I think Redvenge's idea of an alternative social hub run by a different species would actually go a long way to help. Speaking for myself, I just find Qo'nos's endless metal-stonework-painted-red gives me a headache. Orion or Gorn would probably be best; we have more semi-canon about what their civilisation is like and it sounds quite interesting. It would be essential to have all the practical bits and pieces that Qo'nos has, of course (tailor, DOff requisitions, History 102), otherwise it wouldn't work - those are the reasons KDF players need to spend so much time at Qo'nos.
While you're about it, it could be made a much less bandwidth/RAM-intensive zone than Qo'nos, too - then it would also be useful as an alternative hub to use when your Internet connection is sulking and can't handle the huge graphics density of First City. I'd find that useful very often. Two BoPs with one stone.
While you may dislike Klignons, OP, the widely known fact is that in the global Trek community the Klingon fandom is second only to the Starfleet one. So, no - people disliking Klingons, their ways, architecture or style is not the reason.
The reason for lower number of people playing KDF is so very simple:
- very little dev. attention
- ship disparity the size of the Sol System
- almost no bug fixes
- no uniform options
- no access to various ship costumes and the ones that have them are bugged/unavailible on fleet variants
- no female options for half of the species
- 1 C-Store ship per 2 years
- power creep in form of ships and universal T5 consoles that KDF has no asnwer to, because ^^^
- announcement that no sub-species ships will be released in the near future
- the systematic extermiantion of PvP (and the KDF used to be the PvP faction)
- bugged stuff being described as WAI
- the least amount of fleet ship variants
- continuous giving away of KDF unique flavor assets
...and I'm sure I keep forgeting a few more things.
So when you sum it up, you have the hardocre people that do enjoy the faction even in it's current state, but all of the previously mentioned TRIBBLE is a HUGE reason for your average causal player to avoid the KDF, because let's face it - who other than the most hardcore fan wants to be treated like a second-rate customer and to experience the stress of non-equal game opportunities in what he/she considers his free entertainment time?
Don't think there would be any probably about it...I don't have any Fed toons, but I'm not going to try to kid myself about Star Trek not mainly being about Starfleet and the Federation.
On the other hand, I sometimes wonder if I went KDF to play the underdog...or...if it was just so I didn't have to go to ESD...
Those two pretty much sum it up for me, thanks for saving me some typing. Though yes, I acknowledge that the OP does not dislike Klingons, as offering a suggestion to try helping the KDF illustrates. Further, I do have a Fed and a FedRom in addition to my KDF/KDFRom characters, since personally I prefer trying out as much as possible in any game I play. I also maintain a "disposable" character slot so I can wipe and create a new character if my current lineup doesn't have access to something I want to try.
As far as the "nutty enough to be douches" folks... sadly, those are everywhere. One of the few advantages of a smaller playerbase is that (personally, I can't speak for others) I have run into less of those on the KDF/KDFRom side than the Fed/FedRom simply because there are less players to actually be "nutty enough to be douches"...
It would be nice if the factions would balance out, but when the presently available resources, likely future development effort, and the existing playerbase are out of balance we aren't going to see any quick fixes. Maybe if the next several ships and/or map updates released were for the Klingon* faction it might start a shift to try out the new toys, but I simply don't see that happening. The devs have themselves mentioned that it is not as cost effective to make items for the Klingon faction, which in turn becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy as players tend to believe them... and keep making Federation or FedRom characters instead. If the devs actually committed to balancing the game itself, the playerbase might bother doing so as well.
*And/or the Romulan faction, who really don't need to be left long enough to mirror the Klingon faction's development cycle if it can be avoided.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Many of the complaints and criticisms here are exactly many of the things I enjoy most about the KDF faction. I like playing the smallest "under dog" faction. I like the way the reddish, almost gloomy way the KDF bridges and city look. It's canon, as far as that goes.
I like being instantly focused fired on as soon as my "worthless" bortasqu' decloaks in pvp. What klingon wouldn't? Rather than making new ships, it would be a much simpler and deadly effective matter to just increase console (especially tac console) slots and make all Boff stations universal. Can you imagine attacking a "lousy, crummy raptor" that ended up having 5 tac consoles, maybe 5/2 weapon slots and commander and lt commander universal boff stations?! Many Fed ships would start exploding without really being sure why. Everyone would want to be a "crummy klingon" in an "unuseable, crummy raptor" (or other ship) then, or so I would think.
The "honorable" and "warrior" traits are excellent for ground combat but maybe some sort of special KDF-only space trait might be interesting as an option.
Can you imagine a KDF faction boff with the (currently Rom only) "superior operative" or similar KDF-only trait? Maybe for tac boffs only to prevent too much imbalance.
These changes would terrify any opponent who sees a KDF ship decloaking. It would be the best reason NOT to change the outward appearance of a KDF ship. This would seem to make a KDF upgrade even simpler. It would also answer the question, "Oh it's just a raptor, who cares?" The answer would become "EVERYONE!"
KDF ships would strike fear into the hearts of any enemy faction because with all the variety and potential build combinations available with universal boffs and weapon slots, it would be very scary to fight something when you don't know what it is. KDF exceptional versatility would definitely increase KDF population, particularly for experienced players who could experiment with some insanely effective builds in the same ol' dingy looking ships that no Fed captain will know how to fight...until it was too late.
