1) KDF Recruitment Event. Make a new character that unlocks special rewards for both that character as you level and complete objectives. The perks unlocked for the character are also granted to all other KDF characters on the account, in addition there are a few unlocks that are account-wide regardless of action.
In the weeks of the event, playing Klingon characters, completing DOFF missions, completing queues with a KDF character and similar things will unlock special rewards like bonus dilithium, bonus skill points, bonus commendation and crafting XP depending on participation.
2) Captured Vessel Token: Buy in the C-Store or a common lockbox reward that allows KDF players (and KDF aligned Romulans) to acquire Federation ships. You need either 5 of these tokens or 1, if the account owns the C-Store version of the ship. A ship gained this way also has access to at least one extra hull material and/or pattern that makes the ship look more Klingon.
The best incentive to play KDF: reduce the cooldown on turning in contraband. 20 hours really?
Eight or twelve hours should do the trick.
That sounds more like: "Best incentive to make a KDF alt that never needs to play a single KDF mission or to buy a single KDF ship". Aka dead weight for the purpose of making the KDF faction actually financially interesting for Cryptic to invest in.
The "Captured Vessel" idea is an interesting one. However, I think just adding a KDF skin to a Fed ship is not really in keeping with what the Klingon Empire would do. They'd more likely kill the crew and blow up the ship. Klingon's don't take prisoners in Star Trek canon...though I guess they do in the game.
I do like the idea of maybe a mission or some random events that tasks you with attacking and boarding a random Fed vessel, and you get a unique fed boff (a defector), some Doff prisoners, and access to some Fed consoles or something like that. That would be great.
But sadly, the way that things are currently going in the game - with the peace between the factions - such a thing is probably not likely to happen.
At it's core, the idea is intriguing though. Thanks for bringing it up!
The best incentive to play KDF: reduce the cooldown on turning in contraband. 20 hours really?
Eight or twelve hours should do the trick.
Given that the infamous 16% statistic comes from a time it was 4 hours, I don't think so.
Not that a bunch of farmer toons running doff assignments for contraband is any incentive to develop the faction, either. No matter how many there are.
I still believe the Recruitment Event idea would be the best way to approach it. (similar to the AOY release)
Of course, this would mean they'd actually have to shift focus away from developing Federation content and come up with unique Episode content relative to the KDF... which hasn't been done in a long time. It also means they'd need to introduce some KDF specific ships, similar to what they did with the 25th and 31st century ships for Fed, etc. And lastly, it means they'd need to have interest in developing said content to begin with.
As I'm fond of saying- "Anything is possible, but not always probable."
We'll likely just see more milking of the time-travel Federation specific content, as was posted recently with "Artifacts" and so forth. PWE/C isn't going to develop anything KDF specific until it hits them where it (ac)counts.
As cool as it would be, I agree that a full on TOS KDF storyline is pretty unlikely - though they do have some assets that they already developed for the AoY expansion that could be used, so the foundation is already in place, like you said, it would require more KDF ships, which is clearly something they don't want to spend the effort on.
But I believe that a Recruitment Event more in line with the Delta Rising version, without the TOS side, could be done with minimal effort as far as new art assets.
The main draw of such an event would be that it would unlock bonuses and items across the account, which would benefit Fed characters, and thus draw Fed players over to play through the KDF content that already exists and might result in some of those players sticking around and, far more importantly, spending some cash on KDF C-Store items.
It would at the very least boost the low number of KDF players way up for a short time, and might lead to the Developers deciding to put some effort into the faction.
I could see a delta/tos-era like event/expansion working as a incentive to get more of the player-base both new an older players, into giving the kdf a try. THough I would want to see such a expansion/event run based around some of the elements of the Hur'q an the Fek'Ihri that were left over after the Fek'Ihri arc ended. Add in maybe the idea of allying/choosing a Klingon great house to join, and this could be really interesting if each house gave different perks an even maybe some unique vanity items. Maybe have at the end of a "Fek'Ihri resurgence" type event the ability to either take control of a Fek'Ihri ship, a Hur'q ship, and/or get some boff/doff recruits as well.
I'd like to have a serious discussion about how to get more players to try out the Klingon Faction playstyle
I was under the impression it plays exactly the same way, last time I played my Joint Trill KDF officer the ground and space combat was identical to the Fed side.
You say to not let it devolve into a ''fed has vs kdf has'' debate, yet, together with the Star Trek focus always having been on the Fed side, it is an important reason.
When I referred to the "Klingon faction playstyle" I was referring more to the aesthetic and mentality of the KDF, and the differences on the storyline more than any actual differences to the game mechanics.
I agree that Star Trek has always been focused on the Federation and Starfleet, but I also could counter that a number of the more memorable and fan favorite storylines that have focused on the Klingons (and the Romulans for that matter).
Do fans and players want to be Kirk or Picard? Yup, they do.
But maybe they don't realize that they also want to be Worf or Martok or Kor. It's about given them a reason to really jump over to the KDF and see what it's about, rather than just popping over to grind Doff missions or Contraband.
My point is, it doesn't have to be one or the other. I've got a toon for each faction available, and I play whichever one I feel like playing at any given time, based on my mood. The gameplay isn't that different, but the mentality of "putting on that skin" and playing is different for me. That might just be my experience, but I suspect that I'm not alone.
