One little concern I'm having regarding Romulan warbirds is how, when they are being referenced to lately, their special perk seems to be their singularity core.
Which makes me ask: what about the Romulan cloaking device? Wouldn't that be the one most enduring technological point of the faction in question? So far, only the subterfuge trait seems to hint towards that.
Supposedly, the Romulans were extremely hard to detect, probably deserve the Battle Cloak much more than the Klingons do, and the Scimitar showed on-screen an ability to fire-while-cloaked that far outstripped that of Chang's Bird of Prey in Star Trek VI.
I have no doubt you'll have to grind it. Different game, obviously, but my elf from Lorien had to grind Lorien rep in LotRO, even to just get in; MMO devs aren't going to give anybody a "get out of jail free" card when it comes to rep grinds.
Except it didn't require any grinding (e.g., mindlessly repetitive tasks). I just played the available missions and when I was done, I had enough rep to enter Lorien. In other words, I played each mission once, did not do any landscape grinding, and so forth. That is more fun than running the exact same tasks repeatedly.
After seeing Dan's comment quoted in this thread regarding being around level 40 when the Romulans should be finishing up their unique content, I feel much better about this expansion.
Speaking of alien generation; I always liked the idea that the reason why we didn't see many, if any, different species in the Romulan Star Empire is that when they established their homeworld on Romulus, they went around and conquered all the other offshoot Vulcans who settled in different star systems, some of which we may have seen already: Proto-Vulcan humanoids.
Something the game "A Final Unity" toyed with when they had the Garidians appear with their own different coloured Warbirds.
So Romulans won't have their own Foundry missions at launch? How is this an acceptable state of affairs, and once again how does this do anything but reinforce the 'not-a-faction' vibe?
Can I flag my missions to be unavailable to Romulans? You say Romulans don't take orders from Starfleet or the High Council, but if they play my (most people's?) Foundry missions that's exactly what will happen.
One last question: Are you surprised by the reaction to this sort of thing? Was the backlash anticipated?
So Romulans won't have their own Foundry missions at launch? How is this an acceptable state of affairs, and once again how does this do anything but reinforce the 'not-a-faction' vibe?
Can I flag my missions to be unavailable to Romulans? You say Romulans don't take orders from Starfleet or the High Council, but if they play my (most people's?) Foundry missions that's exactly what will happen.
You haven't really read Dstahls response to that, have you ? :P
Except it didn't require any grinding (e.g., mindlessly repetitive tasks). I just played the available missions and when I was done, I had enough rep to enter Lorien. In other words, I played each mission once, did not do any landscape grinding, and so forth. That is more fun than running the exact same tasks repeatedly.
That doesn't change that you had to do it, just like everybody else. How well it was implemented has no bearing. Also, I think you're lying. It took two or three days of doing the rep dailies before one could enter Lorien.
Look at it this way: Remans will be a rep reward for New Romulus faction. What is the point of making them a rep reward if you don't have to grind New Romulus rep?
Thanks for the reply, just wanted to make sure tho I shudder everytime one of you guys say rep system. As it is the New Romulus (season 7 content) IS gated solely by the reputation system. Now that I know only some Tholian rep missions will be gated into that system I'm not too heartbroken.
Rep system isn't that bad to level, it seems daunting at 1st but its really not so bad.
Dan, I have to say thank you for all the new content but i do have a question:
With regard to the foundry, considering Kirksplat's thread in the Art area, are we likely to see more floor and ceiling textures? Also a personal request would be the ability to rotate and object in the foundry along any axis - it makes for more interesting map designs if there's been a riot and a chairs been thrown across the room...it lend more depth in other words
I'm asking for someone to put a few seamless textures on some flat blocks. It's like asking for manna from heaven.
So Romulans won't have their own Foundry missions at launch? How is this an acceptable state of affairs, and once again how does this do anything but reinforce the 'not-a-faction' vibe?
Can I flag my missions to be unavailable to Romulans? You say Romulans don't take orders from Starfleet or the High Council, but if they play my (most people's?) Foundry missions that's exactly what will happen.
