Personally, right now, I don't replay missions on alts. I generally get to level 11, open the Duty Officer assignment, park it, and level it that way. Simply because I don't want to bother with the repeating the same narrative over and over. I can't even bring myself to do this on my Romulan Delta Recruit, even though I need to for the rewards still. It's just not worth the boredom of repeating the same missions and narratives again.
they sometimes have dialog forks based on your faction and race. The mission where you meet Killy is particularly interesting as a Jem'hadar since Killy had never even HEARD of the Jem'hadar before meeting you.
Honestly, that just makes it worse. They do it once, and then in the next mission, sometimes even the next scene, they're back to assuming that the PC is a human male Starfleet captain. I played that mission on my Fed Rom, and she acknowledged Morgan was a Romulan but then went right back to blathering about the Federation literally one map change later.
If they would do it with some consistency, that would be awesome.
Exactly! I mean, we aren't asking for something like separate story for each faction, though we have in the past. But, just a different narrative approach with the missions. The missions will play out the same, just with a different interaction for the factions.
I mean, think on it, how much fun would it be to play the Cardassian arc, if the NPCs reacted to you playing a Jem'Hadar. I'd find it entertaining and it would give me a reason to play those missions again.
I bring this up, because we all know how much Cryptic likes to go back and change the older missions. They done so when they added Elim Garrak. They went back and added him to various older missions. Surface Tensions comes to mind here.
Well given romulans can wear their allied faction uniforms and they are more ilassian officers for the federation or Klingon Empire. I'd really like to see a major update to the klingon side. They sorely need a earth space dock like thing for their side. I Think peoeple like to gather on earth space dock to socialize and it offers everything all in one place while the klingon one does not. A nice space dock for the klingons in klingon style but also nice looking I think could draw players in because one give what the federation has with earth space dock and give it to klingons I think more players might gravitate to that side. Because a lot of the game is social I think and not everyone plays the content all the once. Some might stay on earth space dock 99 percent of the time. Its kinda why I think a lot of players might go federation so they can have access to that. The Klingons don't have social space dock like the federation does and I think doing something like that where they can access exchange, have a club of their own, maybe more like a hunting lodge or resturant type thing. With furs and maybe animal heads on the walls. More homey looking. Designed for comfort and resting inbetween to recover from the harsh realities of being a warrior. Even Klingons need shoreleave and having it be designed to be comfortable. So more like a feel of a hunting establishment kinda like the klingon fleet starbase area. Along with various places like a Klingon Theater and a big stage with lots of seats. As I think Klingons do enjoy Theater along with operas. So the idea is to make a design that attracts players to it like bugs to a flame and keeping them coming back. Give Klingons a nice place of their own and more would go and socialize on the kdf side and not just the fed side. So In a way this I think could solve a lot of the issues with player retention just got to make the klingon side relatable and maybe not as harsh but show a softer side to the faction. While making it look not so dirty and also well kept and make it just as good or even better then Earth Space Dock. So it would be kinda like a klingon luxery starbase Qo'nos space Dock. Yeah I think its time high time Klingons receive the Qo'nos version of earth space dock and have a nice starbase that is just as big as the Feds Starbase and give some much needed attention to the Klingon Side and give them the Qo'nos space dock they so desperately need to rival the Feds. Plus new outfits and more barbie options to go with the new Qo'nos Space Dock. Then the faction I think would be ready to sell the player base.
Oh. Yeah. That's it. THAT'S why there aren't more Klingon players. Not enough comfy chairs.
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Personally, right now, I don't replay missions on alts. I generally get to level 11, open the Duty Officer assignment, park it, and level it that way. Simply because I don't want to bother with the repeating the same narrative over and over. I can't even bring myself to do this on my Romulan Delta Recruit, even though I need to for the rewards still. It's just not worth the boredom of repeating the same missions and narratives again.
they sometimes have dialog forks based on your faction and race. The mission where you meet Killy is particularly interesting as a Jem'hadar since Killy had never even HEARD of the Jem'hadar before meeting you.
