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Dear Cryptic: Regarding the Ferengi, it's time.
abaddon653
Member Posts: 1,144 Arc User
So with Nog coming into the picture and all this attention on the Ferengi, specifically the Nandi let's talk about something. The Ferengi.
Let's start with the obvious, the Ferengi are NOT members of the United Federation of Planets, sure they have some trade agreements with them and a few have choosen to join Starfleet, but as a whole they have not joined. There also happen to be several Ferengi on Qonos going about their business. These points alone should mean that the species should be playable across all factions. Yet they are not.
I do have a few more things to point out however. Ferengi society does not look down on smugglers, pirates and marauders or swindlers, but the UFP has strict laws against this type of behavior. In fact in Ferengi culture these are seen as honorable professions! I direct your attention to exhibit A, the "Marauder Moe" line of action figures that is by all accounts VERY popular among Ferengi children. Sure if said "entrepreneurs" are caught by other governments the Ferengi Alliance is quick to disavow them, but that does not really mean anything now does it.
All that does is protect the government from official retaliation, whether that comes in the form of trade sanctions (death to a Ferengi), military action or something more insidious. You can bet that if those Ferengi had managed to take the Enterprise-D with their two BoPs several high ranking Ferengi officials would have gotten kickbacks.
Now let's shift our focus to the Klingon Empire. While they do look down on swindlers...okay lets just admit it, they would gut you if you swindled them, the Empire has no problems with pirates and marauders as long as they are not targeting Klingon assets. In fact there have been several Trek episodes that mention, even if it is off hand, that many such groups seek sanctuary and/or operate out of Klingon controlled space. So let's add that to the list.
Now shifting our attention back to the Ferengi. Do you really think that every single Ferengi would welcome working with the Federation, you can bet your lobes they would NOT! In fact I am willing to wager most would hate the idea if not be outright hostile toward it. Operating in Federation space is unpredictable, sure you anger the Klingons at least you know whats coming, but with the Feds it really depends on which captain catches you and what kind of mood they are in. You may end up dead, or in prison, they may let you go as long as you dump your cargo, heck you could end up boarding a ship and losing to children! There is no profit in that kind of unpredictability.
With all of that said, I, personally and in my opinion, not trying to speak for the entire player base, believe that it is time to allow the Ferengi to be playable across all factions without restriction, especially with the war going on. The Klingons would see the Ferengis pirating activity as a way to get extra materials and supplies for the war effort, the Feds, well that's obvious. The Romulan Republic would also welcome the supplies the Ferengi could bring in, they might balk at the idea of these supplies being stolen, but I doubt they would turn them away like the Federation would.
Oh and we can't forget that in DS9 it has been shown several times that the Klingons don't mind working and/or dealing with the Ferengi, still love seeing Quark in his Klingon finery...oh right, Quark was briefly married to a Klingon, there is that too.
So those are just one humble players thoughts on what has become an iconic Star Trek species and how they are present in Star Trek Online.
Thank you for your time Cryptic, if any of you red this that is and I hope that I will be able to fly out and pillage the star soon as a PROPER Ferengi, not one who has to deal with the UFPs rules and regulations.
Let's start with the obvious, the Ferengi are NOT members of the United Federation of Planets, sure they have some trade agreements with them and a few have choosen to join Starfleet, but as a whole they have not joined. There also happen to be several Ferengi on Qonos going about their business. These points alone should mean that the species should be playable across all factions. Yet they are not.
I do have a few more things to point out however. Ferengi society does not look down on smugglers, pirates and marauders or swindlers, but the UFP has strict laws against this type of behavior. In fact in Ferengi culture these are seen as honorable professions! I direct your attention to exhibit A, the "Marauder Moe" line of action figures that is by all accounts VERY popular among Ferengi children. Sure if said "entrepreneurs" are caught by other governments the Ferengi Alliance is quick to disavow them, but that does not really mean anything now does it.