There's also something to be said for the fact that this is a game with 2 and a half (that half being the Romulans, since they don't have a full and independent storyline like the Fed and Klingons side do) factions, so expanding out the playerbase of those factions is worthwhile - in my opinion - to the overall health of the game.
I say that mainly because the money has been spent, and the content already exists, so why not make a small bit of effort to get people to play it?
As a player - a subscriber no less (I'd be a lifer if I had the spare cash) - of STO I have an interest in it's well-being, and I want to see it continue so that I can enjoy it for as long as it lasts. But I also feel that we as players have a duty to make constructive suggestions that might contribute to the health and longevity of the game.
Sure, those suggestions might fall on deaf ears, and will most likely be dismissed. But that's no reason to not make the effort.
Beyond that, in my opinion it's always preferable to have a conversation on these forums that doesn't devolve into the negative, even if whatever we're talking about is purely speculative.
"The peace loving Federation Starfleet petaQ dogs need to stay on their side of the game. The Klingon Defense Force is no place for them! Only true warriors belong in the First City! I for one would send them all to Grethor where they belong to consort with those who have no honor!" - KDF Commander Jor Sixxx
I don't necessarily think players should be "incentivized" to play a character they don't otherwise want to. Recruitment events force players to create new characters, which then get abandoned after finishing the account unlocks.
What the minority factions need is to stop being disincentivized by a host of unnecessary restrictions that turn them into unprofitable "ghettos" only worthy of receiving occasional duplicates of Starfleet materiel. So that players who do want to play them are not punished for it.
Being able to switch factions with an existing character would also be useful in getting more people to try them all.
I think that "force" is the wrong word, but that's a subjective thing. It's true that most players might abandon the toons they created after the event is through, but even if every character created doesn't stick around, I think that there's also a chance that some players will really enjoy what they find from the Klingon storyline, and might stick around, and any growth of the KDF faction - regardless of size - is a good thing overall.
Growth of the faction with very little effort could potentially lead to some decisions by the developers to actually put a bit more effort into the promoting and growing the faction in my opinion. That effort would hopefully serve to pull the KDF up from the "ghetto" that you described.
As I've said, it's a longshot. But the discussion doesn't cost anyone anything.
Delta Klingons ,KDF and Borg Cooperative creating a alliance 3 homeworld's. have Special ships and items based on delta-quadrant and borg tech. Cooperative Humans ,Roms ,Andorians ... can be created ...
I could see a delta/tos-era like event/expansion working as a incentive to get more of the player-base both new an older players, into giving the kdf a try. THough I would want to see such a expansion/event run based around some of the elements of the Hur'q an the Fek'Ihri that were left over after the Fek'Ihri arc ended. Add in maybe the idea of allying/choosing a Klingon great house to join, and this could be really interesting if each house gave different perks an even maybe some unique vanity items. Maybe have at the end of a "Fek'Ihri resurgence" type event the ability to either take control of a Fek'Ihri ship, a Hur'q ship, and/or get some boff/doff recruits as well.
Great ideas! But I think that something like that would take more development resources than they're willing to spend on the KDF faction at the moment. The focus has to be on getting more players into the faction first, and retaining a portion of those players, and hopefully that growth will demonstrate that some additional development time and effort spent on the KDF is worthwhile.
The best incentive to play KDF: reduce the cooldown on turning in contraband. 20 hours really?
Eight or twelve hours should do the trick.
Given that the infamous 16% statistic comes from a time it was 4 hours, I don't think so.
Not that a bunch of farmer toons running doff assignments for contraband is any incentive to develop the faction, either. No matter how many there are.
Using KDF as contraband farm is the first step to playing a KDF character.
Without the contraband farming the entry of new KDF players will be lower still.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
"The peace loving Federation Starfleet petaQ dogs need to stay on their side of the game. The Klingon Defense Force is no place for them! Only true warriors belong in the First City! I for one would send them all to Grethor where they belong to consort with those who have no honor!" - KDF Commander Jor Sixxx
It's worth remembering that an Empire that no longer strives for conquest is doomed to fail. Without expansion, the Klingon Empire will wither away and die.
Which is why we need to push on and subjugate the weak. They may enter as lowly Federation petaQ, but they will learn what it means to be a true warrior!
Delta Klingons ,KDF and Borg Cooperative creating a alliance 3 homeworld's. have Special ships and items based on delta-quadrant and borg tech. Cooperative Humans ,Roms ,Andorians ... can be created ...
I'd love to see something done with the Delta Klingons. They may be a great way to actually still have a combative relationship with the Federation (sort of like the True Way is with the Cardassians - though not as "evil" - or the Romulan Star Empire and the Tal Shiar should be with the Romulans), while the larger KDF continues to be a part of the Alliance.
But no matter how attractive the idea is, a whole new collective of worlds forming a new faction is too big of a thought to consider at the moment.
The best incentive to play KDF: reduce the cooldown on turning in contraband. 20 hours really?
Eight or twelve hours should do the trick.
Given that the infamous 16% statistic comes from a time it was 4 hours, I don't think so.
Not that a bunch of farmer toons running doff assignments for contraband is any incentive to develop the faction, either. No matter how many there are.
Using KDF as contraband farm is the first step to playing a KDF character.
Without the contraband farming the entry of new KDF players will be lower still.
Which is really sad. It doesn't have to be that way. In fact it should NOT be that way.
Which is sort of the point of this tread. I think there are a large number of players that have never actually played the KDF storyline - instead, they leveled up through doffing - so don't know what they're missing.
