I had always hoped for a True Way type faction that combined the Dominion and Cardassians, but Cryptic has already released the majority of their ships as T5 and T6 box prizes. I guess that leaves only the Borg Cooperative.
I hate to break it to you, but Cryptic is against enemy factions being playable. It's one reason the Romulans turned out to be the Romulan Republic. The True Way are an enemy faction in that they do not want to cooperate with the Federation, Klingons or the Romulan Republic in anything. They want to have Cardassia be militaristic rather than cooperative.
Don't know about any species that are left, but there is one species that would be right to add as a faction:
Voth.
Doesn't necessarily have to be a full faction, something like AoY could work too: just a handful of missions that explain your arrival in the Alliance, and then you're just another playable species within that alliance.
I think that would be the best way to add new 'factions': just as playable species, preferably with some premium variant that has an unique active ability trait, with a couple of unique episodes and maybe a small unique social zone. Full factions should not be added anymore imo. It's just not possible to properly maintain them and we end up being part of the same Alliance anyway so I don't see the need for true unique factions.
The Voth aren't exactly a species that would get along with every other species. They seem to have a bias against mammalian based species, so the ones they'd likely tolerate are the Gorn, Xindi-Reptilians & Saurians. Plus, a lot of their ships are either lock box, lobi store or promotion ships already.
Vaadwaur supremacy, Terran Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Lyran star empire, hydran empire, liberated Gorn Hegemony, Tholians, Krenim Imeprium, Zahl Technocracy, Kazon Sects, Bentheans, B'Omari Sovergainity, Quaranns, Q, Ferengi Alliance, Cardassian Union, Suliban state(at some point), Son'a, Quantum singularity life forms which lives inside romulan ships, Organians, that black thing in space from TOS and TNG, that looks like hole in space, Terran Empire, Hurq, Voth, Breen, Deferi, Species 8472/Undine, Na'Kuhl, Iconians, Tamarians, etc.......etc...etc and many not yet discovered
I am taking these one at a time.
Vaadwaur Supremacy: They are essentially an enemy faction so they will never be playable.
Terran Empire: Enemy faction as well, since they have always seemed to be very antagonistic in history.
Romulan Star Empire: Little remains of them as a faction since most of them have broken away due to the problems faced once Sela disappeared. Plus, we have the Romulan Republic for Romulans, so defintiely no.
Lyran Star Empire & Hydran Empire: Non-canon powers, where the former we don't have a clue to their looks and the latter is from another game so they'd need a big negotiation with CBS over that. Not going to happen.
Liberated Gorn: Not going to happen since they would be an antagonist faction to the other playable factions.
Tholians: No chance in hell. They're extremely xenophobic and while they appear at the Temporal accords, I think they would rather do their own things than cooperate with the alliance which would be needed for the story. Plus, it would be a lot of work to make the models look right for animations and customization would be extremely limited.
Krenim Imperium & Zahl: Kind of lumped together because of the Year of Hell Lock box. Most ships are ether lock box, lobi, event or promotion ships so there's little chance they would be a playable faction, plus we don't know what the Zahl look like.
Kazon sects: Ewwwww no. We've seen how they don't like to cooperate anyway so its not likely they could be any good. If the borg don't want them, I don't either!
Benthans: Not really much to go on besides them being the Delta Quadrant's police force. Big pass.
B'omar Sovereignty: I think because this game is about cooperation, xenophobic species won't work, especially since we have seen little about them.
Quarren: Definite pass on them.
Q: Pretty much an "I win" button with them since they're so powerful. I don't know what you're smoking to think that they could ever be playable.
Ferengi Alliance: They are one of a more likely group to possibly see as a playable faction, though it's probably more unlikely that we get them considering what has happened with their ships.
Cardassian Union: Finally one that should make sense. A lot of work would need to be put in to justify the fact that they recently released the Keldon as a lock box ship on console. The developers though have stated they're a likely faction though to be considered.
Suliban: They had the chance to add them to the Romulans due to the fact that we can call them via the comm code on the Romulan side, but didn't. Not sure if they will ever.
Son'a: I think getting them is unlikely due to them not really being much of a faction.
Quantum Singularity Lifeform: Not likely since they exist outside of normal space.
Organians: I don't think so.
Hurq: Don't know much about them so unlikely.
Breen: Limited customizaton, all ships were given away so they wouldn't do as a faction.
Deferi: Playable species, maybe if they wanted to make them one. Playable faction, nope as they don't actually have ships due to them being a custom cryptic species and them using stock ships.
Undine: They are on the likelyhood of being never considering that they are extragalactic (Fluidic space realm) and they tend to be xenophobic.
Na'khul: Ships were given away as lock box ships, so no chance in hell, plus they are a known antagonistic faction. With the exception of the Klingons, antagonist and playable doesn't ever happen.
Iconians: Antagonistic, bordering on too powerful to be playable, not happening.
Tamarians: Shaka, When the Walls fell. (Not happening, basically)
so to summarize in TL;DR: Only species that could happen for sure are Cardassians and maybe Ferengi.
I had always hoped for a True Way type faction that combined the Dominion and Cardassians, but Cryptic has already released the majority of their ships as T5 and T6 box prizes. I guess that leaves only the Borg Cooperative.
I hate to break it to you, but Cryptic is against enemy factions being playable. It's one reason the Romulans turned out to be the Romulan Republic. The True Way are an enemy faction in that they do not want to cooperate with the Federation, Klingons or the Romulan Republic in anything. They want to have Cardassia be militaristic rather than cooperative.
