvP bonus and they reluctantly added some story content but they never added much in the ways of ships or costumes at all. And when they introduced Romulans everyone was hyped because they were hoping for a D.A.O.C. in space with a three realm PvP setting. But that Cryptic screwed up from the beginning when they decided to not make a three faction game and just have the Romulans be some half-arsed quarter-finished *thing* I'm sure nobody would have bothered with if they hadn't given them OP traits and ships.
Cryptic never "full arsed" anything in this game and let it wither and die. And at some point they mercy kill the content and publish PR speak how they improve the quality of the game for all players (except that part of the playerbase you basically flipped the bird to, saying their faction isn't worth dedicating time to). That what happened to diplomacy, exploration, PvP, the whole "other" faction...
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
Bigger shoulder pads.
It will never be a real faction and will never get the attention it deserves. I accepted that after the Romulus expansion. We are 5 years in.
The way he says it, you'd think Klingon and KDF exclusive content was glebbening* for the past couple of years, so much in fact that they're all creativelly dried out and need to take a break for a long while in order to get new ideas and fresh perspecive.
On the other hand, if you look the facts in the face, ever since STO went F2P early 2012 - the only time the KDF faction received content "just for Klingons" was LoR. So it's sth like this in the past 3 years:
- 2012: nothing
- 2013: The starting missions in LoR, other than that - nothing
- 2014: nothing
And what Starfleet-specific content was added to the game?
Pretty much all the new content is faction-agnostic. And I don't think it's a perfect fit for the Federation either.
People complain that they wouldn't do the busy legwork for Neelix as a Klingon forget that a Starfleet Captain isn't expected to cripple other people's ships just because there is a dispute between Talaxians and Malons over who gets to use the system for what purpose.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Pretty much all the new content is faction-agnostic. And I don't think it's a perfect fit for the Federation either.
People complain that they wouldn't do the busy legwork for Neelix as a Klingon forget that a Starfleet Captain isn't expected to cripple other people's ships just because there is a dispute between Talaxians and Malons over who gets to use the system for what purpose.
Yes, I'll give you this as I've been saying that myself for a long time. This game makes little to no sense from a Federation perspective as well most of the time.
However, within the confined limitis of Cryptic's potential to deliver - one can cleraly note the similarities between so called "faction-agnostic" (which in Cryptic's terms means Federation POV with few words re-arranged for the other 2 factions) with the Federation exclusive content and the differences between that and KDF or Romulan specific content, if one plays the KDF or Romulan LoR content or the Fek'ihri KDF story arc.
The interesting thing here isn't that they have no intention of producing any more KDF, or Romulan, exclusive content. Considering the quality of missions they're trying to produce, the speed with which they are producing them, and the way they are comingling any new missions with an expansion on the reputation system that must be available to all characters, it is pretty obvious that they were never going to produce any more faction exclusive mission content.
No, the interesting thing here is that they're willing to say it, knowing that it will anger at least some of their player base and that it may be the last straw for at least some KDF purists. I wonder what their population numbers look like.
Yes, I'll give you this as I've been saying that myself for a long time. This game makes little to no sense from a Federation perspective as well most of the time.
However, within the confined limitis of Cryptic's potential to deliver - one can cleraly note the similarities between so called "faction-agnostic" (which in Cryptic's terms means Federation POV with few words re-arranged for the other 2 factions) with the Federation exclusive content and the differences between that and KDF or Romulan specific content, if one plays the KDF or Romulan LoR content or the Fek'ihri KDF story arc.
Sure, it's Federation content with its serial numbers filed off, except that it isn't Federation content because it doesn'T match what you'd expect from the Federation either.
It's just game content, but if you want to feel like a victim, so be it.
It's not like Cryptic needs to listen to you, as you're not a paying customer any way and it's unlikely there is an economically practical way for them to turn you back into one.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Honestly I wouldn't mind if Cryptic would just strip those abomination of fed mission ports and replace them with real KDF content, giving us a full and unique level progression.
