I've tossed the idea out a few times but I wanted to formally suggest that certain exotic bridge officer race/faction combos be added as mercenary BOs we can pick up.
My core idea is this:
- You buy them for GPL.
- They wear the C-Store mercenary costume set, possibly plus racial costume options.
- They come in races which we have seen examples of mercenaries from in the shows and in the game. My suggested list so far:
Bajoran
Breen
Cardassian
Ferengi
Human
Klingon
Nausicaan
Orion
Reman
Rogue Borg
Obviously, price would vary. I'd be inclined to suggest making Humans and Klingons more expensive from a design standpoint and making Rogue Borg expensive as well, to preserve the integrity of the C-Store and STF Borg and also because I think they'd be highly desirable. Orions and Ferengi might be the most available, overall.
- KDF and Starfleet versions are available.
- If you want an alt of a "wrong faction" NPC, this is the "go to" way to do it. You buy the bridge officer and use the upcoming crew system to make them into an alt. This requires work and it also makes a degree of lore sense, I think, as certain faction/race combos might be rare but you can build a story around it this way by having them fight for your side as a merc and then work their way up.
- Perhaps a term other than mercenary is used Federation side. Like "Consultant." It's still basically a merc, though.
Not a bad idea. I think the rogue Borg might have to be limited in their racial traits, not just expensive. It seems to me that, given the fact that some borg pieces have appeared available to non-Borg species, their uniqueness is more about traits than appearance.
I would prefer something like this be implemented along with race specific dialog, but implementing it by itself would be cool (race specific dialogue more for Klingon side - not everyone is all about glory to the empire, eh?).
As people who bothered to read my previous rants on this subject may already guess, I dislike the idea of completely removing the style barrier between the factions.
Matter of opinion, of course. I know many Starfleet Captains can't wait for the opportunity to fill their entire ship with Orion chicks, the setting be damned. I for one prefer uniqueness, however, and this happens to include racial allegiances, clothing limitations and ship/equipment restrictions. The FDC BO's are already just plain wrong, but I see no need to continue further down this path of playing against the background fluff.
PS: Orions actually have a really big dislike for the Federation for messing with their idea of "trade" for centuries. And Nausicaans in Starfleet ... ehhh if you're going that far you can straightly call them mercenaries, for there's no point in trying to even pretend that Starfleet Command still has any regulations on what its captains do.
Customized paint jobs, bridge bunnies, Terran Empire uniforms, replica museum ships, plasma guns ... and now mercenaries. Well, I guess you could say that it's a lost cause anyways. :rolleyes:
As people who bothered to read my previous rants on this subject may already guess, I dislike the idea of completely removing the style barrier between the factions.
Matter of opinion, of course. I know many Starfleet Captains can't wait for the opportunity to fill their entire ship with Orion chicks, the setting be damned. I for one prefer uniqueness, however, and this happens to include racial allegiances, clothing limitations and ship/equipment restrictions. The FDC BO's are already just plain wrong, but I see no need to continue further down this path of playing against the background fluff.
PS: Orions actually have a really big dislike for the Federation for messing with their idea of "trade" for centuries. And Nausicaans in Starfleet ... ehhh if you're going that far you can straightly call them mercenaries, for there's no point in trying to even pretend that Starfleet Command still has any regulations on what its captains do.
Customized paint jobs, bridge bunnies, Terran Empire uniforms, replica museum ships, plasma guns ... and now mercenaries. Well, I guess you could say that it's a lost cause anyways. :rolleyes:
/QFT
Where is the line drawn? When does it cease being a Star Trek game and become a game with a poorly researched Star Trek mod?
Where is the line drawn? When does it cease being a Star Trek game and become a game with a poorly researched Star Trek mod?
When it caters too much to the fandom "cool" factor and start to rely less and less on good storyline and genre important points of information to keep the player interested?
Orions actually have a really big dislike for the Federation for messing with their idea of "trade" for centuries. And Nausicaans in Starfleet ... ehhh if you're going that far you can straightly call them mercenaries, for there's no point in trying to even pretend that Starfleet Command still has any regulations on what its captains do.
