Seems a major bugbear for the KDF is aesthetics, it would also be nice if they changed things so that the races in KDF were treated more uniquely, pretty sure the orions are not the honorable combat types, they're a bit like romulans actually, sneaky and unscrupulous. Too much coding and scripting though, and apparently they don't have time for that, at least give us KDF ship interiors that aren't as oppressive, or add extra bridge options for the different KDF races, that would go a long way to encouraging me to personally play my KDF characters more often. Given the choice between a fed escort or a KDF Bird of Prey though, I'm always going to favour the Bird of Prey, fed escorts are ugly as sin and too many fed ships look too similar.
My suggestion: Since PvP is unbalanced and the story has gone friendly, maybe instead have competitive PvE. Think Legolas and Gimli competing to see who can kill the most orcs. They could have events with two teams, one Fed one KDF, each one on their own attack corridor, with a boss at the end, and whichever side clears their track first and does more damage to the boss gets a boost in the rewards.
We do get that to some degree already. Missions like CC reward based on individual contributions to the team effort.
KDF faction in this game is dead. There is no reason for me to play the same missions (mostly like 70% of it) as a kdf character. It's pointless to be honest.
Yeah, that worked out well the last time it happened, didn't it? Eventually anything they give to KDF ends up on Fed-side, too.
Cloak, Plasmonic Leech, etc.
It will never remain unique.
I have yet to see feds get singularity cores.. I meant more along that vain, + give fed some special sensor stuff to their ships so they won't have the need to take the kdf gimmick because there ships have their own. This could also signal romulan warp cores getting a slight buff of only -5 per power system or none at all. They still wouldn't have max power besides the Terran rep one.
I totally agree with your ideas there, it ties in with what I was saying about treating each of the races uniquely, although I didn't go into much detail about it. Ships unique to each race would be nice as well, and the interiors to match.
Only npc Fed I respect is Shon... mainly for admitting they were seriously wrong about the undine sneaking about and trying to destabilise both the federation and the kdf
That one moment was pure joy as a kdf to hear (although I do wish we got a 'told you so' option ) - come to think of it, if the feds have admitted the war was waged for the wrong reason.... wheres the kdfs reparations and more importantly... wheres the holo shon recording saying those words I can put in my ships lounge as a target/trophy?
Yeah, that worked out well the last time it happened, didn't it? Eventually anything they give to KDF ends up on Fed-side, too.
Cloak, Plasmonic Leech, etc.
It will never remain unique.
I have yet to see feds get singularity cores.. I meant more along that vain, + give fed some special sensor stuff to their ships so they won't have the need to take the kdf gimmick because there ships have their own. This could also signal romulan warp cores getting a slight buff of only -5 per power system or none at all. They still wouldn't have max power besides the Terran rep one.
The only thing that makes KDF players rage more than Feds "getting their toys" is Feds getting toys that make KDF toys "useless".
I still remember reading rage fests over the Nebula consoles. Apparently, back when decloak alpha was the standard way for KDF to play in Ker'rat, a group of Fed players got the brilliant idea to use sci ships to do what they were designed to do. That was a delicious rage fest.
As a side note, anyone think it's weird how the Fed Klingon War focuses on B'Vat in the Fed storyline, but simply doesn't in the KDF storyline with the exception of two out of date episodes.
Not really. Fairly simple "matter of perspective" issue. To wit:
J'mpok declared war on the Feddies, then proceeded to launch all of no ships at major (or even minor) Federation installations. It was all political bluster and gave them some extra "teeth" if the Feddies try to stage even a "covert" maneuver to help the Gorn.
Meanwhile, B'Vat, ever the Klingon opportunist (who was seemingly being propped up by the baddie of the hour, wasn't both the Iconians and Na'kuhl dropping info on B'Vat to help him with his "instigations"?) was "instigating" all the "prepping for an actual hard war" that Heroic Lt. (or temporal agent Lt.) Blank winds up stumbling into and "solving"...
During all this, Second Officer Someone of the little BOP Something winds up getting a crash-course of KDF "honor" (and a command) over one certain Sec. 31 agent before getting snared in a couple of the aforementioned "shoot a round over the Federation's bow" operations at which point he starts stumbling into B'Vat's schemes and, obviously, takes steps to "fix the Empire's Honor before the 'dirty Fedlings' do it for them"...
BTW... the mission where you attack Utopia Planetia is still in the game....
Which is one of those "shots fired over the Federation's bow"...
And supposed KDF "supporters" crying there aren't enough restrictions. Apparently in their mind the best way to encourage the company to add content they want is to prevent 70% of the playerbase from ever buying it.
Unite the factions.
Insert appropriate selection of fallacy here
There is a difference between ability to purchase something and desire to do so.
Every player of STO has, always, been able at one point or another (Required an L25 Fed in the "old days" pre-LoR, from day 1 post-LoR) been able to "roll up" a KDF oriented character and play as such. Therefore, "every player" of STO is able to "purchase" KDF-themed content.
However, as illustrated by the fact that as of the last infographic, only 16% of the ever built characters in game are KDF leads us to another "confusion / potential fallacy" - that since only 16% of the characters are KDF, only 16% of the players of the game choose KDF.
Take me, for instance. I have 4 Fed Scis (my Original toon, my "main", a Delta, and a Temp), 2 Fed Tacs, and a Fed Engie, counterbalancing 2 KDF Scis (Orion & Gorn Delta), Tac and Engie. Sadly, my Rom force is even smaller, only a Tac/Sci/Eng(Delta) all Fed-aligned.
If my math is sorta on track, I'm currently running ~30% "KDF aligned" toons on my account, greater than the 16% average. However, how many accounts exist with a plethora of Feds and one "token" KDF (and a second "token" Rom) toon to check out the text, grab the latest giveaway, and otherwise rot on the bottom of the character selection page?
And for me, as illustrated by the fact that of my 14 characters half of them are "science", I'm a fan of good solid "science" gameplay - currently extremely lacking on KDF-side. I bought the whole Dyson pack because I wanted at least something with CMDR Sci, more than a 2-slot Token Tactical Presence, and worked for KDF & Rommie - neat how I got the 3 Feddie ships "free" with the bundle purchase, right? Did that purchase "**** up" the "intent" behind my thought process to the Devs some, I may never know...
But back on track - since I currently own the entirety of the "KDF's" "C-store options with Cmdr Sci" (Read: Varanus & Dyson set - the new cross-faction ship sorta counts but then again could wind up furthering the Dev thought of "he bought it for his 4 Fed Scis, not his KDFs" and does go a little more engineering over tactical for my tastes), there's not really anything I desire from the KDF section of the C-store that'll make me part with money and/or someone else's money via Dilithium Grinding...
And as to the thought process of "more restrictions to drive KDF use" - think of this: The "true" min-maxxer cares not what "faction" they wear, or how the "looks" of the stuffs compares in the space Barbie race, they only care about "winning" the DPS race. If the KDF were to become the race that tied, or slightly beats, the Republic's Scimitar family in the DPS race - there'd be an "influx" of KDF players.
