All ships that are not race/faction specific belong to the Federation. Which is why we ask for more faction specific ships. We aren't the Federation. We didn't decide to play KDF or Romulan so that we could get Cross-Faction, or even futuristic "Space Barbie Federation Ships." As far as the Future Federation is concerned. That entire story line from start to finish is nothing but utter and complete trash. It's an direct slap in the face to both the KDF and Romulans. Hell it's a slap in the face to every race they involved in it. If I wanted a one faction fits all kind of play, then I'd join the Terran Empire. Hell with the "Future Federation" drivel they vomited up for the story, they might as well change the name of the game to Terran Empire Online.
But the state of the game is not something I blame the Devs for. I only blame the devs for the bugs that have been around since launch, or those they have been around since the introduction of the Reps system. That have yet to be acknowledged and fixed. The state of the game falls squarely on the players and their inability to see past, "Ohh shiny, new Fed ship." Cryptic's blinded by this as well. Cryptic's inability to balance the Factions and keep them balanced has cost them more players and money than they realize.
While the game is Federation focused, that doesn't mean that is all they should focus on. In a multi-faction game, showing bias only to one faction hurts it, far more than it helps it. PWE and Cryptic are both running a business. The point of that business is to make money. Which they could do, simply by releasing more ships. They wouldn't even have to really come up with any new content. Since that's not really what their consumer's, the players, want. The players of STO want high powered space barbie. And this is all they want. As long as this is all their consumer's want. Why should PWE and Cryptic care about anything else?
Think about it. When it comes to content. The only thing you can FAIL at is the Elite Queue's. You can't fail at anything else. This I discovered by working in the foundry. There is no way to set up a mission to where any choice the player can make, would cause them to fail the mission. You can't even set a "if you die this many times, you fail the mission" on it.
Now everyone also talks about the power creep. This isn't so much a problem, as it is a design flaw. Every Episode and Queue is designed around the level 40 promotion ships. Which is why the T5 and T6 ships feel like God Mode. The game isn't designed around them. Nor is it designed to handle the Specializations. They would have to rebuild the entire game to fix that. But it does give their consumers what they want, God Mode Space Barbie. I give Crytpic some credit here. The event T6 ships and the AoY Mk XIII upgrade, are a step in the direction to balancing things out. Which gives me hope that over the next few seasons they may be working on balancing things out around the T5 and T6 ships. This is one of those we will just have to wait and see on.
Events, like Summer and Winter, should be the only place for anyone to get cross-faction ships. The Z store should have been reserved for Faction Only ships. Which is what the KDF and Romulan's have been asking for, for years. We aren't saying they shouldn't make Federation ships. We're saying they just need to make more Faction Specific ships. I admit that Syndicate Science Support Vessel 2 pack, was something I made. You can find it in the KDF section of the forums. You can see I didn't do it alone, but worked with others to build them to that point. They could still use some work, and I do need to add a Ferasan ship to it. I didn't do this in the hopes of them being put in game. I did it, so the dev's could look at it go, "So, this is what the KDF want in a ship." One of the more active posts in the Klingon section is the "In Search of the Soul of Klingon Ships." It's been a discussion, that I hope the devs have been paying attention to, as to what the KDF players are actually looking for in a KDF ship.
Now as far as content goes. The main thing they could do here is to go back and revisit all the Episodes that are cross-faction. Since they have it set to where the Federation and Klingons are the two primary factions. The only thing they need to do is adjust the missions to give them a Federation Play style, and a Klingon Play style, not just the one play style. They could also breath life back in to the PvP of the game. Just by adding which side you want to play on, as a choice in the battle zones. Since all the battle zones are focused on territory and resources. Give the player the choice of which side they want to be on. Are you trying to claim these resources for the Blue Team or the Red Team? This would also give them the leeway to add more factions like the Romulan's. They are their own faction, but they are tied to one of the the Main Two. This would just mean that all Cryptic would have to do is add in the faction specific ships and a tutorial. With the adjustment to play style on the cross-faction missions, everything else is set.
I know this is a tl;dr post. I had not planned for it to be so. But plans seldom survive first contact. So here it is.
Ok as a new player I might be able to chime in on this with a fresh view. After playing all the factions recently I have come to the conclusion that the Romulan Republic is the one that I am emotionaly invested in due to the fact that the Tal Shiar pissed me off and made me want to kill them all immediately both from a Human and a Romulan perspective. The Klingon Defense Force is the most fun to role play in because being a Klingon and speaking Klingon while turning Federation ships into orange fireballs is incredibly fun. The Federation is fun from an iconic standpoint. All that being said I have no issue with the Federation having more to buy than the Romulan Republic for two reasons.