Don't know about any species that are left, but there is one species that would be right to add as a faction:
Voth.
Doesn't necessarily have to be a full faction, something like AoY could work too: just a handful of missions that explain your arrival in the Alliance, and then you're just another playable species within that alliance.
I think that would be the best way to add new 'factions': just as playable species, preferably with some premium variant that has an unique active ability trait, with a couple of unique episodes and maybe a small unique social zone. Full factions should not be added anymore imo. It's just not possible to properly maintain them and we end up being part of the same Alliance anyway so I don't see the need for true unique factions.
The Voth aren't exactly a species that would get along with every other species. They seem to have a bias against mammalian based species, so the ones they'd likely tolerate are the Gorn, Xindi-Reptilians & Saurians. Plus, a lot of their ships are either lock box, lobi store or promotion ships already.
Vaadwaur supremacy, Terran Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Lyran star empire, hydran empire, liberated Gorn Hegemony, Tholians, Krenim Imeprium, Zahl Technocracy, Kazon Sects, Bentheans, B'Omari Sovergainity, Quaranns, Q, Ferengi Alliance, Cardassian Union, Suliban state(at some point), Son'a, Quantum singularity life forms which lives inside romulan ships, Organians, that black thing in space from TOS and TNG, that looks like hole in space, Terran Empire, Hurq, Voth, Breen, Deferi, Species 8472/Undine, Na'Kuhl, Iconians, Tamarians, etc.......etc...etc and many not yet discovered
I am taking these one at a time.
Vaadwaur Supremacy: They are essentially an enemy faction so they will never be playable.
Terran Empire: Enemy faction as well, since they have always seemed to be very antagonistic in history.
Romulan Star Empire: Little remains of them as a faction since most of them have broken away due to the problems faced once Sela disappeared. Plus, we have the Romulan Republic for Romulans, so defintiely no.
Lyran Star Empire & Hydran Empire: Non-canon powers, where the former we don't have a clue to their looks and the latter is from another game so they'd need a big negotiation with CBS over that. Not going to happen.
Liberated Gorn: Not going to happen since they would be an antagonist faction to the other playable factions.
Tholians: No chance in hell. They're extremely xenophobic and while they appear at the Temporal accords, I think they would rather do their own things than cooperate with the alliance which would be needed for the story. Plus, it would be a lot of work to make the models look right for animations and customization would be extremely limited.
Krenim Imperium & Zahl: Kind of lumped together because of the Year of Hell Lock box. Most ships are ether lock box, lobi, event or promotion ships so there's little chance they would be a playable faction, plus we don't know what the Zahl look like.
Kazon sects: Ewwwww no. We've seen how they don't like to cooperate anyway so its not likely they could be any good. If the borg don't want them, I don't either!
Benthans: Not really much to go on besides them being the Delta Quadrant's police force. Big pass.
B'omar Sovereignty: I think because this game is about cooperation, xenophobic species won't work, especially since we have seen little about them.
Quarren: Definite pass on them.
Q: Pretty much an "I win" button with them since they're so powerful. I don't know what you're smoking to think that they could ever be playable.
Ferengi Alliance: They are one of a more likely group to possibly see as a playable faction, though it's probably more unlikely that we get them considering what has happened with their ships.
Cardassian Union: Finally one that should make sense. A lot of work would need to be put in to justify the fact that they recently released the Keldon as a lock box ship on console. The developers though have stated they're a likely faction though to be considered.
Suliban: They had the chance to add them to the Romulans due to the fact that we can call them via the comm code on the Romulan side, but didn't. Not sure if they will ever.
Son'a: I think getting them is unlikely due to them not really being much of a faction.
Quantum Singularity Lifeform: Not likely since they exist outside of normal space.
Organians: I don't think so.
Hurq: Don't know much about them so unlikely.
Breen: Limited customizaton, all ships were given away so they wouldn't do as a faction.
Deferi: Playable species, maybe if they wanted to make them one. Playable faction, nope as they don't actually have ships due to them being a custom cryptic species and them using stock ships.
Undine: They are on the likelyhood of being never considering that they are extragalactic (Fluidic space realm) and they tend to be xenophobic.
Na'khul: Ships were given away as lock box ships, so no chance in hell, plus they are a known antagonistic faction. With the exception of the Klingons, antagonist and playable doesn't ever happen.
Iconians: Antagonistic, bordering on too powerful to be playable, not happening.
Tamarians: Shaka, When the Walls fell. (Not happening, basically)
so to summarize in TL;DR: Only species that could happen for sure are Cardassians and maybe Ferengi.
The Borg Cooperative is not an enemy faction. They are Borg who have been liberated from the collective. Didn't you play Delta Rising? Additionally, it's already possible to create a Ferengi character so a faction isn't likely.
I think a Cardie faction would make sense if they weren't so busy releasing their ships in lockboxes. (Galor and Keldon not up for grabs)
C'Mon, Cryptic... if you're going to put Cardie ships in lockboxes, how about at least letting players actually have Cardassian characters? Long overdue, IMO.
Even less reason to release a Ferengi faction... we already have cross-faction Ferengi ships and Fed Ferengi, all we need is to add the race to the KDF. (I know, I've argued against adding them to the KDF before. Hey, it's a US election year... I can flip-flop too.)
They're not going to do Borg. That would step on the toes of the LTS players and their liberated Borgs.