All that does is protect the government from official retaliation, whether that comes in the form of trade sanctions (death to a Ferengi), military action or something more insidious. You can bet that if those Ferengi had managed to take the Enterprise-D with their two BoPs several high ranking Ferengi officials would have gotten kickbacks.
Now let's shift our focus to the Klingon Empire. While they do look down on swindlers...okay lets just admit it, they would gut you if you swindled them, the Empire has no problems with pirates and marauders as long as they are not targeting Klingon assets. In fact there have been several Trek episodes that mention, even if it is off hand, that many such groups seek sanctuary and/or operate out of Klingon controlled space. So let's add that to the list.
Now shifting our attention back to the Ferengi. Do you really think that every single Ferengi would welcome working with the Federation, you can bet your lobes they would NOT! In fact I am willing to wager most would hate the idea if not be outright hostile toward it. Operating in Federation space is unpredictable, sure you anger the Klingons at least you know whats coming, but with the Feds it really depends on which captain catches you and what kind of mood they are in. You may end up dead, or in prison, they may let you go as long as you dump your cargo, heck you could end up boarding a ship and losing to children! There is no profit in that kind of unpredictability.
With all of that said, I, personally and in my opinion, not trying to speak for the entire player base, believe that it is time to allow the Ferengi to be playable across all factions without restriction, especially with the war going on. The Klingons would see the Ferengis pirating activity as a way to get extra materials and supplies for the war effort, the Feds, well that's obvious. The Romulan Republic would also welcome the supplies the Ferengi could bring in, they might balk at the idea of these supplies being stolen, but I doubt they would turn them away like the Federation would.
Oh and we can't forget that in DS9 it has been shown several times that the Klingons don't mind working and/or dealing with the Ferengi, still love seeing Quark in his Klingon finery...oh right, Quark was briefly married to a Klingon, there is that too.
So those are just one humble players thoughts on what has become an iconic Star Trek species and how they are present in Star Trek Online.
Thank you for your time Cryptic, if any of you red this that is and I hope that I will be able to fly out and pillage the star soon as a PROPER Ferengi, not one who has to deal with the UFPs rules and regulations.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Come now, if they did that you would lose the joy of being able to punch that screaming Ferengi to shut him up! But to do it AS a Ferengi...JOY
Seriously, it already stretches credulity to have my Lethean mercenary babbling about honor and glorious battle when the game's own tooltips say the Letheans and Nausicaans are just in it for the money. Would you remotely believe that garbage coming out of a Ferengi?
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
The OP has merit.
I have a doubt though, when I think of what the KDF will have to give up in exchange :rolleyes:
The KDF arc will be redone before or after the Cardashian arc so it is possible to include some KDF Ferengi.
RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
The Ferengi should not just a playable race like there pathetic anar, pig people, or a joke that is the gorn. The Ferengi should be represented as the Romulans are in game. A race that takes no one side, and yet supports Ferengi that do choose one. Go where the profit is, its good policy.
I want a proper Ferengi expansion. This iconian junk is terrible. The writing is horrid, and suffering though it is painful.
Take some time and write 10-12 good Ferengi missions and allow the Ferengi to choose a side at level 10 like the roms do. Or in better keeping with the Ferengi... don't force them to accept either side. Allow them to accept missions from either faction. Give them access to all 3 sides ships. (the Pay day would be great for Cryptic... forget delta officer junk. A new toon that can have access to any of the ships traits regardless of faction... people would be in for that).
The universe would be filled with proper toons. Its win win win.
a) not all Ferengi are alike and your generalist attitude is pretty offensive .
b) considering that Cryptic ended the Fed-Kdf war to make more generic missions, the answer to your question is 'yes' .
.... Cryptic missed the metrics ball with this one ...