My Romulans will play Foundry missions that say they are Romulan missions. If I write Romulan missions, the title or description will say so. Pretty simple.
Dastahl has already said the division is likely coming, but won't be in for launch. In the larger picture, it's just not that big a deal. This coming from one who enjoys playing Foundry missions, and is in fact slooowly leveling a couple of characters entirely via the Foundry.
dear mr. stahl:
plz reconsider the share-policy, or just tell us what you expect from it, because there are some problems this brings up. thx.
and just a thought: fed and kdf giving romulans their ships and gear? without fed and kdf personal? blanco-cheque without the need to pick one side (for the republic)? it would be more likely they give em support with their own fleets i guess .
So Romulans won't have their own Foundry missions at launch? How is this an acceptable state of affairs, and once again how does this do anything but reinforce the 'not-a-faction' vibe?
Can I flag my missions to be unavailable to Romulans? You say Romulans don't take orders from Starfleet or the High Council, but if they play my (most people's?) Foundry missions that's exactly what will happen.
One last question: Are you surprised by the reaction to this sort of thing? Was the backlash anticipated?
What? So, not having any access to the Foundry for the Romulans means that there's no Romulan faction? How is that even remotely logical? Just because Federation characters as well as KDF character have access to the Foundry, it doesn't mean that Romulans are any less of a Faction than they are... as Dan said, At launch, Romulan characters won't have access to the Foundry, he didn't say that Romulans are permanently forbidden from the Foundry. Foundry access for the Romulans will happen, but not at launch. At least, that's how I took the information, since it makes perfect sense to me. Maybe it doesn't make sense to you.
plz reconsider the share-policy, or just tell us what you expect from it, because there are some problems this brings up. thx.
There is no ship sharing, if there was, Federation and KDF characters would have access to the Romulan warbirds, but guess what? They don't. D'Tan specifically said when he made the agreements with the Federation and the KDF that only technology would be accessible through the Rep system, Ships were hands-off from any sort of sharing.
Did you really need to create a new thread to whine about things we mostly already knew?
To you and everyone else complaining that we can't join the RSE or Tal Shiar: there is no RSE, and the Tal Shiar are evil. We've known this since the romulan fe came out. If you didn't realize it then, realize it now. Now let it go. No one cares that you wanted to play tal shiar any.more than if you wanted to play terran empire or maquis. I'm going to go ahead spoil it for you now: true way won't be playable either.
What? So, not having any access to the Foundry for the Romulans means that there's no Romulan faction? How is that even remotely logical? Just because Federation characters as well as KDF character have access to the Foundry, it doesn't mean that Romulans are any less of a Faction than they are... as Dan said, At launch, Romulan characters won't have access to the Foundry, he didn't say that Romulans are permanently forbidden from the Foundry. Foundry access for the Romulans will happen, but not at launch. At least, that's how I took the information, since it makes perfect sense to me. Maybe it doesn't make sense to you.
He actually said Romulans do not have access to the Foundry before Level 10, then it's their allies Foundry missions AND Romulan Foundry missions that can only be played by members of the Romulan Faction !
I was curious about are all 3 factions going to be opened up to play from the beginning or will we have to have characters already at certain levels to open up other factions similar to currently having to get a Fed character to 20 before unlocking the Klingons?
I was curious about are all 3 factions going to be opened up to play from the beginning or will we have to have characters already at certain levels to open up other factions similar to currently having to get a Fed character to 20 before unlocking the Klingons?
Anyone have any info on this?
Like the big, shiny Legacy of Romulus page says, you can start with any faction at level 1, no requirements.
I was curious about are all 3 factions going to be opened up to play from the beginning or will we have to have characters already at certain levels to open up other factions similar to currently having to get a Fed character to 20 before unlocking the Klingons?
Thank you. No one is forced to play a Romulan. You may not agree with how we've implemented them and we are sorry if this doesn't meet your expectations. Some people will love it, others won't. You simply can't please everyone. That is an impossible task.