I suppose I shouldn't bother to ask what you thought of Gaila's appearance in Star Trek (2009)?
When it caters too much to the fandom "cool" factor and start to rely less and less on good storyline and genre important points of information to keep the player interested?
Doesn't that make too much sense? Why are the answers all questions?
As people who bothered to read my previous rants on this subject may already guess, I dislike the idea of completely removing the style barrier between the factions.
Matter of opinion, of course. I know many Starfleet Captains can't wait for the opportunity to fill their entire ship with Orion chicks, the setting be damned. I for one prefer uniqueness, however, and this happens to include racial allegiances, clothing limitations and ship/equipment restrictions. The FDC BO's are already just plain wrong, but I see no need to continue further down this path of playing against the background fluff.
PS: Orions actually have a really big dislike for the Federation for messing with their idea of "trade" for centuries. And Nausicaans in Starfleet ... ehhh if you're going that far you can straightly call them mercenaries, for there's no point in trying to even pretend that Starfleet Command still has any regulations on what its captains do.
Customized paint jobs, bridge bunnies, Terran Empire uniforms, replica museum ships, plasma guns ... and now mercenaries. Well, I guess you could say that it's a lost cause anyways. :rolleyes:
As much as I've railed against things in canon that I thought were silly, this idea is...well, not a great one. I have to agree with Valias.
Would there be nearly as much controversy with the idea of a Ferengi mercenary for GPL?
For the KDF? In fact, yes, Ferengi and Pakleds for KDF were recently discussed over there.
We (as I'm sure I'm speaking for more people than myself now) do not need -any- more races in the Klingon Empire, and we do not want any KDF species for Starfleet. Factions are and feel unique only as long as they retain as many defining aspects as possible, including species. Whilst I like the idea of mercenaries or exchange officers from a gameplay mechanic PoV, I disapprove of it as just another way to break the limitations set in place by the setting.
It is completely irrelevant what kind of currency is used to attain them - at the end of the day the truth is that everyone and his mum will have a ship full of Orions or Breen or whatever. As already said some people will find that "cool" and "exotic" (despite the fact that they'd be far from alone with such a spectacular idea), but others will simply feel it to be way too removed from the setting.
There are more worthwhile things to do with developer resources. Instead of getting even more species who will fly the same Klingon ships and wear the same Klingon clothes, why not flesh out the existing ones a little more with additional ships for T1-4 to bring the KDF up to Starfleet numbers? Or how about some species-specific content such as repeatable daily smuggling mission just for Orions, a daily pirate raid just for Nausicaans, a daily riot suppression mission just for Klingons and a daily "ancestral lands" reclamation mission just for Gorn?
Species should be so much more than just a skin for your avatar and a couple extra options in the power selection.
Wait, how come no one in this thread has mentioned a third faction as the better option? A mercenary faction would be the solution to all our ills!
Yep, I keep pointing that one out. Did it in the KDF-Ferengi-thread, too. A neutral mini-faction just for crafting, trading and smuggling would be more than enough!
Only 3 tiers of ranks/ships, PvP would be possible on Tiers 2 and 3 where they could pop up on either side of one of the "real" factions. This would have the added benefit of allowing faster matches on these tiers. They can join a group of any allegiance and help out in KDF/Starfleet missions but cannot start them on their own, and they would get a special "mercenary" currency (latinum?) instead of items and merit/honor.
Although their ships and ranks only go up to Tier 3, the ships can be upgraded with equipment up to Tier 5. This means that "neutral" captains can still help out KDF and Starfleet officers on Tiers 4 and 5, but their pimped-up ships won't be as efficient as the military-grade vessels of the big factions.
In addition to this, they would receive bonuses to crafting and receive special "transport run" missions into the exploration clusters of both factions, including the possibility of having to break through a blockade (smuggling) where survival is more important than blowing up the enemy patrol ships.
... whew, just off the top of my ridges. I could probably go on for hours with ideas concerning this.
To be fair, if you ignore Enterprise, you wouldn't get anything about the "slave" girls being in charge.
