After finally dipping my toe into the KDF side of the game this past month, I decided to dive into the Romulan Republic story after a friend recommended it. Whilst I knew I'd have to choose sides to progress, I didn't expect the faction choice to be so blatantly in opposition to the narrative presented by D'Tan.
I don't know how workable it would be, but I find myself thinking that the Republic would be better served if they were a genuinely neutral entity. An unlimited faction if you will for the purposes of the game, capable to going to Earth or Qo'noS depending on the whim of the player, with full access to assets belonging to both major powers of the future Khitomer Alliance.
Obviously, it's unlikely that such a large change will be made, especially since it would require neutral voiceovers for the remaining republic arcs, but I figured I'd put it out there to see if it's something anyone else would be interested in.
If the Republic were truly neutral and more independent, you probably wouldn't be able to visit Earth or Qo'nos at all.
It's already odd that Romulans could fly even the most advanced starships of the other factions (not so much in the real world where it's just a game where this happens, but judging from an in-universe perspective).
Keep in mind, they didn't even have planets that were truly part of the Republic until New Romulus was found. The fact that they have entire fleets of ships, shipyards and design facilities (which obviously require a lot of specialised knowledge for a world that hasn't even finished its first city yet) is already hard to believe. To have it as a major, independent power would be even sillier.
Something like that would only be realistic if all the events in the game took place not just in one or two years, but over the course of decades. Which would be better anyway (also for the other factions, which for some reason decide to redesign their entire fleet - and multiple ship classes within that fleet even several times - in apparently just two years) and which I believe should therefore take priority.
STO needs a new timeline, first and foremost because the unrealistic pacing of the story affects all the factions, not just the Romulan one. After that, it makes sense to look again at the relative importance of each faction.
I’m inclined to agree about the timeline. Whilst there are some arcs, such as those set in the New Romulas adventure zone that take place over a matter of days, most of the major arcs would be better served by taking place over a period of months. That so much of the story happens in the year 2409 stretches believability somewhat.
In an ideal world, I’d prefer the Republic to be their own unique faction as well, going from being the plucky upstart to the official representative of the Romulan people on the galactic stage. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that will ever be the case, hence my presenting the option of being neutral as a form of all access pass.
It’s also a shame the adventure zone doesn’t evolve over time to show the capital city rising, but I've long since accepted that the adventure zone is locked to the 2409 setting. Perhaps someday, we’ll return to New Romulas for an arc featuring a resplendent capital city, showing the kind of progress that would explain the Republic having a naval force rivalling those of the other major powers in the 25th century.
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 59,174Community Moderator
The best Cryptic can do without rebuilding the game from the ground up is what they have been doing. Bringing walls down where they can. It is literally impossible to rip out a core piece of code in the game's very foundation without causing the whole thing to just implode on itself. They would literally have to make a brand new game to facilitate that. And after 11 years that's just not feasable.
The Red/Blue faction separation is already mitigated quite a bit. The only real impact it has now is not being able to team with opposing faction players, fleets, and the two open PvP zones. Other than that it is a non issue. The rest of the game doesn't really care about the red/blue faction separation.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
The Republic does work with both sides and is neutral.
You (not the Republic) have to pick one side, so that that one side will trust you more, give you access, and share its officers and technology. Other Romulans that you never meet choose to ally with the other major power.
It's similar to the officer exchange when Riker joined the Klingon ship.
The Republic does work with both sides and is neutral.
You (not the Republic) have to pick one side, so that that one side will trust you more, give you access, and share its officers and technology. Other Romulans that you never meet choose to ally with the other major power.
It's similar to the officer exchange when Riker joined the Klingon ship.
Isn't there a mission where you encounter a Romulan captain who picked whatever side you didn't? I could have sworn there was.
It's similar to the officer exchange when Riker joined the Klingon ship.
That's actually a really good way of looking at it, one I hadn't considered. The unique uniform that our Romulan characters can wear once linking up with the major powers helps to set us apart from regular Starfleet or KDF officers as well, now I've looked into it on my Centurion.
Isn't there a mission where you encounter a Romulan captain who picked whatever side you didn't? I could have sworn there was.