We acknowledge that it is a hot topic, but we have no comments at the present time other than we're looking closely at the feedback. Doesn't mean it will change, but we are understanding that this is upsetting to some.
Good then change it. You are spending too much energy trying to convince people that this is ok, but it isn't. The Alliance doesn't make sense. Either D'Tan chooses to go fed or KDF -- or just your captain? the whole thing is confusing.
You said before that this was a character's individual choice that couldn't be changed. But now you say it is about the direction of the Romulan Republic? Your captain isn't choosing to work with either D'Tan or Sela, just between using fed or kdf guns? Well which is it?
You are spending all this energy trying to embed a convoluted plot, but for what end? Just to justify sharing ships? Or Because building new starbase designs would take another 2 months of work for your staff that you don't have? Well if that is the only problem why not just give the Romulan fed animated bases as a placeholder. That would be just as easy and require a whole lot less explanation.
The key point is "exclusive" missions. FED/KDF/ROM will now have exclusive series tabs that no other faction has at least up to the Romulan FE series. From that point forward, most of the missions are now becoming shared for anyone (which is why you're seeing us start to open up some of the Cardassian missions for KDF (and Roms will get these too).
How many "exclusive" missions will that leave the KDF? I understand that some copy paste is necessary, but what new content is actually coming for the KDF? Adventure zone? New tutorial? Is that it?
He actually said Romulans do not have access to the Foundry before Level 10, then it's their allies Foundry missions AND Romulan Foundry missions that can only be played by members of the Romulan Faction !
No ETA on playable Romulan Foundry missions. When it launches, Foundry authors can't make Romulan faction missions, with no ETA on when we can. If you want to play a Foundry mission as an Rom, you need to borrow a Fed of KDF Foundry mission from an ally.
How this is acceptable, I don't know. If Cryptic is releasing a new faction that could use more content, how about turning on the Foundry?
That doesn't change that you had to do it, just like everybody else. How well it was implemented has no bearing. Also, I think you're lying. It took two or three days of doing the rep dailies before one could enter Lorien.
Look at it this way: Remans will be a rep reward for New Romulus faction. What is the point of making them a rep reward if you don't have to grind New Romulus rep?
I agree that it seems silly for Lorient elves to have to gain rep to get there. But I would have played the missions anyway, so I probably wouldn't have thought much about it.
However, please do not call me a liar. My wife and I just did those quests recently. Without having to do rep dailies. We did repeat one of them, simply because I didn't realize it was a daily. We dropped the other two dailies when that realization hit.
[edit]My wife just wondered if we are currently in Lorien proper or in an instanced storyline version. If it is the latter and we really don't have full access yet, I will let you know. This is our first time through this content.
But I can say honestly that I have never *had* to "grind" anything to advance in LOTRO. Upgrading traits and rep takes a longer just going the quest route, but it is doable and more enjoyable for us.
I've been extremely critical of STO, Cryptic, and Dan in particular. I felt burned by STO, and some things still irk me considerably--namely lockboxes and some lacking RP features I'd like to see. But everything I've heard so far about this update--with a few exceptions--leaves me feeling very positive about the future of STO. LoR is exactly the sort of high-impact, meaningful update the game needed.
Thanks for being so open in your interview, Dan, and for being consistently open in your replies to the thread. It's much appreciated.
That was already answered, with a no. But you unlock a Romulan uniform option based on your ally.
Bummer but understandable.
Romulan players although allied with the FED/KDF, are not members of the specific factions military.
Kira was only allowed to wear a Starfleet uniform after being given a commission by Starfleet.
Nog was only allowed to wear a Starfleet uniform after attending and graduating the academy.
Seven/Kes/Neelix etc were not allowed to wear Starfleet uniforms.
Voyagers Marquis crewmembers who weren't previously members of Starfleet would have been asked/forced to join, or remain as a civilian aboard ship.
Maybe they could add an option, that allowed a Romulan player, once aligned to a faction, to become a member of Starfleet/KDF. You'd gain the option to wear a Starfleet/KDF uniform (and possibly other benefits), but maybe lose some things in the trade off.
