The Orions are such an old and far spread out civilization, assuming all of them are syndicate is rather improbable. I think it's entirely reasonable to assume at least subgroups would join the Federation/Starfleet.
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"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
The Orions are such an old and far spread out civilization, assuming all of them are syndicate is rather improbable. I think it's entirely reasonable to assume at least subgroups would join the Federation/Starfleet.
Tendi said Orions haven't been pirates for quite a while.
...
Over FIVE years.
This is all pretty far off topic. This thread was about Gorn, not playable Orions with or without chlorophyll.
And speaking of Gorn... either with 23c. Gorn as a separate race, or as a change to playable Gorn and BOFFs, Reptilian Strength ought to be changed to include boulder throwing. And all Gorn (including BOFFs, not just captains) should have the Bite trait.
The Orions are such an old and far spread out civilization, assuming all of them are syndicate is rather improbable. I think it's entirely reasonable to assume at least subgroups would join the Federation/Starfleet.
There was mention of both syndicate and non-syndicate Orions in DS9, in fact one of their planets (Pi³ Orionis) is more or less between Earth and Bajor, in Federation space according to dialog in Little Green Men were it was mentioned that no one would notice if they made a slight detour to it on the way back to DS9, and a map in Keiko's classroom. That is deep in Federation space and most likely the "neutral" Orions they talked about in TOS since it is near Coridan.
The next closest Orion world mentioned was Verex III. It was further south and east than Pi³ Orionis because the episode arc puts it on the Federation/Klingon border near the Briar Patch and was positively identified as a Syndicate world. Their homeworld was mentioned as beta Orionis (aka Rigel) originally, which is quite a bit further "south" and "down" in the galactic plane from Sol (almost eight hundred light years) than the other two known Orion systems.
Assuming they started out on beta Orionis and they have colonies between seven and eight hundred lightyears north of it and assuming they went out in all directions instead of just north that makes for a very large area so they probably have quite a few colonies out, probably in B, A, and F spectral class star systems (beta Orionis is type B8I, and Pi³ Orionis is F6 V).
As for the Gorn, having two distinct races is nothing compared to all the various Klingon types, and beside that there are at least two quite different Andorian races, Vulcans and Romulans with V ridges and smooth foreheads (which kind of reminds me of Sneetches with stars or not...), so I don't see what the problem is supposed to be.
I never really understood why the KDF had assimilated so many races. I know it's probably so the game could let you play an Orion Slave Girl, without having her escape from a bar etc, but it always seemed a little strange.
It isn't the Klingons, this is Cryptic's fault, when they add a new species, Gorn, Orion, Romulan, and whatnot, they never add the new faction for the species. I was extremely disappointed years ago by them telling my Romulan to pick the Feds or KDF after the tutorial ends. Romulans are too vain and egotistical to hook up with a subclass species. Sure some might join Vulcans but not the Feds or KDF. At that point they were just being lazy. Then they brought in TOS and move you into the future... again more lazy writing and planning. I want a lot more factions! I want the freedom to choose more than just heads or tails.
I won't blame laziness so much as likely financial reality.
I wish it had been so myself. Not because I have any great love of Romulans and/or Remans (I am a Federation guy through and through), but because I know that other people are and I think that having more options is generally better than fewer, and a third faction certainly wasn't going to introduce any sort of confusion by offering new players too many choices.
But fully developing missions for a third faction, able to take a new Captain from 1-50 (or whatever), would have taken more time and more money to make a reality, and they probably weren't given enough of either to make this happen.
Not to mention the fact that this completely new faction would have only had two canon races to choose from unless they decided to add some breakaway members of an existing race as a choice, which could just add confusion to things (Are you a Klingon Gorn/Orion/Whatever or a Romulan Gorn/Orion/Whatever?)
And now they are in between the proverbial rock and the hard place.
They could re-work the Romulan faction, add new missions, and otherwise turn it into a full-fledged faction of its own, but then where does that leave the current Captains? They made a choice to tie themselves to either the Federation or the Klingons, and that meant being able to fly those ships.
So do they get refunds now or are they just able to fly ships that new Romulan Captains can't fly without paying for it?
Cutting them off from being able to replay the missions they have already done may be a sticking point in the code.
What about the accolades the old Captains will have gotten from those missions they are no longer eligible to run? Is that a problem?
It just feels like a lot of potential obstacles.
But they are only potential. Maybe there would be no major issues. Maybe they get to flag the older Captains in some way so that they can seamlessly blend them into the new content without having to sacrifice any of the old. Maybe the "extra" accolades will not be an issue at all. Maybe they can continue to fly their Fed/Klink ships with no issues while the new Captains have to buy cross-faction piloting. Maybe they can even add the recent Klingon strife as a point to justify some "breakaway" members of other races to join their new and totally independent faction.