If the "FOTM" for casuals was KDF-exclusive, they, too, might roll or dredge up that "neglected" KDF and run a redside toon to see how it stacks up.
Both of which increase sales metrics, which might finally break the catch-22 of "nobody buys KDF, so why design KDF - and because there's really nothing KDF worth buying, nobody buys KDF", which is the "obvious" goal of this thread...
Minmaxers are a minority. Faction purists are a minority. People with dozens of toons they play and spend on equally are a minority. Most players, especially casuals, will focus on one toon, because people don't have infinite time or money.
And you can pretend the 70% Fed characters doesn't mean 70% players main a Fed. Whatever floats your boat. Personally I'm thinking the 15% KDF is the more likely number to contain bloat, seeing as KDF is the official contraband-farming faction (interesting to see what happens to that now that contraband is nerfed). That's speculation on our part. But Cryptic knows. I can assure you they have stats on play-time, purchases, etc broken down by faction. If they say creating things KDF is not profitable, they mean it.
The majority of players are not going to look at a KDF-exclusive ship "that tied, or slightly beats, the Republic's Scimitar family in the DPS race" and rush to start with a KDF toon just to get a chance to buy it, any more than they rush to switch to a Romulan when they see the Scimitar. Instead they say "cool, but I'm not allowed that" and go buy something they can just buy with a click instead (i.e. something Fed or cross-faction).
"Nobody" buys KDF, because buying KDF is locked behind onerous restrictions. Sure, all players have have the nominal ability to buy thigs KDF, but not on the character(s) they want to buy things on.
How many Scimitars did Cryptic sell when they were the "FOTM" - before most everyone dumped Rom cold and went back to their "feddie mains"?
That, not how many are flying the week after the sale, or how many are drydocked/discharged, or how popular they are today, is the only number that matters to the beancounters and therefore the designers.
Lemming herd mentality - DPSer minority rushes off to hypothetical KDF-itard, proves it's the "bestest evar ship" to fly, lemmings rush over to play, KDF and Cryptic both profit.
Now, perhaps you're right. Perhaps I'm putting a little more belief in Lemming herd than the playerbase actually supports, or the vocal cries of the "extreme DPS minority" seem to indicate. But one must examine many, if not all, available avenues of options in the quest...
[What the KDF really needs is to be in the single market. Instead of 70%/15%/15%, there should be just one 100% market. No restrictions. Because I'm sure the KDF ships would sell better if they were available for everyone. And if they sold better, Cryptic would make more of them.
And maybe more players would even pick the KDF origin if it didn't forever condemn the character into being on the receiving end of "not available for your faction." Yeah, sure the purists scream bloody murder at the mere option of buying a Fed ship, but like I said they're a minority.
<snip>
This is exactly why I've been saying people misguidedly cry after more restrictions. Because they desperately cling to that foolish notion that the Klingon experience must be an all-or-nothing deal, even as it's being run to the ground. That it somehow diminishes their game if "the Feds" get the same things they do.
When the truth is the exact opposite.It's just unlike the purists, I recognize that there is a majority and there will always be a majority, but the minorities are an artificial construct created by intentional restrictions. And that it would be in everyone's best interests to dismantle those restrictions.
Been thinking on this for way too long. So here goes arguably the best summation of what I'm trying to say:
Take, for example, the frequent "when will we get Romulans into STO" that led to LoR, and the still-ongoing "when will we get Cardassians".
If a "one faction system" would truly please these "minorities", then D'Tan's unification could have been actually implemented and the Romulans would be a sub-faction of the Federation, and the Cardassians would have been given to the KDF, if through some convoluted "we're both conquers, so let's conquer first then divvy up the spoils later" maneuver.
If "space Barbie" was all that's driving these people, the ability to make "accurate enough" Cardassians and Vulcan-template Romulans (with ships in lockboxes) would have been enough.
No, the constant clamoring for even more factions tells me that the minority isn't here because they're created through "artificial constructs created by intentional restrictions", they're here because some players desire the "unique" themes, motivations, designs, viewpoints, etc. of their "desired" portion of the Star Trek Universe, clearly demonstrated to be radically different than the holier-than-thou moral beacons of Roddenberry's world, or the always-right cowboy of the 60s. These are the people who frequently play the "evil" side of a game to be either an anti-hero (think Punisher/Original Wolverine of comics fame) or the villain who finds himself forced by circumstances beyond his control to save the day so he can rule the universe later, or the Drizzt clone who's being a real good guy in the evil world. As such, this mentality will exist whether or not the system shoehorns people into factions.
However, to "ensure" that these "viewpoints /desires" are actually implemented into the game, having "artificial constructs" such as the faction system is frequently viewed as a "necessary evil". These "minorities" use the spectre of the "faction system" to "force" the Dev Team to include their desired content/viewpoint. They see things like the "Kobali Prime Incident" where their "honor and glory character" got told to uphold the Federation's Prime Directive as "wrong". Or the thoughts that their universal backstabber would just freely hand over the sphere with the entire accumulated data of an ancient empire to some floaty dudette isn't what "they would do". Or the harbinger called "Temporal Raider" where it's demonstrated that a ship with "vaguely Klingon lines" is going to be the "idea" of future Klingon ships. And they see "one faction world" does not meet their desires.
And, when they try to hold the spectre of factions up, they're told "the minority is too small to cater to, there is no profit here". So, the "obvious" next step is to find ways - artificial or not - to encourage enough "defections" to their minority side to make things profitable enough so that their "experience" is viable enough to be catered to. Which is the entire point of this thread.
And some of the potential defectors are already available - listen to this very thread. Give my the right "toys" to play KDF (read: Science ships). Give me back my "identity". Give me "credit" so that I have the same "gamplay power" without needing weeks of work to reach that point. But obviously, at least to the Devs, these people aren't going to be enough. So who else can we poach?
Not the "Die hard Feds". Not "Die hard Romulans". Not "I want to be Cardassian but can't yet because they're not in game". The only other group to think of poaching from would be the one who doesn't care what their stuff looks like, or what motive exists behind their gameplay, because these guys will pick whatever team gives them the one thing they desire more than anything - gameplay advantage (ie, the min-max crowd). And to appeal to these people, playing the "faction exclusive" card around the powercreep game is the "motivation" to lead them to (however "artificially") bolster the Red Side Metrics enough to "prove" viability.
They want at least a test of the ancient adage "build it and they will come". Not the catch-22 of "we're not building because there's no profit there". And it's got to be worthwhile stuff, not holding up a clone of a L40 ship trapped behind an L50 paywall, or a clone of a ship that's completely against the "mentality" of the faction in question - then claiming "lack of desire".
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Been thinking on this for way too long. So here goes arguably the best summation of what I'm trying to say:
Take, for example, the frequent "when will we get Romulans into STO" that led to LoR, and the still-ongoing "when will we get Cardassians".
If a "one faction system" would truly please these "minorities", then D'Tan's unification could have been actually implemented and the Romulans would be a sub-faction of the Federation, and the Cardassians would have been given to the KDF, if through some convoluted "we're both conquers, so let's conquer first then divvy up the spoils later" maneuver.
