I won't do those things for Feds - I am not a gregarious duck. I certainly ain't doing them for the abandonware factions . My solution to endgame requiring you to move in a herd is to fix access to those rewards so they don't require a herd, not make a new herd.
Doing chores for Talaxians makes sense for absolutely no one. I am a freaking Admiral. Going around to ask for spices or solving your roster problem while Neelix is next to me? What kind of bullsh*t is that? This belongs into a tutorial or something at best.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I have an absolutely apex Captain in Lord of the Rings Online - been there, done it ALL. Commanded armies, clashed directly with Nazguul on no less than 6 occasions. Then you hit a new zone and while there a thousand orcs over the ridge about to descend on the town and massacre everyone... somebody asks me if I'd take a stroll out the south gate and pick some cherries. Maybe bonk a hungry wolf or four on the head while I'm at it.
I tend to joke with my tribe, "seriously, I need to put a bumper-sticker on my ancient artifact, freaking GLOWING halberd that says 'This instrument kills Balrogs. Plural.'"
It's not that I mind chipping in, but sometimes it seems like maybe there's be a better use for a continent-striding battle-leader than gathering fruit...
Personally, I think it's "put up or shut up" time for PWE/C in respect to KDF and the faction system. Either they need to really work with KDF to bring it up to par with Fed, (or at least as close as possible) or they need to stop making excuses as to why it didn't happen, won't happen blah blah and just make it all Delta or something.
I think most people just don't want to listen what Cryptic has already said.
Cryptic has shut the door on faction-specific content. Cross Faction releases are pretty much the only type of faction-specific "content" that will happen. Everything else will be avialable to everyone, and probably written with the Federation in mind first. That doesn't exclude stories happening with Romulans or Klingons, but it won't be stories only involving them on the player side.
They have said that it's economically not feasible to do more than that. People just argue that this isn't true, or wouldn't need to be true, if just something was different. (With suggestsion on what this "something" is, often assuming Cryptic is blind or incompetent in their abilty to determine what works and what is feasible and ignorant of what the implementation of some ideas cost.) Or they argue that Cryptic must do something for the KDF because it would be unethical or unprofessional or whatever not do so, even if it would cost more than it will gain Cryptic, completely ignoring the business realities of an MMO.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
It would have been nice to have somehow had a KDF or Romulan option for AoY so as it is I'm levelling a Fed when I'd rather be back on the KDF.
I'm ok with non-faction specific content, but AoY is a Fed specific expansion; not that that is a big deal in and of itself to me- I'd have just liked the option to be able to keep working on the KDF side of things is all.
I think most people just don't want to listen what Cryptic has already said.
Cryptic has shut the door on faction-specific content. Cross Faction releases are pretty much the only type of faction-specific "content" that will happen. Everything else will be avialable to everyone, and probably written with the Federation in mind first. That doesn't exclude stories happening with Romulans or Klingons, but it won't be stories only involving them on the player side.
They have said that it's economically not feasible to do more than that. People just argue that this isn't true, or wouldn't need to be true, if just something was different. (With suggestsion on what this "something" is, often assuming Cryptic is blind or incompetent in their abilty to determine what works and what is feasible and ignorant of what the implementation of some ideas cost.) Or they argue that Cryptic must do something for the KDF because it would be unethical or unprofessional or whatever not do so, even if it would cost more than it will gain Cryptic, completely ignoring the business realities of an MMO.
Cryptic is blind when it comes to their almighty METRICs which rule all.
It doesn't help when certain people with insider knowledge and control of both what is released, along with how and when, manipulate things so those METRICs say or show what they want them to say or show.
Until that stops, both the manipulation of METRICs and the blind obedience to them, NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
We will continue to get Fed-centric stories, episodes, missions and queues handed out with claims of them being 'faction-agnostic'.
You can deny it is happening all you want, you can claim it isn't happening all you want. But it IS happening and will continue to happen.
Please, leave conspiracy theories out of this. There is no grant conspiracy that is working to manipulate the "Metrics" to TRIBBLE the KDF over. If you believe such nonsense, then there is absolutely no point in discussing the topic at all, the evil conspirators will twirl their mustaches and ruin everything anyway.
The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
To say it with a lot less words:
You think that someone else as lead developer could have made this game succesful and also brought us a fully fledged KDF faction with all bells & whistles of faction-specific content and/or well designed faction-agnostic content that manages to offer meaningful story or dialog choices.
You can make that claim. But it's unprovable. We only have this game, this lead designer, and going back 6 years, how many people would have said that STO would still be going strong and see the level of release it had?
I remember a lot of people spelling DOOM since launch. I don't remember anyone saying: "This game will last at least 6 years, get at least 3 expansions and a lot of seasonal releases and likely last a few years longer." or "This Free to Play move will ensure Star Trek Online future for several ways, and the PWE acquisition of Cryptic will mean it will see considerably content expansions and development".
And there are strong arguments against "open hostility", too.
The 3-packs and 9-packs? If they hated the Klingons, the wouldn't make them at all. Everything you see as evidence for contempt or hostility I see it as evidence of calculated project management. Even the flaws you see are simple evidence of that - the designers get only so much time alloted to each ship, and the simply get a bit less for KDF and RR ships so they don't get that final polishing.