I don't know why this thread pops up every now and then. Why do we NEED to have a higher population ?
I'm very happy with zone chat on Qo'nos. I have no issues with queues (most of them are x-faction anyway) and endgame content is same for everyone, too.
Granted, there could be more ships (especially for the KDF minors) but hey, the Mogh is as OP as every other recent release and the majority of fed ships are just TRIBBLE.
We have now two sets that boost disruptor damage and tons of hybrid disruptors. The Klingon Empire is still the Empire and not the Klingon Republik.
We have our starbases, we have or acadamy. And I think the faction specific storyline content is better.
At least I don't feel weird when I shoot first and don't ask at all as Klingon...
I like the idea of more uniform options. as far as adding anything faction specific that effects battle in any significant way will simply make people leave the game, not join the KDF.
1) Star Trek is about the Federation, not the Klingons. Most people who find the game probably like the shows and movies, so they're going to want to play the feds.
2) I have a kdf alt that gets little love because I haven't put enough time into him to have cool stuff. Maybe some day, but for now I can have more fun with my characters who've been around longer. People might just start with the Feds because they're more human and look easier and then it's just inertia after that.
3) FWIW, I think the shows' Klingons were "prettier" than the ones on STO. It's something about the hair and the uniforms that is just a little off.
Cryptic knows what to do, they're simply not doing it.I just pray for a entirely different company with entirely different people acquire this game. Only way KDF is getting attractive. It's like someone higher up is against the KDF... I'm sure it's some anti-KDF dude at the top.
Cryptic can't be this completely clueless about the problems with KDF. I'm at the point where I believe they are being told not to create anything for KDF. If so, hey I understand. You gotta follow orders.
The dress is gold and white. Over 70% people says so. When viewed from a certain screen angle it appears blue and black. The dress displayed on amazon is a blue and black dress, but it's not the same dress in the picture. If you're seeing blue & black you're slightly colored blind. A normal upright screen = white and gold.
At this point, who cares? It's the same old stuff as before. KDF will never be Starfleet. AND THAT'S GREAT. One ESD is enough, thanks.
And, yes, the uniforms are "off". Male Klingon shoulder pads are ridiculously large. The lack of cleavage except on the Be'ves KHG option for female Klingons? Totally a mistake. The way the sashes clip with so many options? HATE IT. Klingon footwear is also sad.
No female Nausicaans? Bad. Ditto to Gorn & Letheans. If you have female Remans, but no female Nausicaans... I mean, seriously. WTF? Thanks a lot.
That stuff will never get fixed, though. They don't care enough to add them, so that's it. It's been this way for a long time. You either like it or not, and that's all there will be.
I have several KDF captains... Maxed them all... The players make me not want to go over there... Not what cryptic made them into...
Funny allot of us on the KDf side wont play feds because of the player base there. I mean really if your main ports chat is such a joke you have to close it something is wrong.
Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days.
1. Anything KDF can do, Romulans can do better(except frigate carriers).
2. Raptors are the most shat upon class in the game. PERIOD BAR NONE. There's a reason almost nobody flies them.
3. Going with 1 and 2, there is just not enough separation between the factions. Feds with a few exceptions have the best of everything. Roms have battle cloaks and singularities. What does the KDF have going for it? A free carrier with frigates and BoP with flanking bonuses. THAT IS IT.
I mean unless we start going away from the vanilla flavor and start giving each faction different powers/strengths that is their own but can be counteracted, there's really nothing to be done.
Here's what I'd do. Strip battle cloaks form the romulans and give every KDF ship battle cloaking. Second couple of fleet raptors. One with 5 tac consoles, second one with a 5/2 weapons setup. Give KDF some reasons to actually want to PLAY raptors.
Also introduce more klingon bladed weapons that are KDF only like the: Mek'leth. The blade you normally see Worf carrying. D'k tagh dagger that carries family crests. Allow KDF players to form houses, or through the story line if they should so choose, to join House Martok.
I'd also make free carriers from LT Cmdr all the way to VA. Even if they carriers only housed drones at ltcmdr, but i'd have carriers that carried fighters from Cmdr and captain, till you hit the vo'quv. And ofcourse I'd make them science oriented.
Last but not least, MORE UNIFORM OPTIONS FOR GODS SAKE!
I actually agree with most of what you said . only issue id have is stripping cloak from rommies. lore is kdf even got it from them so no reason to strip it from them. im ok with them being better at it that the kdf .
but I would give all Klingon design ships battle cloak instead of regular cloak.
and not sure if the feds who don't play kdf know this or not but kdf only has one ship with 5 tac consoles 1 for the warrior race LOL
to kdf players we need to be different from all the rest. but each faction needs to be the counter to the others like playing rock paper scissors.
romulans should have kick TRIBBLE cloak extremely hard to detect but a longer cooldown before they can reenter it.
the Boff that make rommies OP needs to be addressed in some way.
Klingons themselves need atleast one decent space trait unto themselves.
personally id like to strike fear in the enemy and have a 2 to 4 second delay on all boff abilities or something like that LOL
Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days.