The Romulans ARE a sub-faction of the Federation. Except when they're a sub-faction of KDF, it's all that weird player selection thingy where they're sorta allied with both except not and so on. And they were originally going to give Roms access to all allied stuff, only later amended to "except T5 ships" to appease faction-exclusivity crybabies.
That was a bad decision. They should have access to all allied stuff. And now we're all allied, we should all have access to all stuff.
If "space Barbie" was all that's driving these people, the ability to make "accurate enough" Cardassians and Vulcan-template Romulans (with ships in lockboxes) would have been enough.
There's no such thing as "enough" in Space Barbie. Less isn't more, less is less. The more the better, the most the best.
No, the constant clamoring for even more factions tells me that the minority isn't here because they're created through "artificial constructs created by intentional restrictions", they're here because some players desire the "unique" themes, motivations, designs, viewpoints, etc. of their "desired" portion of the Star Trek Universe, clearly demonstrated to be radically different than the holier-than-thou moral beacons of Roddenberry's world, or the always-right cowboy of the 60s. These are the people who frequently play the "evil" side of a game to be either an anti-hero (think Punisher/Original Wolverine of comics fame) or the villain who finds himself forced by circumstances beyond his control to save the day so he can rule the universe later, or the Drizzt clone who's being a real good guy in the evil world. As such, this mentality will exist whether or not the system shoehorns people into factions.
However, to "ensure" that these "viewpoints /desires" are actually implemented into the game, having "artificial constructs" such as the faction system is frequently viewed as a "necessary evil". These "minorities" use the spectre of the "faction system" to "force" the Dev Team to include their desired content/viewpoint. They see things like the "Kobali Prime Incident" where their "honor and glory character" got told to uphold the Federation's Prime Directive as "wrong". Or the thoughts that their universal backstabber would just freely hand over the sphere with the entire accumulated data of an ancient empire to some floaty dudette isn't what "they would do". Or the harbinger called "Temporal Raider" where it's demonstrated that a ship with "vaguely Klingon lines" is going to be the "idea" of future Klingon ships. And they see "one faction world" does not meet their desires.
Nobody ever played a game and thought "this game would be better if I was forbidden from using item X." If a player does not want to use item X, they are capable of simply not using it. It is only when it comes to forcing other people to play the way you want them to play, that players start demanding restrictions.
In a restrictionless game, players could still play a Klingon, dress in Klingon clothes and fly a Klingon ship. They could still play the Klingon origin story and spew hate at the later missions that force you to act all Starfleet, just like they do now. And just because there wouldn't be any more red text declaring "not available for your faction" on Fed items, nobody would force them to buy any. Nothing would change for those people who didn't want change.
However, in a restrictionless game, KDF and Romulan items would no longer be a minority, unprofitable category. So we might actually see some unique, worthwhile items of our own. And if not, at least we wouldn't be locked out of all the Fed toys.
And, when they try to hold the spectre of factions up, they're told "the minority is too small to cater to, there is no profit here". So, the "obvious" next step is to find ways - artificial or not - to encourage enough "defections" to their minority side to make things profitable enough so that their "experience" is viable enough to be catered to. Which is the entire point of this thread.
And some of the potential defectors are already available - listen to this very thread. Give my the right "toys" to play KDF (read: Science ships). Give me back my "identity". Give me "credit" so that I have the same "gamplay power" without needing weeks of work to reach that point. But obviously, at least to the Devs, these people aren't going to be enough. So who else can we poach?
Not the "Die hard Feds". Not "Die hard Romulans". Not "I want to be Cardassian but can't yet because they're not in game". The only other group to think of poaching from would be the one who doesn't care what their stuff looks like, or what motive exists behind their gameplay, because these guys will pick whatever team gives them the one thing they desire more than anything - gameplay advantage (ie, the min-max crowd). And to appeal to these people, playing the "faction exclusive" card around the powercreep game is the "motivation" to lead them to (however "artificially") bolster the Red Side Metrics enough to "prove" viability.
They want at least a test of the ancient adage "build it and they will come". Not the catch-22 of "we're not building because there's no profit there". And it's got to be worthwhile stuff, not holding up a clone of a L40 ship trapped behind an L50 paywall, or a clone of a ship that's completely against the "mentality" of the faction in question - then claiming "lack of desire".
"They" may want to play the faction exclusivity card to bolster KDF metrics, but "They" are not the people in charge. The people in charge want to maximize profits and as I've already explained, having a large single audience to sell stuff to is more profitable than 3 equal and exclusive factions. There is no profit in supporting "Their" desires of KDF viability.
Faction exclusivity is something the Federation and only the Federation gets, because there's always more profit there. The only way this will ever change, the only hope the KDF and Romulans have for equality, is if the restrictions are removed so that we are all part of the same profitable majority.
But "They" are planning on going down with the ship. So badly do they want to go down with the ship that they're objecting to other people's desire to save it.
Cryptic is the only company Ive ever seen ever not put an incentive into place to sell the things that aren't selling as well as they'd like. Years ago, someone came up with this thing called a "sale," for instance.
It's like a store that wastes a whole section of its space on stuff that doesn't work, in the back corner of the store, covered in dust, then saying no one buys that stuff. XD
"And they were originally going to give Roms access to all allied stuff, only later amended to "except T5 ships" to appease faction-exclusivity crybabies."
They should also give all TAC and ENG skills to SCI captains. Because it's not being a crybaby at all to want to have everything without putting forth the effort to get it.
Been thinking on this for way too long. So here goes arguably the best summation of what I'm trying to say:
wall of text
But "They" are planning on going down with the ship. So badly do they want to go down with the ship that they're objecting to other people's desire to save it.
i couldn't agree more.
as a die hard romulan, now playing my first fed toon to lvl 60, already being bored, cause the experience wasnt't so TOS afterall.. , i have to say MERGE ALL FACTIONS.
Just do it.
Give us Cardies with some 10 missions, as a sub faction, perhaps, (i do not really care).
Then you could do some 10 missions for Vulcans, perhaps for Bajorans, or these blue smurf antenna people
You can still sell faction ships, just they will be only faction THEMED not faction LOCKED, anyway - storywise, the 3 factions (ROM, KDF, FED) are alligned now in Temporal Accord.
In that way everybody gets to play what he/she wants, you will sell ships, and finito.
How many Scimitars did Cryptic sell when they were the "FOTM" - before most everyone dumped Rom cold and went back to their "feddie mains"?
That, not how many are flying the week after the sale, or how many are drydocked/discharged, or how popular they are today, is the only number that matters to the beancounters and therefore the designers.
Actually, I'd say it's total sales numbers, which includes both the T5 release and the T6 release.