That's true. I suppose I'm a bit stuck in my admittedly elitist attitude that a roleplayer should read up on the character he wants to play.
Or was that in reaction to the cluelessness of the JJverse writers? There were more things wrong with it than just the Orion... But I suppose they could simply pull the "lol reboot" joker and claim that their Orions work differently. After all, that was one of their major reasons for the whole alternate timeline idea: "F...k canon."
Wait, how come no one in this thread has mentioned a third faction as the better option? A mercenary faction would be the solution to all our ills!
While I don't disagree how common is a "mercenary" faction in Star Trek?
Star Trek really isn't Star Wars: full of roguish freighter pilots who fall into adventures purely by accident. The main thrust of Star Trek is the Federation and how it interacts with the other species in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Thadiun Okona is the exception to the ST rule not the norm.
The further we push away from the ST norm the more we just end up looking like a generic SF game, or worse, looking like SWTOR.
The further we push away from the ST norm the more we just end up looking like a generic SF game, or worse, looking like SWTOR.
That's a very real danger I am sensing as well, but I'd rather have such characters in a proper faction of their own rather than "pollute" the KDF and Starfleet with their concepts - this isn't good for them, and it isn't good for us.
And in their defense, we probably have to keep in mind that the Trek shows were very focused on a single Federation starship. Other than for a very few episodes (such as the brilliant "Soldiers of the Empire") we got to see very little of what life elsewhere is like - and to be fair, there were way more freighter captains and mercenaries in ST than just Annoying Okona. Sisko's girlfriend, for one. Other examples include such colorful characters as Captain Arctus Baran or DaiMon Bok. If you look closely, you'll find a lot of options for such characters, especially outside the core of Federation space.
By the way, sfdebris did a hilarious review of The Outrageous Okona. Give it a watch here!
And in their defense, we probably have to keep in mind that the Trek shows were very focused on a single Federation starship.
And the question I would ask is why, after 726 episodes and 11 movies, should the game not also be focused on that? There are plenty of other generic SF games out there that can let me play a mercenary, or miner, or merchant, or whatever. Why genericise ST when I just go and play Eve or AO or SWG? Honestly it just seems like everyone is just trying to take the Trek out of Star Trek.
That's a very real danger I am sensing as well, but I'd rather have such characters in a proper faction of their own rather than "pollute" the KDF and Starfleet with their concepts - this isn't good for them, and it isn't good for us.
And in their defense, we probably have to keep in mind that the Trek shows were very focused on a single Federation starship. Other than for a very few episodes (such as the brilliant "Soldiers of the Empire") we got to see very little of what life elsewhere is like - and to be fair, there were way more freighter captains and mercenaries in ST than just Annoying Okona. Sisko's girlfriend, for one. Other examples include such colorful characters as Captain Arctus Baran or DaiMon Bok. If you look closely, you'll find a lot of options for such characters, especially outside the core of Federation space.
By the way, sfdebris did a hilarious review of The Outrageous Okona. Give it a watch here!
It's funny because I thought making the Klingon Empire less of a Klingons-only club, through whatever means, was a huge improvement this game made.
And the question I would ask is why, after 726 episodes and 11 movies, should the game not also be focused on that? There are plenty of other generic SF games out there that can let me play a mercenary, or miner, or merchant, or whatever. Why genericise ST when I just go and play Eve or AO or SWG? Honestly it just seems like everyone is just trying to take the Trek out of Star Trek.
I think that with the idea of a mini-faction, the focus would remain intact - and the faction would not require as much developer attention than a full faction such as the Romulans.
Not that I did not come to the same conclusions concerning your thoughts about what people want. But I'd rather look for a middle ground that would make everyone happy rather than risking further "pollution" to the big factions - especially since Cryptic seems all too willing to "open them up" even further (exchange officers, vulcan/andorian ships, etc).
It's funny because I thought making the Klingon Empire less of a Klingons-only club, through whatever means, was a huge improvement this game made.
Preferences.