I don't dislike klingons, I really like my ferasan kitty actually, but a couple of points. I dislike all my ships being green or brown, and I haven't gotten my dyson rep high enough to work on the shield which brings me to the second point. What real benefit is there for me to grind the rep up seriously? I'm still working on the nonstop reps on my main character. A really cool ship might bring me back to playing more regularly though.
"..and like children playing after sunset, we were surrounded by darkness." -Ruri Hoshino
I actually agree with most of what you said . only issue id have is stripping cloak from rommies. lore is kdf even got it from them so no reason to strip it from them. im ok with them being better at it that the kdf .
but I would give all Klingon design ships battle cloak instead of regular cloak.
and not sure if the feds who don't play kdf know this or not but kdf only has one ship with 5 tac consoles 1 for the warrior race LOL
to kdf players we need to be different from all the rest. but each faction needs to be the counter to the others like playing rock paper scissors.
romulans should have kick TRIBBLE cloak extremely hard to detect but a longer cooldown before they can reenter it.
the Boff that make rommies OP needs to be addressed in some way.
Klingons themselves need atleast one decent space trait unto themselves.
personally id like to strike fear in the enemy and have a 2 to 4 second delay on all boff abilities or something like that LOL
no i'd downgrade romulans from battle cloaks to standard cloaks, not get rid of them period. I just think battle cloaking should be a KDF ability, not a romulan ability considering romulans get singularities.
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no i'd downgrade romulans from battle cloaks to standard cloaks, not get rid of them period. I just think battle cloaking should be a KDF ability, not a romulan ability considering romulans get singularities.
I see your point in play balance terms, but it doesn't make sense with the IPs history.
I think we need to be looking at something novel to make KDF ships stand out.
Perhaps a base increase in KDF ships accuracy, defence and damage.
Or, as i suggested earlier, some cruiser command-esque abilities reflecting the KDF martial focus.
Of course Orions aren't enough. Mere fanservice is never enough. If something could be sold through flesh alone, a lot more korean MMO's would still be around.
KDF also needs not TRIBBLE colour pallets. My god. What we have so far suuuuuucks.
And more faction neutral stuff while we're at it. Why the KDF can't use the Ferengi Jackets, or any of the Bajoran stuff is beyond me. My Klingon engineer would look right dapper in one of those latinum coats.
KDF also needs more stuff to do. There needs to be an entire zone that can only be accessed by Klingons. There just should be. Because it would be awesome.
KDF should also get a reputation track or two that only they can get. Something with a more brutal edge. Like weapons with more stabby bits.
KDF also needs more races. There just aren't enough options for them.
And more ideas that I have thought up but just forgotten.
I figured it all out and only one thing has to change. and people would join the KDF in droves.
Before any federation allied player can fire weapons , they would need to be either fired upon or go through a unskipable popup peacenik diolog, every time. LOL
Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days.
Yeah I think a part of the beautification argument could be addressed by creating a more modern feeling Orion hub or a Gorn one. In addition to the other suggestions I would also think that having a free transwarp to it would be important too.
I am still hopeful that KDF and Romulan Tempests are around the corner, and that the delay in introducing them is to maximise sales of all ships.
It seems such an easy thing to do to release new KDF ships. The artwork is already in game for the NPC ships, and even for fleet versions of existing ships it's just about following a formula. I am wondering if there is another concern. Is it possible that the KDF have so much dilithium that they mostly pay for things in game without resorting to buying zen with real money? Is it possible that the KDF population, though smaller, is much more dedicated on average and as such is much better able to produce in game resources. This would certainly exacerbate an already difficult situation and further disincentivise cryptic allocating resources to us.
Is it a case that by playing KDF, we get a poorer primary experience, but essentially get the Fed stuff for free if we want it?
I am just trying to understand why we don't have more ships. It seems counterintuitive when they literally just made the Aquarius because the art was there. Why can't they do the same for all of the Orion, Gorn and Nausicaan ships mentioned earlier in the conversation? Being held for future lockboxes?
1. Anything KDF can do, Romulans can do better(except frigate carriers).
Except frigate pets? You haven't met many scimitar drones yet, haven't you? Surprising they are hard to miss....
2. Raptors are the most shat upon class in the game. PERIOD BAR NONE. There's a reason almost nobody flies them.
Naa.... Raptors are poor mans escorts. If I want to fly an escort I'll take my Kumari. And if I wouldn't take the Kumari I'd take the classic defiant.
Raiders are what makes the kdf line up special. And they have become almost obsolete thanks to the roms. And even the "revamp" didn't help much. And there is to little choice of endgame raiders.
And may be the carriers were special too at some point.... And their cruisers are different too compared to most fed cruisers.
But raptors are just boring....
3. Going with 1 and 2, there is just not enough separation between the factions. Feds with a few exceptions have the best of everything. Roms have battle cloaks and singularities. What does the KDF have going for it? A free carrier with frigates and BoP with flanking bonuses. THAT IS IT.
I mean unless we start going away from the vanilla flavor and start giving each faction different powers/strengths that is their own but can be counteracted, there's really nothing to be done.
Agreed...
Here's what I'd do. Strip battle cloaks form the romulans and give every KDF ship battle cloaking. Second couple of fleet raptors. One with 5 tac consoles, second one with a 5/2 weapons setup. Give KDF some reasons to actually want to PLAY raptors.
Nerfing other factions is a bad approach.