I actually played that mission this afternoon. It's the one where you return to Virinat, kill numerous officers from the opposing faction, and then meet a fellow member of the Republic, Commander Makus. An "auspicious" start to your posting if you're a member of Starfleet, and a glorious one worthy of song if you're with the Klingon Defense Force.
Well as far as ships and shipyards and such go the Romulan Republic probably inherited a lot from the pre-Hobus Romulan Star Empire (as well as the current RSE and the Free States), after all they didn't just warp into a new section of the galaxy and start from scratch but rather the Romulan Republic was built within the area of space that was controlled by the Pre-Hobus RSE.
The best Cryptic can do without rebuilding the game from the ground up is what they have been doing. Bringing walls down where they can. It is literally impossible to rip out a core piece of code in the game's very foundation without causing the whole thing to just implode on itself. They would literally have to make a brand new game to facilitate that. And after 11 years that's just not feasable.
The Red/Blue faction separation is already mitigated quite a bit. The only real impact it has now is not being able to team with opposing faction players, fleets, and the two open PvP zones. Other than that it is a non issue. The rest of the game doesn't really care about the red/blue faction separation.
Why not just copy and paste the code, they can work on both this and STO 2.0 separately, remove the two faction code on 2.0, work out the kinks, bugs and glitches, run some beta and alpha tests amongst their fellow Devs and once it's perfected they then stealthily replace the original with the clone, It'll be some extra work but at least they won't be starting from scratch.
It's similar to the officer exchange when Riker joined the Klingon ship.
That's actually an interesting way of looking at it, one I hadn't considered. Having applied the unique uniform to my character today, it definitely helps to set the Romulans apart from the regular Starfleet or KDF ones.
Isn't there a mission where you encounter a Romulan captain who picked whatever side you didn't? I could have sworn there was.
Yeah, I played that mission this afternoon. It's the one where you go back to Virinat, kill a bunch of your faction's enemies, and then meet a fellow officer of the Republic. If you're allied with the Federation, it's an inauspicious start to say the least. In the case of the KDF however, no doubt it would be a glorious victory worthy of song.
"..to boldly go where no one has gone before."
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 59,174Community Moderator
Why not just copy and paste the code, they can work on both this and STO 2.0 separately, remove the two faction code on 2.0, work out the kinks, bugs and glitches, run some beta and alpha tests amongst their fellow Devs and once it's perfected they then stealthily replace the original with the clone, It'll be some extra work but at least they won't be starting from scratch.
Because that would require the resources to make another game, complete with a dev team, funding, and resources. And they can't just sneak it in a patch. It would be an entirely new game from scratch. Everyone would have to get the new game, and would probably NOT have all the gubbins they have now. So that is pretty much out of the question.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
The best Cryptic can do without rebuilding the game from the ground up is what they have been doing. Bringing walls down where they can. It is literally impossible to rip out a core piece of code in the game's very foundation without causing the whole thing to just implode on itself. They would literally have to make a brand new game to facilitate that. And after 11 years that's just not feasable.
The Red/Blue faction separation is already mitigated quite a bit. The only real impact it has now is not being able to team with opposing faction players, fleets, and the two open PvP zones. Other than that it is a non issue. The rest of the game doesn't really care about the red/blue faction separation.
Why not just copy and paste the code, they can work on both this and STO 2.0 separately, remove the two faction code on 2.0, work out the kinks, bugs and glitches, run some beta and alpha tests amongst their fellow Devs and once it's perfected they then stealthily replace the original with the clone, It'll be some extra work but at least they won't be starting from scratch.
Replace "some extra work" with "more than double" for creating a STO 2.0 that gets rid of the 11 years of chewing gum, duct tape and bailing wire. For a real 2.0 they'd probably want to improve not just for the code, but also re-work how assets like models and maps are created, stored and used.
I've migrated a Windows application from using one framework (MFC) and browser widget (IE) to a new "2.0" version using another framework and browser (plain Win32 + WTL, CEF + Chromium). That was a huge amount of work compared to just adding more layers of duct tape on to the existing "1.0" version to support new features.
STO is also a moving target with three different versions that need to be maintained (PC, PS4, Xbox). They'd need to work on 2.0 for PC & consoles, maintain 1.0 on them, and add any new features to both the 1.0 and 2.0 versions.
