If it were simply a "race choice" then they would not have their own Mission tree, nor would they have their own Ships, Uniforms, Gear, etc.
The Panda race in WoW has its own missions , social hubs , mounts and other things, they still have to chose a horde or alliance faction to side with. They are not considered a faction and the Romulans are not a faction either its a Race choice with their own content. Faction is a team of players, there is no Green team.
The Panda race in WoW has its own missions , social hubs , mounts and other things, they still have to chose a horde or alliance faction to side with. They are not considered a faction and the Romulans are not a faction either its a Race choice with their own content. Faction is a team of players, there is no Green team.
They also don't have their own classes, which is what ships are, and they don't have 80% of the game completable with their own story content.
Romulans may be less than a faction in the WoW sense but they are more than a race, even in the sense of Pandarens, who are more than the typical WoW race.
Okay they are saying that this is to prevent Romulan fleets from grinding right? Well I have already seen several people who plan on starting new fleets after the choice is made and then only accepting Romulans, they plan on grinding do they not?
From everything that has been posted in recent days can't Cryptic see that a large number of Romulans would have no problem with grinding for a new base since we have been waiting since launch for our faction.
Cryptic just come out and admit it, you're lazy. As someone else mentioned I would gladly take a shoddy looking starbase on LoR launch with a graphic update down the road then have to deal with all the blue and red for Fed and Kdf starbases. Just man up, give us our faction and make us happy. The Fed players calling us whiners and complainers are just happy that they finally get a large amount of cloak capable ships.
Stahl you will make buttloads more money from dedicated Romulans as we build up our bases then having them join an existing faction. -dangles wallet- I know that I will gladly part with vast amounts of cash for a proper Romulan faction.
Okay they are saying that this is to prevent Romulan fleets from grinding right? Well I have already seen several people who plan on starting new fleets after the choice is made and then only accepting Romulans, they plan on grinding do they not?
Not a good analogy when you consider they will STOP grinding their Fed or KDF base to do so. In that case you are essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul.
From everything that has been posted in recent days can't Cryptic see that a large number of Romulans would have no problem with grinding for a new base since we have been waiting since launch for our faction.
What large number? This forum constitutes 1/10 of 1% of the fan-base playing the game. Please do not assume that the thousand people who post here are somehow the majority of STO players, or that their opinions are somehow the opinions of an entire player-base.
Yes, it would be great to have a full Faction with 30 Missions and have everything completely unique, but it's clear that Cryptic cannot even do that for the KDF. It has nothing to do with being "lazy." It's all about manpower and dealing with what benefits the masses, not the few who post on the forum.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
On the fed side, there's a whole Orion story isn't there?
No. There's a Fed Mission which deals with Orions. That's not the same as saying there's Missions in the game that only Orions can do.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
Right now from a pure business standpoint it makes sense to Cryptic to cut corners and deliver this "half a faction".They are seriously cutting the time they would otherwise need to create a third faction: no Romulan veteran rewards, no Romulan Fleet Starbase, no Romulan Fleet weapons and gear, no need for Romulan Fleet refit ships, no need to create a Romulan faction social hub from scratch, no need to add faction specific lock box ships or consoles, no need to rework the PvP and PvE queues, no need to worry about how to give Federation players more access to (battle) cloak, etc.
At the same time they have laid the ground work for a true Romulan faction,one headed by Empress Sela and controlled by the Tal Shiar,the faction most of us wanted in the first place.
But it will take at least another year before we see that happen,unless we express our discontent with the Romulan Republic faction in a way that leaves them no other choice but to give us what we want.
The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
At the same time they have laid the ground work for a true Romulan faction,one headed by Empress Sela and controlled by the Tal Shiar,the faction most of us wanted in the first place.
On the contrary - they've got the Roms so embedded in the KDF/Feds at end-game there's little chance of that ever happening.
Think about it - your Fed Romulan buys a Kumari or a Fleet Defiant has Fed Boffs and Doffs, Elite Fleet Phasers, Elite Fleet ground stuff - maybe MACO (we don't know, admittedly) - now a 'full' Rom faction gets built - starbases, factional weapons and Fleet ships - what happens to all your stuff?
It's a scenario Cryptic just isn't going to want to deal with - and are you going to let all that stuff you paid Dilithium and Zen for just disappear in the transition?
Refunds isn't really in Cryptic's vocabulary (the Andorian weapons being a rare exception) - neither is making more work for themselves than they have to.