Honestly, that just makes it worse. They do it once, and then in the next mission, sometimes even the next scene, they're back to assuming that the PC is a human male Starfleet captain. I played that mission on my Fed Rom, and she acknowledged Morgan was a Romulan but then went right back to blathering about the Federation literally one map change later.
She's invading a Federation planet. Why shouldn't she talk about the Federation?
I play custom alien and I find it pretty weird that NPCs who don't know me can identify me as particular faction regardless of appearance, uniform and ship. In fact, now that they've unlocked the clothes I could totally dress up as a human Starfleet officer, fly a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew...and still get called a romulan just because the toon did the tutorial on Virinat. Yeah, no. I prefer generic dialogue.
Oh. Yeah. That's it. THAT'S why there aren't more Klingon players. Not enough comfy chairs.
Perhaps. I remember going to Qo'nos when they said they "updated" it to the "new" one. I had to ask in chat at the time where the new First City was... cause there wasn't anything new about what I was seeing. Only to have someone tell me, "This is the new First City." That's when my desire to play KDF started to dwindle.
So an actual new First City, or perhaps updating the shipyard to and actual starbase, would attract more players. But then after the beginning story arc, you run into the same unilateral story line. So it probably wouldn't last long.
Personally, right now, I don't replay missions on alts. I generally get to level 11, open the Duty Officer assignment, park it, and level it that way. Simply because I don't want to bother with the repeating the same narrative over and over. I can't even bring myself to do this on my Romulan Delta Recruit, even though I need to for the rewards still. It's just not worth the boredom of repeating the same missions and narratives again.
they sometimes have dialog forks based on your faction and race. The mission where you meet Killy is particularly interesting as a Jem'hadar since Killy had never even HEARD of the Jem'hadar before meeting you.
Honestly, that just makes it worse. They do it once, and then in the next mission, sometimes even the next scene, they're back to assuming that the PC is a human male Starfleet captain. I played that mission on my Fed Rom, and she acknowledged Morgan was a Romulan but then went right back to blathering about the Federation literally one map change later.
She's invading a Federation planet. Why shouldn't she talk about the Federation?
I play custom alien and I find it pretty weird that NPCs who don't know me can identify me as particular faction regardless of appearance, uniform and ship. In fact, now that they've unlocked the clothes I could totally dress up as a human Starfleet officer, fly a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew...and still get called a romulan just because the toon did the tutorial on Virinat. Yeah, no. I prefer generic dialogue.
Then as a player setting, say in options, they could add and selection where a player could set themselves as Active Duty or Civilian. Which is not a bad idea, I have some characters that I keep in the mercenary area. You know, doing the task force job, just not as a active duty faction member. Which also fits with the custom alien. Doubly so for the Romulan and KDF, they're not above hiring mercs to do the job.
The lead in there could even be, "A merc? Well, let's hope you can earn you pay on this one." OR something along those lines.
STO doesn't have enough players spending money on other factions to justify the cost of creating new stories for each faction.
70% of the captains created are Federation, so it would double (or more) the cost of creating new episodes, that only a minority of the players would care about.
Other MMOs have made the same decision, even WoW despite it having a much larger player base.
Sadly all the non-Fed factions are trapped in the circular reasoning Cryptic has come up with. I don't mean missions either. I like the way missions work i think it's fine that they worked to combine things like they did. I know that I enjoy my KDF toons, but play and create FEDs more, because they have more content. They have more content because more people play them(they were the only faction originally so already had a head start that was never reduced).
Cryptic is stuck on this. Rather than trying to close the gap to make the other factions more tenable( I have close to 100 admirality cards on my FED toons, while being lucky to have @60 on my KDF, part of that being FEDS have 3-7 ships per tier 1-4, while KDF and ROMS have 2-4(?) Sure opening up ships to other factions helps but...)