The best Cryptic can do without rebuilding the game from the ground up is what they have been doing. Bringing walls down where they can. It is literally impossible to rip out a core piece of code in the game's very foundation without causing the whole thing to just implode on itself. They would literally have to make a brand new game to facilitate that. And after 11 years that's just not feasable.
The Red/Blue faction separation is already mitigated quite a bit. The only real impact it has now is not being able to team with opposing faction players, fleets, and the two open PvP zones. Other than that it is a non issue. The rest of the game doesn't really care about the red/blue faction separation.
Why not just copy and paste the code, they can work on both this and STO 2.0 separately, remove the two faction code on 2.0, work out the kinks, bugs and glitches, run some beta and alpha tests amongst their fellow Devs and once it's perfected they then stealthily replace the original with the clone, It'll be some extra work but at least they won't be starting from scratch.
Replace "some extra work" with "more than double" for creating a STO 2.0 that gets rid of the 11 years of chewing gum, duct tape and bailing wire. For a real 2.0 they'd probably want to improve not just for the code, but also re-work how assets like models and maps are created, stored and used.
I've migrated a Windows application from using one framework (MFC) and browser widget (IE) to a new "2.0" version using another framework and browser (plain Win32 + WTL, CEF + Chromium). That was a huge amount of work compared to just adding more layers of duct tape on to the existing "1.0" version to support new features.
STO is also a moving target with three different versions that need to be maintained (PC, PS4, Xbox). They'd need to work on 2.0 for PC & consoles, maintain 1.0 on them, and add any new features to both the 1.0 and 2.0 versions.
I've heard something like replacing 1.0 version with 2.0 in a game happening only once with FF14 and Square-Enix (who much more resources the Cryptic) had to be convinced to do it and not write the game off. Last version of FF14 1.0 came in Nov. 1 2012 and the server were closed on the 11th. FF14 ARR was release on August 27th 2013 and had started development in 2011 and again I must repeat this was with company who can probably devote more resources to one game then Cryptic can devote to all of their games.
Also FF14 was a brand new title having been out less then a year when it was desided to reboot it. STO on the other hand is 11 years old so the amount of work needed would be much, much more then they did with FF14, which was already seen as near impossible task to be done in such a short time. Yes from April 2011 to August 2013 was seen as impossibly short development time for a MMO.
Another problem people aren't considering is what happens to alternate faction fleets. Alot of fleets out there have an alternative fleet set up on the other faction and run both a KDF fleet and a Fed fleet. My Fed fleet is fully maxed out and has been for some time. My KDF fleet still has a bit to go. If the barriers were to come down, what's the purpose of maintaining my KDF fleet any longer if I could just get everything from my Fed fleet and go? yeah there's there argument of an alt fleet incase my fed fleet were to max out members, but that's not an issue for us as we're a small fleet. That would essentially be a good 6 years down the tubes wasted on my KDF fleet at that point. It's not the simple undertaking people think it is.
Biggest issue right now I see is not being able to have cross faction teams without doing a private run.
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek Generations
I hate the way the Romulan story is funneled into... what it ends up as. You essentially "become" Klingon or Federation, and while the Romulan Republic goes on being... whatever it is, you - as a character - are no longer really a part of that story. You're now part of Starfleet... or part of the KDF.
I mean, I don't like the Republic in general - I think they've completely lost their cultural identity, and feel far more like bastardized Vulcans than the Romulans we've seen for decades in Star Trek - but you don't even get to pretend to be one of the flaccid Romulans after about level 35. That's an exclusive club that doesn't, apparently, want you.
I hate the way the Romulan story is funneled into... what it ends up as. You essentially "become" Klingon or Federation, and while the Romulan Republic goes on being... whatever it is, you - as a character - are no longer really a part of that story. You're now part of Starfleet... or part of the KDF.
I mean, I don't like the Republic in general - I think they've completely lost their cultural identity, and feel far more like bastardized Vulcans than the Romulans we've seen for decades in Star Trek - but you don't even get to pretend to be one of the flaccid Romulans after about level 35. That's an exclusive club that doesn't, apparently, want you.