So what major race or faction is left to work with that would fit into the storyline that people would actually care about? That they haven't already released ships for in a lockbox, because there has to be a T6 option?
Xindi? Nope, lockboxes. Try again.
Iconian? Tholian? Nope, lockboxes. And they're technically bad guys.
Dominion? Not likely. Jem'Hadar ships in lockboxes and you never see a Founder or Vorta in anything else.
Any Delta Race? Not likely. Some already represented with lockbox ships and none that make sense to integrate into the storyline prior to the opening of the Iconian gateways.
I don't see what's left for a faction, frankly.
Here's what I *would* like to see, though... species-specific mission arcs to provide extra immersive flavor. They could release those one race at a time darn near indefinitely. But they won't do that because *bang for the buck*.
I'm resigned to disappointment on that front, really. That leaves me the option to be pleasantly surprised if Cryptic defies my expectations.
A lot of really interesting and inspiring ideas in this thread. But I feel the need to point out:
1- We all KNOW that Cryptic thinks Pakleds are the best idea offered. It's so obvious!
2- We also all know deep down in our heart of hearts that we'd LOVE to see a Pakled focused Tutorial, where we learn the flight commands and indeed finally learn how to make things GO!
So shelve all of your fascinating ideas and jump on board the Pakled Faction or Bust crusade! It's inevitable!
On second thought, there is one race in the game with a major presence that hasn't been represented by either a lockbox or inclusion in another faction... the Deferi. But how many people would want to play one?
I had always hoped for a True Way type faction that combined the Dominion and Cardassians, but Cryptic has already released the majority of their ships as T5 and T6 box prizes. I guess that leaves only the Borg Cooperative.
I hate to break it to you, but Cryptic is against enemy factions being playable. It's one reason the Romulans turned out to be the Romulan Republic. The True Way are an enemy faction in that they do not want to cooperate with the Federation, Klingons or the Romulan Republic in anything. They want to have Cardassia be militaristic rather than cooperative.
Don't know about any species that are left, but there is one species that would be right to add as a faction:
Voth.
Doesn't necessarily have to be a full faction, something like AoY could work too: just a handful of missions that explain your arrival in the Alliance, and then you're just another playable species within that alliance.
I think that would be the best way to add new 'factions': just as playable species, preferably with some premium variant that has an unique active ability trait, with a couple of unique episodes and maybe a small unique social zone. Full factions should not be added anymore imo. It's just not possible to properly maintain them and we end up being part of the same Alliance anyway so I don't see the need for true unique factions.
The Voth aren't exactly a species that would get along with every other species. They seem to have a bias against mammalian based species, so the ones they'd likely tolerate are the Gorn, Xindi-Reptilians & Saurians. Plus, a lot of their ships are either lock box, lobi store or promotion ships already.
Vaadwaur supremacy, Terran Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Lyran star empire, hydran empire, liberated Gorn Hegemony, Tholians, Krenim Imeprium, Zahl Technocracy, Kazon Sects, Bentheans, B'Omari Sovergainity, Quaranns, Q, Ferengi Alliance, Cardassian Union, Suliban state(at some point), Son'a, Quantum singularity life forms which lives inside romulan ships, Organians, that black thing in space from TOS and TNG, that looks like hole in space, Terran Empire, Hurq, Voth, Breen, Deferi, Species 8472/Undine, Na'Kuhl, Iconians, Tamarians, etc.......etc...etc and many not yet discovered
I am taking these one at a time.
Vaadwaur Supremacy: They are essentially an enemy faction so they will never be playable.
Terran Empire: Enemy faction as well, since they have always seemed to be very antagonistic in history.
Romulan Star Empire: Little remains of them as a faction since most of them have broken away due to the problems faced once Sela disappeared. Plus, we have the Romulan Republic for Romulans, so defintiely no.
Lyran Star Empire & Hydran Empire: Non-canon powers, where the former we don't have a clue to their looks and the latter is from another game so they'd need a big negotiation with CBS over that. Not going to happen.
Liberated Gorn: Not going to happen since they would be an antagonist faction to the other playable factions.
Tholians: No chance in hell. They're extremely xenophobic and while they appear at the Temporal accords, I think they would rather do their own things than cooperate with the alliance which would be needed for the story. Plus, it would be a lot of work to make the models look right for animations and customization would be extremely limited.
Krenim Imperium & Zahl: Kind of lumped together because of the Year of Hell Lock box. Most ships are ether lock box, lobi, event or promotion ships so there's little chance they would be a playable faction, plus we don't know what the Zahl look like.
Kazon sects: Ewwwww no. We've seen how they don't like to cooperate anyway so its not likely they could be any good. If the borg don't want them, I don't either!
Benthans: Not really much to go on besides them being the Delta Quadrant's police force. Big pass.
B'omar Sovereignty: I think because this game is about cooperation, xenophobic species won't work, especially since we have seen little about them.
Quarren: Definite pass on them.
Q: Pretty much an "I win" button with them since they're so powerful. I don't know what you're smoking to think that they could ever be playable.
Ferengi Alliance: They are one of a more likely group to possibly see as a playable faction, though it's probably more unlikely that we get them considering what has happened with their ships.
Cardassian Union: Finally one that should make sense. A lot of work would need to be put in to justify the fact that they recently released the Keldon as a lock box ship on console. The developers though have stated they're a likely faction though to be considered.