I thing the battleckoak / normal cloak differentiation is absolutely dated anyway. Every cloak should work like a battle cloak IMO, and actual battle cloaks should have other benefits (like a defense bonus when cloaking) and that should be rare even among roms.
Also introduce more klingon bladed weapons that are KDF only like the: Mek'leth. The blade you normally see Worf carrying. D'k tagh dagger that carries family crests. Allow KDF players to form houses, or through the story line if they should so choose, to join House Martok.
The lack of melee weapons is not a Klingon issue it's a general issue. And if mek'leths and d'k taghs come they should be available for Feds too. After all we have fed Klingons. Like Worf was one at his time.
I'd also make free carriers from LT Cmdr all the way to VA. Even if they carriers only housed drones at ltcmdr, but i'd have carriers that carried fighters from Cmdr and captain, till you hit the vo'quv. And ofcourse I'd make them science oriented.
Na I think the low level stuff is covered at this point. It's the endgame stuff that lacks.
Last but not least, MORE UNIFORM OPTIONS FOR GODS SAKE!
Definitely.
IMO there are a couple of things to do:
The op is "partly" right, lot of people can't identify with that warrior mentality.
But the kdf now includes prety much everything pirate and mercenary related we saw, the orion syndicate, the nausicaans, the letheans.
THAT aspects should be fleshed out more, given how many fed players play "mercenarys" there is a high demand for that.
And why not? From firefly to Han Solo... Partly even guardians if the galaxy... That kind of characters if very well liked in sci fi and the current kdf backstory has the perfect setup for that.
This would make the kdf more attractive for a lot of ppl. And it IS already there, just not fleshed out.
Mechanically I believe the factions should more diffrent. A kdf tac should not be identical to a fed tac and a rom tac with the only difference beeing the choice of available ships.
Factions should have exclusive kit modules and bridge officer abilities.
Plus, of course, the ship line up needs to be brought up to be en par and the costume choices.
And last but not least: more multi character support.
After all, most people started as Feds because they had too, and as a star trek game most people will continue to start as Feds. And a lot of people just stick with their first character. Especially in sto where you are almost punished for having multiple chars.
There should be more benefits from having multiple characters.
There should be benefits for having character in different factions (account wide unlocks that can only be made with a Klingon character of some kind)
Time gated events should be massively eased up for multiple characters (or may be even account wide unlocks in the first place)
And more currencys should be account wide. Latium, marks, dillithium.
Yeah I think a part of the beautification argument could be addressed by creating a more modern feeling Orion hub or a Gorn one. In addition to the other suggestions I would also think that having a free transwarp to it would be important too.
We've been asking for those hubs for a long time, as well as have some KDF storyline revolving around the KDF-Gorn war, explaining in detail how things came to be as they are in the KDF currently, complete with a Gornar social and adventure zone. I remember the devs. stating that they had plans for something like this before Season 7, but noone knows what happened. It might have been turned into the NR adventure zone for what we know.
And Terjas'Mor could also be a big opportunity to diversify the gameplay and bring some new things in the game, like Orion Syndicate slave auctions - something like a mini game including the doff system where you sell/auction prisoners, new aesthetics and possibly a few other things native to the species that are not currently present in the game.
I am still hopeful that KDF and Romulan Tempests are around the corner, and that the delay in introducing them is to maximise sales of all ships.
I like to hope and stay positive, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. We've been begging for a Fleet Guramba for how long.....around 2 years now?
It seems such an easy thing to do to release new KDF ships. The artwork is already in game for the NPC ships, and even for fleet versions of existing ships it's just about following a formula. I am wondering if there is another concern. Is it possible that the KDF have so much dilithium that they mostly pay for things in game without resorting to buying zen with real money? Is it possible that the KDF population, though smaller, is much more dedicated on average and as such is much better able to produce in game resources. This would certainly exacerbate an already difficult situation and further disincentivise cryptic allocating resources to us.
Is it a case that by playing KDF, we get a poorer primary experience, but essentially get the Fed stuff for free if we want it?
I don't think that's the case. First of all, even if the KDF players spend dilithium and transfer it to Zen to buy things - that Zen is still bought with real cash and Cryptic/PWE made a profit out of it. While it may seem free (grind) for the player, someone payed RL cash for that Zen and put it on the exchange because he/she doesn't have the time or doesn't like to grind. A bigger demand for Zen would result in more incentive for Zen sellers to continue buying Zen and selling in on the dilithium exchange, probably for higher rates. Still Cryptic/PWE gets paid anyway.
Not to mention that myself and a good number of other KDF Veterans and aficionados I know use real cash to buy new KDF things when they make them, in a loony attempt to help and support the faction we enjoy playing. They make them once in a blue moon anyway, so what the heck, eh?
I am just trying to understand why we don't have more ships. It seems counterintuitive when they literally just made the Aquarius because the art was there. Why can't they do the same for all of the Orion, Gorn and Nausicaan ships mentioned earlier in the conversation? Being held for future lockboxes?
Because Cryptic put themselves in a 'Catch 22' situation and they're naive or ignorant enough to really believe that it will be the customers who break that circle instead of them.
"Klingons are angry ugly humans with funny foreheads"
so I assumed you dislike the Klingons as well.