The Romulans are not the only ones who sort of disappear into the Alliance around then, they all do. Except for a speck of PvP they used to have, mid-to-endgame has been rather generic for years since doing single-faction missions at that point is not good resource management.
As for the cultural identity, they have simply gone back to the way they were shortly before TOS (except with less paranoia and slightly less duty-bound) if you listen to the dialog between the Romulan commander and the old centurion in Balance of Terror.
I don't know what the future holds for Romulans do we just simply ditch New Romulus to join the Vulcans on Ni'Var, that alone just makes it sound like all our hard work were for nothing, I know that my Vulcan toons shares common ancestors with my Romulan, my main toon family tree dates back to the sundering where twin brothers picked opposite sides, one brother embraced logic while the other one marched under the raptor wings, My Romulan join the KDF because he hates Vulcans due to his family's history with them.
I don't know what the future holds for Romulans do we just simply ditch New Romulus to join the Vulcans on Ni'Var, that alone just makes it sound like all our hard work were for nothing, I know that my Vulcan toons shares common ancestors with my Romulan, my main toon family tree dates back to the sundering where twin brothers picked opposite sides, one brother embraced logic while the other one marched under the raptor wings, My Romulan join the KDF because he hates Vulcans due to his family's history with them.
One of the time cops (maybe it was Daniels, but I am not sure offhand), mentioned the Romulans in his time, so apparently the Ni'Var thing happens way too far in the future to have any relevance to STO.
Eventually the romulans and the klingons join the federation. In STO this happens before the 26th century, though there's no clear time frame on when they become members.
After finally dipping my toe into the KDF side of the game this past month, I decided to dive into the Romulan Republic story after a friend recommended it. Whilst I knew I'd have to choose sides to progress, I didn't expect the faction choice to be so blatantly in opposition to the narrative presented by D'Tan.
I don't know how workable it would be, but I find myself thinking that the Republic would be better served if they were a genuinely neutral entity. An unlimited faction if you will for the purposes of the game, capable to going to Earth or Qo'noS depending on the whim of the player, with full access to assets belonging to both major powers of the future Khitomer Alliance.
Obviously, it's unlikely that such a large change will be made, especially since it would require neutral voiceovers for the remaining republic arcs, but I figured I'd put it out there to see if it's something anyone else would be interested in.
It's because of the system...it can't handle more than 2 factions. It's why despite all the requests players will never be able to play Imperial Romulans
After finally dipping my toe into the KDF side of the game this past month, I decided to dive into the Romulan Republic story after a friend recommended it. Whilst I knew I'd have to choose sides to progress, I didn't expect the faction choice to be so blatantly in opposition to the narrative presented by D'Tan.
I don't know how workable it would be, but I find myself thinking that the Republic would be better served if they were a genuinely neutral entity. An unlimited faction if you will for the purposes of the game, capable to going to Earth or Qo'noS depending on the whim of the player, with full access to assets belonging to both major powers of the future Khitomer Alliance.
Obviously, it's unlikely that such a large change will be made, especially since it would require neutral voiceovers for the remaining republic arcs, but I figured I'd put it out there to see if it's something anyone else would be interested in.
It's because of the system...it can't handle more than 2 factions. It's why despite all the requests players will never be able to play Imperial Romulans
They can if the added an Imperial Romulan sub-faction, it's just an alternate start and it makes sense storywise too since most Imperials and Tal Shiar agents end up joining the Republic eventually, then they can ally themselves with either Feds or KDF once they join the Republic, people love a redemption arc.
After finally dipping my toe into the KDF side of the game this past month, I decided to dive into the Romulan Republic story after a friend recommended it. Whilst I knew I'd have to choose sides to progress, I didn't expect the faction choice to be so blatantly in opposition to the narrative presented by D'Tan.
I don't know how workable it would be, but I find myself thinking that the Republic would be better served if they were a genuinely neutral entity. An unlimited faction if you will for the purposes of the game, capable to going to Earth or Qo'noS depending on the whim of the player, with full access to assets belonging to both major powers of the future Khitomer Alliance.
Obviously, it's unlikely that such a large change will be made, especially since it would require neutral voiceovers for the remaining republic arcs, but I figured I'd put it out there to see if it's something anyone else would be interested in.