I've got no doubt that Cryptic will add plenty of new cross-faction Romulan stuff into the game post-LoR, but this split faction thing is it for the Romulans (and any future factions).
Think about it - your Fed Romulan buys a Kumari or a Fleet Defiant has Fed Boffs and Doffs, Elite Fleet Phasers, Elite Fleet ground stuff - maybe MACO (we don't know, admittedly) - now a 'full' Rom faction gets built - starbases, factional weapons and Fleet ships - what happens to all your stuff?
You keep it because you bought it. It's just that simple. Who can use what gear is nothing more then a toggle switch Cryptic can turn on or off. If you need a role-playing perspective you can simple assume the item was captured. It's not a major problem at all.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
You keep it because you bought it. It's just that simple. Who can use what gear is nothing more then a toggle switch Cryptic can turn on or off. If you need a role-playing perspective you can simple assume the item was captured. It's not a major problem at all.
Can you imagine the QQ'ing of Feddies that want the Elite Fleet Disruptors the ex-KDF Rommies have?
Or even likewise, disgruntled KDF since a bunch of Rommies are flying Kumaris (or Fleet Defiants or whatever).
Not saying I disagree (or would even mind), but it's a minefield - suppose you ditched your Fed Zen ship - would you be able to reclaim it?
These are questions that I sincerely believe Cryptic has no intention of ever having to ask themselves - or answer to the community for that matter.
Can you imagine the QQ'ing of Feddies that want the Elite Fleet Disruptors the ex-KDF Rommies have?
Or even likewise, disgruntled KDF since a bunch of Rommies are flying Kumaris (or Fleet Defiants or whatever).
Not saying I disagree (or would even mind), but it's a minefield - suppose you ditched your Fed Zen ship - would you be able to reclaim it?
These are questions that I sincerely believe Cryptic has no intention of ever having to ask themselves - or answer to the community for that matter.
After well over a decade of MMO gaming the only thing I know for certain is that someone is always going to complain about something, no matter what.
Plus I assume that Rom weapons will be added to the Starbases, and as such Rom players will probably want to get their hands on those items.
And yes, if you ditch your ship you can reclaim it - you paid for it. These aren't hard questions. You just seem to want to make them hard.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
lots of god observations but not really hitting the why....
OP, the real reason Romulans can't have a starbase is that it would not be economically sensible for Cryptic to make one for them. That's it. As it stands I'm pretty sure that Cryptic would LOVE to be able to stop making cosmetic projects for KDF bases. The ROI for it has got to be insanely low.
Look at it this way: Lets say it takes $10 to make a cosmetic upgrade for a base (lets also assume it costs roughly the same for their artists to make a Starfllet and KDF base upgrades). The $10 invested in the starfleet base upgrade will net many times its value in people grinding or buying Zen, the KDF one will bring in a small fraction of that. Business wise the correct thing to do would be to invest all $20 in starfleet base upgrades and get twice, or nearly twice the returns. Bear in mind that returns include Zen sold to be converted to Dil as well as time people spend in game grinding, both are valuable to a F2P game.
Now lets extend that to a third base. Cryptic would be spending $30 but only see a great return on a third of that. From a business point of view that'd be crazy! If anything the KDF really got lucky in existing as a recognizable if not numerous aspect of the game before the F2P conversion as I'm certain that if it wasn't for the backlash and bad publicity it would bring them, Cryptic would love to simply stop making things for them altogether; again, from a business point of view.
After well over a decade of MMO gaming the only thing I know for certain is that someone is always going to complain about something, no matter what.
Plus I assume that Rom weapons will be added to the Starbases, and as such Rom players will probably want to get their hands on those items.
And yes, if you ditch your ship you can reclaim it - you paid for it. These aren't hard questions. You just seem to want to make them hard.
Not at all, just pointing out that there's a greater level of complexity in integrating Fed/KDF Romulans back into a single faction than there would be in creating that single faction in the first place - heck, that doesn't even preclude the possibility that some Romulans may not even want to be in a united Romulan faction at that point.
Since Cryptic's taken the route of splitting them this way, I'd say that's a pretty good indicator that's how they're going to stay.
Not at all, just pointing out that there's a greater level of complexity in integrating Fed/KDF Romulans back into a single faction than there would be in creating that single faction in the first place - heck, that doesn't even preclude the possibility that some Romulans may not even want to be in a united Romulan faction at that point.