With what 16% of the playerbase having KDF characters - that's going to be a hard sell as the ROI is low - and no, it won't do much to attract more players to the KDF faction. Star Trek was never centered around Klingons, Romulans, et al - and theres a reason 73% of the playerbase plays Fed, and Human <-- they want to imagine themselves as a part of the Human race in STO's version of the 25th century Star trek universe.
Bottom line: There isn't a little klingon or Romulan wanting to come out for most players (and fans) of Star Trek.
That said, remember: It's Al (Captain Gekko) Rivera who also stated in a previous podcast interview that he felt STO had TOO MUCH story content overall -- meaning that in his mind, he'd rather not do another piece of real story content period; just revamp old systems and add new ones that increase the need to farm Dil/Marks/EC/Whatever currency they add next - and add repetitive public queue content in support of that.
^^^
That's Geko's 'ideal plan' for STO, and as a Lead designer of STO that's what he's been doing. It's been REAL obvious since STO Season 8.5 onwards
So yeah, don't be mad. If Geko gets his way, we won't see much STO story content going forward for anybody (but pretty soon the PvE queue will have 100 listings of content to grind over and over and over and over...and if you don't play said content the way Geko thinks you should he'll nerf other content rewards until you do.:eek::D
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
That said, remember: It's Al (Captain Gekko) Rivera who also stated in a previous podcast interview that he felt STO had TOO MUCH story content overall -- meaning that in his mind, he'd rather not do another piece of real story content period; just revamp old systems and add new ones that increase the need to farm Dil/Marks/EC/Whatever currency they add next - and add repetitive public queue content in support of that.
That doesn'T fit what has actually happened (new story content) and what he say will happen (more story content this year).
I don't really know what he actually meant. But if I had to guess, it would be stuff like the large number of queues we have. Even before Delta Rising, there were a few queues that were busy (Infected Elite, Crystalline Elite, and then the other "old" Borg STFs), and a lot that just were not. The stuf that was played a lot was the one with the best rewards/time spent ratio.
Now they added even more queued mission, and the population has to split further among them (except why bother, skill points are the new Dilithium and it's not in the Queues).
They probably need to cull more stuff there in some way. Do things like with the Mirror Queue, where it's only on for a few weeks a year.
And of course fix the rewards for the existing queues. He says it's in the works...
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Comments
Infographic
Feds make up 3/4th of the entire game population and KDF makes up only 4/25th, that's 2.8 million versus 594 thousand. I would bet a good number of those 594k have Fed captains that are their primary captains, so they don't really play the KDF anyway (Now I want too see an infographic that details playing time spent in each faction per week). If some KDF players get pissed (or more pissed in cases) and leave it won't make a difference and would only encourage Cryptic to spend less effort on the KDF, meaning no ships or disruptor variants in rep items.
A return on time and effort invested is far more important than angry fans and always will be.
And what do you think caused those numbers in the first place? Don't buy into their lame excuses man, be smarter than that.
But for the lulz, if you want to play the number game - I bet a good number of those 2.8 million Fed. Captains are leftover alts of KDF players that had to make a Fed. Captain in order to unlock the KDF for 3+ years before LoR. And I bet that a good number od those 2.8 million Fed.Captains are Captains made by people that tried out STO, but then left because they didn't like the game.
Not saying there won't always be more players playing and interested in playing as Federation in any Star Trek game. That is very natural. I'm just saying forget about trying to extrapolate evidence from purely PR spin numbers posted as a marketing shtick on the official website. If this game really has 2.5 million active accounts, it would mean it's the second most succesfull MMO in existence and I somehow find that very hard to believe.
I concur with this desired improvement to our game. For exactly the reason you cite. There needn't be any other reason.