It's because of the system...it can't handle more than 2 factions. It's why despite all the requests players will never be able to play Imperial Romulans
They can if the added an Imperial Romulan sub-faction, it's just an alternate start and it makes sense storywise too since most Imperials and Tal Shiar agents end up joining the Republic eventually, then they can ally themselves with either Feds or KDF once they join the Republic, people love a redemption arc.
If they made another Romulan faction alongside the Republic it would be as much work as the Republic one since none of the Republic episodes (except for perhaps the Viranat investigation, or possibly the brainwash one though it would be less likely) would work for Imperials. The devs are stretched too thin to even make single-mission backgrounds for subfactions more than once every few years (in fact they did not even do one for the Klingon recruits to introduce the DSC types) so I just cannot see them doing another long one like the Republic demifaction.
After finally dipping my toe into the KDF side of the game this past month, I decided to dive into the Romulan Republic story after a friend recommended it. Whilst I knew I'd have to choose sides to progress, I didn't expect the faction choice to be so blatantly in opposition to the narrative presented by D'Tan.
I don't know how workable it would be, but I find myself thinking that the Republic would be better served if they were a genuinely neutral entity. An unlimited faction if you will for the purposes of the game, capable to going to Earth or Qo'noS depending on the whim of the player, with full access to assets belonging to both major powers of the future Khitomer Alliance.
Obviously, it's unlikely that such a large change will be made, especially since it would require neutral voiceovers for the remaining republic arcs, but I figured I'd put it out there to see if it's something anyone else would be interested in.
It's because of the system...it can't handle more than 2 factions. It's why despite all the requests players will never be able to play Imperial Romulans
They can if the added an Imperial Romulan sub-faction, it's just an alternate start and it makes sense storywise too since most Imperials and Tal Shiar agents end up joining the Republic eventually, then they can ally themselves with either Feds or KDF once they join the Republic, people love a redemption arc.
Why would Imperial Romulans want to join the Federation or the Empire? That would make zero sense and we don't need two Romulan factions...also this far in the game there will be no new story for a singular faction. Like every other sub faction it will have a couple of missions then join their chosen faction.
If Imperial Romulans want to leave the Empire they would just join the Republic
That's what the lore says in blogs, etc. and one of the main reason the Republic is still around and not worn out and still manages to build its own ships and have troops, despite having New Romulus nearly devastated more often than Mirandas in the canon series: Imperial defectors keeping pouring in after Sela was finally captured and the reveal that the Iconians manipulated them to blow up their own homeworld was spread around.
Well those defectors wouldn't be "imperial" romulans anymore, also New Romulus was devastated a grand total of 2 times during the STO storyline (once when the gate was opened and the second time when the Iconians invaded) IIRC the exact same amount as ESD or the First City.
I just want D'Tan to die. He was an annoying, red-headed stepchild of a character when he appeared in those two episodes of TNG, and he's basically the grownup equivalent, now. There is no chance in hell that a passive, boring, do-nothing like that would be the head of so many Romulans. We're not "slightly-emotional Vulcans," we're Romulans. And yes, maybe we're a republic, now... but it's only been like 30 years since we were tearing up the galaxy. People - a huge, mass of people - don't just 'change' like that within the span of a single lifetime. The idea that all Romulans who don't necessarily agree with Sela (and, for the record, I DO agree with Sela) must automatically be pacifists of the first degree is absurd.
This is the problem with having a story written by Federation fanboys - every faction that's different must invariably give up those differences, surrender, and be absorbed by Starfleet. Are the Klingons too uppity? No worries! They can be tamed! Are the Romulans too duplicitous? Well, we can change that! Let's transform them into Vulcans who have had a few beers! Cool! Welcome to the Federation, best buds!
We're not "slightly-emotional Vulcans," we're Romulans. And yes, maybe we're a republic, now... but it's only been like 30 years since we were tearing up the galaxy. People - a huge, mass of people - don't just 'change' like that within the span of a single lifetime. The idea that all Romulans who don't necessarily agree with Sela (and, for the record, I DO agree with Sela) must automatically be pacifists of the first degree is absurd.