Since Cryptic's taken the route of splitting them this way, I'd say that's a pretty good indicator that's how they're going to stay.
3 years ago all the KDF swore the Klinks would get no Missions - they got some. People swore the game would never go FTP - it went. When the game went FTP all the KDF swore the Klinks were screwed and would never get a Tutorial - it's coming. Nothing ever seems to stay the way people thing it will. MMOs keep evolving. How something works on May 21st, 2013 has little bearing on how it will work on May 21st, 2015.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
I've got a better reason for why the Rommies don't have their own starbases.
The Romulan Republic has been reduced from what, 12-30 billion Romulans and Remans down to a billion.
Along with their industrial center utterly vaporized. They just don't have the industrial base for it, and needed help just to set up a new capital.
They're in the same boat that Afganistan is right now. Their entire former military is pretty much wiped out, and their new one is training under experienced leadership so that when the time comes (and when Rommies finally get their own bases, at a point that makes sense in-universe and out), they have the training, doctrine, and industrial capacity to support such a venture.
Look at the Tau Dewa daily. Other than the tholian encounter, not a one of the Romulan/reman patrols is an actually experienced military unit. Miners, freighter pilots, jumped up scared civilians given any halfway working mothballed ship and sent out because there is no-one else who can be sent out. Their actual fragmented military is busy fighting the tholians at the vault and azure nebula, trying to hold off the worst to keep what little shipbuilding skill and infrastructure they have left so they can try to rebuild.
This whole 'choice' isn't your captain deciding he actually wants to be a feddie. It's 'who do I want to train me?', or 'Was our old empire right?'.
OP, the real reason Romulans can't have a starbase is that it would not be economically sensible for Cryptic to make one for them. That's it. As it stands I'm pretty sure that Cryptic would LOVE to be able to stop making cosmetic projects for KDF bases. The ROI for it has got to be insanely low.
Look at it this way: Lets say it takes $10 to make a cosmetic upgrade for a base (lets also assume it costs roughly the same for their artists to make a Starfllet and KDF base upgrades). The $10 invested in the starfleet base upgrade will net many times its value in people grinding or buying Zen, the KDF one will bring in a small fraction of that. Business wise the correct thing to do would be to invest all $20 in starfleet base upgrades and get twice, or nearly twice the returns. Bear in mind that returns include Zen sold to be converted to Dil as well as time people spend in game grinding, both are valuable to a F2P game.
Now lets extend that to a third base. Cryptic would be spending $30 but only see a great return on a third of that. From a business point of view that'd be crazy! If anything the KDF really got lucky in existing as a recognizable if not numerous aspect of the game before the F2P conversion as I'm certain that if it wasn't for the backlash and bad publicity it would bring them, Cryptic would love to simply stop making things for them altogether; again, from a business point of view.
I am sorry but this is exactly the kind of short-term thinking that gets businesses in a mess. Having 2 (or 3) balanced factions with comparable content is good for the game because it adds diversity. After playing for 7+ months as a Fed, I am now leveling a KDF. You know what, despite all the numerous problems with the faction, I love it. If it is all Fed all the time ... I am sure to burn out much sooner.
I want a full implemented faction and would have preferred if they made Romulans their own faction. That said, I am still glad they made them. Does not mean I am going to blindly support all of Cryptics decisions.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I've got a better reason for why the Rommies don't have their own starbases.
Oh, come on - the post-Hobus plot in STO has holes big enough to fly a D'deridex through
Yes - they lost Romulus and Remus but the RSE and the Tal'shiar still exist - they have many, many other colonized planets, military bases, outposts and yes, starbases.
This whole New Romulus/Unificationist story that Cryptic has concocted works for the version of the Romulan people they're implementing, but how much that has in common with the Romulans of TNG we've yet to see.
And they created this story - they could have gone in a different direction but they've chosen it to fit their design goals for the game - in much the same way that KDF Honor Guards are tagging Epohhs to help the Romulans. :rolleyes:
I am sorry but this is exactly the kind of short-term thinking that gets businesses in a mess. Having 2 (or 3) balanced factions with comparable content is good for the game because it adds diversity. After playing for 7+ months as a Fed, I am now leveling a KDF. You know what, despite all the numerous problems with the faction, I love it. If it is all Fed all the time ... I am sure to burn out much sooner.