But that's all. I for example would do what was needed to benefit my existing characters and then ignore the toon or even delete it.
I think that you might not be alone in that, but if even a quarter of the players that would be involved in this sort of event (and from all indications, these Recruiting events have been huge) remain active - even to a small degree - in the KDF, then I would count that as a success.
I could see a delta/tos-era like event/expansion working as a incentive to get more of the player-base both new an older players, into giving the kdf a try. THough I would want to see such a expansion/event run based around some of the elements of the Hur'q an the Fek'Ihri that were left over after the Fek'Ihri arc ended. Add in maybe the idea of allying/choosing a Klingon great house to join, and this could be really interesting if each house gave different perks an even maybe some unique vanity items. Maybe have at the end of a "Fek'Ihri resurgence" type event the ability to either take control of a Fek'Ihri ship, a Hur'q ship, and/or get some boff/doff recruits as well.
Great ideas! But I think that something like that would take more development resources than they're willing to spend on the KDF faction at the moment. The focus has to be on getting more players into the faction first, and retaining a portion of those players, and hopefully that growth will demonstrate that some additional development time and effort spent on the KDF is worthwhile.
Baby steps.
Not sure it would be that much work actually, or more to the point too much focused work towards a under-populated faction/s. Since a lot of the assets are in-game already (the Fak'Ihri ships an npcs for example). Most of the work would be based around the story-missions that would take place telling of what is happening, which could still be fed-accessable to be played. Maybe add in that the ships you can choose to get/claim are tied to which faction you completed the story arc/event on so you have three faction linked large rewards making each have as much a reason to play thru the missions.
I agree that just getting players to play more of the other factions, is a good idea, since even if only 1% of those players stay on that is still growth. (an if you have several thousand players play, that is a hundred players that would stay an is nothing to scoff at.)
I don't necessarily think players should be "incentivized" to play a character they don't otherwise want to. Recruitment events force players to create new characters, which then get abandoned after finishing the account unlocks.
What the minority factions need is to stop being disincentivized by a host of unnecessary restrictions that turn them into unprofitable "ghettos" only worthy of receiving occasional duplicates of Starfleet materiel. So that players who do want to play them are not punished for it.
Being able to switch factions with an existing character would also be useful in getting more people to try them all.
Agreed.
Originally, feds playstyle was different than KDF and later Roms due to built-in cloaking tech, DHC mounting options, singularity cores, unique consoles (valdore console, plasmonic leech, phase cloak console) and overall superior ships and player character traits and bonuses (ex. orion ground ability, SRO, SS).
As such, the 'other factions' were and in some ways still are incentivized by default. I got into KDF and Rom with the DR pack which offered great ships (qin, ma'tha, faeht, aelahl) one can only play and fully appreciate from a main character in KDF and Rom.
The dis-incentive part creeps in when feds are offered more and more stuff that's supposed to have been KDF/Rom-specific. This discourages players from investing time and resources into KDF & Rom characters and KDF fleets.
Take the AoY event: it should have been for all 3 factions, with significant differences build into the tutorials even if they were limited by the artwork & 3D modeling. Take some creative license Cryptic, work those level editors, make up some new voice acting that doesn't have to be by a celebrity, and shift it around to be uniquely Rom/KDF tutorial AoY despite taking place in mainly fed environments.
Role play aspect of "I'm a fed/kdf/rom" should never be watered down, as it is currently: Krenim faction holdings, Fed TOS faction holdings for KDF, dialogues unsuitable for KDF/Rom, being forced to kill TOS Roms/KDF.
To sum it up, there should be some incentive to play KDF/Rom that has got to be upheld much better than it is now and than it has been since a long time ago, but it should not cross the line into bribery (I only play X to get more Y for my fed main), nor should the very foundation of 'role-playing' a KDF/Rom be sold away to Feds without an equal offering to make up for it.
Devs: Provide the option to Turn OFF full screen flashes from enemy ship explosions
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I don't necessarily think players should be "incentivized" to play a character they don't otherwise want to. Recruitment events force players to create new characters, which then get abandoned after finishing the account unlocks.
What the minority factions need is to stop being disincentivized by a host of unnecessary restrictions that turn them into unprofitable "ghettos" only worthy of receiving occasional duplicates of Starfleet materiel. So that players who do want to play them are not punished for it.
Being able to switch factions with an existing character would also be useful in getting more people to try them all.
I think that "force" is the wrong word, but that's a subjective thing. It's true that most players might abandon the toons they created after the event is through, but even if every character created doesn't stick around, I think that there's also a chance that some players will really enjoy what they find from the Klingon storyline, and might stick around, and any growth of the KDF faction - regardless of size - is a good thing overall.
Growth of the faction with very little effort could potentially lead to some decisions by the developers to actually put a bit more effort into the promoting and growing the faction in my opinion. That effort would hopefully serve to pull the KDF up from the "ghetto" that you described.
As I've said, it's a longshot. But the discussion doesn't cost anyone anything.
Most players who are in it for the story would likely have at least played the origin story of each faction. You do get free slots for that, and it isn't like the other factions are some big secret that players never knew existed. Whatever their reasoning, players can generally be assumed to have made informed choice of the faction(s) to play.
And of course, by endgame the factions' effect on the storyline is mostly limited to the face and voice in some briefings anyway. Not something most people would be likely to abandon an established main over, or indeed give up the favored treatment as a member of the Starfleet majority.