I'm sure most new players come in wanting to be a FED. I'm also sure they learn pretty quick that the FED faction is the favored faction. How many would play the other factions if they were more equal? We will probably never find out
Personally, right now, I don't replay missions on alts. I generally get to level 11, open the Duty Officer assignment, park it, and level it that way. Simply because I don't want to bother with the repeating the same narrative over and over. I can't even bring myself to do this on my Romulan Delta Recruit, even though I need to for the rewards still. It's just not worth the boredom of repeating the same missions and narratives again.
they sometimes have dialog forks based on your faction and race. The mission where you meet Killy is particularly interesting as a Jem'hadar since Killy had never even HEARD of the Jem'hadar before meeting you.
Honestly, that just makes it worse. They do it once, and then in the next mission, sometimes even the next scene, they're back to assuming that the PC is a human male Starfleet captain. I played that mission on my Fed Rom, and she acknowledged Morgan was a Romulan but then went right back to blathering about the Federation literally one map change later.
She's invading a Federation planet. Why shouldn't she talk about the Federation?
Maybe because the dialogue box I'm referring to was talking about the player character?
I play custom alien and I find it pretty weird that NPCs who don't know me can identify me as particular faction regardless of appearance, uniform and ship. In fact, now that they've unlocked the clothes I could totally dress up as a human Starfleet officer, fly a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew...and still get called a romulan just because the toon did the tutorial on Virinat. Yeah, no. I prefer generic dialogue.
Be nice if it was generic.
It isn't. It's Starfleet-centric.
That's before you even get to nonsense like that cutscene in the Kobali arc where Captain Morally Bankrupt Benzite starts banging on about the Prime Directive to a Romulan who would outrank her by multiple grades were they in the same service. The Federation should have more respect for its allies: they work with them, not for them.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Personally, right now, I don't replay missions on alts. I generally get to level 11, open the Duty Officer assignment, park it, and level it that way. Simply because I don't want to bother with the repeating the same narrative over and over. I can't even bring myself to do this on my Romulan Delta Recruit, even though I need to for the rewards still. It's just not worth the boredom of repeating the same missions and narratives again.
they sometimes have dialog forks based on your faction and race. The mission where you meet Killy is particularly interesting as a Jem'hadar since Killy had never even HEARD of the Jem'hadar before meeting you.
Honestly, that just makes it worse. They do it once, and then in the next mission, sometimes even the next scene, they're back to assuming that the PC is a human male Starfleet captain. I played that mission on my Fed Rom, and she acknowledged Morgan was a Romulan but then went right back to blathering about the Federation literally one map change later.
She's invading a Federation planet. Why shouldn't she talk about the Federation?
Maybe because the dialogue box I'm referring to was talking about the player character?
I play custom alien and I find it pretty weird that NPCs who don't know me can identify me as particular faction regardless of appearance, uniform and ship. In fact, now that they've unlocked the clothes I could totally dress up as a human Starfleet officer, fly a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew...and still get called a romulan just because the toon did the tutorial on Virinat. Yeah, no. I prefer generic dialogue.
Why create a multi-faction game and not support it with content? Yeah, I can see streamlining your storyline to one main one is easier for time and money but why not have it that way from the get go? Seems strange to me but I guess its the whole water and bridge thing now. Anyways, I would appreciate the small (and possibly workable) steps they could take such as more faction/race recognition in the dialogue choices to recognize that not everyone is Starfleet.
~Shia~
Member - Houseclan t'Charvon (STO)
Shiarrael e'Tal'Aura t'Charvon, LvL 65, Rom Sci
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Why create a multi-faction game and not support it with content? Yeah, I can see streamlining your storyline to one main one is easier for time and money but why not have it that way from the get go? Seems strange to me but I guess its the whole water and bridge thing now. Anyways, I would appreciate the small (and possibly workable) steps they could take such as more faction/race recognition in the dialogue choices to recognize that not everyone is Starfleet.
Well, working from memory...
To start with, Cryptic was really rushed making the game. They got the license after Perpetual folded after about three years of producing little more than some pieces of art, so they basically had to plug Star Trek assets into the Champions Online engine and tack-weld a space combat system onto it in the space of about 13 months. It pretty much took until Legacy of Romulus for the game to have anything resembling the amount of content it should've had at launch.