I want a full implemented faction and would have preferred if they made Romulans their own faction. That said, I am still glad they made them. Does not mean I am going to blindly support all of Cryptics decisions.
You are letting your wants cloud your judgement. Short term gains are the way Cryptic works now for good or ill. Their business plan revolves around a steady stream of high ROI, short term moves. This is part of why we see them make system improvements instead of content, they want to maximize their short term ROI from churn players. I agree that while it makes business sense for a small developper like Cryptic that constantly delivers less than advertised to the players its a terrible deal for anyone playing longer than a few months.
Their business plan revolves around a steady stream of high ROI, short term moves. This is part of why we see them make system improvements instead of content, they want to maximize their short term ROI from churn players. I agree that while it makes business sense for a small developper like Cryptic that constantly delivers less than advertised to the players its a terrible deal for anyone playing longer than a few months.
And this is why they get bad marketing from players, simple many players after getting max lv Fed start KDF and leave game because of lack of content in it and tell friends (posiable new players that game isn't worth playing).
You must first invest time and money to create full value product. In STO it means at least two equal playable factions. It can't be as it is now, that people start playing KDF mostly because they get everything as Feds. Instead make new "faction" they should concentrate on finishing existing one.
The true is that until they release complete full project with clear plan for future expansions they will be always only small developer.
This is totally unrelated to the topic at hand, but I've been meaning to
say, Flash, that's quite the nice signature. Very to the point and funny!
But to be on topic now, I'd say the fleet system is a grindful ruckuss
anyway. 'Always hated hearing about that ****, so the Romulans
would be better off without it in my opinion. If it means having a fully
fledged faction. Although in all there's no reason why Cryptic can't
just install a fleet faction transfer to solve the problem very basically.
Actually that idea sounds not bad, not bad at all! When I come to
think about it. Hell, I'm surprised it isn't in some discussion already.
And this is why they get bad marketing from players, simple many players after getting max lv Fed start KDF and leave game because of lack of content in it and tell friends (posiable new players that game isn't worth playing).
You must first invest time and money to create full value product. In STO it means at least two equal playable factions. It can't be as it is now, that people start playing KDF mostly because they get everything as Feds. Instead make new "faction" they should concentrate on finishing existing one.
This ... so much this!!! I was a big booster for STO and cryptic. However, after seeing the huge issue with KDF I am dismayed. I want to give them a chance to improve with this expansion so I will hold off judgement until then. Not going to blindly adulate them. We should stop with this "business / money" fetish in our society. Being short sighted / centered 100% on ROI while not giving a damn about customers / product / quality is what screwed up Detroit and so many other businesses. (I know analogy is a bit strategy)
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
i know from the fleet my toons are in, we have made amazing progress on our Fed Base/embassy but our KDF "Sister fleet" is just sad because most players dont want to donate a huge amount to 2 different fleets. So they focus on there main and dump most in that fleet
Ive seen the exact opposite on the fleet my KDF toons are.
A third faction starbase has no chance of drawing enough whales until there are a lot of full t5 Fed/KDF starbases out there
//also now i can stop hordeing Dil for the Rom base...and just horde it for gear for my rom toon
And this is why they get bad marketing from players, simple many players.........
The true is that until they release complete full project with clear plan for future expansions they will be always only small developer.
As well they should! Personally I make sure everyone I know that has any interest in gaming know exactly whet to expect from Cryptic. See, I've been bitter over CO a looong time now.
As for Cryptic being small.... I think they want to try and break the cycle with NWO, but they seem to miss that their poor showing and more importantly, their inability to FIX any of the issues their games have will hold them back. Companies can't get away from their past in this day and age, somehow it always catches up with them.
There are NWN1 modules STILL being made today, does anyone for a moment believe the same will hold true with a Cryptic controlled foundry?
I've got a better reason for why the Rommies don't have their own starbases.
The Romulan Republic has been reduced from what, 12-30 billion Romulans and Remans down to a billion.
Along with their industrial center utterly vaporized. They just don't have the industrial base for it, and needed help just to set up a new capital.
They're in the same boat that Afganistan is right now. Their entire former military is pretty much wiped out, and their new one is training under experienced leadership so that when the time comes (and when Rommies finally get their own bases, at a point that makes sense in-universe and out), they have the training, doctrine, and industrial capacity to support such a venture.