It doesn't change that it sucks that, say, the Bortasque "saucer" doesn't fit right to the new Tier 6 variant hulls and vice versa, or that they failed to unlock a whole skin for the Bird of Prey. But it there was true hate or contempt, such stuff wouldn't be done at all. The Klingon "bling" from the Kelvin Timeline lockbox or the new TOS Klingon and Gorn unlocks? The improvements to the Klingon uniforms? They wouldn't bother if they didn't care. This level of detail is only relevant for player characters.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
The Klingon "bling" from the Kelvin Timeline lockbox or the new TOS Klingon and Gorn unlocks? The improvements to the Klingon uniforms? They wouldn't bother if they didn't care. This level of detail is only relevant for player characters.
This, actually. We did at least get a faction-specific Pilot Raider with 5 fore weapons, even if it is the most ridiculously rare lockbox ship in the game to date. But the animations work, the bridge is gorgeous, and the KT regalia is rather cool. If someone at Cryptic didn't believe in the marketability of the KDF we wouldn't have got these things, as they're onscreen for a matter of minutes at most. The "fob off" answer would have been to simply issue a trait / console pack like they did with the Vengeance.
That said, it would be good if Cryptic tried harder with the KDF/RR spins on cross faction episodes. Sunrise wasn't actually too bad, it was very clear that the Klingons had a different agenda to the Federation; to preserve a potentially useful client species. It's just unfortunate that the Lukari responses didn't reflect that - it would have been good if they were more cagey about Klingon approaches.
IMO, the gold standard of player-matching in recent episodes was "Time in a Bottle", where the first part reads *very* differently if you play it as a Ferengi. If they can do that for the 4% or so of alts that are Ferengi, they could surely manage a bit better for KDF.
A Fleet Admiral running errands for Talaxians makes no sense for any of the factions. But that's the RPG genre for you. The almighty Player Character, Superman reborn, Chosen of Destiny, Slayer of Evil, He-Whose-Name-Shall-Be-Skipped-Over-By-The-Voiceovers, is nonetheless the errand boy of any NPC that dares ask for a favor.
Letting Captain Prime Directive boss a Fleet Admiral around on Kobali makes no sense for any of the factions. That's just bad writing. The Prime Directive doesn't even apply there, no way is holding frozen Vaadwaur hostage and assimilating them when the stasis systems fail an "internal matter" of the Kobali. ALL the factions should've instead explained it with alliance commitments and/or the Kobali having something they want on their side, if the plot really required us not to rescue the hostages.
And of course there could always be more options of what to say when interacting with NPCs, for any faction. But there must be some limits to keep the player from taking the plot off the rails. As much as it might fit your character's chosen personality to just tell the Bajoran and Cardassian in the Undine conference to "sit down and shut up" like the background extras that they are, the game's story invites you to many more diplomatic events to come and that would make absolutely no sense if you had a habit of acting like a barbarian in front of alien dignitaries.
Oh please... it is a known fact that not ALL cross faction stuff is written for Feds... Nimbus was not.
"Known fact." Care to support that with anything?
Nimbus was a part of the Romulan Republic story that go made cross faction and tied to a ground battle zone. I mean seriously... the final mission is to infiltrate a Tal-Shiar base and steal their secrets....
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
Please, leave conspiracy theories out of this. There is no grant conspiracy that is working to manipulate the "Metrics" to **** the KDF over. If you believe such nonsense, then there is absolutely no point in discussing the topic at all, the evil conspirators will twirl their mustaches and ruin everything anyway.
The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
LOL I call BS. The KDF has never been given full attention. Ever. Adding in broken ships and bugged missions, and claiming that it's unprofitable is only believable to the most gullible of gullibles.
This is one area of the game (along with pvp, power balance, and class balance) that drives gamers (read:people who play games, not sign on because of the name) away in droves. This directly correlates to the whole "limited resources" shtick people like to tout whenever someone asks for something they themselves don't want.
Resources wouldn't be so limited if, you know, gameplay wasn't so lopsided on so many levels, faction imbalance being one. More people would play than the niche Star Trek "I don't really play MMOs" fans, which I'd assume comprise a large % of the population- judging by the low % of actual "Advanced level or above" players in the game.
Oh please... it is a known fact that not ALL cross faction stuff is written for Feds... Nimbus was not.
"Known fact." Care to support that with anything?
Nimbus was a part of the Romulan Republic story that go made cross faction and tied to a ground battle zone. I mean seriously... the final mission is to infiltrate a Tal-Shiar base and steal their secrets....
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
Ok... how about the fact that your tactical officer talks like Tovan Khev the entire mission chain?
Oh please... it is a known fact that not ALL cross faction stuff is written for Feds... Nimbus was not.
"Known fact." Care to support that with anything?
Nimbus was a part of the Romulan Republic story that go made cross faction and tied to a ground battle zone. I mean seriously... the final mission is to infiltrate a Tal-Shiar base and steal their secrets....
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
Ok... how about the fact that your tactical officer talks like Tovan Khev the entire mission chain?
Please, leave conspiracy theories out of this. There is no grant conspiracy that is working to manipulate the "Metrics" to **** the KDF over. If you believe such nonsense, then there is absolutely no point in discussing the topic at all, the evil conspirators will twirl their mustaches and ruin everything anyway.