Reason #1 Star Trek is built around Starfleet. There is simply more material to draw from. More classic ships, more classic uniforms, more classic weapons, more information regarding most of the Federation species. And while there is classic Klingon and Romulan material that can be drawn from it's very small in comparison. Let's compare material from TOS between Starfleet and Romulan Star Empire respectively.
Starfleet has one ship, one set of uniforms (three if you count "The Cage" pilot and "Mirror, Mirror" uniforms).
Romulan Star Empire has one ship and one set of uniforms.
TOS Films
Starfleet got two new uniforms and three new ships. (Four if you count the Constitution Refit)
Romulan Star Empire got nothing.
TNG comparison.
Starfleet got two new ships. One new uniform. (Three if you count the DS9 uniform which was seen on TNG and the "All Good Things" uniform)
Romulan Star Empire got one new ship and one new uniform.
So just from the the beginning of TOS to the end of TNG.
Starfleet: 4 uniforms (9 if you count the uniforms seen once.) And we are not counting the many dress uniforms. 6 ships. (7 if you count the Constitution Refit.)
Romulan Star Empire: 2 ships, 2 uniforms.
My point is that Starfleet will always have more content to buy because there is more content to draw from. The story is about Starfleet. Hell the Romulans are barely even fleshed out as a race. So why don't they just create new content do you ask? Because Trek fans are very opinionated about new ship and costume designs. When they released the design for the U.S.S Discovery a few months ago the Trek fans jumped on their keyboards and expressed their opinions immediately. Some liked it. Some yelled "Fire Photon Torpedos! Full Spread! Don't stop until she's blowen out of the sky!" The content that is there for the Romulan Republic is pretty good which brings me to my next reason.
Reason#2: I could actually end up buying all the Romulan content. Because let's face it very few people own all of the content on STO. For some the Lifetime Subscription is financialy beyond their reach. And even still the console players don't get the monthly Zen allowance. But if I spend a little here and a little there I could end up get everything for the Romulan Republic. But when it comes to the Starfleet content I'm going to pick and choose because dispite there being more content for Starfleet some of it isn't that great. 23rd Century Dress Uniforms and TNG First Season Admiral uniforms are a waste of time for me. I wouldn't buy that content anyway. I'm happy with what the Romulans have at the moment and more is on the way I am sure considering the move to console.
What Crypic should have done (back when) should have been to create three Federation Factions, each with a slightly different play style, and benefits; maybe basing them around the Tac/Eng/Sci format, so instead of Federation, Klingon and Romulan, we'd have had Starfleet (Tac), the Federation (Eng) and Daystrom (or something) for Sci. Each faction getting toys that the others wouldn't, such as access to Klingon and Andorian characters/ships for the first, Cardassian and Tellarite characters/ships for the second, and Vulcan/Romulan ships/characters for the third.
This was actually something Perpetual was planning to do, at least according to Memory Alpha. Gonna see if I can find a primary source for it.
What Crypic should have done (back when) should have been to create three Federation Factions, each with a slightly different play style, and benefits; maybe basing them around the Tac/Eng/Sci format, so instead of Federation, Klingon and Romulan, we'd have had Starfleet (Tac), the Federation (Eng) and Daystrom (or something) for Sci. Each faction getting toys that the others wouldn't, such as access to Klingon and Andorian characters/ships for the first, Cardassian and Tellarite characters/ships for the second, and Vulcan/Romulan ships/characters for the third.
This was actually something Perpetual was planning to do, at least according to Memory Alpha. Gonna see if I can find a primary source for it.
It was probably nothing but a quote. I doubt they'd actually even planned it given the game state.
3. They have tired that several times, and no one buys them still.
Let me ask you this on that. Which would you rather buy. The Federation BMW? Or the KDF/Rom Kia?
This is why the Lobi and lockbox ships did so well. Everyone knew those ships would be on par with the Federations. It is also the reason that people bought the cross-faction ships. It's the only way to get a ship that is on par with Federation ships.
People are smart enough to not buy junk. Even if it is the only option presented to them. This is one area where quality matters far more than quantity.
We aren't the Federation. We didn't decide to play KDF or Romulan so ...
If you're Romulan, there's a good chance you ARE Federation. That's the thing about the Romulan "faction" it is either Federation or Klingon allied.
Again, this game and its development team have made the decision to go faction neutral. And after years of moving in that direction it's really past the event horizon on that.