So they really only had time to make one faction, but apparently CBS wanted a multifaction game, so Cryptic compromised by making a PVP-only KDF faction that unlocked after you leveled a Starfleet toon. Problem being, a lot of folks don't like PVP.
With LOR they went back and added in KDF leveling missions -- which apparently involved the relevant devs working on their off hours. But they also had the problem of Geko, the EP at the time, being a bonehead (which is also apparently the reason everybody's an admiral): the poor sales performance of the Bortasqu' were the excuse for literally years for why they wouldn't make more Klingon C-store stuff, when the reality is it didn't sell because it was terrible.
The "fraction" system used with the Roms and Jems was apparently a design compromise due to the game engine not being able to handle an additional full faction for teaming purposes without a major code overhaul: comments from people who have left Cryptic in recent years say the engine is ancient and overdue for some major refactoring.
At this point it's kind of a Catch-22. Cryptic doesn't want to invest in the other factions because they make less money than Fed stuff, and players focus on Fed stuff because Cryptic won't invest in the other factions.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Because most stories don't logically begin in a situation where everyone is in a position to form some giant super alliance to combat a shared threat, and thus, no game starts there.
That isn't true, and in fact the Federation itself is exactly that giant super alliance thing, but neither did the game start with that goal in mind. It started with KDF being represented as a second, rival faction, actually turned out to actually be a PVP centric faction, then they tried to flesh out the KDF, failed to draw more players because too little too late, so then they had no other option but to unite them all and hamfist content for everyone.
It was necessary simply because the game didn't draw enough players to the other factions to properly have a multifaction game. And that is sad, because the faction specific missions remain some of the best content. They are more focused and more compelling because you don't have to speak in generalities to try and have dialogue and motivations for everyone.
Humans are generally the most popular race in every game that has them. Simply because that's what all players are the most familiar with, being humans themselves.
That isn't true, and in fact the Federation itself is exactly that giant super alliance thing, but neither did the game start with that goal in mind. It started with KDF being represented as a second, rival faction, actually turned out to actually be a PVP centric faction, then they tried to flesh out the KDF, failed to draw more players because too little too late, so then they had no other option but to unite them all and hamfist content for everyone.
Factually incorrect. From the beginning, the Iconians were intended to be the game's main villains, who would bring everyone together to combat them. Which is why the Undine infiltration(which was started by the Iconians manipulating the Undine) was in the game since the beginning. The Klingons were never designed to be the main villain of the game at any point, nor was their initial inclusion in the game only for PVP.
Hell, the first concept art of the Iconians came out in like July 2010, just a few months after the game came out, and even then Daniel Stahl was talking about the Iconians.
Your logic apparently goes something like: Because Iconians-->grand alliance. That's ridiculous and not remotely reflective of what was going on at launch. There was literally no content for the KDF besides PVP and what I'll call pewxploration clusters (these still exist unchanged) at launch. I'm also fairly certain it was explicitly stated at some point that the KDF was intended to be "monster play" or a PVP heavy faction.
Once they found out that wasn't what people wanted and they couldn't keep people in PVP, they started turning out some KDF only missions, hoping to draw more to the faction and justify further content. That didn't happen either. So they went ahead with the only option remaining, mix Fed and KDF content so you get the most bang for your buck.
As for Iconians they changed significantly over time as missions were redone and retconned. They showed up in two missions in the game, first in Where Angels Fear to Tread, then in Cutting the Cord (later we "first" meet Hakeev in the nimbus line, which is now optional so you can easily do them out of order.) Now they are gone from Angels and its a Herald ship in Cutting. We also originally shut down an Iconian gateway in Fluid dynamics which now isn't even necessary for Iconians to antagonize the Undine. That idiot Dr. Cooper was also retconned in to a few missions after Step Between Stars, despite him being introduced to us for the first time there by Tuvok.
There has been a LOT of retconning in this game, so to even imagine that they intended a grand alliance at launch is silly, because they changed so much since then.
Humans are generally the most popular race in every game that has them. Simply because that's what all players are the most familiar with, being humans themselves.