Like the Anti-timeline from All Good Things, the events suggested in Azati Prime won't necessarily unfold the same way in the prime timeline. Something STO's story already acknowledges by it having included some details differently. Both Olympic and Galaxy-X starships came to pass. But the conquering of the Romulan Empire by the Klingon Empire did not.
But with the advent of the Romulan Republic, the Klingon Empire could still defeat the Romulan Empire aka the Tal Shiar in the not-so-distant future. But not likely alone.
That the Empire joined the Federation to fight the Sphere Builders could have happened the day before the 26th century Battle of Procyon V or any moment previous. Since that future was altered when the Sphere Builders were defeated in the 22nd century, Empire admission into the Federation is wide-open. Azati Prime doesn't set this in stone one way or the other. It could happen during 2410, 2411 or just not at all.
Intentional or otherwise, it's more advertising than fact.
I approve of this architectural future. Alien steampunk Deco for the win!!
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
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2015 : KDF join the Federation. No more unique ship, costume and story
2016 : Romulan join the Federation. Same as above
2017 : No more story added in STO, because story is overrated. Now, we have more sliders, more grind, and a lot of cash grab. And star wars ship with lazerz. Because it's cool.
I totally expect something like that. Cryptic is following the path of the lazyness. Proof recently with DR and his patrol filler, level gap, same story for everyone (down to most dialogues), or the Grindversary with the same alien ship for everyone.
Sure, we'll continue to have "unique" ship for some time, but according to what they say, they are going to be the same, with a faction costume. Same stats and everything, different appearance. Woot.
Sadly, Geko never enjoyed anything but Feds. He is not going to understand and do anything for KDF/Rom player.
They are reworking basic KDF costumes to be more compatible with other faction parts, I think. Maybe they'll finally have the baldrics go over the shoulderpads!
None of this discounts new Klingon-themed content. Heck, that could be likelier than ever.
Klingon-themed content doesn't have to be KDF exclusive but it could certainly put Klingon lore center stage and have the Klingons lead the action more while the Federation and Romulans follow their lead and assist them.
Spam Accounts seem to exist plenty KDF side, too.
Funny thing is he mentioned that they have a lot of content planned for 2015.
But yeah. DOOOM!
nerfed and reskinned fed ships: perhaps the only way we will get more ships full-stop.
feddies on qonos: only if they are flagged as hostile and targetable.
faction-neutral fleets: perhaps the single worst idea this year.
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2017~18: Cardassian Fraction and mini-arc. Temporarily given its own massive arc and sidestory independent of the rest of the existing storylines.
2019~20: Cardassian frenemies with the Alliance. Depending on how long Cryptic wants to play that out before they invariably ally against the Iconians.
2021~22: Cardassians cast aside as new species/races, places, and plot expand with more focus on the Iconians and the need to ally against them as well. Alliance allies with the Voth and Vaadwaur remnants; if only temporarily.
Scattered throughout this timeline:
New Micro-Race Bundles: Each consisting of access to play as one of the otherwise not-100% friendly races, and restricted versions of their existing ships at lower tiers.
Tholian Micro-Race Bundle: Access to playing as a Tholian. Includes Tholian-only access to Scaling T1~T2 Mesh Weaver and Scaling T3~T4 Orb Weaver. Only Tholian players can use these ships. Their T6 ships however, are usable by any player on the account, and consist of a T6 Science Dreadnought Tarantula.
Voth Micro-Race Bundle: Access to playing as a Voth. Includes Voth-only access to Scaling T1~T2 Palisade and Scaling T3~T4 Bastion. All players on the account have access to the T6 Voth Bulwark.
Vaadwaur Micro-Race Bundle: Access to playing as a Vaadwaur. Includes Vaadwaur-only access to Scaling T1~T5 Manasa and T1~T5 Astika.
Vulcan Enhanced Micro-Race Bundle: Access to more Vulcan clothing options, and a Fed-usable Vulcan ship at T1, T3, and T6.