I think you need to totally reboot the Klingons. Say some alternate universe Klingons mated with some other species that gave them enhanced physical abilities and better looks, more near to human TOS Klinks. And instead of being the ugly warrior dummies of their universe, they developed into the cool kicka$$ species of their universe where there is no Federation, the Earth is under their control, and its not exactly a bad thing. So naturally they think they are Gods gift to the universe. Now they've developed ships that can cross universes with ease. And they are out to help all the dumb Klingons in other universes become the dominant species in their universes. Our KDF isn't exactly resistant to this, even though theyll be bred out, the cool Klingons arent killing the lesser uglier versions of themselves, simply helping them grow stronger. The key to more KDF is to make them as equally cool and physically appeasing as humans are in the Federation. Come up with new design philophies on ships, and Cryptic can make up their own idea what they look like. The KrinoQ Empire must be a great all around logical species that really appeals to Federation fans, and makes Fed players question their loyalty to Fed when the KrinoQ Empire's way of doing things looks like the better route. The greatest enemy to the Federation may have to be better versions of themselves, where from the KrinoQ point of view, 25th century humans act like uncivilized 19th century petty humans. The new cool kids of the universe are so cool and effective with how they deal with our universes problems and enemies, they easily win over KDF allies and start winning over Federation planets as well. Some Star Trek loyalists will resist and continue to play Fed, but many will be won to the new KDF.
STO: @AGNT009 Since Dec 2010
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
It goes back to the problem we have now, though. The Klingon Defense Force is made up of more than just Klingons. You would have to come up with something that includes the current make-up of the KDF and tell why races are treated equally within the Navy yet suffer bigotry and racism outside of it. "You fight well... for a non-Klingon" is the most respect one could earn from the Klingons we saw on TV. Why would any Klingon treat a Nausicaan pirate or Orion crimelord or a Gorn vassal as an equal? Or take orders from one?
"They" may want to play the faction exclusivity card to bolster KDF metrics, but "They" are not the people in charge. The people in charge want to maximize profits and as I've already explained, having a large single audience to sell stuff to is more profitable than 3 equal and exclusive factions. There is no profit in supporting "Their" desires of KDF viability.
Faction exclusivity is something the Federation and only the Federation gets, because there's always more profit there. The only way this will ever change, the only hope the KDF and Romulans have for equality, is if the restrictions are removed so that we are all part of the same profitable majority.
But "They" are planning on going down with the ship. So badly do they want to go down with the ship that they're objecting to other people's desire to save it.
You stick to this whole "restriction" thing as if you are permanently banned from buying KDF or Romulan "product" from Cryptic because you main a Fed.
Well, are you? Did someone remove the buttons that say "create a KDF" and/or "Create a Romulan"?
As I will venture that you have access to those two buttons, (might require a character slot purchase or existing character deletion) and more than likely may have at least at one point dabbled in both other "Factions", You have/had/could gain access to the remaining portions of Cryptic's C-store Product Line, to the point that between three characters you could buy 100% of the items contained therein.
"Audience" issue, IMO, solved. Everyone either already has access, or is more than capable of gaining access, to the entirety of the product line.
Therefore, sales, or lack thereof, is not improved or depressed because of little red blurbs that say "your current character cannot use this item" - if player desires item, player would avail themself to the frequently seen "change character" button on the "exit" menu, switch to a character that could purchase said item, make said purchase, and use said character to enjoy said purchase. (and perhaps purchase more character slots to make more characters and gain further enjoyment from said purchase, especially if said purchase was an account-wide ship)
Therefore, there has to be other reasons that people aren't doing this. It almost sounds as if, in your case, you have such an investment, whether financial, emotional, or game mechanic wise, on your "main", that you are loathe to give it up for access to a KDF or Romulan product.
If this is the case, say so. Your "vote" would be support to improve the "cross-account" accesses to various gameplay aspects/items, and would help allieviate your concerns over spending time "dressed up" as a Klingon (or Romulan) while availing yourself to the entirety of the product line.
Otherwise, by all means, educate me and the other posters in this thread as to why you're so reluctant to play KDF or Romulan yet harbor desires to own their product. (said because if you lack desire for their product, a single market wouldn't matter to you this deeply)
Before I leave, keep this in mind: As my previous wall'o'text expounded, there's more to playing, say, KDF, than the "space Barbie" aspects of "what does my ship look like, how are my forehead ridges arrainged, and what clothes can I wear?" - there's a whole mentality of "Klingons are primarily about honor and glory, with a willingness to fight for what they want and a willingness to step all over anything that stands in the way of them getting what they want" - a sharp contrast to the "holier than thou always right Federation of Roddenberry's TNG dream world".
If that (KDF mentality) is the only reason you won't play, and therefore buy KDF - again, say so. It might not be the "popular" vote, but it does reinforce that you prefer Cryptic's current "everyone's a goody-goody two shoes Federation type but doesn't realize it yet" mentality that's permeating current gameplay.
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
"They" may want to play the faction exclusivity card to bolster KDF metrics, but "They" are not the people in charge. The people in charge want to maximize profits and as I've already explained, having a large single audience to sell stuff to is more profitable than 3 equal and exclusive factions. There is no profit in supporting "Their" desires of KDF viability.
Faction exclusivity is something the Federation and only the Federation gets, because there's always more profit there. The only way this will ever change, the only hope the KDF and Romulans have for equality, is if the restrictions are removed so that we are all part of the same profitable majority.
But "They" are planning on going down with the ship. So badly do they want to go down with the ship that they're objecting to other people's desire to save it.
You stick to this whole "restriction" thing as if you are permanently banned from buying KDF or Romulan "product" from Cryptic because you main a Fed.
Well, are you? Did someone remove the buttons that say "create a KDF" and/or "Create a Romulan"?
As I will venture that you have access to those two buttons, (might require a character slot purchase or existing character deletion) and more than likely may have at least at one point dabbled in both other "Factions", You have/had/could gain access to the remaining portions of Cryptic's C-store Product Line, to the point that between three characters you could buy 100% of the items contained therein.
"Audience" issue, IMO, solved. Everyone either already has access, or is more than capable of gaining access, to the entirety of the product line.
Therefore, sales, or lack thereof, is not improved or depressed because of little red blurbs that say "your current character cannot use this item" - if player desires item, player would avail themself to the frequently seen "change character" button on the "exit" menu, switch to a character that could purchase said item, make said purchase, and use said character to enjoy said purchase. (and perhaps purchase more character slots to make more characters and gain further enjoyment from said purchase, especially if said purchase was an account-wide ship)
Therefore, there has to be other reasons that people aren't doing this. It almost sounds as if, in your case, you have such an investment, whether financial, emotional, or game mechanic wise, on your "main", that you are loathe to give it up for access to a KDF or Romulan product.
If this is the case, say so. Your "vote" would be support to improve the "cross-account" accesses to various gameplay aspects/items, and would help allieviate your concerns over spending time "dressed up" as a Klingon (or Romulan) while availing yourself to the entirety of the product line.
Otherwise, by all means, educate me and the other posters in this thread as to why you're so reluctant to play KDF or Romulan yet harbor desires to own their product. (said because if you lack desire for their product, a single market wouldn't matter to you this deeply)
I AM permanently (or until they remove the restriction) banned from buying Fed or KDF product on the character I want to buy it on, because I main a Romulan.