The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
LOL I call BS. The KDF has never been given full attention. Ever. Adding in broken ships and bugged missions, and claiming that it's unprofitable is only believable to the most gullible of gullibles.
That doesn't mean there is some conspiracy to manipulate the "metrics" just to make it look as if the KDF was not worth it.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Please, leave conspiracy theories out of this. There is no grant conspiracy that is working to manipulate the "Metrics" to **** the KDF over. If you believe such nonsense, then there is absolutely no point in discussing the topic at all, the evil conspirators will twirl their mustaches and ruin everything anyway.
The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
LOL I call BS. The KDF has never been given full attention. Ever. Adding in broken ships and bugged missions, and claiming that it's unprofitable is only believable to the most gullible of gullibles.
That doesn't mean there is some conspiracy to manipulate the "metrics" just to make it look as if the KDF was not worth it.
Oh, I think you're right there. I don't think metrics have anything to do with it. It would take some kind of mass exodus from FED to KDF for them to even bother noticing it, IMO. XD
I think they don't want people playing KDF, myself.
Oh please... it is a known fact that not ALL cross faction stuff is written for Feds... Nimbus was not.
"Known fact." Care to support that with anything?
Nimbus was a part of the Romulan Republic story that go made cross faction and tied to a ground battle zone. I mean seriously... the final mission is to infiltrate a Tal-Shiar base and steal their secrets....
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
Ok... how about the fact that your tactical officer talks like Tovan Khev the entire mission chain?
Im not sure you know what "known fact" means.
So, point out where I am wrong. what about Nimbus makes it seem like a Federation mission to you?
Please, leave conspiracy theories out of this. There is no grant conspiracy that is working to manipulate the "Metrics" to **** the KDF over. If you believe such nonsense, then there is absolutely no point in discussing the topic at all, the evil conspirators will twirl their mustaches and ruin everything anyway.
The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
LOL I call BS. The KDF has never been given full attention. Ever. Adding in broken ships and bugged missions, and claiming that it's unprofitable is only believable to the most gullible of gullibles.
That doesn't mean there is some conspiracy to manipulate the "metrics" just to make it look as if the KDF was not worth it.
Oh, I think you're right there. I don't think metrics have anything to do with it. It would take some kind of mass exodus from FED to KDF for them to even bother noticing it, IMO. XD
I think they don't want people playing KDF, myself.
And that's a conspiracy theory that is contradicted by what they actually do. You see the flaws in the Tier 6 ships and make it to mean that they don't want KDF palyers, but if they don't want them, the best way to do that is to not give them stuff in the first place. (And especially not free stuff, as the aforementioned TOS uniforms and head options)
And I think if they didn't want people playing KDF or RR, they wouldn't bother with NPCs like Kagran in key story positions, either. A lot of the stories become much easier if they would just pick Fed characters. I think a lot of the stuff especially in the Iconian Arc is basically designed as advertisement for the KDF and the Romulan Republic. We're not trying to save Vulcan or Andor or some other Federation world from the Iconians - It's new Romulus and Q'onos. There isn't some Starfleet Admiral (maybe a Trek alumni like Tuvok) that's leading the War effort against the Iconians. It's a Klingon.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Oh please... it is a known fact that not ALL cross faction stuff is written for Feds... Nimbus was not.
"Known fact." Care to support that with anything?
Nimbus was a part of the Romulan Republic story that go made cross faction and tied to a ground battle zone. I mean seriously... the final mission is to infiltrate a Tal-Shiar base and steal their secrets....
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
Ok... how about the fact that your tactical officer talks like Tovan Khev the entire mission chain?
Im not sure you know what "known fact" means.
So, point out where I am wrong. what about Nimbus makes it seem like a Federation mission to you?
Well, you mention it's a "known fact" because
1. It's infiltrating a Tal Shiar base, which could happen with any Starfleet mission, and
2. The tac officer "talks like Tovan Khev," which is your opinion.
Therefore, I again state that I'm not sure you know what "known fact" means.
What would it take for someone to want to play a Ferengi?
Or Vulcan? Or Andorian? Or Trill? They all act and say the same thing as a Hoo-mon.
None of them are getting a nod with dialog or actions or a different "trail" to the same outcome. Even on the Starfleet side.....other than a costume!!!!! So, it is not just Klingons, Gorn, Orions....etc...
There is a problem with the overall picture, here.
Everything is amalgamating into the same "sameness" in this game.
They are erasing any differences between race, career, or faction.
Sci is doing DPS along side the Tacs. "No reason to Tank" etc...
It is being over written by traits from ships, rep, specializations, even DOFFs and BOFFs...
And only certain ones people will use and bother acquiring.
It's all becoming a facade for a "generic character" in a costume.
Why?
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
What would it take for someone to want to play a Ferengi?
Or Vulcan? Or Andorian? Or Trill? They all act and say the same thing as a Hoo-mon.
None of them are getting a nod with dialog or actions or a different "trail" to the same outcome. Even on the Starfleet side.....other than a costume!!!!! So, it is not just Klingons, Gorn, Orions....etc...
There is a problem with the overall picture, here.
Everything is amalgamating into the same "sameness" in this game.
They are erasing any differences between race, career, or faction.