Andorian Enhanced Micro-Race Bundle: Access to additional Andorian clothing options, and adds in the T2 Andorian Escort and a T4 and T6 Andorian ship.
Ferengi Enhanced Micro-Race Bundle: Access to more Ferengi clothing, a T3 D'Kora and a T6 Ferengi ship. Also adds a starting set of 100k GPL only on Ferengi characters. Which can be used as alternative spending on vendor goods onboard the Ferengi ships.
20XX: Game is about to close. We get access to overpowered Iconian ships. But still no Borg ships.
I really don't need more content where Gorn and Orions praise the name of khaless. While the Klingon stories are good for a (narrow minded) Klingon character it is a ridiculous clusterbuck if you play anything other than klingon. I suspect that they will never, ever give the other species in the empire more thought now.
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KDF and feds grouping together isn't a terrible idea, but allow Feds on Qu'nos is most certainly is.
I am not at all surprised by Geko's statement. He hates anything that detracts from his precious Federation and makes his pretty ships explode.
Shanty town is PvP. Cryptic can't be bothered with PvP. (Probably for the same reason KDF and Romulans get no love).
+1 to shpoks and angrytarg
You guys did a good job of summing up how I feel.
At this point I am just left with apathy. I am here for the KDF, that's it. My money goes to support games that support me and what I consider fun.
Heh
The way he says it, you'd think Klingon and KDF exclusive content was glebbening* for the past couple of years, so much in fact that they're all creativelly dried out and need to take a break for a long while in order to get new ideas and fresh perspecive.
On the other hand, if you look the facts in the face, ever since STO went F2P early 2012 - the only time the KDF faction received content "just for Klingons" was LoR. So it's sth like this in the past 3 years:
- 2012: nothing
- 2013: The starting missions in LoR, other than that - nothing
- 2014: nothing
Not to mention that in the 2 years before F2P the content "just for Klingons" was scarce just as rain in the Atacama desert, but even then admitedly more than the timespan from F2P to now.
So considering this, Geko says that they specifically ended the war between the Federation and Klingons so they wouldn't have to make content just for Klingons anymore. lol
*glebbening - a Ferengi expression used to describe the heaviest rainfalls on Ferenginar
Star Wars is about the Jedi! Super heroes is about the heroes!
Nobody would
1) make a faction and then stop developing it because nobody plays it. ******** had a 80-20 for alliance. What did blizzard do? Fix the horde.
2) fix all other sub par parts of the game but ignore fixing the worst faction in mmo history.
Except cryptic. And they will defend that way forever.
So what do we do? Fight or help cryptic?
I say to fix it make the kdf and fed groupable, allow the kdf to go to earth space dock, and play fed missions (as a kdf representative).
Because all these changes that cryptic does for the federation (like the Romulus arc that I never played originally nor have I played the new one), and the space dock redesign, I don't get to see.
Maybe even buy fed ships.
That is the very very very least cryptic can do. And we all know that is what they do best.
But what's the point of KDF then mate? I can just purchase a C-Store Klingon species for the Federation faction and play that content as Federation Klingon, it would ammount to the same.
We chose to play as KDF or RR for the diversity, for the different culture, outlook, aesthetics, experience, perspective on the game, etc....That's why I play my KDF chars.
If you like to play the Federation content so much, just roll a Fed. char. If you like Klingons you can even buy a Klingon for the Feds from the C-Store and do that, without promoting something that would take away from others on the forum.
Way back, STO was supposed to be a relaunched TOS Fed-Klingon war MMO set in "teh future". Literally none of their original plans persistet. The KDF startet out as a monsterplay/PvP bonus and they reluctantly added some story content but they never added much in the ways of ships or costumes at all. And when they introduced Romulans everyone was hyped because they were hoping for a D.A.O.C. in space with a three realm PvP setting. But that Cryptic screwed up from the beginning when they decided to not make a three faction game and just have the Romulans be some half-arsed quarter-finished *thing* I'm sure nobody would have bothered with if they hadn't given them OP traits and ships.