I mean, it all ends up in the same place, though. They can not maintain even two truly independent factions with their own content, so the alliance must continue with all high-level content being a part of that.
I do wish that they could respect the individual factions a little more, though.
At least some faction-specific set-up missions that explain why we are involving ourselves here or there.
If my Federation Captain (and by Captain I mean character, because I figure everyone that has done all the preceding content has long-since achieved the rank of Admiral) is going to be getting involved in what I feel are plainly Klingon internal affairs, then I would really like it if some Federation muckety-mucks (Quinn, Sugihara, etc) would at least explain why I need to be there and what my goals are. Maybe even add some special in-mission sub-objectives for Captains of different factions (ala Delta Recruits, AoY, etc).
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...
Over FIVE years.
And speaking of Gorn... either with 23c. Gorn as a separate race, or as a change to playable Gorn and BOFFs, Reptilian Strength ought to be changed to include boulder throwing. And all Gorn (including BOFFs, not just captains) should have the Bite trait.
There was mention of both syndicate and non-syndicate Orions in DS9, in fact one of their planets (Pi³ Orionis) is more or less between Earth and Bajor, in Federation space according to dialog in Little Green Men were it was mentioned that no one would notice if they made a slight detour to it on the way back to DS9, and a map in Keiko's classroom. That is deep in Federation space and most likely the "neutral" Orions they talked about in TOS since it is near Coridan.
The next closest Orion world mentioned was Verex III. It was further south and east than Pi³ Orionis because the episode arc puts it on the Federation/Klingon border near the Briar Patch and was positively identified as a Syndicate world. Their homeworld was mentioned as beta Orionis (aka Rigel) originally, which is quite a bit further "south" and "down" in the galactic plane from Sol (almost eight hundred light years) than the other two known Orion systems.
Assuming they started out on beta Orionis and they have colonies between seven and eight hundred lightyears north of it and assuming they went out in all directions instead of just north that makes for a very large area so they probably have quite a few colonies out, probably in B, A, and F spectral class star systems (beta Orionis is type B8I, and Pi³ Orionis is F6 V).
As for the Gorn, having two distinct races is nothing compared to all the various Klingon types, and beside that there are at least two quite different Andorian races, Vulcans and Romulans with V ridges and smooth foreheads (which kind of reminds me of Sneetches with stars or not...), so I don't see what the problem is supposed to be.
I won't blame laziness so much as likely financial reality.
I wish it had been so myself. Not because I have any great love of Romulans and/or Remans (I am a Federation guy through and through), but because I know that other people are and I think that having more options is generally better than fewer, and a third faction certainly wasn't going to introduce any sort of confusion by offering new players too many choices.
But fully developing missions for a third faction, able to take a new Captain from 1-50 (or whatever), would have taken more time and more money to make a reality, and they probably weren't given enough of either to make this happen.
Not to mention the fact that this completely new faction would have only had two canon races to choose from unless they decided to add some breakaway members of an existing race as a choice, which could just add confusion to things (Are you a Klingon Gorn/Orion/Whatever or a Romulan Gorn/Orion/Whatever?)
And now they are in between the proverbial rock and the hard place.
They could re-work the Romulan faction, add new missions, and otherwise turn it into a full-fledged faction of its own, but then where does that leave the current Captains? They made a choice to tie themselves to either the Federation or the Klingons, and that meant being able to fly those ships.
So do they get refunds now or are they just able to fly ships that new Romulan Captains can't fly without paying for it?
Cutting them off from being able to replay the missions they have already done may be a sticking point in the code.
What about the accolades the old Captains will have gotten from those missions they are no longer eligible to run? Is that a problem?
It just feels like a lot of potential obstacles.
But they are only potential. Maybe there would be no major issues. Maybe they get to flag the older Captains in some way so that they can seamlessly blend them into the new content without having to sacrifice any of the old. Maybe the "extra" accolades will not be an issue at all. Maybe they can continue to fly their Fed/Klink ships with no issues while the new Captains have to buy cross-faction piloting. Maybe they can even add the recent Klingon strife as a point to justify some "breakaway" members of other races to join their new and totally independent faction.
I mean, it all ends up in the same place, though. They can not maintain even two truly independent factions with their own content, so the alliance must continue with all high-level content being a part of that.
I do wish that they could respect the individual factions a little more, though.
At least some faction-specific set-up missions that explain why we are involving ourselves here or there.
If my Federation Captain (and by Captain I mean character, because I figure everyone that has done all the preceding content has long-since achieved the rank of Admiral) is going to be getting involved in what I feel are plainly Klingon internal affairs, then I would really like it if some Federation muckety-mucks (Quinn, Sugihara, etc) would at least explain why I need to be there and what my goals are. Maybe even add some special in-mission sub-objectives for Captains of different factions (ala Delta Recruits, AoY, etc).