I don't believe it possible to "pull the KDF up" as long as the faction restrictions are in place. It's not realistic to expect them to ever catch up to the Feds. More importantly it's not in the company's best interests to even try, because a large majority market is easier to make profit from than several smaller ones. The only way to get more developer effort into minority faction materiel, is to stop limiting it to a minority market. Only by selling everything to everyone can they even theoretically approach equality.
And I find it sad that KDF advocates would rather come up with tricks to convince people to jump to their side of the fence, in the vain hope that some developer attention would follow, than ask for the fences to be taken down so everyone could be equal.
I don't necessarily think players should be "incentivized" to play a character they don't otherwise want to. Recruitment events force players to create new characters, which then get abandoned after finishing the account unlocks.
What the minority factions need is to stop being disincentivized by a host of unnecessary restrictions that turn them into unprofitable "ghettos" only worthy of receiving occasional duplicates of Starfleet materiel. So that players who do want to play them are not punished for it.
Being able to switch factions with an existing character would also be useful in getting more people to try them all.
I think that "force" is the wrong word, but that's a subjective thing. It's true that most players might abandon the toons they created after the event is through, but even if every character created doesn't stick around, I think that there's also a chance that some players will really enjoy what they find from the Klingon storyline, and might stick around, and any growth of the KDF faction - regardless of size - is a good thing overall.
Growth of the faction with very little effort could potentially lead to some decisions by the developers to actually put a bit more effort into the promoting and growing the faction in my opinion. That effort would hopefully serve to pull the KDF up from the "ghetto" that you described.
As I've said, it's a longshot. But the discussion doesn't cost anyone anything.
Most players who are in it for the story would likely have at least played the origin story of each faction. You do get free slots for that, and it isn't like the other factions are some big secret that players never knew existed. Whatever their reasoning, players can generally be assumed to have made informed choice of the faction(s) to play.
And of course, by endgame the factions' effect on the storyline is mostly limited to the face and voice in some briefings anyway. Not something most people would be likely to abandon an established main over, or indeed give up the favored treatment as a member of the Starfleet majority.
I don't believe it possible to "pull the KDF up" as long as the faction restrictions are in place. It's not realistic to expect them to ever catch up to the Feds. More importantly it's not in the company's best interests to even try, because a large majority market is easier to make profit from than several smaller ones. The only way to get more developer effort into minority faction materiel, is to stop limiting it to a minority market. Only by selling everything to everyone can they even theoretically approach equality.
And I find it sad that KDF advocates would rather come up with tricks to convince people to jump to their side of the fence, in the vain hope that some developer attention would follow, than ask for the fences to be taken down so everyone could be equal.
yeah, thats literailly the opposite. that total absorption into the federation which is the last thing we want. I know if that ever happens I'm giving my stuff away and finding a new game to play. star trek or no star trek.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
I actually agree that we should have had three perspectives to each of the missions in the tos era missions, with maybe one of two missions that were faction specific. It would have been good use of an existing asset to re-use it three times, while also giving access to some tos era non-fed ships also. Though this is still possible to be done in a bit of a update over the course of the season/expansion opening up the tos faction to all three main-factions. This would also spread out the cost, work load, and life of the content too, since if you added a bit of updates to the mission each time it would make replaying the missions more appealing. To me it should have be done that you got the tos era fed first, then about halfway thru the expansion/season you get the Kdf or romulan tos faction release of their point of view of the era's missions an a update to the missions for the fed side, while near the end of the season/expansion you get the release of the final faction's perspective of the missions an a final update of them for the prior released tos factions. Add in that if you spread them out you could have the fed tos era ships released first like now, than each additional pack of tos era ships for the other factions spread out so as to not conflict with the sale of each.
I don't necessarily think players should be "incentivized" to play a character they don't otherwise want to. Recruitment events force players to create new characters, which then get abandoned after finishing the account unlocks.
What the minority factions need is to stop being disincentivized by a host of unnecessary restrictions that turn them into unprofitable "ghettos" only worthy of receiving occasional duplicates of Starfleet materiel. So that players who do want to play them are not punished for it.
Being able to switch factions with an existing character would also be useful in getting more people to try them all.
Agreed.
Originally, feds playstyle was different than KDF and later Roms due to built-in cloaking tech, DHC mounting options, singularity cores, unique consoles (valdore console, plasmonic leech, phase cloak console) and overall superior ships and player character traits and bonuses (ex. orion ground ability, SRO, SS).
As such, the 'other factions' were and in some ways still are incentivized by default. I got into KDF and Rom with the DR pack which offered great ships (qin, ma'tha, faeht, aelahl) one can only play and fully appreciate from a main character in KDF and Rom.
The dis-incentive part creeps in when feds are offered more and more stuff that's supposed to have been KDF/Rom-specific. This discourages players from investing time and resources into KDF & Rom characters and KDF fleets.
Take the AoY event: it should have been for all 3 factions, with significant differences build into the tutorials even if they were limited by the artwork & 3D modeling. Take some creative license Cryptic, work those level editors, make up some new voice acting that doesn't have to be by a celebrity, and shift it around to be uniquely Rom/KDF tutorial AoY despite taking place in mainly fed environments.
Role play aspect of "I'm a fed/kdf/rom" should never be watered down, as it is currently: Krenim faction holdings, Fed TOS faction holdings for KDF, dialogues unsuitable for KDF/Rom, being forced to kill TOS Roms/KDF.