One thing I really wish they would add though, is the ability to dress my non-faction Bridge officers in Starfleet uniforms. I'm talking about the non-standard Boffs;
The Breen*, the Reman ,and the Jem'hadar from the FEs
Borg Sci boff from KA
KDF Boffs from Diplomacy system
Romulan boffs from Romulan rep
As a Starfleet Captain, I should have the power to grant them a commission, allowing them to wear the uniform!
*The Breen is the only one I see that has a legitimate reason for not being able to wear a uniform, as he/she has specific environmental requirements. If we ever got a Tholian Boff, it would fall under the same reasoning.
How many "exclusive" missions will that leave the KDF? I understand that some copy paste is necessary, but what new content is actually coming for the KDF? Adventure zone? New tutorial? Is that it?
He mentioned early in the thread that he's here talking to us right now when he could/should be working on a new Klingon mission.
What? So, not having any access to the Foundry for the Romulans means that there's no Romulan faction? How is that even remotely logical? Just because Federation characters as well as KDF character have access to the Foundry, it doesn't mean that Romulans are any less of a Faction than they are... as Dan said, At launch, Romulan characters won't have access to the Foundry, he didn't say that Romulans are permanently forbidden from the Foundry. Foundry access for the Romulans will happen, but not at launch. At least, that's how I took the information, since it makes perfect sense to me. Maybe it doesn't make sense to you.
Can Fed and KDF players group together(other then for endgame)? Can they make starbases and fleets together? They cant because they are different factions. Romulan players have a choice to make at a cetain level , either join Blue team or the Red team, there is no Green team to join.
Well that was a nice interview and a very good read!
Thank you for clearing some things mr.Stahl, the information we could gather were rather confusing. I can honestly say that after reading this interview I'm looking forward for the 'Legacy of Romulus' and am more excited about it than ever before!
I'd like to comment on few quotes from the interview:
"The Romulan Republic is at odds with the Romulan Military and the Tal Shiar, both of which are led by Sela, who declared herself Empress and essentially disbanded the senate. These are Romulan civilians who?ve decided to stand up against the oppression of their government"
Thank you so much for taking the story in this direction! At first I had no real intention to play the Romulan faction more seriosely, but after that quote that is going to change. Now I'm actually looking forward to play in the Romulan Republic.
Sela is my most hated character in Trek and once long ago I said that if in STO the Grand Nagus decides to go hunting for her, even the Ferengi would have my allegiance, life, starship and the loyalty and lives of my crew. If the Republic is going after her, they will have all my expertise at their disposal!
Even then, we are restricting custom aliens for the Romulan Republic even further by limiting it to a Subscribers only unlock.
I understand how many will disagree, but IMHO it's one of the better decisions you have made in this game. It goes well storywise and I'd really hate to see weird looking aliens overwhelming Romulans in the new faction that is suposed to consist of Romulan and Reman survivors.
All in all, I can't wait untill the release of 'Legacy of Romulus' on Holodeck. I'm very excited to experience the stroies you have to tell and to see how this story unfolds.
I'm usually the one that has the wait and see approach, but I sincerely get the vibe that this expansion is your best work so far. I'm glad to see STO develop and expand!
Thanks devs., have fun and keep up the good work!
What about fleet member limits?
My kdf lfeet is at the limit, 500, do we get a bigger member limit with LoR? otherwise the benefit of letting romulans join existing fleet goes right out of the window again because we can't join our already existing big fleets and pretty much have to start over again anyway.
Comments
Which makes me ask: what about the Romulan cloaking device? Wouldn't that be the one most enduring technological point of the faction in question? So far, only the subterfuge trait seems to hint towards that.
Supposedly, the Romulans were extremely hard to detect, probably deserve the Battle Cloak much more than the Klingons do, and the Scimitar showed on-screen an ability to fire-while-cloaked that far outstripped that of Chang's Bird of Prey in Star Trek VI.