Suliban: They had the chance to add them to the Romulans due to the fact that we can call them via the comm code on the Romulan side, but didn't. Not sure if they will ever.
Son'a: I think getting them is unlikely due to them not really being much of a faction.
Quantum Singularity Lifeform: Not likely since they exist outside of normal space.
Organians: I don't think so.
Hurq: Don't know much about them so unlikely.
Breen: Limited customizaton, all ships were given away so they wouldn't do as a faction.
Deferi: Playable species, maybe if they wanted to make them one. Playable faction, nope as they don't actually have ships due to them being a custom cryptic species and them using stock ships.
Undine: They are on the likelyhood of being never considering that they are extragalactic (Fluidic space realm) and they tend to be xenophobic.
Na'khul: Ships were given away as lock box ships, so no chance in hell, plus they are a known antagonistic faction. With the exception of the Klingons, antagonist and playable doesn't ever happen.
Iconians: Antagonistic, bordering on too powerful to be playable, not happening.
Tamarians: Shaka, When the Walls fell. (Not happening, basically)
so to summarize in TL;DR: Only species that could happen for sure are Cardassians and maybe Ferengi.
The Borg Cooperative is not an enemy faction. They are Borg who have been liberated from the collective. Didn't you play Delta Rising? Additionally, it's already possible to create a Ferengi character so a faction isn't likely.
I only saw the True Way part when I initially replied, hence why I didn't mention the Borg Cooperative. That I could see and would satisfy players need to play as a borg character, though how they get around the fact that lifers already can do that (minus borg cooperative ships) remains to be worked out.
On second thought, there is one race in the game with a major presence that hasn't been represented by either a lockbox or inclusion in another faction... the Deferi. But how many people would want to play one?
2018's Expansion: "Peace of the Action": Iotan faction. (misspelling intended) The Ioatan gangs have agreed on a fragile peace and are using their new Ferengi Alliance contact to start space exploration and exploitation. But the peace seemsf ragile, and Gang Wars still erupt - allowing you to explore a new type of PvP between rivaling Iotan gangs. Territory Control, building up your gangs base of operations, plenty of new options for the PvP interested player - and even those that aren't.
2020's Expansion: "Kelvan Prime Time" - Become a member of the Kelvan Remnant, the survivors of the Great Iconian Wars that irradiated the Andromeda Galaxy so the Iconians could finalize their preparations for the Milky Way explorations. Encounter the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Republic and the Borg and find a new home in a galaxy full of wonder and danger.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Even though they are part of the federation, and not really full faction material. I would love to see them put in the bynar as a playable race, expand on what such a race might put forth for ships, and could make for some interesting character traits as well.
I will agree though I wish when they do lockboxes with alien ships that we could get a boff out of them as a prize, which might have a lot of customization options. I would have loved to get a more customizable Voth boff, I also quite like the look of the Vaadwaur (also there is a kind of split in the Vaadwaur with some fallowing Gaul an others following Eldex).
On second thought, there is one race in the game with a major presence that hasn't been represented by either a lockbox or inclusion in another faction... the Deferi. But how many people would want to play one?
Me, either.
Can the devs properly balance such a faction?
Sure, they can!
Deferi players can fly T1-T5 ships from their own faction only. There will never be any C-Store versions of any of these ships, ever. These ships cannot slot any universal consoles whatsoever and the console slots will always be in perfect balance. Deferi ships always have the same number of weapon slots fore and aft. The ships have a special mechanic whereby they receive +5 power to all subsystems but only if all of the subsystem energy levels are in balance. Deferi ships have an innate resistance to energy drain in any subsystem. Level 50+ Deferi characters may fly any cross-faction (lockbox) ship.
Deferi players are allied to BOTH the Federation and the Klingon Empire and may freely use social zones of either faction and cross-team with either faction. However, they may not use equipment that is exclusive to either faction.
Deferi players have the special trait Balance in both space and ground. When the Deferi player activates the Balance trait, every player and NPC within range including the Deferi player is Placated for 10 seconds and all buffs and debuffs are removed. The Balance trait also has a passive resistance to Confuse (space and ground).
2018's Expansion: "Peace of the Action": Iotan faction. (misspelling intended) The Ioatan gangs have agreed on a fragile peace and are using their new Ferengi Alliance contact to start space exploration and exploitation. But the peace seemsf ragile, and Gang Wars still erupt - allowing you to explore a new type of PvP between rivaling Iotan gangs. Territory Control, building up your gangs base of operations, plenty of new options for the PvP interested player - and even those that aren't.
2020's Expansion: "Kelvan Prime Time" - Become a member of the Kelvan Remnant, the survivors of the Great Iconian Wars that irradiated the Andromeda Galaxy so the Iconians could finalize their preparations for the Milky Way explorations. Encounter the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Republic and the Borg and find a new home in a galaxy full of wonder and danger.
Lyran Star Empire & Hydran Empire: Non-canon powers, where the former we don't have a clue to their looks and the latter is from another game so they'd need a big negotiation with CBS over that. Not going to happen.
Both of these "races / factions", along with the Interstellar Concordium, are property of ADB, makers of Star Fleet Battles - these are "empires" within that game world.
Though yeah, getting any of the three officially ported over will launch a royal mess of licensing arguments. Though Starfleet Command may make that somewhat more likely, if it was to happen it would have already.
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]
On second thought, there is one race in the game with a major presence that hasn't been represented by either a lockbox or inclusion in another faction... the Deferi. But how many people would want to play one?