To sum it up, there should be some incentive to play KDF/Rom that has got to be upheld much better than it is now and than it has been since a long time ago, but it should not cross the line into bribery (I only play X to get more Y for my fed main), nor should the very foundation of 'role-playing' a KDF/Rom be sold away to Feds without an equal offering to make up for it.
We could go around and around on how things have been in the past, and how they have changes, and what has and hasn't been done to and for the KDF (and Romulan) faction, and I don't disagree with the majority of your points. However, nothing is going to change what's already happened, so I'd rather focus on what can be done now rather than what has happened before.
Best incentive to play KDF for me on the Xbox One would be no game breaking bugged missions. Like the level 7 mission doesn't even give you enough XP to level up, and you need to be level 8 to continue. So you have to replay the level 7 mission over.
Oh and at least let us all receive our level 20 ship....
I don't necessarily think players should be "incentivized" to play a character they don't otherwise want to. Recruitment events force players to create new characters, which then get abandoned after finishing the account unlocks.
What the minority factions need is to stop being disincentivized by a host of unnecessary restrictions that turn them into unprofitable "ghettos" only worthy of receiving occasional duplicates of Starfleet materiel. So that players who do want to play them are not punished for it.
Being able to switch factions with an existing character would also be useful in getting more people to try them all.
I think that "force" is the wrong word, but that's a subjective thing. It's true that most players might abandon the toons they created after the event is through, but even if every character created doesn't stick around, I think that there's also a chance that some players will really enjoy what they find from the Klingon storyline, and might stick around, and any growth of the KDF faction - regardless of size - is a good thing overall.
Growth of the faction with very little effort could potentially lead to some decisions by the developers to actually put a bit more effort into the promoting and growing the faction in my opinion. That effort would hopefully serve to pull the KDF up from the "ghetto" that you described.
As I've said, it's a longshot. But the discussion doesn't cost anyone anything.
Most players who are in it for the story would likely have at least played the origin story of each faction. You do get free slots for that, and it isn't like the other factions are some big secret that players never knew existed. Whatever their reasoning, players can generally be assumed to have made informed choice of the faction(s) to play.
And of course, by endgame the factions' effect on the storyline is mostly limited to the face and voice in some briefings anyway. Not something most people would be likely to abandon an established main over, or indeed give up the favored treatment as a member of the Starfleet majority.
I don't believe it possible to "pull the KDF up" as long as the faction restrictions are in place. It's not realistic to expect them to ever catch up to the Feds. More importantly it's not in the company's best interests to even try, because a large majority market is easier to make profit from than several smaller ones. The only way to get more developer effort into minority faction materiel, is to stop limiting it to a minority market. Only by selling everything to everyone can they even theoretically approach equality.
And I find it sad that KDF advocates would rather come up with tricks to convince people to jump to their side of the fence, in the vain hope that some developer attention would follow, than ask for the fences to be taken down so everyone could be equal.
yeah, thats literailly the opposite. that total absorption into the federation which is the last thing we want. I know if that ever happens I'm giving my stuff away and finding a new game to play. star trek or no star trek.
Removal of the faction restrictions negates the point of any further development of unique factions, and would utterly destroy the game in my opinion. Despite what some people on these forums think, there's no way that Cryptic wants that to happen, or will allow that to happen. For one thing, lowering the barrier would be far more work than allowing the factions to continue separately.
The fact that we've got cross faction ships and items in the game doesn't mean that they don't want multiple factions, it just means that they are centralizing certain things to allow for "more bang for the buck" but it in no way means that we won't have future content or items for the specific factions.
But beyond that, to address some of your other points:
There's no expectation of parity between the KDF or Feds. It's an impossibility simple due to the fact that there will never be enough KDF players - even with a major overhaul of the KDF faction - to ever make it an equal to the number of Fed players.
This is strictly due to the nature of the IP. This game isn't like most other MMO's where the only knowledge you gain about the world is through the game. Star Trek brings 50 years of pop culture with it, and even people who have never watched an episode know some of the basics about the universe. As such, the Federation is the face of the IP, and the face on the majority of the advertising for STO.
So in order to bridge the gap and draw people over to elements that they are unfamiliar with you need to provide incentives. And yes, I believe that there are many players that have never bothered to check out the KDF. Add to that the influx of new players that AoY brought, and that the consoles are bringing in (keeping in mind the fact that these players are most likely still trying out all aspects of the fed side of things) and the lack of promotion of any factions beyond the Federation and there's a largely untapped market within the existing playerbase.
Incentivizing elements of the game is nothing new. It's been here since the start. Whether it's incentives to buy Lockbox Keys, or Research packs, or limited time incentives to try out a new Featured Episode, or a free tribble for testing things on the Test Server....it's not a bribe, it's marketing, and it's not unique to STO either.
I've got 2 KDF characters, 5 Fed Characters and a Romulan character. I'm capable of playing all of them without giving up any of them. In other words, I don't really have a "main" to "give up", and I'm sure that I'm not alone in that. I play what I feel like playing when I feel like playing it, and I enjoy the flexibility.
And I'd roll up another KDF toon and start from the beginning in a heartbeat if that meant I could gain something for all of the characters across my account. I'm absolutely positive that I'm not alone in that.