While we have no RL examples of that (thankfully, it'll be never), getting your homeworld blown up, discovering your Empress had an indirect hand in that because the head of your equivalent of Big Brother willingly and gleefully did it at the request of thought-extinct powerful energy beings, and they kept lying to you for more than 20 years, all while torturing your people and letting them get turned into sentient fungi or Borg drones, etc... is kinda bound to utterly shatter your perspective about some parts of your entire existence and culture.
Also, the Republic is definitely not entirely pacifist:
-they tend to spy on their allies (as Gaius Selan casually mentions, and you help doing so during Surface Tension)
-they tried to get a significant advantage over the other super powers with the deactivated Iconian gateway, despite their concerns
-they tend to go "finders keepers" without hesitation even when it's not true (like with the Jenolan Sphere) or dangerous (the Jouret gateway)
-their ships are definitely towards being imposing and massive and definitely not friendly-looking
-they tend to go "I wish we could help, BUT we gotta protect our assets safe, but we'll be supporting you from behind, no worries" like with the Undine and the Hur'q
-they're not afraid to do some very questionable stuff to reach their goals, like during some of the Delta Quadrant missions with Rai Sahen and especially Butterfly since Jarok nearly dooms a lot of people by approving of the temporal incursion with the Krenim ship by herself
We're not "slightly-emotional Vulcans," we're Romulans. And yes, maybe we're a republic, now... but it's only been like 30 years since we were tearing up the galaxy. People - a huge, mass of people - don't just 'change' like that within the span of a single lifetime. The idea that all Romulans who don't necessarily agree with Sela (and, for the record, I DO agree with Sela) must automatically be pacifists of the first degree is absurd.
While we have no RL examples of that (thankfully, it'll be never), getting your homeworld blown up, discovering your Empress had an indirect hand in that because the head of your equivalent of Big Brother willingly and gleefully did it at the request of thought-extinct powerful energy beings, and they kept lying to you for more than 20 years, all while torturing your people and letting them get turned into sentient fungi or Borg drones, etc... is kinda bound to utterly shatter your perspective about some parts of your entire existence and culture.
Also, the Republic is definitely not entirely pacifist:
-they tend to spy on their allies (as Gaius Selan casually mentions, and you help doing so during Surface Tension)
-they tried to get a significant advantage over the other super powers with the deactivated Iconian gateway, despite their concerns
-they tend to go "finders keepers" without hesitation even when it's not true (like with the Jenolan Sphere) or dangerous (the Jouret gateway)
-their ships are definitely towards being imposing and massive and definitely not friendly-looking
-they tend to go "I wish we could help, BUT we gotta protect our assets safe, but we'll be supporting you from behind, no worries" like with the Undine and the Hur'q
-they're not afraid to do some very questionable stuff to reach their goals, like during some of the Delta Quadrant missions with Rai Sahen and especially Butterfly since Jarok nearly dooms a lot of people by approving of the temporal incursion with the Krenim ship by herself
While I don't necessarily disagree with the things you point out, I think it is fair to point out that these are mostly things done by intelligence services, former Tal Shiar operatives (such as Selan) and the Republic military (or whatever the Romulan Republic players are part of).
Starfleet does a lot of things that could be considered wrong too. That doesn't make the Federation - of which Starfleet is just one organisation - wrong.
Keep in mind: the Republic is a civilisation built by survivors of a former empire, who have been - as you pointed out - persecuted by their own former masters and an ancient, hyper-advanced species of which 1/12th keeps considering their very existence offensive. I think it's not surprising that their ships are imposing. But that doesn't make them agressive or not friendly either. If it's effective in avoiding conflict, it could even be considered a positive thing.
I wouldn't say that the Republic is any less pacifist or significantly different from the Empire just because some old habits persist within their military organisations. Those organisations aren't a very good choice to look at when you want to characterise an entire society (of course, it's all we have in STO because the game is so much centred around action, but that's a limitation of the game as a whole, not just the Republic).
Comments
It's already odd that Romulans could fly even the most advanced starships of the other factions (not so much in the real world where it's just a game where this happens, but judging from an in-universe perspective).
Keep in mind, they didn't even have planets that were truly part of the Republic until New Romulus was found. The fact that they have entire fleets of ships, shipyards and design facilities (which obviously require a lot of specialised knowledge for a world that hasn't even finished its first city yet) is already hard to believe. To have it as a major, independent power would be even sillier.