Me, either.
Can the devs properly balance such a faction?
Sure, they can!
Deferi players can fly T1-T5 ships from their own faction only. There will never be any C-Store versions of any of these ships, ever. These ships cannot slot any universal consoles whatsoever and the console slots will always be in perfect balance. Deferi ships always have the same number of weapon slots fore and aft. The ships have a special mechanic whereby they receive +5 power to all subsystems but only if all of the subsystem energy levels are in balance. Deferi ships have an innate resistance to energy drain in any subsystem. Level 50+ Deferi characters may fly any cross-faction (lockbox) ship.
Deferi players are allied to BOTH the Federation and the Klingon Empire and may freely use social zones of either faction and cross-team with either faction. However, they may not use equipment that is exclusive to either faction.
Deferi players have the special trait Balance in both space and ground. When the Deferi player activates the Balance trait, every player and NPC within range including the Deferi player is Placated for 10 seconds and all buffs and debuffs are removed. The Balance trait also has a passive resistance to Confuse (space and ground).
Well, let's just say it--KDF/Fed as factions has failed. So let's consolidate them into one faction.
Who to put as the other faction? True Way Cardassians, the Breen, and the Dominion
PvP might be savable this way, because players could relive the battles of the Dominion War. The only bad thing would be having to make new Cardassian and Breen episodes for this kind of faction.
One of the many Tellarite Goddesses of Beauty!
If there are posts here that do not appeal to you, or opinions you disagree with, the best way to deal with that is to resist the urge to add comments. Instead, engage with the content you like! Don't feed the trolls!
Not sure what's left they could still realistically do as a LOR style expansion now, as mentioned Dominion/Cardassian/Ferengi have had a load of their main ships released as Lockbox and Lobi (not sure Cardassians even have much of a military left at this point), most of the others are rolled into primary factions or are "enemy powers" and as I understand it CBS says no to that.
Might be space for some more "extended tutorial" TOS style factions though e.g. Gorn, Nausicaan and Orion characters could get intros that fitted more and race-specific effects and gear (although I'd be very surprised to see that level of KDF content now).
> @khazlol said: > Maybe just freelance kind of faction could work. > > the han solos of star trek :P > > > would give the feds something to actually police
I'm kind of behind this. It could serve as both a mini-faction or a standalone. After all, piracy is still a problem, no matter how many Starfleet or Klingon warships are out there. They're busy fighting each other, anyway.
Nausicaans and Letheans get hired on as bodyguards by the Ferengi Alliance and whatnot. Pakleds are mostly nomadic and will resort to piracy to get what they want. There could be Orions more loyal to the Syndicate than they are the KDF. Suliban could be out there floating around still.
Best yet, they'd be the faction that would get the most awesome ship: The Fleet Tuffli retrofit!
My honest opinion on this is: There aren't any species left to make a playable faction. I would have advocated for the Cardassians to be playable, but since Cryptic has crammed two iconic Cardassian ships into lockboxes (Galor and Keldon), I don't see this happen.
I would prefer if we could get more NPC factions to fight, like the Tzenkethi Coalition, the Sheliak Corporate, the Talarian Republic or (big stretch here) the Holy Order of the Kinshaya. I would also like it if fighters and dreadnoughts were added to the Cardassian faction.
A Dominion faction has always been on my want list for STO. With the Klingon faction reduced to Federation oets, we have no bad guy to olay. The Dominion would include Vorta, Changlings, Breen, Cardassians, Jem'Hadar, and which ever other races are included.
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Looking for a new fleet? Drop by the in-game chat channel, "tenforwardforum", and say hi to the members of A Fleet Called Ten Forward (Fed) and The Orion Pirates (KDF). If you already have a fleet you are happy with, please feel free to drop by our chat channel if you are looking for a friendly bunch of helpful people to socialize with.
2018's Expansion: "Peace of the Action": Iotan faction. (misspelling intended) The Ioatan gangs have agreed on a fragile peace and are using their new Ferengi Alliance contact to start space exploration and exploitation. But the peace seemsf ragile, and Gang Wars still erupt - allowing you to explore a new type of PvP between rivaling Iotan gangs. Territory Control, building up your gangs base of operations, plenty of new options for the PvP interested player - and even those that aren't.
2020's Expansion: "Kelvan Prime Time" - Become a member of the Kelvan Remnant, the survivors of the Great Iconian Wars that irradiated the Andromeda Galaxy so the Iconians could finalize their preparations for the Milky Way explorations. Encounter the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Republic and the Borg and find a new home in a galaxy full of wonder and danger.
Both of these are great ideas.
I knew you'd like it.
Alternate title for the Kelvan Prime Time, or the name for its story arc: "Andromeda Ascendant". Maybe one of the missions could be called: "Mission Earth" or "Assignment Earth".
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
*Yawn* we still only have two "factions" in game- Fed and KDF.
Romulans are attached to either/or but still can't play as their own "faction".
That said, they need to sort out the mess they've already created before they introduce more "factions" into the game.
Amen. Plus once your done the starter story arc for each.... Since were's at peace AND on the same side in EVERY mission forward I wish they's let us team together for general PvE questing. I am tired of having have player run fixes for Dev neglect.