Look at the Tau Dewa daily. Other than the tholian encounter, not a one of the Romulan/reman patrols is an actually experienced military unit. Miners, freighter pilots, jumped up scared civilians given any halfway working mothballed ship and sent out because there is no-one else who can be sent out. Their actual fragmented military is busy fighting
the tholians at the vault and azure nebula, trying to hold off the worst to keep what little shipbuilding skill and infrastructure they have left so they can try to rebuild.
This whole 'choice' isn't your captain deciding he actually wants to be a feddie. It's 'who do I want to train me?', or 'Was our old empire right?'.
I see your reasoning here. Hobbs didn't nearly decimate the Romulan people. They conquered an empire spanning light years and dozens of worlds. It is very common in Star Trek to say "the home world was destroyed" and now the people are decimated and can't function. A territory the size of the RSE has regional and local government as well as a military with many sectors of command. Destroying Romulus and Remus would no more cause this current fiasco anymore than wiping out DC would shut down the United States. Too large, regionalized contingency for governance and of course emergency continuance of government plans in force on even type zero civilizations like the ones on earth today; all make it unlikely that the Romulans or Cardassians were shut down by destruction in a localized part of their respective empires.
Star Trek way oversimplifies things. The writers and creators are much better at putting in classic literature references and allegories to human themes than they are at covering political, social, economic or military issues of a complex nature.
I see your reasoning here. Hobbs didn't nearly decimate the Romulan people. They conquered an empire spanning light years and dozens of worlds. It is very common in Star Trek to say "the home world was destroyed" and now the people are decimated and can't function. A territory the size of the RSE has regional and local government as well as a military with many sectors of command.
But at the same time it's a canon type of situation to see exactly that occur. For example, when Praxis blew up the Klingons were destined for extinction. The Federation gave them aid and made it possible for them to survive - and it was a first step which eventually it led to an alliance. There's nothing to say a similar fate wasn't in store for the Roms.
Star Trek isn't about logic - no matter what the Vulcans say. It's about stories where a moon can decimate the KDF or the loss of Hobus, Romulus, and Remus can decimate the Rom Empire.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
Comments
Ships are all C-Store or Fleet and they lack any sort of distinct mission progression.
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The Panda race in WoW has its own missions , social hubs , mounts and other things, they still have to chose a horde or alliance faction to side with. They are not considered a faction and the Romulans are not a faction either its a Race choice with their own content. Faction is a team of players, there is no Green team.
They also don't have their own classes, which is what ships are, and they don't have 80% of the game completable with their own story content.
Romulans may be less than a faction in the WoW sense but they are more than a race, even in the sense of Pandarens, who are more than the typical WoW race.
From everything that has been posted in recent days can't Cryptic see that a large number of Romulans would have no problem with grinding for a new base since we have been waiting since launch for our faction.
Cryptic just come out and admit it, you're lazy. As someone else mentioned I would gladly take a shoddy looking starbase on LoR launch with a graphic update down the road then have to deal with all the blue and red for Fed and Kdf starbases. Just man up, give us our faction and make us happy. The Fed players calling us whiners and complainers are just happy that they finally get a large amount of cloak capable ships.
Stahl you will make buttloads more money from dedicated Romulans as we build up our bases then having them join an existing faction. -dangles wallet- I know that I will gladly part with vast amounts of cash for a proper Romulan faction.
On the fed side, there's a whole Orion story isn't there?
What large number? This forum constitutes 1/10 of 1% of the fan-base playing the game. Please do not assume that the thousand people who post here are somehow the majority of STO players, or that their opinions are somehow the opinions of an entire player-base.
Yes, it would be great to have a full Faction with 30 Missions and have everything completely unique, but it's clear that Cryptic cannot even do that for the KDF. It has nothing to do with being "lazy." It's all about manpower and dealing with what benefits the masses, not the few who post on the forum.
At the same time they have laid the ground work for a true Romulan faction,one headed by Empress Sela and controlled by the Tal Shiar,the faction most of us wanted in the first place.
But it will take at least another year before we see that happen,unless we express our discontent with the Romulan Republic faction in a way that leaves them no other choice but to give us what we want.
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
On the contrary - they've got the Roms so embedded in the KDF/Feds at end-game there's little chance of that ever happening.
Think about it - your Fed Romulan buys a Kumari or a Fleet Defiant has Fed Boffs and Doffs, Elite Fleet Phasers, Elite Fleet ground stuff - maybe MACO (we don't know, admittedly) - now a 'full' Rom faction gets built - starbases, factional weapons and Fleet ships - what happens to all your stuff?