In my opinion, being an "race X only" club was one of the defining aspects of the Klingon Empire. It was the Federation who was big about working with other species and cultures. So why replicate this idea on -both- factions when you can just as well use this difference to further define them?
Not that I particularly dislike the current "alliance". I guess I've grown used to it, and who doesn't like smexy Orions or cool Gorn? Still, it wasn't necessary and I fear that too many species will destroy the KDF's look. It's already a bit ridiculous, considering that the Klingons are supposed to be oh-so-xenophobic right now. And with the drastic shortage on non-Klingon KDF ships, it really boils down to little more than avatar skins.
Not that I did not come to the same conclusions concerning your thoughts about what people want. But I'd rather look for a middle ground that would make everyone happy rather than risking further "pollution" to the big factions - especially since Cryptic seems all too willing to "open them up" even further (exchange officers, vulcan/andorian ships, etc).
I would rather have sub-faction ships I have seen used in canon then new character types/factions that I haven't.
I would rather have sub-faction ships I have seen used in canon then new character types/factions that I haven't.
Mhmm... But you have seen these character types and factions - they've shown up in each and every series of Trek so far, and as NPCs in STO. As long as you don't make them too "visible" (importance & presence) I see no problem in them being played as neutrals. Imo, they're far less "invasive" than non-Starfleet ships doing Starfleet work.
It's always better to add to something rather than break it.
Comments
I would prefer something like this be implemented along with race specific dialog, but implementing it by itself would be cool (race specific dialogue more for Klingon side - not everyone is all about glory to the empire, eh?).
As people who bothered to read my previous rants on this subject may already guess, I dislike the idea of completely removing the style barrier between the factions.
Matter of opinion, of course. I know many Starfleet Captains can't wait for the opportunity to fill their entire ship with Orion chicks, the setting be damned. I for one prefer uniqueness, however, and this happens to include racial allegiances, clothing limitations and ship/equipment restrictions. The FDC BO's are already just plain wrong, but I see no need to continue further down this path of playing against the background fluff.
PS: Orions actually have a really big dislike for the Federation for messing with their idea of "trade" for centuries. And Nausicaans in Starfleet ... ehhh if you're going that far you can straightly call them mercenaries, for there's no point in trying to even pretend that Starfleet Command still has any regulations on what its captains do.
Customized paint jobs, bridge bunnies, Terran Empire uniforms, replica museum ships, plasma guns ... and now mercenaries. Well, I guess you could say that it's a lost cause anyways. :rolleyes:
/QFT
Where is the line drawn? When does it cease being a Star Trek game and become a game with a poorly researched Star Trek mod?
When it caters too much to the fandom "cool" factor and start to rely less and less on good storyline and genre important points of information to keep the player interested?
I suppose I shouldn't bother to ask what you thought of Gaila's appearance in Star Trek (2009)?
Yeah. Nevermind. Forget I said anything.
Doesn't that make too much sense? Why are the answers all questions?
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gaila_%28Orion%29#Background
"... an underground railroad that sells Orion slave girls into freedom." :rolleyes:
Then again, I've seen quite a number of roleplayers who got that wrong, too.
And they wouldn't be IN Starfleet or the KDF, per se.
More like an Exchange Officer... with an Exchange Rate Markup.
As much as I've railed against things in canon that I thought were silly, this idea is...well, not a great one. I have to agree with Valias.
To be fair, if you ignore Enterprise, you wouldn't get anything about the "slave" girls being in charge.
We (as I'm sure I'm speaking for more people than myself now) do not need -any- more races in the Klingon Empire, and we do not want any KDF species for Starfleet. Factions are and feel unique only as long as they retain as many defining aspects as possible, including species. Whilst I like the idea of mercenaries or exchange officers from a gameplay mechanic PoV, I disapprove of it as just another way to break the limitations set in place by the setting.
It is completely irrelevant what kind of currency is used to attain them - at the end of the day the truth is that everyone and his mum will have a ship full of Orions or Breen or whatever. As already said some people will find that "cool" and "exotic" (despite the fact that they'd be far from alone with such a spectacular idea), but others will simply feel it to be way too removed from the setting.