KDF Defera and FED Defera chat channels work... But they are an annoying workaround. Plus Still no good for KDF sometimes. Often there's not enough folk on them. Sometimes late night/early AM you'll have 2 Fed's and 1 KDF down there... Some poor slob has to switch toons. Gee... I wonder who?.... Don't get me started on Koballi... (growls)
It clearly isn't impossible to have the factions operate in game together- I mean you already Can by accident in space STF's and Premade team up for STF and PVP "wargames" (not sure what else you can really call those)... Plus - again totally allies now! ;p
SO... Developers... Please- Do your game and player base some good and take the time to code in "Invite to team?" as a cross faction option please for adventure. Some of us do have fav toons that are KDF aligned Roms or straight up KDF.
Fix this teaming issue... and then you can make Factions and Faction story arcs as you please - to your heart's content- without FURTHER unnecessary separating of your player-base.
I can see how people are pining to play any non-introduced off the cuff race invented by Cryptic. Granted, you see the odd Deferi, but they've been around for years. Any not yet discovered? I doubt it.
And that is the main crux: any new faction would really suffer from a very small base of players interested in it (relatively speaking), which won't justify the resources, so
a delta-quad faction that comprise several of the larger races of that quadrant. I dcoud see it being you can choose to play as a rebel Vaadwaur, Voth, Hazari, Banthen, borg coupertive, and maybe one other race like the Turei.
would actually work, and better so than Cardassia (too small, ships already lockboxed, ...), but who, especially as a new player, really yearns for a Benthan?
I think that would be the best way to add new 'factions': just as playable species, preferably with some premium variant that has an unique active ability trait, with a couple of unique episodes and maybe a small unique social zone. Full factions should not be added anymore imo. It's just not possible to properly maintain them and we end up being part of the same Alliance anyway so I don't see the need for true unique factions.
that could work, and maybe will happen to a few. Though I already feel the forum wrath when that happens as to how they're not a real faction and need more unique stuff (a social zone nobody uses as an example)
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
As a proponent for a cardassian faction , with the release of the keldon i have to finally come to the conclusion , a card faction will never happen, i had hoped after the "Revamp" to the card struggle it was possibly on the horizon.
But that isnt the case and there isnt no real candidate for a romulan republic style faction now, and as far as a expansion on the size of LoR...not ever happening again, ive said this alot with LoR the game peaked and will never be that good ever again.
If i had to chose which race at this momment in the game , was best suited for its own faction id have to say borg cooperative, they have a nice background we know little about them , and their story would be very interesting ...BUT. (common oyu knew this was coming)
I doubt it will happen because the LTS players would cry foul, because their liberated borgs would no longer be unique to those willing to fork out way to much dough, and cryptic surely doesnt want that now do they.
A Delta quadrant faction is a great idea except for the fact that they would need an entirely different set of missions than every other faction. In the overall storyline, we don't come into contact with the Delta quadrant until after the Iconian gateway to the Jenolan Dyson Sphere opens up.
It doesn't add up unless the Devs come up with a convoluted mission progression that puts the Delta missions first then introduces them to the Alpha and Beta quadrants before the Iconian War starts and creates any missions necessary to fill in the gaps.
It could be done, but it would be messy and it would be a very different sequence of events from what we're used to.
Add in the fact that the Delta races' ships have already been stuffed into lockboxes, so there'd be no natural progression to T6.
The only further faction that would be warranted would be the Cardassians (even if it is done as a small Federation sub-faction), the Cardassians were the 3rd largest power in the Alpha quadrant (The Federation, The Klingon Empire, The Romulan Star Empire, and the Cardassian Union being the only 4 large major powers with very extensive territory there), and Cardassians appear in 99 separate episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager, that is almost twice as many episodes as the Romulans appear in from all of the Star Trek series and films combined.
Comments
A loose affiliation of space traders, opportunists, and all around scalawags including Pakleds, Heralds (Potatoes), Talaxians, Binars, and Dremans.
I hate to break it to you, but Cryptic is against enemy factions being playable. It's one reason the Romulans turned out to be the Romulan Republic. The True Way are an enemy faction in that they do not want to cooperate with the Federation, Klingons or the Romulan Republic in anything. They want to have Cardassia be militaristic rather than cooperative.
The Voth aren't exactly a species that would get along with every other species. They seem to have a bias against mammalian based species, so the ones they'd likely tolerate are the Gorn, Xindi-Reptilians & Saurians. Plus, a lot of their ships are either lock box, lobi store or promotion ships already.
I am taking these one at a time.
Vaadwaur Supremacy: They are essentially an enemy faction so they will never be playable.
Terran Empire: Enemy faction as well, since they have always seemed to be very antagonistic in history.
Romulan Star Empire: Little remains of them as a faction since most of them have broken away due to the problems faced once Sela disappeared. Plus, we have the Romulan Republic for Romulans, so defintiely no.
Lyran Star Empire & Hydran Empire: Non-canon powers, where the former we don't have a clue to their looks and the latter is from another game so they'd need a big negotiation with CBS over that. Not going to happen.
Liberated Gorn: Not going to happen since they would be an antagonist faction to the other playable factions.
Tholians: No chance in hell. They're extremely xenophobic and while they appear at the Temporal accords, I think they would rather do their own things than cooperate with the alliance which would be needed for the story. Plus, it would be a lot of work to make the models look right for animations and customization would be extremely limited.
Krenim Imperium & Zahl: Kind of lumped together because of the Year of Hell Lock box. Most ships are ether lock box, lobi, event or promotion ships so there's little chance they would be a playable faction, plus we don't know what the Zahl look like.