It's a scenario Cryptic just isn't going to want to deal with - and are you going to let all that stuff you paid Dilithium and Zen for just disappear in the transition?
Refunds isn't really in Cryptic's vocabulary (the Andorian weapons being a rare exception) - neither is making more work for themselves than they have to.
I've got no doubt that Cryptic will add plenty of new cross-faction Romulan stuff into the game post-LoR, but this split faction thing is it for the Romulans (and any future factions).
Can you imagine the QQ'ing of Feddies that want the Elite Fleet Disruptors the ex-KDF Rommies have?
Or even likewise, disgruntled KDF since a bunch of Rommies are flying Kumaris (or Fleet Defiants or whatever).
Not saying I disagree (or would even mind), but it's a minefield - suppose you ditched your Fed Zen ship - would you be able to reclaim it?
These are questions that I sincerely believe Cryptic has no intention of ever having to ask themselves - or answer to the community for that matter.
Plus I assume that Rom weapons will be added to the Starbases, and as such Rom players will probably want to get their hands on those items.
And yes, if you ditch your ship you can reclaim it - you paid for it. These aren't hard questions. You just seem to want to make them hard.
OP, the real reason Romulans can't have a starbase is that it would not be economically sensible for Cryptic to make one for them. That's it. As it stands I'm pretty sure that Cryptic would LOVE to be able to stop making cosmetic projects for KDF bases. The ROI for it has got to be insanely low.
Look at it this way: Lets say it takes $10 to make a cosmetic upgrade for a base (lets also assume it costs roughly the same for their artists to make a Starfllet and KDF base upgrades). The $10 invested in the starfleet base upgrade will net many times its value in people grinding or buying Zen, the KDF one will bring in a small fraction of that. Business wise the correct thing to do would be to invest all $20 in starfleet base upgrades and get twice, or nearly twice the returns. Bear in mind that returns include Zen sold to be converted to Dil as well as time people spend in game grinding, both are valuable to a F2P game.
Now lets extend that to a third base. Cryptic would be spending $30 but only see a great return on a third of that. From a business point of view that'd be crazy! If anything the KDF really got lucky in existing as a recognizable if not numerous aspect of the game before the F2P conversion as I'm certain that if it wasn't for the backlash and bad publicity it would bring them, Cryptic would love to simply stop making things for them altogether; again, from a business point of view.
Not at all, just pointing out that there's a greater level of complexity in integrating Fed/KDF Romulans back into a single faction than there would be in creating that single faction in the first place - heck, that doesn't even preclude the possibility that some Romulans may not even want to be in a united Romulan faction at that point.
Since Cryptic's taken the route of splitting them this way, I'd say that's a pretty good indicator that's how they're going to stay.
The Romulan Republic has been reduced from what, 12-30 billion Romulans and Remans down to a billion.
Along with their industrial center utterly vaporized. They just don't have the industrial base for it, and needed help just to set up a new capital.
They're in the same boat that Afganistan is right now. Their entire former military is pretty much wiped out, and their new one is training under experienced leadership so that when the time comes (and when Rommies finally get their own bases, at a point that makes sense in-universe and out), they have the training, doctrine, and industrial capacity to support such a venture.
Look at the Tau Dewa daily. Other than the tholian encounter, not a one of the Romulan/reman patrols is an actually experienced military unit. Miners, freighter pilots, jumped up scared civilians given any halfway working mothballed ship and sent out because there is no-one else who can be sent out. Their actual fragmented military is busy fighting the tholians at the vault and azure nebula, trying to hold off the worst to keep what little shipbuilding skill and infrastructure they have left so they can try to rebuild.
This whole 'choice' isn't your captain deciding he actually wants to be a feddie. It's 'who do I want to train me?', or 'Was our old empire right?'.
I am sorry but this is exactly the kind of short-term thinking that gets businesses in a mess. Having 2 (or 3) balanced factions with comparable content is good for the game because it adds diversity. After playing for 7+ months as a Fed, I am now leveling a KDF. You know what, despite all the numerous problems with the faction, I love it. If it is all Fed all the time ... I am sure to burn out much sooner.