Nevertheless, yes - the Klingon fanbase in the Trek community is very populous and second only to the fandom of the Federation and Starfleet. The reason for the difference in player population over here is because almost none of them play STO. And they don't play STO because they dislike Cryptic and how Cryptic as a game developer treated and continues to treat the faction of their preference.
And I, while still hanging on here myself, can't blame those people for that chocie. Because at the end of the day, who wants to spend their entertainment hours playing a game where the developer lets you make a choice, and then proceeds giving you the middle finger for 4 years because of the choice you made?
1) I like the KDF but there needs to be more mission content and fleshed out story arcs, exclusive to the KDF (ala Rommie)
2) PVP zones that have huge rewards, battles between houses etc... sure we have them already to a lesser degree, but they need to be made into battle zone types - using the que system we already have.
3) Better ship designs that deviate from the generic Klingon styles, with better color options
4) Better uniform options and hair options
5) Armor wearing options, and kit viewed
6) Color (This is a BIG one) during the tailor option the color palette needs to match what the Fed has already - giving players more freedom with lighter and brighter colors
7) Players do not like the Red color scheme, the dark moody areas, though they match the show atmosphere, it should be updated some to make it more pleasing to the eyes.
8) Raptor class needs a complete revamp and overhaul
9) MORE races, (FEDS have all the factions beat)
- Introduce the Kziniti (Though Ferasan suppose to take their place, least acquire or try to acquire the license
- Hirogen species (Hunter class are viewed as warriors, they have more in common with the KDF than the Romulans do)
well, KDF queues are empty for a reason, you think its because there are lots of KDF? cryptic itself said the bortas didn't sell as much as they would've liked, but the odyssey did, why is that?
but its all invention, clearly populations are even, everything is great, is all evil's cryptic fault, they seek to ruin the KDF! the foul cunning peta'qs! :rolleyes:
The BortasQu sucked in comparison and was offered at a time when the KDF population was both the lowest and underdeveloped.
The BortasQu sucked in comparison and was offered at a time when the KDF population was both the lowest and underdeveloped.
It also wasn't presentable, GREAT bridge, but overall design feels clunky. They could have streamlined it and gave it a bit of an advantage over the Fed counterpart, simply to increase sale revenues. KDF ships are know to have higher hull ratings than their Fed counterparts.
It also wasn't presentable, GREAT bridge, but overall design feels clunky. They could have streamlined it and gave it a bit of an advantage over the Fed counterpart, simply to increase sale revenues. KDF ships are know to have higher hull ratings than their Fed counterparts.
Thanks to power creep the Bortie now is considered a good PvE cannon alpha platform.
The only reason I'm not playing KDF is because it separates me from my fleet members. Solve that problem, get more KDF. I'm not the only one here with this issue, about 10% of my fleet feels this way
The only reason I'm not playing KDF is because it separates me from my fleet members.
A fleet may have both Fed & KDF branches. But of course, even then, the Fed fleet members cannot join the KDF fleet members in fleet action STF's and the like. But it is nice to be able to play both sides with fleet mates, and get the benefits unique to either side.
My 'toons are equally divided betwee the main factions, mostly to double up on fleet holding construction, but this also gives me a way to explore the Romulans from both sides, as well. Yes, there are fewer players queued up on the KDF PvE board, but it was evident last weekend that there are plently of KDF players once their interest is piqued. My time zone is also not the best to get reasonably full queues (GMT-7), but I can get in a PUG often enough.
It also appears to me that of the players queued on the PvE board, it appears that some just automatically queue up every mission, waiting to see which will fill up. IMO this is a self-defeating effort, since it looks as though there are more players queued than actually true.
Also, if players are going to queue up, at least stay close enough to your comp to see when some others have joined your mission; it's really frustrating to be the last one to fill a mission, and then it times out because one or two players weren't watching the queue!
Expendables Fleet: Andrew - Bajoran Fed Engineer Ken'taura - Rom/Fed Scientist Gwyllim - Human Fed Delta Tac Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
Hate to say it, but OP is right. Adding blood elves did cause a surge in Horde player base on all servers. Adding a pretty race, and a bunch of pretty new ships would help a long way. They would need to do a total revamp, an expansion based entirely on the KDF. New buildings, new starbases, new ships, new races. That could help. Honestly not such a bad idea.
This game should advertise more as well. Its f2p it should have more players. Buy some banner adds for gods sake. I know my micro trans are keeping your lights on but i might be dead soon, so look into some more players.
I think Redvenge's idea of an alternative social hub run by a different species would actually go a long way to help. Speaking for myself, I just find Qo'nos's endless metal-stonework-painted-red gives me a headache. Orion or Gorn would probably be best; we have more semi-canon about what their civilisation is like and it sounds quite interesting. It would be essential to have all the practical bits and pieces that Qo'nos has, of course (tailor, DOff requisitions, History 102), otherwise it wouldn't work - those are the reasons KDF players need to spend so much time at Qo'nos.
While you're about it, it could be made a much less bandwidth/RAM-intensive zone than Qo'nos, too - then it would also be useful as an alternative hub to use when your Internet connection is sulking and can't handle the huge graphics density of First City. I'd find that useful very often. Two BoPs with one stone.
for that all they would have to do is add a few consoles and open the orion bar on nimbus up to Socical maps. and remove that stupid lvl 25 cap. other than missions no reason at all to ever go there. loot is for TRIBBLE. best locations in the game are not accessavble all the time so a huge waste of time.
Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days.
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While you're about it, it could be made a much less bandwidth/RAM-intensive zone than Qo'nos, too - then it would also be useful as an alternative hub to use when your Internet connection is sulking and can't handle the huge graphics density of First City. I'd find that useful very often. Two BoPs with one stone.
Those two pretty much sum it up for me, thanks for saving me some typing. Though yes, I acknowledge that the OP does not dislike Klingons, as offering a suggestion to try helping the KDF illustrates. Further, I do have a Fed and a FedRom in addition to my KDF/KDFRom characters, since personally I prefer trying out as much as possible in any game I play. I also maintain a "disposable" character slot so I can wipe and create a new character if my current lineup doesn't have access to something I want to try.
As far as the "nutty enough to be douches" folks... sadly, those are everywhere. One of the few advantages of a smaller playerbase is that (personally, I can't speak for others) I have run into less of those on the KDF/KDFRom side than the Fed/FedRom simply because there are less players to actually be "nutty enough to be douches"...
It would be nice if the factions would balance out, but when the presently available resources, likely future development effort, and the existing playerbase are out of balance we aren't going to see any quick fixes. Maybe if the next several ships and/or map updates released were for the Klingon* faction it might start a shift to try out the new toys, but I simply don't see that happening. The devs have themselves mentioned that it is not as cost effective to make items for the Klingon faction, which in turn becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy as players tend to believe them... and keep making Federation or FedRom characters instead. If the devs actually committed to balancing the game itself, the playerbase might bother doing so as well.
*And/or the Romulan faction, who really don't need to be left long enough to mirror the Klingon faction's development cycle if it can be avoided.
I like being instantly focused fired on as soon as my "worthless" bortasqu' decloaks in pvp. What klingon wouldn't? Rather than making new ships, it would be a much simpler and deadly effective matter to just increase console (especially tac console) slots and make all Boff stations universal. Can you imagine attacking a "lousy, crummy raptor" that ended up having 5 tac consoles, maybe 5/2 weapon slots and commander and lt commander universal boff stations?! Many Fed ships would start exploding without really being sure why. Everyone would want to be a "crummy klingon" in an "unuseable, crummy raptor" (or other ship) then, or so I would think.
The "honorable" and "warrior" traits are excellent for ground combat but maybe some sort of special KDF-only space trait might be interesting as an option.
Can you imagine a KDF faction boff with the (currently Rom only) "superior operative" or similar KDF-only trait? Maybe for tac boffs only to prevent too much imbalance.
These changes would terrify any opponent who sees a KDF ship decloaking. It would be the best reason NOT to change the outward appearance of a KDF ship. This would seem to make a KDF upgrade even simpler. It would also answer the question, "Oh it's just a raptor, who cares?" The answer would become "EVERYONE!"
KDF ships would strike fear into the hearts of any enemy faction because with all the variety and potential build combinations available with universal boffs and weapon slots, it would be very scary to fight something when you don't know what it is. KDF exceptional versatility would definitely increase KDF population, particularly for experienced players who could experiment with some insanely effective builds in the same ol' dingy looking ships that no Fed captain will know how to fight...until it was too late.
I'm very happy with zone chat on Qo'nos. I have no issues with queues (most of them are x-faction anyway) and endgame content is same for everyone, too.
Granted, there could be more ships (especially for the KDF minors) but hey, the Mogh is as OP as every other recent release and the majority of fed ships are just TRIBBLE.
We have now two sets that boost disruptor damage and tons of hybrid disruptors. The Klingon Empire is still the Empire and not the Klingon Republik.
We have our starbases, we have or acadamy. And I think the faction specific storyline content is better.
At least I don't feel weird when I shoot first and don't ask at all as Klingon...
2) I have a kdf alt that gets little love because I haven't put enough time into him to have cool stuff. Maybe some day, but for now I can have more fun with my characters who've been around longer. People might just start with the Feds because they're more human and look easier and then it's just inertia after that.
3) FWIW, I think the shows' Klingons were "prettier" than the ones on STO. It's something about the hair and the uniforms that is just a little off.
Cryptic can't be this completely clueless about the problems with KDF. I'm at the point where I believe they are being told not to create anything for KDF. If so, hey I understand. You gotta follow orders.
And, yes, the uniforms are "off". Male Klingon shoulder pads are ridiculously large. The lack of cleavage except on the Be'ves KHG option for female Klingons? Totally a mistake. The way the sashes clip with so many options? HATE IT. Klingon footwear is also sad.
No female Nausicaans? Bad. Ditto to Gorn & Letheans. If you have female Remans, but no female Nausicaans... I mean, seriously. WTF? Thanks a lot.
That stuff will never get fixed, though. They don't care enough to add them, so that's it. It's been this way for a long time. You either like it or not, and that's all there will be.
Just give me more Raiders to buy.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
Funny allot of us on the KDf side wont play feds because of the player base there. I mean really if your main ports chat is such a joke you have to close it something is wrong.