Yeah. I don't think anybody ever seriously claimed that there wouldn't be a disparity if Cryptic had been willing and/or able to support both major factions properly from the beginning, we're just saying it might not have been as big of a disparity as currently exists.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
There has been a LOT of retconning in this game, so to even imagine that they intended a grand alliance at launch is silly, because they changed so much since then.
This isn't how story development works. You can have an idea of where you want the story to go from the beginning, and make a plot that starts taking you there, but then later decide you could do that part better, and thus change it, and still be working within the same large scale idea you had from the beginning.
Except there is no reason to create a grand alliance with your only other faction that is a monster play faction. That was changed and retconned as they saw people wanted a fully fledged KDF faction and then Romulans. The story has changed on the fly repeatedly, and there's no reason to imagine the grand alliance was planned with the shadow of a faction that the KDF was. The grand alliance was changed not just to be the many species we ran into throughout the game story, especially the Krenim, but to include the (now) three major factions. Its not hard to write the KDF into that once you start making them a semi-proper faction.
There has been a LOT of retconning in this game, so to even imagine that they intended a grand alliance at launch is silly, because they changed so much since then.
This isn't how story development works. You can have an idea of where you want the story to go from the beginning, and make a plot that starts taking you there, but then later decide you could do that part better, and thus change it, and still be working within the same large scale idea you had from the beginning.
Except there is no reason to create a grand alliance with your only other faction that is a monster play faction. That was changed and retconned as they saw people wanted a fully fledged KDF faction and then Romulans. The story has changed on the fly repeatedly, and there's no reason to imagine the grand alliance was planned with the shadow of a faction that the KDF was. The grand alliance was changed not just to be the many species we ran into throughout the game story, especially the Krenim, but to include the (now) three major factions. Its not hard to write the KDF into that once you start making them a semi-proper faction.
Did the devs WANT the KDF to be monster play? As someone who started playing when KDF characters started at level 8... KDF always had a story. Gates of Grethor is one of the oldest missions in the game. The problem was that the devs didn't have enough missions at launch for a full leveling experience red-side.
There has been a LOT of retconning in this game, so to even imagine that they intended a grand alliance at launch is silly, because they changed so much since then.
This isn't how story development works. You can have an idea of where you want the story to go from the beginning, and make a plot that starts taking you there, but then later decide you could do that part better, and thus change it, and still be working within the same large scale idea you had from the beginning.
Except there is no reason to create a grand alliance with your only other faction that is a monster play faction. That was changed and retconned as they saw people wanted a fully fledged KDF faction and then Romulans. The story has changed on the fly repeatedly, and there's no reason to imagine the grand alliance was planned with the shadow of a faction that the KDF was. The grand alliance was changed not just to be the many species we ran into throughout the game story, especially the Krenim, but to include the (now) three major factions. Its not hard to write the KDF into that once you start making them a semi-proper faction.
Monster play? Are we forgetting the "monster" races that are a part of the Federation. For example, Captain Shon of the U.S.S. I'm Here to Annoy You. Or the fish face Captian on Kobali. Tellarites in general. Or Bolians, whose body fluids are actually dangerous to other species.
There you go, there's your monster play, and it's Federation side.
As I stated earlier, I'd play my klingon more than my Fed. But, the narrative approach makes me feel insulted for every other player out there, that chooses one of the other faction. I get that the story needs to be fed-centric. However, on the political side of it, you'd want to treat each faction as that. Which, this can be done with just a different narrative approach based on the faction chosen.
As other's have stated, Cryptic has said it's not profitable enough, some of that was the residual left overs of the Bortasque faux pas Cryptic made. Which carried on for a while. But here we are, and they're now releasing a new KDF ship, every time they release a new Federation ship. So, apparently it is profitable enough. Actions outweigh words, and their actions show they're making profit off the KDF ships, or they wouldn't continue to make them. They're just not as profitable as they'd hoped. Mainly because other than just being a different faction isn't enough to draw a lot of players. Especially when those different factions are treated as another Federation plebian. For example here, adding in Naussican Female, which were a part of the original concept art for them, would attract more attention. It's also something the players have been asking for, for years.