Sales absolutely are depressed by the "little red blurbs," because when a player is looking for a new outfit to wear or ship to fly, they are unlikely to look at the restricted stuff and think "I gotta go start over with a new toon so I can buy this." More likely, they'll think "I'm not allowed to buy this, so I'l look for something else."
I myself regularly dismiss things for being Fed-only. Or KDF-only I suppose, but that pretty much never happens anymore. Some clothes, mainly.
If you can't understand that players are more likely to buy an item if they can use it on their current/favorite toon than if it would require them to start another, there's little I can do to educate you. All I can say is not everyone wants to spend time or money on multiple characters.
Yes, I have characters for all the factions. I've played through the origin stories of all the factions. But I don't want to buy things between three characters. I have the one character I want to actively play and collect stuff with. The other toons are there only because the game gave me free slots and incentive to use them.
Of course my "vote" is to support cross-faction availability of everything. That's what I've been saying the whole time.
Before I leave, keep this in mind: As my previous wall'o'text expounded, there's more to playing, say, KDF, than the "space Barbie" aspects of "what does my ship look like, how are my forehead ridges arrainged, and what clothes can I wear?" - there's a whole mentality of "Klingons are primarily about honor and glory, with a willingness to fight for what they want and a willingness to step all over anything that stands in the way of them getting what they want" - a sharp contrast to the "holier than thou always right Federation of Roddenberry's TNG dream world".
If that (KDF mentality) is the only reason you won't play, and therefore buy KDF - again, say so. It might not be the "popular" vote, but it does reinforce that you prefer Cryptic's current "everyone's a goody-goody two shoes Federation type but doesn't realize it yet" mentality that's permeating current gameplay.
And you could display that mentality without the "little red blurbs" just the same.
But many other players would maybe like to just play some Space Barbie. Not selling them KDF stuff just means less people buying KDF stuff. Thus "KDF is unprofitable."
Speaking of customisation. Klingons desperately need lot more new ridges and hairstyles (beyond dreadlocks) and canon uniforms from (TMP/TNG). And I sincerely doubt we are not getting them because NOBODY wants to play Klingon. I see plenty of fellow Klingon characters everyday. A few days ago I even helped someone and their boyfriend make a Klingon fleet. So please enough with the outcry that we will never see this stuff because it's not supported by the Carebear Fed/Alien gen Alliance. We already have hard working developer that spent some of his own time revamping some of the KDF appearance.
'Many' players that desire our ships and uniforms will just have to make do without them. Either they roll like the rest of us or not.
"Great men are not peacemakers, Great men are conquerors!" - Captain Archer" "When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative - violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way." - Captain Janeway #Support Mirror Universe I.S.S. Prefixes
i love the klingon side of life, and their ships, but they need something new, maybe a story : /
poor kdf
Have you visited Grethor yet?
That was not bad. I remember when Klingons didn't even have that. Had to lvl up to 30 just to play them. Although we sure could use a deeper story that revolves around their society. Something like Klingon Academy or Star Trek: Klingon PC Game 1996.
I think the best episode we have that feels Klingon is the "doomsday machine" episode. That and getting the Sword of Kahless. Apart from that, it's severely lacking.
"Great men are not peacemakers, Great men are conquerors!" - Captain Archer" "When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative - violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way." - Captain Janeway #Support Mirror Universe I.S.S. Prefixes
Before I leave, keep this in mind: As my previous wall'o'text expounded, there's more to playing, say, KDF, than the "space Barbie" aspects of "what does my ship look like, how are my forehead ridges arrainged, and what clothes can I wear?" - there's a whole mentality of "Klingons are primarily about honor and glory, with a willingness to fight for what they want and a willingness to step all over anything that stands in the way of them getting what they want" - a sharp contrast to the "holier than thou always right Federation of Roddenberry's TNG dream world".
If that (KDF mentality) is the only reason you won't play, and therefore buy KDF - again, say so. It might not be the "popular" vote, but it does reinforce that you prefer Cryptic's current "everyone's a goody-goody two shoes Federation type but doesn't realize it yet" mentality that's permeating current gameplay.
And you could display that mentality without the "little red blurbs" just the same.
But many other players would maybe like to just play some Space Barbie. Not selling them KDF stuff just means less people buying KDF stuff. Thus "KDF is unprofitable."
Display, yes. "Experience", most likely not.
And, for many (myself included), part of the "draw" to playing a KDF is the "little motivational things", as well as the "big" things like spaceships, etc.
To be honest, the reason my KDFs languish at the bottom of my character list is because after the what, Gre'thor arc, there's "nothing honestly KDF" to experience - other than "space Barbie" things like the look of my ship and the designs of my ridges.
As I wrote a "convoluted" history to "explain" away an Orion Fem Sci running around yelling "Q'apla! Honor and Glory!", I want her to "have" the entire experience of that. Snagging intel from DS9 when the Mirror Terrans show up. Out-Fedding a Feddie because "honor dictates it". Stuff like that, stuff which is being intentionally left out of the "current content designs" because of the whole "peace treaty" and "fact that KDF (or RR) doesn't sell". Nope, no matter how she managed to marry into and hijack her own minor house of the Empire, she's running around adhering to Prime Directives and handing over more latinum's worth of data to floaty dudettes because "it's the right thing to do"... I want that attitude, I can get it with 2 Vulcans, a Betazed, an alien, or 2 joined Trills - all 6 of which would do these things because they're already feddies.
And getting more of that "back" even isn't going to magically show up just because KDF "space Barbie" sales numbers increase, there needs to be more reasons that would "justify" the inclusion of said "textual side stories". "Singular Faction" isn't going to give us textual expansions with massive spikes of KDF sales either, otherwise we'd still have it / never have lost it. The only forseeable way to get that "whole experience" back is to maintain a separate faction that "practically mandates" including the experience, and having said faction at a level of "external support" that justifies it to someone - either the lead dev who doesn't really want to deal with it, or his bosses making him (again) do so because the playerbase supports the faction and losing that level of support is a financial dent.
Hence this thread - looking for "relatively simple" things to break the catch-22 and get back the "Klingon" and maybe even "Romulan" experiences...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Yeah, that worked out well the last time it happened, didn't it? Eventually anything they give to KDF ends up on Fed-side, too.
Cloak, Plasmonic Leech, etc.
It will never remain unique.
I have yet to see feds get singularity cores.. I meant more along that vain, + give fed some special sensor stuff to their ships so they won't have the need to take the kdf gimmick because there ships have their own. This could also signal romulan warp cores getting a slight buff of only -5 per power system or none at all. They still wouldn't have max power besides the Terran rep one.
Technically Feds did indeed get Singularity cores- considering Romulans were released as a "sub-faction" of either the Fed or KDF alliances. Romulans aren't "their own" faction, they have to choose allegiance to either Fed or KDF.