Sci is doing DPS along side the Tacs. "No reason to Tank" etc...
It is being over written by traits from ships, rep, specializations, even DOFFs and BOFFs...
And only certain ones people will use and bother acquiring.
It's all becoming a facade for a "generic character" in a costume.
Why?
Because for the most part your race isn't supposed to make any difference. This isn't supposed to be a racist universe, not with the good guys at least.
Because it's quite impossible to constantly give "nods" in dialog to 30-something races in a game that has voiceovers.
And because every time they do give a "nod" to some plot-relevant race, like the Ferengi in Time in a Bottle, a swarm of complainers descend like vultures to whine their favorite wasn't included.
Because for the most part your race isn't supposed to make any difference. This isn't supposed to be a racist universe, not with the good guys at least.
Because it's quite impossible to constantly give "nods" in dialog to 30-something races in a game that has voiceovers.
And because every time they do give a "nod" to some plot-relevant race, like the Ferengi in Time in a Bottle, a swarm of complainers descend like vultures to whine their favorite wasn't included.
If the PLAYERS want to keep it generic....then what is the point of anything else? That is what the Feds are asking to do.
Why should Cryptic writers bother to do more?
The Feds don't care that they are all the same...matter of fact, they don't seem to like anything but conformity (BTW...that is a very military mindset...we will have the same front, no room for different...we will all think, react and move the same).
Follow what the Feds want: No more complaints about Ferengi dialogs...no more Klingon Generals taking the lead in episodes.... no more arguments along the lines of "Starfleet would never allow another faction to fly our flagships, and, especially, never THE Romulans"....etc..
Everybody fly the same ships, with the same traits, with the same consoles, everyone talks the same, everyone dresses the same...they can deal with that.
But other people can't want to act and react to something differently??? Much less be allowed to??? Has it got to the point in this game where players don't even want to SEE there is something else?
Is this odd for an MMO? Or is this off for video games? I don't play any of them.
Do players get everything handed to them for having a fully leveled character?
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Oh please... it is a known fact that not ALL cross faction stuff is written for Feds... Nimbus was not.
"Known fact." Care to support that with anything?
Nimbus was a part of the Romulan Republic story that go made cross faction and tied to a ground battle zone. I mean seriously... the final mission is to infiltrate a Tal-Shiar base and steal their secrets....
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
Ok... how about the fact that your tactical officer talks like Tovan Khev the entire mission chain?
Im not sure you know what "known fact" means.
So, point out where I am wrong. what about Nimbus makes it seem like a Federation mission to you?
Well, you mention it's a "known fact" because
1. It's infiltrating a Tal Shiar base, which could happen with any Starfleet mission, and
2. The tac officer "talks like Tovan Khev," which is your opinion.
Therefore, I again state that I'm not sure you know what "known fact" means.
You never played the Romulan Republic story did you?
And that's a conspiracy theory that is contradicted by what they actually do. You see the flaws in the Tier 6 ships and make it to mean that they don't want KDF palyers, but if they don't want them, the best way to do that is to not give them stuff in the first place. (And especially not free stuff, as the aforementioned TOS uniforms and head options)
And I think if they didn't want people playing KDF or RR, they wouldn't bother with NPCs like Kagran in key story positions, either. A lot of the stories become much easier if they would just pick Fed characters. I think a lot of the stuff especially in the Iconian Arc is basically designed as advertisement for the KDF and the Romulan Republic. We're not trying to save Vulcan or Andor or some other Federation world from the Iconians - It's new Romulus and Q'onos. There isn't some Starfleet Admiral (maybe a Trek alumni like Tuvok) that's leading the War effort against the Iconians. It's a Klingon.
Yeah really. They used New Romulus and Qonos as the setting of several Iconian war missions. IF they REALLY wanted to bury them, then they wouldn't have even bothered with that.
Oh please... it is a known fact that not ALL cross faction stuff is written for Feds... Nimbus was not.
"Known fact." Care to support that with anything?
Nimbus was a part of the Romulan Republic story that go made cross faction and tied to a ground battle zone. I mean seriously... the final mission is to infiltrate a Tal-Shiar base and steal their secrets....
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
Ok... how about the fact that your tactical officer talks like Tovan Khev the entire mission chain?
Im not sure you know what "known fact" means.
So, point out where I am wrong. what about Nimbus makes it seem like a Federation mission to you?
Well, you mention it's a "known fact" because
1. It's infiltrating a Tal Shiar base, which could happen with any Starfleet mission, and
2. The tac officer "talks like Tovan Khev," which is your opinion.
Therefore, I again state that I'm not sure you know what "known fact" means.
You never played the Romulan Republic story did you?
Does it really matter what faction gets the most love. All we going to get is: Load screen, "Server Not Responding", cut screen, 2 to 5 seconds gameplay that doesn't serve the story, pop up screen at the most annoying moment, again load screen with most likely a "Server Not Responding", some stupid space battle with of course a cut scene in the middle of the battle on the moment that you are just trying to prevent from blowing up, load screen again, followed up by a screwed up cut screen, whereafter you have to talk with a dozen of persons that don't contribute to the story.
Please, leave conspiracy theories out of this. There is no grant conspiracy that is working to manipulate the "Metrics" to **** the KDF over. If you believe such nonsense, then there is absolutely no point in discussing the topic at all, the evil conspirators will twirl their mustaches and ruin everything anyway.