Whether each person that starts a new KDF toon sticks around is doubtful, but if even a small percentage chooses to continue to play their KDF toon, then that would be a step towards a healthier faction - regardless of if they're "bribed" to be there or not. More players playing the faction, the more we might get a few more things thrown towards the "red side" of the spectrum.
Best incentive to play KDF for me on the Xbox One would be no game breaking bugged missions. Like the level 7 mission doesn't even give you enough XP to level up, and you need to be level 8 to continue. So you have to replay the level 7 mission over.
Oh and at least let us all receive our level 20 ship....
That's an important point. Bug fixes would be fantastic (not just on the KDF side of things). Did you post about that in the Bug forum? I'm sure it's probably been mentioned, but it doesn't hurt to bring things up multiple times.
You know what I also find annoying about Cryptic? The circular reasoning, they don't make more KDF exclusive, or Romulan for that matter, content because supposedly not enough people play it.
But these factions, mostly KDF, are not played as much as Feds -because- there's not nearly enough content compared to the Federation.
I actually agree that we should have had three perspectives to each of the missions in the tos era missions, with maybe one of two missions that were faction specific. It would have been good use of an existing asset to re-use it three times, while also giving access to some tos era non-fed ships also. Though this is still possible to be done in a bit of a update over the course of the season/expansion opening up the tos faction to all three main-factions. This would also spread out the cost, work load, and life of the content too, since if you added a bit of updates to the mission each time it would make replaying the missions more appealing. To me it should have be done that you got the tos era fed first, then about halfway thru the expansion/season you get the Kdf or romulan tos faction release of their point of view of the era's missions an a update to the missions for the fed side, while near the end of the season/expansion you get the release of the final faction's perspective of the missions an a final update of them for the prior released tos factions. Add in that if you spread them out you could have the fed tos era ships released first like now, than each additional pack of tos era ships for the other factions spread out so as to not conflict with the sale of each.
If everyone would be willing to give up 6 months (at the very least) worth of updates to the game to allow for that to happen, then sure, sounds great!
While it would be awesome if that could happen, we'll probably never see anything like it in the existing storylines. I do wish that they'd start doing that moving forward though, even if it took a bit more time to release content, because it would really make the storylines much more appealing across the game. But I highly doubt that will happen either.
You know what I also find annoying about Cryptic? The circular reasoning, they don't make more KDF exclusive, or Romulan for that matter, content because supposedly not enough people play it.
But these factions, mostly KDF, are not played as much as Feds -because- there's not nearly enough content compared to the Federation.
There is never a reason to intentionally create product the majority of your customers are forbidden from buying.
You know what I also find annoying about Cryptic? The circular reasoning, they don't make more KDF exclusive, or Romulan for that matter, content because supposedly not enough people play it.
But these factions, mostly KDF, are not played as much as Feds -because- there's not nearly enough content compared to the Federation.
The non-Fed factions have always been under-serviced, so it's not like it's a new development. Not that I disagree with your statement about the "circular reasoning".
It would take a bit of a leap of faith - and some comfortable cash flow - to convince them to put more time and money into the KDF and Romulan factions, at least to do anything complex.
There is a chance though - maybe - since the console launch has started to bring in some new money.
Comments
The "Captured Vessel" idea is an interesting one. However, I think just adding a KDF skin to a Fed ship is not really in keeping with what the Klingon Empire would do. They'd more likely kill the crew and blow up the ship. Klingon's don't take prisoners in Star Trek canon...though I guess they do in the game.
I do like the idea of maybe a mission or some random events that tasks you with attacking and boarding a random Fed vessel, and you get a unique fed boff (a defector), some Doff prisoners, and access to some Fed consoles or something like that. That would be great.
But sadly, the way that things are currently going in the game - with the peace between the factions - such a thing is probably not likely to happen.
At it's core, the idea is intriguing though. Thanks for bringing it up!
Given that the infamous 16% statistic comes from a time it was 4 hours, I don't think so.
Not that a bunch of farmer toons running doff assignments for contraband is any incentive to develop the faction, either. No matter how many there are.
As cool as it would be, I agree that a full on TOS KDF storyline is pretty unlikely - though they do have some assets that they already developed for the AoY expansion that could be used, so the foundation is already in place, like you said, it would require more KDF ships, which is clearly something they don't want to spend the effort on.
But I believe that a Recruitment Event more in line with the Delta Rising version, without the TOS side, could be done with minimal effort as far as new art assets.
The main draw of such an event would be that it would unlock bonuses and items across the account, which would benefit Fed characters, and thus draw Fed players over to play through the KDF content that already exists and might result in some of those players sticking around and, far more importantly, spending some cash on KDF C-Store items.
It would at the very least boost the low number of KDF players way up for a short time, and might lead to the Developers deciding to put some effort into the faction.
Longshot? Yarp.
But that's all. I for example would do what was needed to benefit my existing characters and then ignore the toon or even delete it.
When I referred to the "Klingon faction playstyle" I was referring more to the aesthetic and mentality of the KDF, and the differences on the storyline more than any actual differences to the game mechanics.
I agree that Star Trek has always been focused on the Federation and Starfleet, but I also could counter that a number of the more memorable and fan favorite storylines that have focused on the Klingons (and the Romulans for that matter).
Do fans and players want to be Kirk or Picard? Yup, they do.
But maybe they don't realize that they also want to be Worf or Martok or Kor. It's about given them a reason to really jump over to the KDF and see what it's about, rather than just popping over to grind Doff missions or Contraband.