But I strongly doubt that even the most militaristic of Ferengi is the type to be a tlhIngan Hol-spamming lunatic, any more than a Lethean mercenary is. As anyone in Starfleet can attest, being capable of fighting a war =/= acting like a stereotypical Klingon. But that's what Cryptic seems to think with how they wrote the KDF protagonist, despite the fact that only one of the seven existing KDF player races acts like that even part of the time.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
FWIW, I agree with your assessment of the KDF-side dialog. I've had to cringe and bear it with my Orion, as that's the only KDF character I even play. That said, IMO, that's really a separate issue. I don't see where it should preclude adding another race to the KDF, as long as that race 'fits' in terms of story/background (at least as well as the other ones do, anyway). The dialog is what it is -- whether or not Ferengi are added, that will remain true until/unless they take the time to actually write some that fits the non-Klingon races. If I can cringe and bear it with my Orion, then I can do the same with a Ferengi, Lethean or whatever.
As far as I'm concerned, sure, I wouldn't mind the addition of Ferengi to the KDF. Now the Romulans . . . I can't see that as much, because IMO, it doesn't work so well in terms of story/background. The Romulan Empire was always pretty isolationist, even a bit xenophobic, perhaps, I would say. While the Republic certainly has made great strides in opening relations with others in terms of alliances, I'm not sure they'd be willing to open up the homeworld and the military to the Ferengi (or most any other race) just yet. (For all that they're allied with Feds/KDF, they don't have Human, Klingon or other captains, save those created via the alien-gen.)
This I would be okay with. They need to add the Ferengi head wear to.
The riskier the road, the greater the profit
This would be lovely. (Allowing Ferengi players to take sides like the Roms do)
It would also be wonderful if STO had unique starter missions for each of the KDF races because, as it has been pointed out, they do not all have the Klingon mindset and culture. I want that myself.
That said, highly unlikely to ever happen. I do not think the STO team will ever have the resources to focus on individual species to that extent. It will be hard enough to get the Cardassians in, and even that is not a foregone conclusion yet.
Allowing Ferengi in the KDF as a species is at least a reasonable option, but I'm not holding my breath. Personally, I don't have any desire to play a KDF Ferengi but I'm okay with other people doing that.
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True, but even Rom and Nog had materialistic streaks and they're about as atypical as you can get for a Ferengi based on everything the shows said about them.
There's nothing wrong with ascribing generalizations as long as there is a basis in fact and as long as it doesn't result in discrimination against people. (People, not fictional characters...)
Generalization: Vulcans are logical. Nobody disputes that. Individual vulcans may not be.
Generalization: Ferengi are materialistic. You can try to dispute that, but a lot of people will disagree with you and have lots of facts to back up their opinions. It's also true that individual Ferengi occasionally had other motivations.
Just like some people get irritated when their Vulcan character's dialog options don't sound at all like a logical Vulcan, some people can't imagine playing a Ferengi that never gets a "what's in it for me?" dialog option. Those people can't imagine playing a KDF Ferengi because they'll never get that dialog option.
True, Federation Ferengi don't get that dialog option either. So maybe it's a moot point, and certainly shouldn't stand in the way of Cryptic offering the option to KDF if they want to.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
KDF ferengi would be a lot truer to form but would still have some limitations.
So I would suggest a "neutral" faction so we can play as whatever random race we like without being restricted to acting starfleet.
A true hirogen would be awesome too.
50 Lobi crystals will get you the whip. My Ferengi character's got one.
The D'Kora is a different animal. Always wanted one, never had the credits to buy one off the Exchange and never got that lucky with a lockbox.
I'm not crazy about the looks of the Nandi, would much rather it looked more like a D'Kora, but for the sake of my Ferengi I may decide to grind for it. It's better than no Ferengi ship.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I'm not cheesed, just amused at the irony. I just named my D'Kora the "Sunk Cost" last night.
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that would not address the major benefit of the ferengi race; the commodity discount.
as it is, feddie fleets enjoy a steep discount on all their projects commodity inputs. discounts that add up to hundreds of millions of ec on the journey to t5.
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