Granted it would also help if we could get out of this 2410 time loop we seem to be stuck in. But that's Star Trek's bad temporal mechanics for you.
Oh. Yeah. That's it. THAT'S why there aren't more Klingon players. Not enough comfy chairs.
Personally I would blame the depressing lighting on klingon hubs.
On the bright side, it doesn't hurt the eyes anymore since the game's lighting was overhauled a few years ago. Before that overhaul it was a nightmare to be around First City or Ganalda, as well as most KDF-interiors for ships and/or missions.
I always felt like the early Klingon missions should've been like the B-Side of the Federation Klingon War arc. Klingon players playing as the boarders raiding the S.S. Azura ("Stranded in Space"). Maybe they were looking for something? Perhaps the Undine infiltrator was aboard as one of the crew that the Federation player rescues. Later they track him to Vulcan and then P'Jem where they square off against the Federation again, this time unknowingly allowing the Undine to get away aboard their ship ("Diplomatic Orders"). Perhaps that Undine infiltrator would later turn out to be Cooper. Anyway, point is, the Klingon War arc would've been much more interesting to me, if it had been told from the two different perspectives with different objectives depending on which side one played as.
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I always felt like the early Klingon missions should've been like the B-Side of the Federation Klingon War arc. Klingon players playing as the boarders raiding the S.S. Azura ("Stranded in Space"). Maybe they were looking for something? Perhaps the Undine infiltrator was aboard as one of the crew that the Federation player rescues. Later they track him to Vulcan and then P'Jem where they square off against the Federation again, this time unknowingly allowing the Undine to get away aboard their ship ("Diplomatic Orders"). Perhaps that Undine infiltrator would later turn out to be Cooper. Anyway, point is, the Klingon War arc would've been much more interesting to me, if it had been told from the two different perspectives with different objectives depending on which side one played as.
I agree. Especially the part about the Undine: one of the biggest problems I have with the way the Klingon War arc was handled is that everything gets lumped together with the Undine infiltration and the Federation is basically blamed for starting the war by incompetence. Whereas the reality is the whole thing was a land-grab by Jimmy Pok and the Undine had bollocks to do with it.
If the Klingon PC was actually shown hunting a few Undine, instead of Starfleet being the only ones doing it, they might've had a better case at the Jenolan conference.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
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Exactly! I mean, we aren't asking for something like separate story for each faction, though we have in the past. But, just a different narrative approach with the missions. The missions will play out the same, just with a different interaction for the factions.
I mean, think on it, how much fun would it be to play the Cardassian arc, if the NPCs reacted to you playing a Jem'Hadar. I'd find it entertaining and it would give me a reason to play those missions again.
I bring this up, because we all know how much Cryptic likes to go back and change the older missions. They done so when they added Elim Garrak. They went back and added him to various older missions. Surface Tensions comes to mind here.
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I play custom alien and I find it pretty weird that NPCs who don't know me can identify me as particular faction regardless of appearance, uniform and ship. In fact, now that they've unlocked the clothes I could totally dress up as a human Starfleet officer, fly a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew...and still get called a romulan just because the toon did the tutorial on Virinat. Yeah, no. I prefer generic dialogue.
Perhaps. I remember going to Qo'nos when they said they "updated" it to the "new" one. I had to ask in chat at the time where the new First City was... cause there wasn't anything new about what I was seeing. Only to have someone tell me, "This is the new First City." That's when my desire to play KDF started to dwindle.
So an actual new First City, or perhaps updating the shipyard to and actual starbase, would attract more players. But then after the beginning story arc, you run into the same unilateral story line. So it probably wouldn't last long.
Then as a player setting, say in options, they could add and selection where a player could set themselves as Active Duty or Civilian. Which is not a bad idea, I have some characters that I keep in the mercenary area. You know, doing the task force job, just not as a active duty faction member. Which also fits with the custom alien. Doubly so for the Romulan and KDF, they're not above hiring mercs to do the job.