Except it didn't require any grinding (e.g., mindlessly repetitive tasks). I just played the available missions and when I was done, I had enough rep to enter Lorien. In other words, I played each mission once, did not do any landscape grinding, and so forth. That is more fun than running the exact same tasks repeatedly.
Something the game "A Final Unity" toyed with when they had the Garidians appear with their own different coloured Warbirds.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Can I flag my missions to be unavailable to Romulans? You say Romulans don't take orders from Starfleet or the High Council, but if they play my (most people's?) Foundry missions that's exactly what will happen.
One last question: Are you surprised by the reaction to this sort of thing? Was the backlash anticipated?
You haven't really read Dstahls response to that, have you ? :P
That doesn't change that you had to do it, just like everybody else. How well it was implemented has no bearing. Also, I think you're lying. It took two or three days of doing the rep dailies before one could enter Lorien.
Look at it this way: Remans will be a rep reward for New Romulus faction. What is the point of making them a rep reward if you don't have to grind New Romulus rep?
But what does Quinn or Drake say to that?
Rep system isn't that bad to level, it seems daunting at 1st but its really not so bad.
I'm asking for someone to put a few seamless textures on some flat blocks. It's like asking for manna from heaven.
My Romulans will play Foundry missions that say they are Romulan missions. If I write Romulan missions, the title or description will say so. Pretty simple.
Dastahl has already said the division is likely coming, but won't be in for launch. In the larger picture, it's just not that big a deal. This coming from one who enjoys playing Foundry missions, and is in fact slooowly leveling a couple of characters entirely via the Foundry.
plz reconsider the share-policy, or just tell us what you expect from it, because there are some problems this brings up. thx.
and just a thought: fed and kdf giving romulans their ships and gear? without fed and kdf personal? blanco-cheque without the need to pick one side (for the republic)? it would be more likely they give em support with their own fleets i guess
There is no ship sharing, if there was, Federation and KDF characters would have access to the Romulan warbirds, but guess what? They don't. D'Tan specifically said when he made the agreements with the Federation and the KDF that only technology would be accessible through the Rep system, Ships were hands-off from any sort of sharing.
To you and everyone else complaining that we can't join the RSE or Tal Shiar: there is no RSE, and the Tal Shiar are evil. We've known this since the romulan fe came out. If you didn't realize it then, realize it now. Now let it go. No one cares that you wanted to play tal shiar any.more than if you wanted to play terran empire or maquis. I'm going to go ahead spoil it for you now: true way won't be playable either.
He actually said Romulans do not have access to the Foundry before Level 10, then it's their allies Foundry missions AND Romulan Foundry missions that can only be played by members of the Romulan Faction !
Anyone have any info on this?
Like the big, shiny Legacy of Romulus page says, you can start with any faction at level 1, no requirements.
Are you serious?
Good then change it. You are spending too much energy trying to convince people that this is ok, but it isn't. The Alliance doesn't make sense. Either D'Tan chooses to go fed or KDF -- or just your captain? the whole thing is confusing.
You said before that this was a character's individual choice that couldn't be changed. But now you say it is about the direction of the Romulan Republic? Your captain isn't choosing to work with either D'Tan or Sela, just between using fed or kdf guns? Well which is it?
You are spending all this energy trying to embed a convoluted plot, but for what end? Just to justify sharing ships? Or Because building new starbase designs would take another 2 months of work for your staff that you don't have? Well if that is the only problem why not just give the Romulan fed animated bases as a placeholder. That would be just as easy and require a whole lot less explanation.
How many "exclusive" missions will that leave the KDF? I understand that some copy paste is necessary, but what new content is actually coming for the KDF? Adventure zone? New tutorial? Is that it?
No ETA on playable Romulan Foundry missions. When it launches, Foundry authors can't make Romulan faction missions, with no ETA on when we can. If you want to play a Foundry mission as an Rom, you need to borrow a Fed of KDF Foundry mission from an ally.
How this is acceptable, I don't know. If Cryptic is releasing a new faction that could use more content, how about turning on the Foundry?
*hears crickets.