It's not you- it's me. I just need my space.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
Before I leave, keep this in mind: As my previous wall'o'text expounded, there's more to playing, say, KDF, than the "space Barbie" aspects of "what does my ship look like, how are my forehead ridges arrainged, and what clothes can I wear?" - there's a whole mentality of "Klingons are primarily about honor and glory, with a willingness to fight for what they want and a willingness to step all over anything that stands in the way of them getting what they want" - a sharp contrast to the "holier than thou always right Federation of Roddenberry's TNG dream world".
If that (KDF mentality) is the only reason you won't play, and therefore buy KDF - again, say so. It might not be the "popular" vote, but it does reinforce that you prefer Cryptic's current "everyone's a goody-goody two shoes Federation type but doesn't realize it yet" mentality that's permeating current gameplay.
And you could display that mentality without the "little red blurbs" just the same.
But many other players would maybe like to just play some Space Barbie. Not selling them KDF stuff just means less people buying KDF stuff. Thus "KDF is unprofitable."
Display, yes. "Experience", most likely not.
At this point I do have to call that trolling. Nobody's "experience" can be that much dependent on seeing one line of red text in somr item stores, on items which you admitedly don't even want to buy.
And, for many (myself included), part of the "draw" to playing a KDF is the "little motivational things", as well as the "big" things like spaceships, etc.
To be honest, the reason my KDFs languish at the bottom of my character list is because after the what, Gre'thor arc, there's "nothing honestly KDF" to experience - other than "space Barbie" things like the look of my ship and the designs of my ridges.
As I wrote a "convoluted" history to "explain" away an Orion Fem Sci running around yelling "Q'apla! Honor and Glory!", I want her to "have" the entire experience of that. Snagging intel from DS9 when the Mirror Terrans show up. Out-Fedding a Feddie because "honor dictates it". Stuff like that, stuff which is being intentionally left out of the "current content designs" because of the whole "peace treaty" and "fact that KDF (or RR) doesn't sell". Nope, no matter how she managed to marry into and hijack her own minor house of the Empire, she's running around adhering to Prime Directives and handing over more latinum's worth of data to floaty dudettes because "it's the right thing to do"... I want that attitude, I can get it with 2 Vulcans, a Betazed, an alien, or 2 joined Trills - all 6 of which would do these things because they're already feddies.
And getting more of that "back" even isn't going to magically show up just because KDF "space Barbie" sales numbers increase, there needs to be more reasons that would "justify" the inclusion of said "textual side stories". "Singular Faction" isn't going to give us textual expansions with massive spikes of KDF sales either, otherwise we'd still have it / never have lost it. The only forseeable way to get that "whole experience" back is to maintain a separate faction that "practically mandates" including the experience, and having said faction at a level of "external support" that justifies it to someone - either the lead dev who doesn't really want to deal with it, or his bosses making him (again) do so because the playerbase supports the faction and losing that level of support is a financial dent.
Hence this thread - looking for "relatively simple" things to break the catch-22 and get back the "Klingon" and maybe even "Romulan" experiences...
Now who's living in a dream world? None of that's even a question. Nothing is going to give you separate story missions. That ship sailed years ago. Seriously, they even gave their precious new TOS faction only 6 unique missions.
The only thing the faction restrictions "practically mandates" is neglect.
Removing restrictions makes the factions equal in gameplay and provides increased potential for sales and therefore creation of KDF/Romulan content. That's the best we can realistically hope for.
Why not expand the information available about the Klingons region of space and how and whom they conflict with when it comes to expanding their own borders. We've seen the Romulan and Federation side of this. But what about their other borders.
They have a border, that as far as we have seen/can tell, is pushing the boundaries of known space. What are they encountering there? Use it as a reason why the Klingons, in the show, occasionally just vanish from the show. Maybe it is an enemy that they feel honor bound to hold against, and to do so alone. After all, it is their border isn't it? It is the might of their Empire versus the unknown. The ultimate test of a warrior.
Or maybe they are trying to push out past the edge of the Galaxy. Either in an effort to explore, expand, find resources etc. Or to take their Empire to another Galaxy.
Why not expand the information available about the Klingons region of space and how and whom they conflict with when it comes to expanding their own borders. We've seen the Romulan and Federation side of this. But what about their other borders.
They have a border, that as far as we have seen/can tell, is pushing the boundaries of known space. What are they encountering there? Use it as a reason why the Klingons, in the show, occasionally just vanish from the show. Maybe it is an enemy that they feel honor bound to hold against, and to do so alone. After all, it is their border isn't it? It is the might of their Empire versus the unknown. The ultimate test of a warrior.
Or maybe they are trying to push out past the edge of the Galaxy. Either in an effort to explore, expand, find resources etc. Or to take their Empire to another Galaxy.
Actually, Star Fleet Battles (and therefore, the first two Starfleet Command PC-games) featured that expanded Information about another race the klingons were fighting against... the hydrans. Sadly, it's not canon though. I liked the 'Snakes'... Eventually SFB became its own timeline (like Kelvin timeline): The General War Timeline
SFB had a pretty solid map that made the borders of the factions pretty clear. Klingons traditionally clashed with federation and hydran, while often being allied with romulans and lyrans (in a 'the enemy of my enemy'-kind relationship)
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My character Tsin'xing
2 hanger carriers were KDF only for a long time.... crypic said they would always be exclusive t kdf, boy did they keep that promise.
I have yet to see feds get singularity cores.. I meant more along that vain, + give fed some special sensor stuff to their ships so they won't have the need to take the kdf gimmick because there ships have their own. This could also signal romulan warp cores getting a slight buff of only -5 per power system or none at all. They still wouldn't have max power besides the Terran rep one.
I totally agree with your ideas there, it ties in with what I was saying about treating each of the races uniquely, although I didn't go into much detail about it. Ships unique to each race would be nice as well, and the interiors to match.
That one moment was pure joy as a kdf to hear (although I do wish we got a 'told you so' option ) - come to think of it, if the feds have admitted the war was waged for the wrong reason.... wheres the kdfs reparations and more importantly... wheres the holo shon recording saying those words I can put in my ships lounge as a target/trophy?
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I still remember reading rage fests over the Nebula consoles. Apparently, back when decloak alpha was the standard way for KDF to play in Ker'rat, a group of Fed players got the brilliant idea to use sci ships to do what they were designed to do. That was a delicious rage fest.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
Which is one of those "shots fired over the Federation's bow"...
How many Scimitars did Cryptic sell when they were the "FOTM" - before most everyone dumped Rom cold and went back to their "feddie mains"?
That, not how many are flying the week after the sale, or how many are drydocked/discharged, or how popular they are today, is the only number that matters to the beancounters and therefore the designers.
Lemming herd mentality - DPSer minority rushes off to hypothetical KDF-itard, proves it's the "bestest evar ship" to fly, lemmings rush over to play, KDF and Cryptic both profit.
Now, perhaps you're right. Perhaps I'm putting a little more belief in Lemming herd than the playerbase actually supports, or the vocal cries of the "extreme DPS minority" seem to indicate. But one must examine many, if not all, available avenues of options in the quest...