Kazon sects: Ewwwww no. We've seen how they don't like to cooperate anyway so its not likely they could be any good. If the borg don't want them, I don't either!
Benthans: Not really much to go on besides them being the Delta Quadrant's police force. Big pass.
B'omar Sovereignty: I think because this game is about cooperation, xenophobic species won't work, especially since we have seen little about them.
Quarren: Definite pass on them.
Q: Pretty much an "I win" button with them since they're so powerful. I don't know what you're smoking to think that they could ever be playable.
Ferengi Alliance: They are one of a more likely group to possibly see as a playable faction, though it's probably more unlikely that we get them considering what has happened with their ships.
Cardassian Union: Finally one that should make sense. A lot of work would need to be put in to justify the fact that they recently released the Keldon as a lock box ship on console. The developers though have stated they're a likely faction though to be considered.
Suliban: They had the chance to add them to the Romulans due to the fact that we can call them via the comm code on the Romulan side, but didn't. Not sure if they will ever.
Son'a: I think getting them is unlikely due to them not really being much of a faction.
Quantum Singularity Lifeform: Not likely since they exist outside of normal space.
Organians: I don't think so.
Hurq: Don't know much about them so unlikely.
Breen: Limited customizaton, all ships were given away so they wouldn't do as a faction.
Deferi: Playable species, maybe if they wanted to make them one. Playable faction, nope as they don't actually have ships due to them being a custom cryptic species and them using stock ships.
Undine: They are on the likelyhood of being never considering that they are extragalactic (Fluidic space realm) and they tend to be xenophobic.
Na'khul: Ships were given away as lock box ships, so no chance in hell, plus they are a known antagonistic faction. With the exception of the Klingons, antagonist and playable doesn't ever happen.
Iconians: Antagonistic, bordering on too powerful to be playable, not happening.
Tamarians: Shaka, When the Walls fell. (Not happening, basically)
so to summarize in TL;DR: Only species that could happen for sure are Cardassians and maybe Ferengi.
The Borg Cooperative is not an enemy faction. They are Borg who have been liberated from the collective. Didn't you play Delta Rising? Additionally, it's already possible to create a Ferengi character so a faction isn't likely.
C'Mon, Cryptic... if you're going to put Cardie ships in lockboxes, how about at least letting players actually have Cardassian characters? Long overdue, IMO.
Even less reason to release a Ferengi faction... we already have cross-faction Ferengi ships and Fed Ferengi, all we need is to add the race to the KDF. (I know, I've argued against adding them to the KDF before. Hey, it's a US election year... I can flip-flop too.)
They're not going to do Borg. That would step on the toes of the LTS players and their liberated Borgs.
So what major race or faction is left to work with that would fit into the storyline that people would actually care about? That they haven't already released ships for in a lockbox, because there has to be a T6 option?
Xindi? Nope, lockboxes. Try again.
Iconian? Tholian? Nope, lockboxes. And they're technically bad guys.
Dominion? Not likely. Jem'Hadar ships in lockboxes and you never see a Founder or Vorta in anything else.
Any Delta Race? Not likely. Some already represented with lockbox ships and none that make sense to integrate into the storyline prior to the opening of the Iconian gateways.
I don't see what's left for a faction, frankly.
Here's what I *would* like to see, though... species-specific mission arcs to provide extra immersive flavor. They could release those one race at a time darn near indefinitely. But they won't do that because *bang for the buck*.
I'm resigned to disappointment on that front, really. That leaves me the option to be pleasantly surprised if Cryptic defies my expectations.
1- We all KNOW that Cryptic thinks Pakleds are the best idea offered. It's so obvious!
2- We also all know deep down in our heart of hearts that we'd LOVE to see a Pakled focused Tutorial, where we learn the flight commands and indeed finally learn how to make things GO!
So shelve all of your fascinating ideas and jump on board the Pakled Faction or Bust crusade! It's inevitable!
Me, either.
the han solos of star trek :P
example: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Thadiun_Okona
would give the feds something to actually police
I only saw the True Way part when I initially replied, hence why I didn't mention the Borg Cooperative. That I could see and would satisfy players need to play as a borg character, though how they get around the fact that lifers already can do that (minus borg cooperative ships) remains to be worked out.
Can the devs properly balance such a faction?
2020's Expansion: "Kelvan Prime Time" - Become a member of the Kelvan Remnant, the survivors of the Great Iconian Wars that irradiated the Andromeda Galaxy so the Iconians could finalize their preparations for the Milky Way explorations. Encounter the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Republic and the Borg and find a new home in a galaxy full of wonder and danger.
memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Bynar
I will agree though I wish when they do lockboxes with alien ships that we could get a boff out of them as a prize, which might have a lot of customization options. I would have loved to get a more customizable Voth boff, I also quite like the look of the Vaadwaur (also there is a kind of split in the Vaadwaur with some fallowing Gaul an others following Eldex).
Sure, they can!
Deferi players can fly T1-T5 ships from their own faction only. There will never be any C-Store versions of any of these ships, ever. These ships cannot slot any universal consoles whatsoever and the console slots will always be in perfect balance. Deferi ships always have the same number of weapon slots fore and aft. The ships have a special mechanic whereby they receive +5 power to all subsystems but only if all of the subsystem energy levels are in balance. Deferi ships have an innate resistance to energy drain in any subsystem. Level 50+ Deferi characters may fly any cross-faction (lockbox) ship.