My point is, it doesn't have to be one or the other. I've got a toon for each faction available, and I play whichever one I feel like playing at any given time, based on my mood. The gameplay isn't that different, but the mentality of "putting on that skin" and playing is different for me. That might just be my experience, but I suspect that I'm not alone.
There's also something to be said for the fact that this is a game with 2 and a half (that half being the Romulans, since they don't have a full and independent storyline like the Fed and Klingons side do) factions, so expanding out the playerbase of those factions is worthwhile - in my opinion - to the overall health of the game.
I say that mainly because the money has been spent, and the content already exists, so why not make a small bit of effort to get people to play it?
As a player - a subscriber no less (I'd be a lifer if I had the spare cash) - of STO I have an interest in it's well-being, and I want to see it continue so that I can enjoy it for as long as it lasts. But I also feel that we as players have a duty to make constructive suggestions that might contribute to the health and longevity of the game.
Sure, those suggestions might fall on deaf ears, and will most likely be dismissed. But that's no reason to not make the effort.
Beyond that, in my opinion it's always preferable to have a conversation on these forums that doesn't devolve into the negative, even if whatever we're talking about is purely speculative.
I think that "force" is the wrong word, but that's a subjective thing. It's true that most players might abandon the toons they created after the event is through, but even if every character created doesn't stick around, I think that there's also a chance that some players will really enjoy what they find from the Klingon storyline, and might stick around, and any growth of the KDF faction - regardless of size - is a good thing overall.
Growth of the faction with very little effort could potentially lead to some decisions by the developers to actually put a bit more effort into the promoting and growing the faction in my opinion. That effort would hopefully serve to pull the KDF up from the "ghetto" that you described.
As I've said, it's a longshot. But the discussion doesn't cost anyone anything.
Great ideas! But I think that something like that would take more development resources than they're willing to spend on the KDF faction at the moment. The focus has to be on getting more players into the faction first, and retaining a portion of those players, and hopefully that growth will demonstrate that some additional development time and effort spent on the KDF is worthwhile.
Baby steps.
Using KDF as contraband farm is the first step to playing a KDF character.
Without the contraband farming the entry of new KDF players will be lower still.
It's worth remembering that an Empire that no longer strives for conquest is doomed to fail. Without expansion, the Klingon Empire will wither away and die.
Which is why we need to push on and subjugate the weak. They may enter as lowly Federation petaQ, but they will learn what it means to be a true warrior!
Qapla'!
I'd love to see something done with the Delta Klingons. They may be a great way to actually still have a combative relationship with the Federation (sort of like the True Way is with the Cardassians - though not as "evil" - or the Romulan Star Empire and the Tal Shiar should be with the Romulans), while the larger KDF continues to be a part of the Alliance.
But no matter how attractive the idea is, a whole new collective of worlds forming a new faction is too big of a thought to consider at the moment.
Which is really sad. It doesn't have to be that way. In fact it should NOT be that way.
Which is sort of the point of this tread. I think there are a large number of players that have never actually played the KDF storyline - instead, they leveled up through doffing - so don't know what they're missing.
My point is, we need to aim to change that.
I think that you might not be alone in that, but if even a quarter of the players that would be involved in this sort of event (and from all indications, these Recruiting events have been huge) remain active - even to a small degree - in the KDF, then I would count that as a success.
Any growth is a good thing.
one. give them unique ship styles based on klingon warrior ethics.
two, remember the klingon empire is a wildly successful interstellar empire not a orc band raiding the sword coast.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Not sure it would be that much work actually, or more to the point too much focused work towards a under-populated faction/s. Since a lot of the assets are in-game already (the Fak'Ihri ships an npcs for example). Most of the work would be based around the story-missions that would take place telling of what is happening, which could still be fed-accessable to be played. Maybe add in that the ships you can choose to get/claim are tied to which faction you completed the story arc/event on so you have three faction linked large rewards making each have as much a reason to play thru the missions.
I agree that just getting players to play more of the other factions, is a good idea, since even if only 1% of those players stay on that is still growth. (an if you have several thousand players play, that is a hundred players that would stay an is nothing to scoff at.)
Agreed.
Originally, feds playstyle was different than KDF and later Roms due to built-in cloaking tech, DHC mounting options, singularity cores, unique consoles (valdore console, plasmonic leech, phase cloak console) and overall superior ships and player character traits and bonuses (ex. orion ground ability, SRO, SS).
As such, the 'other factions' were and in some ways still are incentivized by default. I got into KDF and Rom with the DR pack which offered great ships (qin, ma'tha, faeht, aelahl) one can only play and fully appreciate from a main character in KDF and Rom.
The dis-incentive part creeps in when feds are offered more and more stuff that's supposed to have been KDF/Rom-specific. This discourages players from investing time and resources into KDF & Rom characters and KDF fleets.
Take the AoY event: it should have been for all 3 factions, with significant differences build into the tutorials even if they were limited by the artwork & 3D modeling. Take some creative license Cryptic, work those level editors, make up some new voice acting that doesn't have to be by a celebrity, and shift it around to be uniquely Rom/KDF tutorial AoY despite taking place in mainly fed environments.
Role play aspect of "I'm a fed/kdf/rom" should never be watered down, as it is currently: Krenim faction holdings, Fed TOS faction holdings for KDF, dialogues unsuitable for KDF/Rom, being forced to kill TOS Roms/KDF.