Cryptic never "full arsed" anything in this game and let it wither and die. And at some point they mercy kill the content and publish PR speak how they improve the quality of the game for all players (except that part of the playerbase you basically flipped the bird to, saying their faction isn't worth dedicating time to). That what happened to diplomacy, exploration, PvP, the whole "other" faction...
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Bigger shoulder pads.
It will never be a real faction and will never get the attention it deserves. I accepted that after the Romulus expansion. We are 5 years in.
And what Starfleet-specific content was added to the game?
Pretty much all the new content is faction-agnostic. And I don't think it's a perfect fit for the Federation either.
People complain that they wouldn't do the busy legwork for Neelix as a Klingon forget that a Starfleet Captain isn't expected to cripple other people's ships just because there is a dispute between Talaxians and Malons over who gets to use the system for what purpose.
BWWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Yes, I'll give you this as I've been saying that myself for a long time. This game makes little to no sense from a Federation perspective as well most of the time.
However, within the confined limitis of Cryptic's potential to deliver - one can cleraly note the similarities between so called "faction-agnostic" (which in Cryptic's terms means Federation POV with few words re-arranged for the other 2 factions) with the Federation exclusive content and the differences between that and KDF or Romulan specific content, if one plays the KDF or Romulan LoR content or the Fek'ihri KDF story arc.
No, the interesting thing here is that they're willing to say it, knowing that it will anger at least some of their player base and that it may be the last straw for at least some KDF purists. I wonder what their population numbers look like.
Sure, it's Federation content with its serial numbers filed off, except that it isn't Federation content because it doesn'T match what you'd expect from the Federation either.
It's just game content, but if you want to feel like a victim, so be it.
It's not like Cryptic needs to listen to you, as you're not a paying customer any way and it's unlikely there is an economically practical way for them to turn you back into one.
With what 16% of the playerbase having KDF characters - that's going to be a hard sell as the ROI is low - and no, it won't do much to attract more players to the KDF faction. Star Trek was never centered around Klingons, Romulans, et al - and theres a reason 73% of the playerbase plays Fed, and Human <-- they want to imagine themselves as a part of the Human race in STO's version of the 25th century Star trek universe.
Bottom line: There isn't a little klingon or Romulan wanting to come out for most players (and fans) of Star Trek.
That said, remember: It's Al (Captain Gekko) Rivera who also stated in a previous podcast interview that he felt STO had TOO MUCH story content overall -- meaning that in his mind, he'd rather not do another piece of real story content period; just revamp old systems and add new ones that increase the need to farm Dil/Marks/EC/Whatever currency they add next - and add repetitive public queue content in support of that.
^^^
That's Geko's 'ideal plan' for STO, and as a Lead designer of STO that's what he's been doing. It's been REAL obvious since STO Season 8.5 onwards
So yeah, don't be mad. If Geko gets his way, we won't see much STO story content going forward for anybody (but pretty soon the PvE queue will have 100 listings of content to grind over and over and over and over...and if you don't play said content the way Geko thinks you should he'll nerf other content rewards until you do.:eek::D
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
That doesn'T fit what has actually happened (new story content) and what he say will happen (more story content this year).
I don't really know what he actually meant. But if I had to guess, it would be stuff like the large number of queues we have. Even before Delta Rising, there were a few queues that were busy (Infected Elite, Crystalline Elite, and then the other "old" Borg STFs), and a lot that just were not. The stuf that was played a lot was the one with the best rewards/time spent ratio.
Now they added even more queued mission, and the population has to split further among them (except why bother, skill points are the new Dilithium and it's not in the Queues).
They probably need to cull more stuff there in some way. Do things like with the Mirror Queue, where it's only on for a few weeks a year.
And of course fix the rewards for the existing queues. He says it's in the works...