Deferi players are allied to BOTH the Federation and the Klingon Empire and may freely use social zones of either faction and cross-team with either faction. However, they may not use equipment that is exclusive to either faction.
Deferi players have the special trait Balance in both space and ground. When the Deferi player activates the Balance trait, every player and NPC within range including the Deferi player is Placated for 10 seconds and all buffs and debuffs are removed. The Balance trait also has a passive resistance to Confuse (space and ground).
Both of these are great ideas.
Both of these "races / factions", along with the Interstellar Concordium, are property of ADB, makers of Star Fleet Battles - these are "empires" within that game world.
Though yeah, getting any of the three officially ported over will launch a royal mess of licensing arguments. Though Starfleet Command may make that somewhat more likely, if it was to happen it would have already.
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]
I love it!
Who to put as the other faction? True Way Cardassians, the Breen, and the Dominion
PvP might be savable this way, because players could relive the battles of the Dominion War. The only bad thing would be having to make new Cardassian and Breen episodes for this kind of faction.
If there are posts here that do not appeal to you, or opinions you disagree with, the best way to deal with that is to resist the urge to add comments. Instead, engage with the content you like! Don't feed the trolls!
Might be space for some more "extended tutorial" TOS style factions though e.g. Gorn, Nausicaan and Orion characters could get intros that fitted more and race-specific effects and gear (although I'd be very surprised to see that level of KDF content now).
> Maybe just freelance kind of faction could work.
>
> the han solos of star trek :P
>
>
> would give the feds something to actually police
I'm kind of behind this. It could serve as both a mini-faction or a standalone. After all, piracy is still a problem, no matter how many Starfleet or Klingon warships are out there. They're busy fighting each other, anyway.
Nausicaans and Letheans get hired on as bodyguards by the Ferengi Alliance and whatnot. Pakleds are mostly nomadic and will resort to piracy to get what they want. There could be Orions more loyal to the Syndicate than they are the KDF. Suliban could be out there floating around still.
Best yet, they'd be the faction that would get the most awesome ship: The Fleet Tuffli retrofit!
I would prefer if we could get more NPC factions to fight, like the Tzenkethi Coalition, the Sheliak Corporate, the Talarian Republic or (big stretch here) the Holy Order of the Kinshaya. I would also like it if fighters and dreadnoughts were added to the Cardassian faction.
Who's the prettiest of them all?
> <
> <
>
I knew you'd like it.
Alternate title for the Kelvan Prime Time, or the name for its story arc: "Andromeda Ascendant". Maybe one of the missions could be called: "Mission Earth" or "Assignment Earth".
Amen. Plus once your done the starter story arc for each.... Since were's at peace AND on the same side in EVERY mission forward I wish they's let us team together for general PvE questing. I am tired of having have player run fixes for Dev neglect.
KDF Defera and FED Defera chat channels work... But they are an annoying workaround. Plus Still no good for KDF sometimes. Often there's not enough folk on them. Sometimes late night/early AM you'll have 2 Fed's and 1 KDF down there... Some poor slob has to switch toons. Gee... I wonder who?.... Don't get me started on Koballi... (growls)
It clearly isn't impossible to have the factions operate in game together- I mean you already Can by accident in space STF's and Premade team up for STF and PVP "wargames" (not sure what else you can really call those)... Plus - again totally allies now! ;p
SO... Developers... Please- Do your game and player base some good and take the time to code in "Invite to team?" as a cross faction option please for adventure. Some of us do have fav toons that are KDF aligned Roms or straight up KDF.
Fix this teaming issue... and then you can make Factions and Faction story arcs as you please - to your heart's content- without FURTHER unnecessary separating of your player-base.
My two strips of latinum. Cheers!
Members of the Federation in 2409
Members of the Federation in 2409
Probably also members of the Federation in 2409
I can see how people are pining to play any non-introduced off the cuff race invented by Cryptic. Granted, you see the odd Deferi, but they've been around for years. Any not yet discovered? I doubt it.
And that is the main crux: any new faction would really suffer from a very small base of players interested in it (relatively speaking), which won't justify the resources, so
would actually work, and better so than Cardassia (too small, ships already lockboxed, ...), but who, especially as a new player, really yearns for a Benthan?
The idea
that could work, and maybe will happen to a few. Though I already feel the forum wrath when that happens as to how they're not a real faction and need more unique stuff (a social zone nobody uses as an example)
But that isnt the case and there isnt no real candidate for a romulan republic style faction now, and as far as a expansion on the size of LoR...not ever happening again, ive said this alot with LoR the game peaked and will never be that good ever again.
If i had to chose which race at this momment in the game , was best suited for its own faction id have to say borg cooperative, they have a nice background we know little about them , and their story would be very interesting ...BUT. (common oyu knew this was coming)
I doubt it will happen because the LTS players would cry foul, because their liberated borgs would no longer be unique to those willing to fork out way to much dough, and cryptic surely doesnt want that now do they.
Ya know snoggy i think your onto something here , PAKLED FACTION FTW!!!
It doesn't add up unless the Devs come up with a convoluted mission progression that puts the Delta missions first then introduces them to the Alpha and Beta quadrants before the Iconian War starts and creates any missions necessary to fill in the gaps.
It could be done, but it would be messy and it would be a very different sequence of events from what we're used to.
Add in the fact that the Delta races' ships have already been stuffed into lockboxes, so there'd be no natural progression to T6.