The lead in there could even be, "A merc? Well, let's hope you can earn you pay on this one." OR something along those lines.
Sadly all the non-Fed factions are trapped in the circular reasoning Cryptic has come up with. I don't mean missions either. I like the way missions work i think it's fine that they worked to combine things like they did. I know that I enjoy my KDF toons, but play and create FEDs more, because they have more content. They have more content because more people play them(they were the only faction originally so already had a head start that was never reduced).
Cryptic is stuck on this. Rather than trying to close the gap to make the other factions more tenable( I have close to 100 admirality cards on my FED toons, while being lucky to have @60 on my KDF, part of that being FEDS have 3-7 ships per tier 1-4, while KDF and ROMS have 2-4(?) Sure opening up ships to other factions helps but...)
I'm sure most new players come in wanting to be a FED. I'm also sure they learn pretty quick that the FED faction is the favored faction. How many would play the other factions if they were more equal? We will probably never find out
Be nice if it was generic.
It isn't. It's Starfleet-centric.
That's before you even get to nonsense like that cutscene in the Kobali arc where Captain Morally Bankrupt Benzite starts banging on about the Prime Directive to a Romulan who would outrank her by multiple grades were they in the same service. The Federation should have more respect for its allies: they work with them, not for them.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Always the same claim, never quotes to prove it.
Member - Houseclan t'Charvon (STO)
Shiarrael e'Tal'Aura t'Charvon, LvL 65, Rom Sci
S'aana ir'Virinat t'Charvon, Lvl 65, Rom Eng
T'Lyra, LvL 65, Fed, Vul Sci
Ta'el, Lvl 63, Rom Tac
Sukima, Lvl 65, Fed Vul Sci
House Miliskeera in exile (NW)
Sereska Miliskeera, Lvl 70 OP - Devotion (Just.)/Protection (Just.)
Shizlee Miliskeera, Lvl 70 DC - Divine Oracle (Right.)/Anointed Champion (Faith.)
Finithey Miliskeera, Lvl 70 HR - Stormwarden (Combat)/Pathfinder (Trapper)
Maya Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 CW - Spellstorm
Irae Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 TR - Master Inflitrator
To start with, Cryptic was really rushed making the game. They got the license after Perpetual folded after about three years of producing little more than some pieces of art, so they basically had to plug Star Trek assets into the Champions Online engine and tack-weld a space combat system onto it in the space of about 13 months. It pretty much took until Legacy of Romulus for the game to have anything resembling the amount of content it should've had at launch.
So they really only had time to make one faction, but apparently CBS wanted a multifaction game, so Cryptic compromised by making a PVP-only KDF faction that unlocked after you leveled a Starfleet toon. Problem being, a lot of folks don't like PVP.
With LOR they went back and added in KDF leveling missions -- which apparently involved the relevant devs working on their off hours. But they also had the problem of Geko, the EP at the time, being a bonehead (which is also apparently the reason everybody's an admiral): the poor sales performance of the Bortasqu' were the excuse for literally years for why they wouldn't make more Klingon C-store stuff, when the reality is it didn't sell because it was terrible.
The "fraction" system used with the Roms and Jems was apparently a design compromise due to the game engine not being able to handle an additional full faction for teaming purposes without a major code overhaul: comments from people who have left Cryptic in recent years say the engine is ancient and overdue for some major refactoring.
At this point it's kind of a Catch-22. Cryptic doesn't want to invest in the other factions because they make less money than Fed stuff, and players focus on Fed stuff because Cryptic won't invest in the other factions.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
That isn't true, and in fact the Federation itself is exactly that giant super alliance thing, but neither did the game start with that goal in mind. It started with KDF being represented as a second, rival faction, actually turned out to actually be a PVP centric faction, then they tried to flesh out the KDF, failed to draw more players because too little too late, so then they had no other option but to unite them all and hamfist content for everyone.
It was necessary simply because the game didn't draw enough players to the other factions to properly have a multifaction game. And that is sad, because the faction specific missions remain some of the best content. They are more focused and more compelling because you don't have to speak in generalities to try and have dialogue and motivations for everyone.