The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
LOL I call BS. The KDF has never been given full attention. Ever. Adding in broken ships and bugged missions, and claiming that it's unprofitable is only believable to the most gullible of gullibles.
That doesn't mean there is some conspiracy to manipulate the "metrics" just to make it look as if the KDF was not worth it.
Oh, I think you're right there. I don't think metrics have anything to do with it. It would take some kind of mass exodus from FED to KDF for them to even bother noticing it, IMO. XD
I think they don't want people playing KDF, myself.
And that's a conspiracy theory that is contradicted by what they actually do. You see the flaws in the Tier 6 ships and make it to mean that they don't want KDF palyers, but if they don't want them, the best way to do that is to not give them stuff in the first place. (And especially not free stuff, as the aforementioned TOS uniforms and head options)
And I think if they didn't want people playing KDF or RR, they wouldn't bother with NPCs like Kagran in key story positions, either. A lot of the stories become much easier if they would just pick Fed characters. I think a lot of the stuff especially in the Iconian Arc is basically designed as advertisement for the KDF and the Romulan Republic. We're not trying to save Vulcan or Andor or some other Federation world from the Iconians - It's new Romulus and Q'onos. There isn't some Starfleet Admiral (maybe a Trek alumni like Tuvok) that's leading the War effort against the Iconians. It's a Klingon.
Not really.
1. They did not want to add the KDF as a faction from the start, but were obligated to by CBS.
2. Though they did add the faction, one had to start as a FED first, before they were even allowed to play it, initially.
3. The amount of content/ships added since then (the lions share done in someone's spare time) still did not bring it to the same amount of FED-specific content.
4. Ship/mission bugs are left alone to languish, sometimes for years.
5. Although very few things are added, I can't remember the time something was added that was specifically asked for by KDF players.
Although you can dismiss it as a "conspiracy theory," common sense would dictate that they are either unable or unwilling to produce quality content for the KDF. Since I highly doubt that they are unable to produce it, the only reason why content has been so poorly implemented and of such a small amount, is that they don't want to.
Using the examples they use as being "not profitable" is either complete lunacy, or an excuse. The Varanus or Fisher Price Destroyers as an excuse to why Science ships don't sell for the KDF? There is no way they can misread metrics so badly, that this seems logical. The ships aren't something people want, due to obsolescence or mass dislike of the aesthetics/gimmick. One developer said that the Pilot ships didn't sell well. But the new, mother of all KDF lockbox ships is a pilot ship. Not sure what to make of that.
I think they won't pull the KDF out of the game (even if allowed), because getting people in who want to play that content (and then finding it the way we all do) will hopefully just switch and play FED, and buy the FED stuff. It's easy to see all of the incentives to play a Starfleet character- but I can't really see an in-game incentive to play anything else.
I don't see any incentive to play KDF (or ROM) because of an NPC here or there as "flavor."
There's more FED stuff. FED stuff isn't broken. They want you to be playing a character with access to the more abundant and working things to buy. If they wanted people to play KDF, they would do what every company in existence since ever does, and have sales or other incentives to do it. Instead, it's ignored, or adding things that are the opposite of what is being asked for, saying "See? No one is buying it!" That's either mind-blowingly stupid (which I doubt), or it's incentivizing not playing KDF.
And that's a conspiracy theory that is contradicted by what they actually do. You see the flaws in the Tier 6 ships and make it to mean that they don't want KDF palyers, but if they don't want them, the best way to do that is to not give them stuff in the first place. (And especially not free stuff, as the aforementioned TOS uniforms and head options)
And I think if they didn't want people playing KDF or RR, they wouldn't bother with NPCs like Kagran in key story positions, either. A lot of the stories become much easier if they would just pick Fed characters. I think a lot of the stuff especially in the Iconian Arc is basically designed as advertisement for the KDF and the Romulan Republic. We're not trying to save Vulcan or Andor or some other Federation world from the Iconians - It's new Romulus and Q'onos. There isn't some Starfleet Admiral (maybe a Trek alumni like Tuvok) that's leading the War effort against the Iconians. It's a Klingon.
I agree with you. It sounds insane that Cryptic would deliberately drive players away from content, especially monetized content.
I think they don't know what to do. I would like to think there are members of the dev team as frustrated as I am with the state of things on the Red side, which is why we get the D4x, Kelvin Klingon outfits, the Kelvin Bat'leth, and NPCs like Kagren.
...The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
This has already been debunked. Cryptic has the means and the creativity to add content to whatever they want to improve gameplay.
I am not sure what's debunked here.
It matters quite a lot that there is more Starfleet material to base stuff on than KDF material. Why? Because part of what Cryptic does is first providing the stuff we know from canon. That means lots of ships, archetypes and locations. And there is a lot of material to cover, and most of it is not Klingon. It's either Federation/Starfleet or some alien of the week.