There are more worthwhile things to do with developer resources. Instead of getting even more species who will fly the same Klingon ships and wear the same Klingon clothes, why not flesh out the existing ones a little more with additional ships for T1-4 to bring the KDF up to Starfleet numbers? Or how about some species-specific content such as repeatable daily smuggling mission just for Orions, a daily pirate raid just for Nausicaans, a daily riot suppression mission just for Klingons and a daily "ancestral lands" reclamation mission just for Gorn?
Species should be so much more than just a skin for your avatar and a couple extra options in the power selection.
Tier 1: Freelancer (example ship: Peregrine-class Courier)
Tier 2: Freetrader (example ship: Antares-class Transport)
Tier 3: Entrepreneur (example ship: D'Kora-class Marauder)
Only 3 tiers of ranks/ships, PvP would be possible on Tiers 2 and 3 where they could pop up on either side of one of the "real" factions. This would have the added benefit of allowing faster matches on these tiers. They can join a group of any allegiance and help out in KDF/Starfleet missions but cannot start them on their own, and they would get a special "mercenary" currency (latinum?) instead of items and merit/honor.
Although their ships and ranks only go up to Tier 3, the ships can be upgraded with equipment up to Tier 5. This means that "neutral" captains can still help out KDF and Starfleet officers on Tiers 4 and 5, but their pimped-up ships won't be as efficient as the military-grade vessels of the big factions.
In addition to this, they would receive bonuses to crafting and receive special "transport run" missions into the exploration clusters of both factions, including the possibility of having to break through a blockade (smuggling) where survival is more important than blowing up the enemy patrol ships.
... whew, just off the top of my ridges. I could probably go on for hours with ideas concerning this.
That's true. I suppose I'm a bit stuck in my admittedly elitist attitude that a roleplayer should read up on the character he wants to play.
Or was that in reaction to the cluelessness of the JJverse writers? There were more things wrong with it than just the Orion... But I suppose they could simply pull the "lol reboot" joker and claim that their Orions work differently. After all, that was one of their major reasons for the whole alternate timeline idea: "F...k canon."
[edit] sorry for double-post >_>
Star Trek really isn't Star Wars: full of roguish freighter pilots who fall into adventures purely by accident. The main thrust of Star Trek is the Federation and how it interacts with the other species in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Thadiun Okona is the exception to the ST rule not the norm.
The further we push away from the ST norm the more we just end up looking like a generic SF game, or worse, looking like SWTOR.
And in their defense, we probably have to keep in mind that the Trek shows were very focused on a single Federation starship. Other than for a very few episodes (such as the brilliant "Soldiers of the Empire") we got to see very little of what life elsewhere is like - and to be fair, there were way more freighter captains and mercenaries in ST than just Annoying Okona. Sisko's girlfriend, for one. Other examples include such colorful characters as Captain Arctus Baran or DaiMon Bok. If you look closely, you'll find a lot of options for such characters, especially outside the core of Federation space.
By the way, sfdebris did a hilarious review of The Outrageous Okona. Give it a watch here!
It's funny because I thought making the Klingon Empire less of a Klingons-only club, through whatever means, was a huge improvement this game made.
Not that I did not come to the same conclusions concerning your thoughts about what people want. But I'd rather look for a middle ground that would make everyone happy rather than risking further "pollution" to the big factions - especially since Cryptic seems all too willing to "open them up" even further (exchange officers, vulcan/andorian ships, etc).
Preferences.
In my opinion, being an "race X only" club was one of the defining aspects of the Klingon Empire. It was the Federation who was big about working with other species and cultures. So why replicate this idea on -both- factions when you can just as well use this difference to further define them?
Not that I particularly dislike the current "alliance". I guess I've grown used to it, and who doesn't like smexy Orions or cool Gorn? Still, it wasn't necessary and I fear that too many species will destroy the KDF's look. It's already a bit ridiculous, considering that the Klingons are supposed to be oh-so-xenophobic right now. And with the drastic shortage on non-Klingon KDF ships, it really boils down to little more than avatar skins.
It's always better to add to something rather than break it.