I actually agree with most of what you said . only issue id have is stripping cloak from rommies. lore is kdf even got it from them so no reason to strip it from them. im ok with them being better at it that the kdf .
but I would give all Klingon design ships battle cloak instead of regular cloak.
and not sure if the feds who don't play kdf know this or not but kdf only has one ship with 5 tac consoles 1 for the warrior race LOL
to kdf players we need to be different from all the rest. but each faction needs to be the counter to the others like playing rock paper scissors.
romulans should have kick TRIBBLE cloak extremely hard to detect but a longer cooldown before they can reenter it.
the Boff that make rommies OP needs to be addressed in some way.
Klingons themselves need atleast one decent space trait unto themselves.
personally id like to strike fear in the enemy and have a 2 to 4 second delay on all boff abilities or something like that LOL
no i'd downgrade romulans from battle cloaks to standard cloaks, not get rid of them period. I just think battle cloaking should be a KDF ability, not a romulan ability considering romulans get singularities.
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http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
I see your point in play balance terms, but it doesn't make sense with the IPs history.
I think we need to be looking at something novel to make KDF ships stand out.
Perhaps a base increase in KDF ships accuracy, defence and damage.
Or, as i suggested earlier, some cruiser command-esque abilities reflecting the KDF martial focus.
Let's hear from our pundit Captain Kirk about the KDF matter
The KDF does need is more costumes though. Just pick a canon costume and add it. Any one of them. It's not like any canon costumes are in game. If Cryptic adds these, this, this version of the previous outfit, all these hairstyles, this, this, this, this, this, all of this, this, all of this, this, these, this, this, and this, and we will be well on our way to making KDF customization not suck.
KDF also needs not TRIBBLE colour pallets. My god. What we have so far suuuuuucks.
And more faction neutral stuff while we're at it. Why the KDF can't use the Ferengi Jackets, or any of the Bajoran stuff is beyond me. My Klingon engineer would look right dapper in one of those latinum coats.
KDF also needs more stuff to do. There needs to be an entire zone that can only be accessed by Klingons. There just should be. Because it would be awesome.
KDF should also get a reputation track or two that only they can get. Something with a more brutal edge. Like weapons with more stabby bits.
KDF also needs more races. There just aren't enough options for them.
And more ideas that I have thought up but just forgotten.
Before any federation allied player can fire weapons , they would need to be either fired upon or go through a unskipable popup peacenik diolog, every time. LOL
I am still hopeful that KDF and Romulan Tempests are around the corner, and that the delay in introducing them is to maximise sales of all ships.
It seems such an easy thing to do to release new KDF ships. The artwork is already in game for the NPC ships, and even for fleet versions of existing ships it's just about following a formula. I am wondering if there is another concern. Is it possible that the KDF have so much dilithium that they mostly pay for things in game without resorting to buying zen with real money? Is it possible that the KDF population, though smaller, is much more dedicated on average and as such is much better able to produce in game resources. This would certainly exacerbate an already difficult situation and further disincentivise cryptic allocating resources to us.
Is it a case that by playing KDF, we get a poorer primary experience, but essentially get the Fed stuff for free if we want it?
I am just trying to understand why we don't have more ships. It seems counterintuitive when they literally just made the Aquarius because the art was there. Why can't they do the same for all of the Orion, Gorn and Nausicaan ships mentioned earlier in the conversation? Being held for future lockboxes?
Except frigate pets? You haven't met many scimitar drones yet, haven't you? Surprising they are hard to miss....
Naa.... Raptors are poor mans escorts. If I want to fly an escort I'll take my Kumari. And if I wouldn't take the Kumari I'd take the classic defiant.
Raiders are what makes the kdf line up special. And they have become almost obsolete thanks to the roms. And even the "revamp" didn't help much. And there is to little choice of endgame raiders.
And may be the carriers were special too at some point.... And their cruisers are different too compared to most fed cruisers.
But raptors are just boring....
Agreed...
Nerfing other factions is a bad approach.
I thing the battleckoak / normal cloak differentiation is absolutely dated anyway. Every cloak should work like a battle cloak IMO, and actual battle cloaks should have other benefits (like a defense bonus when cloaking) and that should be rare even among roms.
The lack of melee weapons is not a Klingon issue it's a general issue. And if mek'leths and d'k taghs come they should be available for Feds too. After all we have fed Klingons. Like Worf was one at his time.
Na I think the low level stuff is covered at this point. It's the endgame stuff that lacks.
Definitely.
IMO there are a couple of things to do:
The op is "partly" right, lot of people can't identify with that warrior mentality.
But the kdf now includes prety much everything pirate and mercenary related we saw, the orion syndicate, the nausicaans, the letheans.
THAT aspects should be fleshed out more, given how many fed players play "mercenarys" there is a high demand for that.
And why not? From firefly to Han Solo... Partly even guardians if the galaxy... That kind of characters if very well liked in sci fi and the current kdf backstory has the perfect setup for that.
This would make the kdf more attractive for a lot of ppl. And it IS already there, just not fleshed out.
Mechanically I believe the factions should more diffrent. A kdf tac should not be identical to a fed tac and a rom tac with the only difference beeing the choice of available ships.
Factions should have exclusive kit modules and bridge officer abilities.
Plus, of course, the ship line up needs to be brought up to be en par and the costume choices.
And last but not least: more multi character support.