It matters because not just the developers are inspired by this material. The players are, too. For every player that could be inspired by Worf as the ultimate KLingon, there is a player that could be inspired by Spock as the Ultimate Vulcan, Kirk the Ultimate Cowboy Captain, Picard the Ultimate Diplomat, Sisko the Ultimate Hero, Dax as the Ultimate Trill, McCOy as the Ultimate Country Doctor, Bashir as the Ultimate Young Idealist, Data as the Ultimate Android, Wesley as the Ultimate Kid-Genius, Kira as the Ultimate Bajoran. Or ships - for all theones that could be inspired to fly a K'tinga, Bird of Prey, Vor'Cha or Negh'Var, there is also the ones that could be inspired to fly a Nova, Intrepid, Constitution, Constellation, Akira, Steamrunner, Galaxy, Sovereign or Defiant.
And you cannot debunk that. Sure Cryptic can make up some new TRIBBLE. But Star Trek fandom is full of nostalgia. They don't want the new sh*t from Abrams or whomever. They want to expand on the old sh*t. And there is so much more to expand on the Fed side of the story. It's no accident that we get Tier 5 Retrofits of almost every canon ship before they launched Tier 6, and it's probably no accident either that it wasn't long after the last Tier 5 canon Retrofit that they expanded the level cap - to launch a new series of T6 retrofits of canon ships. People love this stuff and it sells.
It's not that new stuff doesn't work at all - but they have to cover the old ground thoroughly at well.
I think they don't know what to do. I would like to think there are members of the dev team as frustrated as I am with the state of things on the Red side, which is why we get the D4x, Kelvin Klingon outfits, the Kelvin Bat'leth, and NPCs like Kagren.
I think they know what they can do. Keep doing faction-agnostic story. And release the occassional cross-faction ship pack or some similar stuff that is available to all factions. They are experimenting with the 31st century Temporal ships that are available to all. I don't know if they'll do something like that again - a Joint Venture project perhaps, or some "alliance faction" ships, like say, Gorn or Orion vessels being sold to Republic and Federation as well as the Klingons. Or maybe Fek'lihri ships as part of a Klingon story arc revamp made availalbe either in the C-Store or the next lockbox.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
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I tend to joke with my tribe, "seriously, I need to put a bumper-sticker on my ancient artifact, freaking GLOWING halberd that says 'This instrument kills Balrogs. Plural.'"
It's not that I mind chipping in, but sometimes it seems like maybe there's be a better use for a continent-striding battle-leader than gathering fruit...
I think most people just don't want to listen what Cryptic has already said.
Cryptic has shut the door on faction-specific content. Cross Faction releases are pretty much the only type of faction-specific "content" that will happen. Everything else will be avialable to everyone, and probably written with the Federation in mind first. That doesn't exclude stories happening with Romulans or Klingons, but it won't be stories only involving them on the player side.
They have said that it's economically not feasible to do more than that. People just argue that this isn't true, or wouldn't need to be true, if just something was different. (With suggestsion on what this "something" is, often assuming Cryptic is blind or incompetent in their abilty to determine what works and what is feasible and ignorant of what the implementation of some ideas cost.) Or they argue that Cryptic must do something for the KDF because it would be unethical or unprofessional or whatever not do so, even if it would cost more than it will gain Cryptic, completely ignoring the business realities of an MMO.
I'm ok with non-faction specific content, but AoY is a Fed specific expansion; not that that is a big deal in and of itself to me- I'd have just liked the option to be able to keep working on the KDF side of things is all.
Cryptic is blind when it comes to their almighty METRICs which rule all.
It doesn't help when certain people with insider knowledge and control of both what is released, along with how and when, manipulate things so those METRICs say or show what they want them to say or show.
Until that stops, both the manipulation of METRICs and the blind obedience to them, NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
We will continue to get Fed-centric stories, episodes, missions and queues handed out with claims of them being 'faction-agnostic'.
You can deny it is happening all you want, you can claim it isn't happening all you want. But it IS happening and will continue to happen.
The only thing that screws KDF over is 50 year of Star Trek canon that is mostly focused on humanity's place in the future.
You think that someone else as lead developer could have made this game succesful and also brought us a fully fledged KDF faction with all bells & whistles of faction-specific content and/or well designed faction-agnostic content that manages to offer meaningful story or dialog choices.
You can make that claim. But it's unprovable. We only have this game, this lead designer, and going back 6 years, how many people would have said that STO would still be going strong and see the level of release it had?
I remember a lot of people spelling DOOM since launch. I don't remember anyone saying: "This game will last at least 6 years, get at least 3 expansions and a lot of seasonal releases and likely last a few years longer." or "This Free to Play move will ensure Star Trek Online future for several ways, and the PWE acquisition of Cryptic will mean it will see considerably content expansions and development".
And there are strong arguments against "open hostility", too.
The 3-packs and 9-packs? If they hated the Klingons, the wouldn't make them at all. Everything you see as evidence for contempt or hostility I see it as evidence of calculated project management. Even the flaws you see are simple evidence of that - the designers get only so much time alloted to each ship, and the simply get a bit less for KDF and RR ships so they don't get that final polishing.
It doesn't change that it sucks that, say, the Bortasque "saucer" doesn't fit right to the new Tier 6 variant hulls and vice versa, or that they failed to unlock a whole skin for the Bird of Prey. But it there was true hate or contempt, such stuff wouldn't be done at all. The Klingon "bling" from the Kelvin Timeline lockbox or the new TOS Klingon and Gorn unlocks? The improvements to the Klingon uniforms? They wouldn't bother if they didn't care. This level of detail is only relevant for player characters.