Something like that would only be realistic if all the events in the game took place not just in one or two years, but over the course of decades. Which would be better anyway (also for the other factions, which for some reason decide to redesign their entire fleet - and multiple ship classes within that fleet even several times - in apparently just two years) and which I believe should therefore take priority.
STO needs a new timeline, first and foremost because the unrealistic pacing of the story affects all the factions, not just the Romulan one. After that, it makes sense to look again at the relative importance of each faction.
In an ideal world, I’d prefer the Republic to be their own unique faction as well, going from being the plucky upstart to the official representative of the Romulan people on the galactic stage. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that will ever be the case, hence my presenting the option of being neutral as a form of all access pass.
It’s also a shame the adventure zone doesn’t evolve over time to show the capital city rising, but I've long since accepted that the adventure zone is locked to the 2409 setting. Perhaps someday, we’ll return to New Romulas for an arc featuring a resplendent capital city, showing the kind of progress that would explain the Republic having a naval force rivalling those of the other major powers in the 25th century.
The Red/Blue faction separation is already mitigated quite a bit. The only real impact it has now is not being able to team with opposing faction players, fleets, and the two open PvP zones. Other than that it is a non issue. The rest of the game doesn't really care about the red/blue faction separation.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
The Republic does work with both sides and is neutral.
You (not the Republic) have to pick one side, so that that one side will trust you more, give you access, and share its officers and technology. Other Romulans that you never meet choose to ally with the other major power.
It's similar to the officer exchange when Riker joined the Klingon ship.
There is, you have a bit of a scrap
I actually played that mission this afternoon. It's the one where you return to Virinat, kill numerous officers from the opposing faction, and then meet a fellow member of the Republic, Commander Makus. An "auspicious" start to your posting if you're a member of Starfleet, and a glorious one worthy of song if you're with the Klingon Defense Force.
Why not just copy and paste the code, they can work on both this and STO 2.0 separately, remove the two faction code on 2.0, work out the kinks, bugs and glitches, run some beta and alpha tests amongst their fellow Devs and once it's perfected they then stealthily replace the original with the clone, It'll be some extra work but at least they won't be starting from scratch.
Yeah, I played that mission this afternoon. It's the one where you go back to Virinat, kill a bunch of your faction's enemies, and then meet a fellow officer of the Republic. If you're allied with the Federation, it's an inauspicious start to say the least. In the case of the KDF however, no doubt it would be a glorious victory worthy of song.
Because that would require the resources to make another game, complete with a dev team, funding, and resources. And they can't just sneak it in a patch. It would be an entirely new game from scratch. Everyone would have to get the new game, and would probably NOT have all the gubbins they have now. So that is pretty much out of the question.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
Replace "some extra work" with "more than double" for creating a STO 2.0 that gets rid of the 11 years of chewing gum, duct tape and bailing wire. For a real 2.0 they'd probably want to improve not just for the code, but also re-work how assets like models and maps are created, stored and used.
I've migrated a Windows application from using one framework (MFC) and browser widget (IE) to a new "2.0" version using another framework and browser (plain Win32 + WTL, CEF + Chromium). That was a huge amount of work compared to just adding more layers of duct tape on to the existing "1.0" version to support new features.
STO is also a moving target with three different versions that need to be maintained (PC, PS4, Xbox). They'd need to work on 2.0 for PC & consoles, maintain 1.0 on them, and add any new features to both the 1.0 and 2.0 versions.
I've heard something like replacing 1.0 version with 2.0 in a game happening only once with FF14 and Square-Enix (who much more resources the Cryptic) had to be convinced to do it and not write the game off. Last version of FF14 1.0 came in Nov. 1 2012 and the server were closed on the 11th. FF14 ARR was release on August 27th 2013 and had started development in 2011 and again I must repeat this was with company who can probably devote more resources to one game then Cryptic can devote to all of their games.
Also FF14 was a brand new title having been out less then a year when it was desided to reboot it. STO on the other hand is 11 years old so the amount of work needed would be much, much more then they did with FF14, which was already seen as near impossible task to be done in such a short time. Yes from April 2011 to August 2013 was seen as impossibly short development time for a MMO.