I want a full implemented faction and would have preferred if they made Romulans their own faction. That said, I am still glad they made them. Does not mean I am going to blindly support all of Cryptics decisions.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Oh, come on - the post-Hobus plot in STO has holes big enough to fly a D'deridex through
Yes - they lost Romulus and Remus but the RSE and the Tal'shiar still exist - they have many, many other colonized planets, military bases, outposts and yes, starbases.
This whole New Romulus/Unificationist story that Cryptic has concocted works for the version of the Romulan people they're implementing, but how much that has in common with the Romulans of TNG we've yet to see.
And they created this story - they could have gone in a different direction but they've chosen it to fit their design goals for the game - in much the same way that KDF Honor Guards are tagging Epohhs to help the Romulans. :rolleyes:
You are letting your wants cloud your judgement. Short term gains are the way Cryptic works now for good or ill. Their business plan revolves around a steady stream of high ROI, short term moves. This is part of why we see them make system improvements instead of content, they want to maximize their short term ROI from churn players. I agree that while it makes business sense for a small developper like Cryptic that constantly delivers less than advertised to the players its a terrible deal for anyone playing longer than a few months.
And this is why they get bad marketing from players, simple many players after getting max lv Fed start KDF and leave game because of lack of content in it and tell friends (posiable new players that game isn't worth playing).
You must first invest time and money to create full value product. In STO it means at least two equal playable factions. It can't be as it is now, that people start playing KDF mostly because they get everything as Feds. Instead make new "faction" they should concentrate on finishing existing one.
The true is that until they release complete full project with clear plan for future expansions they will be always only small developer.
say, Flash, that's quite the nice signature. Very to the point and funny!
But to be on topic now, I'd say the fleet system is a grindful ruckuss
anyway. 'Always hated hearing about that ****, so the Romulans
would be better off without it in my opinion. If it means having a fully
fledged faction. Although in all there's no reason why Cryptic can't
just install a fleet faction transfer to solve the problem very basically.
Actually that idea sounds not bad, not bad at all! When I come to
think about it. Hell, I'm surprised it isn't in some discussion already.
:rolleyes:
This ... so much this!!! I was a big booster for STO and cryptic. However, after seeing the huge issue with KDF I am dismayed. I want to give them a chance to improve with this expansion so I will hold off judgement until then. Not going to blindly adulate them. We should stop with this "business / money" fetish in our society. Being short sighted / centered 100% on ROI while not giving a damn about customers / product / quality is what screwed up Detroit and so many other businesses. (I know analogy is a bit strategy)
- Judge Aaron Satie
i know from the fleet my toons are in, we have made amazing progress on our Fed Base/embassy but our KDF "Sister fleet" is just sad because most players dont want to donate a huge amount to 2 different fleets. So they focus on there main and dump most in that fleet
Ive seen the exact opposite on the fleet my KDF toons are.
A third faction starbase has no chance of drawing enough whales until there are a lot of full t5 Fed/KDF starbases out there
//also now i can stop hordeing Dil for the Rom base...and just horde it for gear for my rom toon
As well they should! Personally I make sure everyone I know that has any interest in gaming know exactly whet to expect from Cryptic. See, I've been bitter over CO a looong time now.
As for Cryptic being small.... I think they want to try and break the cycle with NWO, but they seem to miss that their poor showing and more importantly, their inability to FIX any of the issues their games have will hold them back. Companies can't get away from their past in this day and age, somehow it always catches up with them.
There are NWN1 modules STILL being made today, does anyone for a moment believe the same will hold true with a Cryptic controlled foundry?
I see your reasoning here. Hobbs didn't nearly decimate the Romulan people. They conquered an empire spanning light years and dozens of worlds. It is very common in Star Trek to say "the home world was destroyed" and now the people are decimated and can't function. A territory the size of the RSE has regional and local government as well as a military with many sectors of command. Destroying Romulus and Remus would no more cause this current fiasco anymore than wiping out DC would shut down the United States. Too large, regionalized contingency for governance and of course emergency continuance of government plans in force on even type zero civilizations like the ones on earth today; all make it unlikely that the Romulans or Cardassians were shut down by destruction in a localized part of their respective empires.
Star Trek way oversimplifies things. The writers and creators are much better at putting in classic literature references and allegories to human themes than they are at covering political, social, economic or military issues of a complex nature.
Star Trek isn't about logic - no matter what the Vulcans say. It's about stories where a moon can decimate the KDF or the loss of Hobus, Romulus, and Remus can decimate the Rom Empire.