This, actually. We did at least get a faction-specific Pilot Raider with 5 fore weapons, even if it is the most ridiculously rare lockbox ship in the game to date. But the animations work, the bridge is gorgeous, and the KT regalia is rather cool. If someone at Cryptic didn't believe in the marketability of the KDF we wouldn't have got these things, as they're onscreen for a matter of minutes at most. The "fob off" answer would have been to simply issue a trait / console pack like they did with the Vengeance.
That said, it would be good if Cryptic tried harder with the KDF/RR spins on cross faction episodes. Sunrise wasn't actually too bad, it was very clear that the Klingons had a different agenda to the Federation; to preserve a potentially useful client species. It's just unfortunate that the Lukari responses didn't reflect that - it would have been good if they were more cagey about Klingon approaches.
IMO, the gold standard of player-matching in recent episodes was "Time in a Bottle", where the first part reads *very* differently if you play it as a Ferengi. If they can do that for the 4% or so of alts that are Ferengi, they could surely manage a bit better for KDF.
Letting Captain Prime Directive boss a Fleet Admiral around on Kobali makes no sense for any of the factions. That's just bad writing. The Prime Directive doesn't even apply there, no way is holding frozen Vaadwaur hostage and assimilating them when the stasis systems fail an "internal matter" of the Kobali. ALL the factions should've instead explained it with alliance commitments and/or the Kobali having something they want on their side, if the plot really required us not to rescue the hostages.
And of course there could always be more options of what to say when interacting with NPCs, for any faction. But there must be some limits to keep the player from taking the plot off the rails. As much as it might fit your character's chosen personality to just tell the Bajoran and Cardassian in the Undine conference to "sit down and shut up" like the background extras that they are, the game's story invites you to many more diplomatic events to come and that would make absolutely no sense if you had a habit of acting like a barbarian in front of alien dignitaries.
None of these are faction issues.
That does not make it a "known fact." It makes it "likely."
LOL I call BS. The KDF has never been given full attention. Ever. Adding in broken ships and bugged missions, and claiming that it's unprofitable is only believable to the most gullible of gullibles.
This is one area of the game (along with pvp, power balance, and class balance) that drives gamers (read:people who play games, not sign on because of the name) away in droves. This directly correlates to the whole "limited resources" shtick people like to tout whenever someone asks for something they themselves don't want.
Resources wouldn't be so limited if, you know, gameplay wasn't so lopsided on so many levels, faction imbalance being one. More people would play than the niche Star Trek "I don't really play MMOs" fans, which I'd assume comprise a large % of the population- judging by the low % of actual "Advanced level or above" players in the game.
My character Tsin'xing
Im not sure you know what "known fact" means.
Oh, I think you're right there. I don't think metrics have anything to do with it. It would take some kind of mass exodus from FED to KDF for them to even bother noticing it, IMO. XD
I think they don't want people playing KDF, myself.
My character Tsin'xing
And that's a conspiracy theory that is contradicted by what they actually do. You see the flaws in the Tier 6 ships and make it to mean that they don't want KDF palyers, but if they don't want them, the best way to do that is to not give them stuff in the first place. (And especially not free stuff, as the aforementioned TOS uniforms and head options)
And I think if they didn't want people playing KDF or RR, they wouldn't bother with NPCs like Kagran in key story positions, either. A lot of the stories become much easier if they would just pick Fed characters. I think a lot of the stuff especially in the Iconian Arc is basically designed as advertisement for the KDF and the Romulan Republic. We're not trying to save Vulcan or Andor or some other Federation world from the Iconians - It's new Romulus and Q'onos. There isn't some Starfleet Admiral (maybe a Trek alumni like Tuvok) that's leading the War effort against the Iconians. It's a Klingon.
Well, you mention it's a "known fact" because
1. It's infiltrating a Tal Shiar base, which could happen with any Starfleet mission, and
2. The tac officer "talks like Tovan Khev," which is your opinion.
Therefore, I again state that I'm not sure you know what "known fact" means.
What would it take for someone to want to play a Ferengi?
Or Vulcan? Or Andorian? Or Trill? They all act and say the same thing as a Hoo-mon.
None of them are getting a nod with dialog or actions or a different "trail" to the same outcome. Even on the Starfleet side.....other than a costume!!!!! So, it is not just Klingons, Gorn, Orions....etc...
There is a problem with the overall picture, here.
Everything is amalgamating into the same "sameness" in this game.
They are erasing any differences between race, career, or faction.
Sci is doing DPS along side the Tacs. "No reason to Tank" etc...
It is being over written by traits from ships, rep, specializations, even DOFFs and BOFFs...
And only certain ones people will use and bother acquiring.
It's all becoming a facade for a "generic character" in a costume.
Why?
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Because it's quite impossible to constantly give "nods" in dialog to 30-something races in a game that has voiceovers.
And because every time they do give a "nod" to some plot-relevant race, like the Ferengi in Time in a Bottle, a swarm of complainers descend like vultures to whine their favorite wasn't included.
If the PLAYERS want to keep it generic....then what is the point of anything else? That is what the Feds are asking to do.
Why should Cryptic writers bother to do more?