Biggest issue right now I see is not being able to have cross faction teams without doing a private run.
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I mean, I don't like the Republic in general - I think they've completely lost their cultural identity, and feel far more like bastardized Vulcans than the Romulans we've seen for decades in Star Trek - but you don't even get to pretend to be one of the flaccid Romulans after about level 35. That's an exclusive club that doesn't, apparently, want you.
The Romulans are not the only ones who sort of disappear into the Alliance around then, they all do. Except for a speck of PvP they used to have, mid-to-endgame has been rather generic for years since doing single-faction missions at that point is not good resource management.
As for the cultural identity, they have simply gone back to the way they were shortly before TOS (except with less paranoia and slightly less duty-bound) if you listen to the dialog between the Romulan commander and the old centurion in Balance of Terror.
One of the time cops (maybe it was Daniels, but I am not sure offhand), mentioned the Romulans in his time, so apparently the Ni'Var thing happens way too far in the future to have any relevance to STO.
It's because of the system...it can't handle more than 2 factions. It's why despite all the requests players will never be able to play Imperial Romulans
They can if the added an Imperial Romulan sub-faction, it's just an alternate start and it makes sense storywise too since most Imperials and Tal Shiar agents end up joining the Republic eventually, then they can ally themselves with either Feds or KDF once they join the Republic, people love a redemption arc.
If they made another Romulan faction alongside the Republic it would be as much work as the Republic one since none of the Republic episodes (except for perhaps the Viranat investigation, or possibly the brainwash one though it would be less likely) would work for Imperials. The devs are stretched too thin to even make single-mission backgrounds for subfactions more than once every few years (in fact they did not even do one for the Klingon recruits to introduce the DSC types) so I just cannot see them doing another long one like the Republic demifaction.
Why would Imperial Romulans want to join the Federation or the Empire? That would make zero sense and we don't need two Romulan factions...also this far in the game there will be no new story for a singular faction. Like every other sub faction it will have a couple of missions then join their chosen faction.
If Imperial Romulans want to leave the Empire they would just join the Republic
This is the problem with having a story written by Federation fanboys - every faction that's different must invariably give up those differences, surrender, and be absorbed by Starfleet. Are the Klingons too uppity? No worries! They can be tamed! Are the Romulans too duplicitous? Well, we can change that! Let's transform them into Vulcans who have had a few beers! Cool! Welcome to the Federation, best buds!
Also, the Republic is definitely not entirely pacifist:
-they tend to spy on their allies (as Gaius Selan casually mentions, and you help doing so during Surface Tension)
-they tried to get a significant advantage over the other super powers with the deactivated Iconian gateway, despite their concerns
-they tend to go "finders keepers" without hesitation even when it's not true (like with the Jenolan Sphere) or dangerous (the Jouret gateway)
-their ships are definitely towards being imposing and massive and definitely not friendly-looking
-they tend to go "I wish we could help, BUT we gotta protect our assets safe, but we'll be supporting you from behind, no worries" like with the Undine and the Hur'q
-they're not afraid to do some very questionable stuff to reach their goals, like during some of the Delta Quadrant missions with Rai Sahen and especially Butterfly since Jarok nearly dooms a lot of people by approving of the temporal incursion with the Krenim ship by herself
While I don't necessarily disagree with the things you point out, I think it is fair to point out that these are mostly things done by intelligence services, former Tal Shiar operatives (such as Selan) and the Republic military (or whatever the Romulan Republic players are part of).
Starfleet does a lot of things that could be considered wrong too. That doesn't make the Federation - of which Starfleet is just one organisation - wrong.
Keep in mind: the Republic is a civilisation built by survivors of a former empire, who have been - as you pointed out - persecuted by their own former masters and an ancient, hyper-advanced species of which 1/12th keeps considering their very existence offensive. I think it's not surprising that their ships are imposing. But that doesn't make them agressive or not friendly either. If it's effective in avoiding conflict, it could even be considered a positive thing.
I wouldn't say that the Republic is any less pacifist or significantly different from the Empire just because some old habits persist within their military organisations. Those organisations aren't a very good choice to look at when you want to characterise an entire society (of course, it's all we have in STO because the game is so much centred around action, but that's a limitation of the game as a whole, not just the Republic).