To sum it up, there should be some incentive to play KDF/Rom that has got to be upheld much better than it is now and than it has been since a long time ago, but it should not cross the line into bribery (I only play X to get more Y for my fed main), nor should the very foundation of 'role-playing' a KDF/Rom be sold away to Feds without an equal offering to make up for it.
Most players who are in it for the story would likely have at least played the origin story of each faction. You do get free slots for that, and it isn't like the other factions are some big secret that players never knew existed. Whatever their reasoning, players can generally be assumed to have made informed choice of the faction(s) to play.
And of course, by endgame the factions' effect on the storyline is mostly limited to the face and voice in some briefings anyway. Not something most people would be likely to abandon an established main over, or indeed give up the favored treatment as a member of the Starfleet majority.
I don't believe it possible to "pull the KDF up" as long as the faction restrictions are in place. It's not realistic to expect them to ever catch up to the Feds. More importantly it's not in the company's best interests to even try, because a large majority market is easier to make profit from than several smaller ones. The only way to get more developer effort into minority faction materiel, is to stop limiting it to a minority market. Only by selling everything to everyone can they even theoretically approach equality.
And I find it sad that KDF advocates would rather come up with tricks to convince people to jump to their side of the fence, in the vain hope that some developer attention would follow, than ask for the fences to be taken down so everyone could be equal.
yeah, thats literailly the opposite. that total absorption into the federation which is the last thing we want. I know if that ever happens I'm giving my stuff away and finding a new game to play. star trek or no star trek.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
We could go around and around on how things have been in the past, and how they have changes, and what has and hasn't been done to and for the KDF (and Romulan) faction, and I don't disagree with the majority of your points. However, nothing is going to change what's already happened, so I'd rather focus on what can be done now rather than what has happened before.
Oh and at least let us all receive our level 20 ship....
I agree with what Nightken said:
Removal of the faction restrictions negates the point of any further development of unique factions, and would utterly destroy the game in my opinion. Despite what some people on these forums think, there's no way that Cryptic wants that to happen, or will allow that to happen. For one thing, lowering the barrier would be far more work than allowing the factions to continue separately.
The fact that we've got cross faction ships and items in the game doesn't mean that they don't want multiple factions, it just means that they are centralizing certain things to allow for "more bang for the buck" but it in no way means that we won't have future content or items for the specific factions.
But beyond that, to address some of your other points:
There's no expectation of parity between the KDF or Feds. It's an impossibility simple due to the fact that there will never be enough KDF players - even with a major overhaul of the KDF faction - to ever make it an equal to the number of Fed players.
This is strictly due to the nature of the IP. This game isn't like most other MMO's where the only knowledge you gain about the world is through the game. Star Trek brings 50 years of pop culture with it, and even people who have never watched an episode know some of the basics about the universe. As such, the Federation is the face of the IP, and the face on the majority of the advertising for STO.
So in order to bridge the gap and draw people over to elements that they are unfamiliar with you need to provide incentives. And yes, I believe that there are many players that have never bothered to check out the KDF. Add to that the influx of new players that AoY brought, and that the consoles are bringing in (keeping in mind the fact that these players are most likely still trying out all aspects of the fed side of things) and the lack of promotion of any factions beyond the Federation and there's a largely untapped market within the existing playerbase.
Incentivizing elements of the game is nothing new. It's been here since the start. Whether it's incentives to buy Lockbox Keys, or Research packs, or limited time incentives to try out a new Featured Episode, or a free tribble for testing things on the Test Server....it's not a bribe, it's marketing, and it's not unique to STO either.
I've got 2 KDF characters, 5 Fed Characters and a Romulan character. I'm capable of playing all of them without giving up any of them. In other words, I don't really have a "main" to "give up", and I'm sure that I'm not alone in that. I play what I feel like playing when I feel like playing it, and I enjoy the flexibility.
And I'd roll up another KDF toon and start from the beginning in a heartbeat if that meant I could gain something for all of the characters across my account. I'm absolutely positive that I'm not alone in that.
Whether each person that starts a new KDF toon sticks around is doubtful, but if even a small percentage chooses to continue to play their KDF toon, then that would be a step towards a healthier faction - regardless of if they're "bribed" to be there or not. More players playing the faction, the more we might get a few more things thrown towards the "red side" of the spectrum.
Wouldn't you agree on that point?
That's an important point. Bug fixes would be fantastic (not just on the KDF side of things). Did you post about that in the Bug forum? I'm sure it's probably been mentioned, but it doesn't hurt to bring things up multiple times.
But these factions, mostly KDF, are not played as much as Feds -because- there's not nearly enough content compared to the Federation.
If everyone would be willing to give up 6 months (at the very least) worth of updates to the game to allow for that to happen, then sure, sounds great!
While it would be awesome if that could happen, we'll probably never see anything like it in the existing storylines. I do wish that they'd start doing that moving forward though, even if it took a bit more time to release content, because it would really make the storylines much more appealing across the game. But I highly doubt that will happen either.
There is never a reason to intentionally create product the majority of your customers are forbidden from buying.
The non-Fed factions have always been under-serviced, so it's not like it's a new development. Not that I disagree with your statement about the "circular reasoning".
It would take a bit of a leap of faith - and some comfortable cash flow - to convince them to put more time and money into the KDF and Romulan factions, at least to do anything complex.
There is a chance though - maybe - since the console launch has started to bring in some new money.