The Feds don't care that they are all the same...matter of fact, they don't seem to like anything but conformity (BTW...that is a very military mindset...we will have the same front, no room for different...we will all think, react and move the same).
Follow what the Feds want: No more complaints about Ferengi dialogs...no more Klingon Generals taking the lead in episodes.... no more arguments along the lines of "Starfleet would never allow another faction to fly our flagships, and, especially, never THE Romulans"....etc..
Everybody fly the same ships, with the same traits, with the same consoles, everyone talks the same, everyone dresses the same...they can deal with that.
But other people can't want to act and react to something differently??? Much less be allowed to??? Has it got to the point in this game where players don't even want to SEE there is something else?
Is this odd for an MMO? Or is this off for video games? I don't play any of them.
Do players get everything handed to them for having a fully leveled character?
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
Incorrect.
Not really.
1. They did not want to add the KDF as a faction from the start, but were obligated to by CBS.
2. Though they did add the faction, one had to start as a FED first, before they were even allowed to play it, initially.
3. The amount of content/ships added since then (the lions share done in someone's spare time) still did not bring it to the same amount of FED-specific content.
4. Ship/mission bugs are left alone to languish, sometimes for years.
5. Although very few things are added, I can't remember the time something was added that was specifically asked for by KDF players.
Although you can dismiss it as a "conspiracy theory," common sense would dictate that they are either unable or unwilling to produce quality content for the KDF. Since I highly doubt that they are unable to produce it, the only reason why content has been so poorly implemented and of such a small amount, is that they don't want to.
Using the examples they use as being "not profitable" is either complete lunacy, or an excuse. The Varanus or Fisher Price Destroyers as an excuse to why Science ships don't sell for the KDF? There is no way they can misread metrics so badly, that this seems logical. The ships aren't something people want, due to obsolescence or mass dislike of the aesthetics/gimmick. One developer said that the Pilot ships didn't sell well. But the new, mother of all KDF lockbox ships is a pilot ship. Not sure what to make of that.
I think they won't pull the KDF out of the game (even if allowed), because getting people in who want to play that content (and then finding it the way we all do) will hopefully just switch and play FED, and buy the FED stuff. It's easy to see all of the incentives to play a Starfleet character- but I can't really see an in-game incentive to play anything else.
I don't see any incentive to play KDF (or ROM) because of an NPC here or there as "flavor."
There's more FED stuff. FED stuff isn't broken. They want you to be playing a character with access to the more abundant and working things to buy. If they wanted people to play KDF, they would do what every company in existence since ever does, and have sales or other incentives to do it. Instead, it's ignored, or adding things that are the opposite of what is being asked for, saying "See? No one is buying it!" That's either mind-blowingly stupid (which I doubt), or it's incentivizing not playing KDF.
I think they don't know what to do. I would like to think there are members of the dev team as frustrated as I am with the state of things on the Red side, which is why we get the D4x, Kelvin Klingon outfits, the Kelvin Bat'leth, and NPCs like Kagren.
I am not sure what's debunked here.
It matters quite a lot that there is more Starfleet material to base stuff on than KDF material. Why? Because part of what Cryptic does is first providing the stuff we know from canon. That means lots of ships, archetypes and locations. And there is a lot of material to cover, and most of it is not Klingon. It's either Federation/Starfleet or some alien of the week.
It matters because not just the developers are inspired by this material. The players are, too. For every player that could be inspired by Worf as the ultimate KLingon, there is a player that could be inspired by Spock as the Ultimate Vulcan, Kirk the Ultimate Cowboy Captain, Picard the Ultimate Diplomat, Sisko the Ultimate Hero, Dax as the Ultimate Trill, McCOy as the Ultimate Country Doctor, Bashir as the Ultimate Young Idealist, Data as the Ultimate Android, Wesley as the Ultimate Kid-Genius, Kira as the Ultimate Bajoran. Or ships - for all theones that could be inspired to fly a K'tinga, Bird of Prey, Vor'Cha or Negh'Var, there is also the ones that could be inspired to fly a Nova, Intrepid, Constitution, Constellation, Akira, Steamrunner, Galaxy, Sovereign or Defiant.
And you cannot debunk that. Sure Cryptic can make up some new TRIBBLE. But Star Trek fandom is full of nostalgia. They don't want the new sh*t from Abrams or whomever. They want to expand on the old sh*t. And there is so much more to expand on the Fed side of the story. It's no accident that we get Tier 5 Retrofits of almost every canon ship before they launched Tier 6, and it's probably no accident either that it wasn't long after the last Tier 5 canon Retrofit that they expanded the level cap - to launch a new series of T6 retrofits of canon ships. People love this stuff and it sells.
It's not that new stuff doesn't work at all - but they have to cover the old ground thoroughly at well.
I think they know what they can do. Keep doing faction-agnostic story. And release the occassional cross-faction ship pack or some similar stuff that is available to all factions. They are experimenting with the 31st century Temporal ships that are available to all. I don't know if they'll do something like that again - a Joint Venture project perhaps, or some "alliance faction" ships, like say, Gorn or Orion vessels being sold to Republic and Federation as well as the Klingons. Or maybe Fek'lihri ships as part of a Klingon story arc revamp made availalbe either in the C-Store or the next lockbox.