After all, most people started as Feds because they had too, and as a star trek game most people will continue to start as Feds. And a lot of people just stick with their first character. Especially in sto where you are almost punished for having multiple chars.
There should be more benefits from having multiple characters.
There should be benefits for having character in different factions (account wide unlocks that can only be made with a Klingon character of some kind)
Time gated events should be massively eased up for multiple characters (or may be even account wide unlocks in the first place)
And more currencys should be account wide. Latium, marks, dillithium.
We've been asking for those hubs for a long time, as well as have some KDF storyline revolving around the KDF-Gorn war, explaining in detail how things came to be as they are in the KDF currently, complete with a Gornar social and adventure zone. I remember the devs. stating that they had plans for something like this before Season 7, but noone knows what happened. It might have been turned into the NR adventure zone for what we know.
And Terjas'Mor could also be a big opportunity to diversify the gameplay and bring some new things in the game, like Orion Syndicate slave auctions - something like a mini game including the doff system where you sell/auction prisoners, new aesthetics and possibly a few other things native to the species that are not currently present in the game.
I like to hope and stay positive, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. We've been begging for a Fleet Guramba for how long.....around 2 years now?
I don't think that's the case. First of all, even if the KDF players spend dilithium and transfer it to Zen to buy things - that Zen is still bought with real cash and Cryptic/PWE made a profit out of it. While it may seem free (grind) for the player, someone payed RL cash for that Zen and put it on the exchange because he/she doesn't have the time or doesn't like to grind. A bigger demand for Zen would result in more incentive for Zen sellers to continue buying Zen and selling in on the dilithium exchange, probably for higher rates. Still Cryptic/PWE gets paid anyway.
Not to mention that myself and a good number of other KDF Veterans and aficionados I know use real cash to buy new KDF things when they make them, in a loony attempt to help and support the faction we enjoy playing.
Because Cryptic put themselves in a 'Catch 22' situation and they're naive or ignorant enough to really believe that it will be the customers who break that circle instead of them.
Truth, and nothing but the truth.
R.I.P
1) I like the KDF but there needs to be more mission content and fleshed out story arcs, exclusive to the KDF (ala Rommie)
2) PVP zones that have huge rewards, battles between houses etc... sure we have them already to a lesser degree, but they need to be made into battle zone types - using the que system we already have.
3) Better ship designs that deviate from the generic Klingon styles, with better color options
4) Better uniform options and hair options
5) Armor wearing options, and kit viewed
6) Color (This is a BIG one) during the tailor option the color palette needs to match what the Fed has already - giving players more freedom with lighter and brighter colors
7) Players do not like the Red color scheme, the dark moody areas, though they match the show atmosphere, it should be updated some to make it more pleasing to the eyes.
8) Raptor class needs a complete revamp and overhaul
9) MORE races, (FEDS have all the factions beat)
- Introduce the Kziniti (Though Ferasan suppose to take their place, least acquire or try to acquire the license
- Hirogen species (Hunter class are viewed as warriors, they have more in common with the KDF than the Romulans do)
- Female Letheans - Female Nausicaans - (Female Gorn ??? , LOL)
- Ferengi (These guys are all over the place)
- Mix breed KDF & Romulans / with the best racial traits of both species
- Cardassians (Control of certain Cardassian space) Though may not be possible due to a possible Cardassian Faction)
- Breen (Conqured region or controlled area)
- and some of the lesser species in Trek lore
The BortasQu sucked in comparison and was offered at a time when the KDF population was both the lowest and underdeveloped.
R.I.P
It also wasn't presentable, GREAT bridge, but overall design feels clunky. They could have streamlined it and gave it a bit of an advantage over the Fed counterpart, simply to increase sale revenues. KDF ships are know to have higher hull ratings than their Fed counterparts.
more clothes
more missions about conquests for new parts of the empire
R.I.P
Thanks to power creep the Bortie now is considered a good PvE cannon alpha platform.
R.I.P
A fleet may have both Fed & KDF branches. But of course, even then, the Fed fleet members cannot join the KDF fleet members in fleet action STF's and the like. But it is nice to be able to play both sides with fleet mates, and get the benefits unique to either side.
My 'toons are equally divided betwee the main factions, mostly to double up on fleet holding construction, but this also gives me a way to explore the Romulans from both sides, as well. Yes, there are fewer players queued up on the KDF PvE board, but it was evident last weekend that there are plently of KDF players once their interest is piqued. My time zone is also not the best to get reasonably full queues (GMT-7), but I can get in a PUG often enough.
It also appears to me that of the players queued on the PvE board, it appears that some just automatically queue up every mission, waiting to see which will fill up. IMO this is a self-defeating effort, since it looks as though there are more players queued than actually true.
Also, if players are going to queue up, at least stay close enough to your comp to see when some others have joined your mission; it's really frustrating to be the last one to fill a mission, and then it times out because one or two players weren't watching the queue!
Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci
Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac
Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
This game should advertise more as well. Its f2p it should have more players. Buy some banner adds for gods sake. I know my micro trans are keeping your lights on but i might be dead soon, so look into some more players.
for that all they would have to do is add a few consoles and open the orion bar on nimbus up to Socical maps. and remove that stupid lvl 25 cap. other than missions no reason at all to ever go there. loot is for TRIBBLE. best locations in the game are not accessavble all the time so a huge waste of time.