Been thinking on this for way too long. So here goes arguably the best summation of what I'm trying to say:
Take, for example, the frequent "when will we get Romulans into STO" that led to LoR, and the still-ongoing "when will we get Cardassians".
If a "one faction system" would truly please these "minorities", then D'Tan's unification could have been actually implemented and the Romulans would be a sub-faction of the Federation, and the Cardassians would have been given to the KDF, if through some convoluted "we're both conquers, so let's conquer first then divvy up the spoils later" maneuver.
If "space Barbie" was all that's driving these people, the ability to make "accurate enough" Cardassians and Vulcan-template Romulans (with ships in lockboxes) would have been enough.
No, the constant clamoring for even more factions tells me that the minority isn't here because they're created through "artificial constructs created by intentional restrictions", they're here because some players desire the "unique" themes, motivations, designs, viewpoints, etc. of their "desired" portion of the Star Trek Universe, clearly demonstrated to be radically different than the holier-than-thou moral beacons of Roddenberry's world, or the always-right cowboy of the 60s. These are the people who frequently play the "evil" side of a game to be either an anti-hero (think Punisher/Original Wolverine of comics fame) or the villain who finds himself forced by circumstances beyond his control to save the day so he can rule the universe later, or the Drizzt clone who's being a real good guy in the evil world. As such, this mentality will exist whether or not the system shoehorns people into factions.
However, to "ensure" that these "viewpoints /desires" are actually implemented into the game, having "artificial constructs" such as the faction system is frequently viewed as a "necessary evil". These "minorities" use the spectre of the "faction system" to "force" the Dev Team to include their desired content/viewpoint. They see things like the "Kobali Prime Incident" where their "honor and glory character" got told to uphold the Federation's Prime Directive as "wrong". Or the thoughts that their universal backstabber would just freely hand over the sphere with the entire accumulated data of an ancient empire to some floaty dudette isn't what "they would do". Or the harbinger called "Temporal Raider" where it's demonstrated that a ship with "vaguely Klingon lines" is going to be the "idea" of future Klingon ships. And they see "one faction world" does not meet their desires.
And, when they try to hold the spectre of factions up, they're told "the minority is too small to cater to, there is no profit here". So, the "obvious" next step is to find ways - artificial or not - to encourage enough "defections" to their minority side to make things profitable enough so that their "experience" is viable enough to be catered to. Which is the entire point of this thread.
And some of the potential defectors are already available - listen to this very thread. Give my the right "toys" to play KDF (read: Science ships). Give me back my "identity". Give me "credit" so that I have the same "gamplay power" without needing weeks of work to reach that point. But obviously, at least to the Devs, these people aren't going to be enough. So who else can we poach?
Not the "Die hard Feds". Not "Die hard Romulans". Not "I want to be Cardassian but can't yet because they're not in game". The only other group to think of poaching from would be the one who doesn't care what their stuff looks like, or what motive exists behind their gameplay, because these guys will pick whatever team gives them the one thing they desire more than anything - gameplay advantage (ie, the min-max crowd). And to appeal to these people, playing the "faction exclusive" card around the powercreep game is the "motivation" to lead them to (however "artificially") bolster the Red Side Metrics enough to "prove" viability.
They want at least a test of the ancient adage "build it and they will come". Not the catch-22 of "we're not building because there's no profit there". And it's got to be worthwhile stuff, not holding up a clone of a L40 ship trapped behind an L50 paywall, or a clone of a ship that's completely against the "mentality" of the faction in question - then claiming "lack of desire".
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
That was a bad decision. They should have access to all allied stuff. And now we're all allied, we should all have access to all stuff. There's no such thing as "enough" in Space Barbie. Less isn't more, less is less. The more the better, the most the best.
Nobody ever played a game and thought "this game would be better if I was forbidden from using item X." If a player does not want to use item X, they are capable of simply not using it. It is only when it comes to forcing other people to play the way you want them to play, that players start demanding restrictions.
In a restrictionless game, players could still play a Klingon, dress in Klingon clothes and fly a Klingon ship. They could still play the Klingon origin story and spew hate at the later missions that force you to act all Starfleet, just like they do now. And just because there wouldn't be any more red text declaring "not available for your faction" on Fed items, nobody would force them to buy any. Nothing would change for those people who didn't want change.
However, in a restrictionless game, KDF and Romulan items would no longer be a minority, unprofitable category. So we might actually see some unique, worthwhile items of our own. And if not, at least we wouldn't be locked out of all the Fed toys. "They" may want to play the faction exclusivity card to bolster KDF metrics, but "They" are not the people in charge. The people in charge want to maximize profits and as I've already explained, having a large single audience to sell stuff to is more profitable than 3 equal and exclusive factions. There is no profit in supporting "Their" desires of KDF viability.
Faction exclusivity is something the Federation and only the Federation gets, because there's always more profit there. The only way this will ever change, the only hope the KDF and Romulans have for equality, is if the restrictions are removed so that we are all part of the same profitable majority.
But "They" are planning on going down with the ship. So badly do they want to go down with the ship that they're objecting to other people's desire to save it.
It's like a store that wastes a whole section of its space on stuff that doesn't work, in the back corner of the store, covered in dust, then saying no one buys that stuff. XD
They should also give all TAC and ENG skills to SCI captains. Because it's not being a crybaby at all to want to have everything without putting forth the effort to get it.
My character Tsin'xing
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
Well... that is creative...
It goes back to the problem we have now, though. The Klingon Defense Force is made up of more than just Klingons. You would have to come up with something that includes the current make-up of the KDF and tell why races are treated equally within the Navy yet suffer bigotry and racism outside of it. "You fight well... for a non-Klingon" is the most respect one could earn from the Klingons we saw on TV. Why would any Klingon treat a Nausicaan pirate or Orion crimelord or a Gorn vassal as an equal? Or take orders from one?
You stick to this whole "restriction" thing as if you are permanently banned from buying KDF or Romulan "product" from Cryptic because you main a Fed.
Well, are you? Did someone remove the buttons that say "create a KDF" and/or "Create a Romulan"?
As I will venture that you have access to those two buttons, (might require a character slot purchase or existing character deletion) and more than likely may have at least at one point dabbled in both other "Factions", You have/had/could gain access to the remaining portions of Cryptic's C-store Product Line, to the point that between three characters you could buy 100% of the items contained therein.
"Audience" issue, IMO, solved. Everyone either already has access, or is more than capable of gaining access, to the entirety of the product line.
Therefore, sales, or lack thereof, is not improved or depressed because of little red blurbs that say "your current character cannot use this item" - if player desires item, player would avail themself to the frequently seen "change character" button on the "exit" menu, switch to a character that could purchase said item, make said purchase, and use said character to enjoy said purchase. (and perhaps purchase more character slots to make more characters and gain further enjoyment from said purchase, especially if said purchase was an account-wide ship)
Therefore, there has to be other reasons that people aren't doing this. It almost sounds as if, in your case, you have such an investment, whether financial, emotional, or game mechanic wise, on your "main", that you are loathe to give it up for access to a KDF or Romulan product.