Your logic apparently goes something like: Because Iconians-->grand alliance. That's ridiculous and not remotely reflective of what was going on at launch. There was literally no content for the KDF besides PVP and what I'll call pewxploration clusters (these still exist unchanged) at launch. I'm also fairly certain it was explicitly stated at some point that the KDF was intended to be "monster play" or a PVP heavy faction.
Once they found out that wasn't what people wanted and they couldn't keep people in PVP, they started turning out some KDF only missions, hoping to draw more to the faction and justify further content. That didn't happen either. So they went ahead with the only option remaining, mix Fed and KDF content so you get the most bang for your buck.
As for Iconians they changed significantly over time as missions were redone and retconned. They showed up in two missions in the game, first in Where Angels Fear to Tread, then in Cutting the Cord (later we "first" meet Hakeev in the nimbus line, which is now optional so you can easily do them out of order.) Now they are gone from Angels and its a Herald ship in Cutting. We also originally shut down an Iconian gateway in Fluid dynamics which now isn't even necessary for Iconians to antagonize the Undine. That idiot Dr. Cooper was also retconned in to a few missions after Step Between Stars, despite him being introduced to us for the first time there by Tuvok.
There has been a LOT of retconning in this game, so to even imagine that they intended a grand alliance at launch is silly, because they changed so much since then.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Except there is no reason to create a grand alliance with your only other faction that is a monster play faction. That was changed and retconned as they saw people wanted a fully fledged KDF faction and then Romulans. The story has changed on the fly repeatedly, and there's no reason to imagine the grand alliance was planned with the shadow of a faction that the KDF was. The grand alliance was changed not just to be the many species we ran into throughout the game story, especially the Krenim, but to include the (now) three major factions. Its not hard to write the KDF into that once you start making them a semi-proper faction.
My character Tsin'xing
Monster play? Are we forgetting the "monster" races that are a part of the Federation. For example, Captain Shon of the U.S.S. I'm Here to Annoy You. Or the fish face Captian on Kobali. Tellarites in general. Or Bolians, whose body fluids are actually dangerous to other species.
There you go, there's your monster play, and it's Federation side.
As I stated earlier, I'd play my klingon more than my Fed. But, the narrative approach makes me feel insulted for every other player out there, that chooses one of the other faction. I get that the story needs to be fed-centric. However, on the political side of it, you'd want to treat each faction as that. Which, this can be done with just a different narrative approach based on the faction chosen.
As other's have stated, Cryptic has said it's not profitable enough, some of that was the residual left overs of the Bortasque faux pas Cryptic made. Which carried on for a while. But here we are, and they're now releasing a new KDF ship, every time they release a new Federation ship. So, apparently it is profitable enough. Actions outweigh words, and their actions show they're making profit off the KDF ships, or they wouldn't continue to make them. They're just not as profitable as they'd hoped. Mainly because other than just being a different faction isn't enough to draw a lot of players. Especially when those different factions are treated as another Federation plebian. For example here, adding in Naussican Female, which were a part of the original concept art for them, would attract more attention. It's also something the players have been asking for, for years.
Granted it would also help if we could get out of this 2410 time loop we seem to be stuck in. But that's Star Trek's bad temporal mechanics for you.
Personally I would blame the depressing lighting on klingon hubs.
On the bright side, it doesn't hurt the eyes anymore since the game's lighting was overhauled a few years ago. Before that overhaul it was a nightmare to be around First City or Ganalda, as well as most KDF-interiors for ships and/or missions.
My character Tsin'xing
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I agree. Especially the part about the Undine: one of the biggest problems I have with the way the Klingon War arc was handled is that everything gets lumped together with the Undine infiltration and the Federation is basically blamed for starting the war by incompetence. Whereas the reality is the whole thing was a land-grab by Jimmy Pok and the Undine had bollocks to do with it.
If the Klingon PC was actually shown hunting a few Undine, instead of Starfleet being the only ones doing it, they might've had a better case at the Jenolan conference.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/