I agree that it seems silly for Lorient elves to have to gain rep to get there. But I would have played the missions anyway, so I probably wouldn't have thought much about it.
However, please do not call me a liar. My wife and I just did those quests recently. Without having to do rep dailies. We did repeat one of them, simply because I didn't realize it was a daily. We dropped the other two dailies when that realization hit.
[edit]My wife just wondered if we are currently in Lorien proper or in an instanced storyline version. If it is the latter and we really don't have full access yet, I will let you know. This is our first time through this content.
But I can say honestly that I have never *had* to "grind" anything to advance in LOTRO. Upgrading traits and rep takes a longer just going the quest route, but it is doable and more enjoyable for us.
It would be better if the Patrol Daily gave some incentive to patrolling instead of just repeating the same mission over and over again.
Thanks for being so open in your interview, Dan, and for being consistently open in your replies to the thread. It's much appreciated.
Bummer
Romulan players although allied with the FED/KDF, are not members of the specific factions military.
Maybe they could add an option, that allowed a Romulan player, once aligned to a faction, to become a member of Starfleet/KDF. You'd gain the option to wear a Starfleet/KDF uniform (and possibly other benefits), but maybe lose some things in the trade off.
One thing I really wish they would add though, is the ability to dress my non-faction Bridge officers in Starfleet uniforms. I'm talking about the non-standard Boffs;
As a Starfleet Captain, I should have the power to grant them a commission, allowing them to wear the uniform!
*The Breen is the only one I see that has a legitimate reason for not being able to wear a uniform, as he/she has specific environmental requirements. If we ever got a Tholian Boff, it would fall under the same reasoning.
Commander, Starfleet Corps of Engineers • 7th Fleet
Commanding Officer, U.S.S. HEART OF OAK • NX-1759-B • Odyssey class Star Cruiser ( Lexington Tactical Configuration))
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He mentioned early in the thread that he's here talking to us right now when he could/should be working on a new Klingon mission.
Can Fed and KDF players group together(other then for endgame)? Can they make starbases and fleets together? They cant because they are different factions. Romulan players have a choice to make at a cetain level , either join Blue team or the Red team, there is no Green team to join.
Yeah, I was serious. I may be brain dead as well.:D
Thank you for clearing some things mr.Stahl, the information we could gather were rather confusing. I can honestly say that after reading this interview I'm looking forward for the 'Legacy of Romulus' and am more excited about it than ever before!
I'd like to comment on few quotes from the interview:
"The Romulan Republic is at odds with the Romulan Military and the Tal Shiar, both of which are led by Sela, who declared herself Empress and essentially disbanded the senate. These are Romulan civilians who?ve decided to stand up against the oppression of their government"
Thank you so much for taking the story in this direction! At first I had no real intention to play the Romulan faction more seriosely, but after that quote that is going to change. Now I'm actually looking forward to play in the Romulan Republic.
Sela is my most hated character in Trek and once long ago I said that if in STO the Grand Nagus decides to go hunting for her, even the Ferengi would have my allegiance, life, starship and the loyalty and lives of my crew. If the Republic is going after her, they will have all my expertise at their disposal!
Even then, we are restricting custom aliens for the Romulan Republic even further by limiting it to a Subscribers only unlock.
I understand how many will disagree, but IMHO it's one of the better decisions you have made in this game. It goes well storywise and I'd really hate to see weird looking aliens overwhelming Romulans in the new faction that is suposed to consist of Romulan and Reman survivors.
All in all, I can't wait untill the release of 'Legacy of Romulus' on Holodeck. I'm very excited to experience the stroies you have to tell and to see how this story unfolds.
I'm usually the one that has the wait and see approach, but I sincerely get the vibe that this expansion is your best work so far. I'm glad to see STO develop and expand!
Thanks devs., have fun and keep up the good work!
My kdf lfeet is at the limit, 500, do we get a bigger member limit with LoR? otherwise the benefit of letting romulans join existing fleet goes right out of the window again because we can't join our already existing big fleets and pretty much have to start over again anyway.
In which case, why bother?