If this is the case, say so. Your "vote" would be support to improve the "cross-account" accesses to various gameplay aspects/items, and would help allieviate your concerns over spending time "dressed up" as a Klingon (or Romulan) while availing yourself to the entirety of the product line.
Otherwise, by all means, educate me and the other posters in this thread as to why you're so reluctant to play KDF or Romulan yet harbor desires to own their product. (said because if you lack desire for their product, a single market wouldn't matter to you this deeply)
Before I leave, keep this in mind: As my previous wall'o'text expounded, there's more to playing, say, KDF, than the "space Barbie" aspects of "what does my ship look like, how are my forehead ridges arrainged, and what clothes can I wear?" - there's a whole mentality of "Klingons are primarily about honor and glory, with a willingness to fight for what they want and a willingness to step all over anything that stands in the way of them getting what they want" - a sharp contrast to the "holier than thou always right Federation of Roddenberry's TNG dream world".
If that (KDF mentality) is the only reason you won't play, and therefore buy KDF - again, say so. It might not be the "popular" vote, but it does reinforce that you prefer Cryptic's current "everyone's a goody-goody two shoes Federation type but doesn't realize it yet" mentality that's permeating current gameplay.
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
KDF is very honest, it has always been a warrior culture, pratising Ritualized Violence
Klingon does not conceal it
while the Federation always claim how peaceful they are
It rarely succeed in using diplomacy to resolve conflicts ( only TNG episode mostly )
Often Fed ends up fighting alienraces it encounters
and constant failing at its own set of values and rules ( diplomacy and prime directives )
but Fed rarely admit it ( only in personal log and amongst themself )
only way to make Fed appearing to be "benevolent" or "good guys"
is being a bigot at alien cultures, which are more openly in the use of violences
despite those are much more ritualized.
Fed has always been the thug ( except Picard )
Sales absolutely are depressed by the "little red blurbs," because when a player is looking for a new outfit to wear or ship to fly, they are unlikely to look at the restricted stuff and think "I gotta go start over with a new toon so I can buy this." More likely, they'll think "I'm not allowed to buy this, so I'l look for something else."
I myself regularly dismiss things for being Fed-only. Or KDF-only I suppose, but that pretty much never happens anymore. Some clothes, mainly.
If you can't understand that players are more likely to buy an item if they can use it on their current/favorite toon than if it would require them to start another, there's little I can do to educate you. All I can say is not everyone wants to spend time or money on multiple characters.
Yes, I have characters for all the factions. I've played through the origin stories of all the factions. But I don't want to buy things between three characters. I have the one character I want to actively play and collect stuff with. The other toons are there only because the game gave me free slots and incentive to use them.
Of course my "vote" is to support cross-faction availability of everything. That's what I've been saying the whole time.
And you could display that mentality without the "little red blurbs" just the same.
But many other players would maybe like to just play some Space Barbie. Not selling them KDF stuff just means less people buying KDF stuff. Thus "KDF is unprofitable."
poor kdf
My character Tsin'xing
'Many' players that desire our ships and uniforms will just have to make do without them. Either they roll like the rest of us or not.
"When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative - violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way." - Captain Janeway
#Support Mirror Universe I.S.S. Prefixes
That was not bad. I remember when Klingons didn't even have that. Had to lvl up to 30 just to play them. Although we sure could use a deeper story that revolves around their society. Something like Klingon Academy or Star Trek: Klingon PC Game 1996.
I think the best episode we have that feels Klingon is the "doomsday machine" episode. That and getting the Sword of Kahless. Apart from that, it's severely lacking.
"When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative - violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way." - Captain Janeway
#Support Mirror Universe I.S.S. Prefixes
Display, yes. "Experience", most likely not.
And, for many (myself included), part of the "draw" to playing a KDF is the "little motivational things", as well as the "big" things like spaceships, etc.
To be honest, the reason my KDFs languish at the bottom of my character list is because after the what, Gre'thor arc, there's "nothing honestly KDF" to experience - other than "space Barbie" things like the look of my ship and the designs of my ridges.
As I wrote a "convoluted" history to "explain" away an Orion Fem Sci running around yelling "Q'apla! Honor and Glory!", I want her to "have" the entire experience of that. Snagging intel from DS9 when the Mirror Terrans show up. Out-Fedding a Feddie because "honor dictates it". Stuff like that, stuff which is being intentionally left out of the "current content designs" because of the whole "peace treaty" and "fact that KDF (or RR) doesn't sell". Nope, no matter how she managed to marry into and hijack her own minor house of the Empire, she's running around adhering to Prime Directives and handing over more latinum's worth of data to floaty dudettes because "it's the right thing to do"... I want that attitude, I can get it with 2 Vulcans, a Betazed, an alien, or 2 joined Trills - all 6 of which would do these things because they're already feddies.
And getting more of that "back" even isn't going to magically show up just because KDF "space Barbie" sales numbers increase, there needs to be more reasons that would "justify" the inclusion of said "textual side stories". "Singular Faction" isn't going to give us textual expansions with massive spikes of KDF sales either, otherwise we'd still have it / never have lost it. The only forseeable way to get that "whole experience" back is to maintain a separate faction that "practically mandates" including the experience, and having said faction at a level of "external support" that justifies it to someone - either the lead dev who doesn't really want to deal with it, or his bosses making him (again) do so because the playerbase supports the faction and losing that level of support is a financial dent.
Hence this thread - looking for "relatively simple" things to break the catch-22 and get back the "Klingon" and maybe even "Romulan" experiences...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Technically Feds did indeed get Singularity cores- considering Romulans were released as a "sub-faction" of either the Fed or KDF alliances. Romulans aren't "their own" faction, they have to choose allegiance to either Fed or KDF.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
Now who's living in a dream world? None of that's even a question. Nothing is going to give you separate story missions. That ship sailed years ago. Seriously, they even gave their precious new TOS faction only 6 unique missions.
The only thing the faction restrictions "practically mandates" is neglect.
Removing restrictions makes the factions equal in gameplay and provides increased potential for sales and therefore creation of KDF/Romulan content. That's the best we can realistically hope for.
They have a border, that as far as we have seen/can tell, is pushing the boundaries of known space. What are they encountering there? Use it as a reason why the Klingons, in the show, occasionally just vanish from the show. Maybe it is an enemy that they feel honor bound to hold against, and to do so alone. After all, it is their border isn't it? It is the might of their Empire versus the unknown. The ultimate test of a warrior.
Or maybe they are trying to push out past the edge of the Galaxy. Either in an effort to explore, expand, find resources etc. Or to take their Empire to another Galaxy.
Actually, Star Fleet Battles (and therefore, the first two Starfleet Command PC-games) featured that expanded Information about another race the klingons were fighting against... the hydrans. Sadly, it's not canon though. I liked the 'Snakes'... Eventually SFB became its own timeline (like Kelvin timeline): The General War Timeline
SFB had a pretty solid map that made the borders of the factions pretty clear. Klingons traditionally clashed with federation and hydran, while often being allied with romulans and lyrans (in a 'the enemy of my enemy'-kind relationship)