I just don't see the faction specific game you want to play existing unless you or someone else goes and makes it.
If Cryptic really wants to sell ships they should focus on KDF faction for an expansion. The resulting flood of players into the Klingon faction would yield huge dividends as players line up to buy Klingon faction ships. No new designs needed, but a T6 Battlecruiser, Raptor, and BoP designed specifically for the event would be extra incentive to jump in with open wallets.
If Cryptic really wants to sell ships they should focus on KDF faction for an expansion. The resulting flood of players into the Klingon faction would yield huge dividends as players line up to buy Klingon faction ships. No new designs needed, but a T6 Battlecruiser, Raptor, and BoP designed specifically for the event would be extra incentive to jump in with open wallets.
That would make sense, if there was enough about the Klingons to make an expansion about.
At this point, Cryptic has covered near every piece of Klingon lore except the Hur'q, and theres a 99% chance the Hur'q will be involved in a Gamma quad based expansion
There is plenty of Lore about the Klingons, Orions, and Gorn they could use. There isn't m much on the Nausicaan's and Lethean's. For this one just needs to step over to memory alpha and look up the race. It not like there isn't plenty they could use. They just aren't using it.
If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships. They wouldn't release subpar ships and call them the same as the Federation ships. Which this get's even more difficult for Cryptic. Because the KDF and Rom player's refuse to accept the Federation standard of One Cruiser fits all play styles. We love the fact that we have different ships, that handle and fight differently. The only thing we ask is that they be on par with the Federation ships. Which has been the problem for a while. There are few T6 ships they have released for the KDF and Roms that actually feel like they belong to those Factions. More or less they feel as though it's Federation ship, that just happens to look like a KDF or Rom design.
As far as the Hur'q go. I wouldn't expect Cryptic to touch on this much. There is only one Episode in all the shows and movies that touch upon it. That's the one where Kor and Worf find the Sword of Kahless in the ruins on a gamma quad planet. So that's about all the Hur'q, Cryptic is likely to bother with. Add to this, by canon, the Hur'q are believed to be extinct. Another reason for Cryptic not to do more than touch upon, the Sword of Kahless tie in. And the only reason they're likely to touch upon this, is because there was two Federation personnel involved as well.
When it comes to the Gamma Quadrant. Expect this to be more Federation/Dominion, maybe even Cardassian, focused. Because if you notice, in the Delta Quadrant, they didn't even touch upon the Klingon's from Voyager. They were nowhere in the Delta Quadrant Story line. Even though they had been there for 80 years before Voyager made an appearance.
We love the fact that we have different ships, that handle and fight differently. The only thing we ask is that they be on par with the Federation ships. Which has been the problem for a while. There are few T6 ships they have released for the KDF and Roms that actually feel like they belong to those Factions. More or less they feel as though it's Federation ship, that just happens to look like a KDF or Rom design.
You keep using Romulans in this discussion which is odd. The Romulan ships are not sub par. They do look like their own Romulan designs. And being Romulan has a slight tactical advantage. What is it that a Romulan can't do?
Science was more difficult up until the Eternal was released, but Science one can claim is the Federation's strong suit. The T6 Romulan flagships though, are DPS beasts.
So for the Romulans:
1- They got an expansion, with a ton of lore specific content.
2- They have a ton of ships from start to finish.
3- Their ships and their singularity cores are unique yet very powerful.
4- Their access to SRO's give them a slight tactical advantage.
The Romulan faction simply doesn't fit that description you've put forth.
If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships. They wouldn't release subpar ships and call them the same as the Federation ships. Which this get's even more difficult for Cryptic. Because the KDF and Rom player's refuse to accept the Federation standard of One Cruiser fits all play styles. We love the fact that we have different ships, that handle and fight differently. The only thing we ask is that they be on par with the Federation ships. Which has been the problem for a while. There are few T6 ships they have released for the KDF and Roms that actually feel like they belong to those Factions. More or less they feel as though it's Federation ship, that just happens to look like a KDF or Rom design.
Bah, nonsense. If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships, they'd sell them to everyone.
KDF and Romulan ships being unprofitable has nothing at all to do with them being "subpar" or players refusing to accept "the Federation standard" and everything to do with the fact that there are twice as many Fed toons in the game as there are KDF and Romulan toons combined. There's no beating the numbers.
The majority is not allowed to buy KDF and Romulan ships, so surprise surprise they don't.
Statistically, people like playing the "good guys". And any Trekkie that's playing STO grew up watching some version of the Federation and it's escapades throughout the galaxy, so has some iconic vision of Star Trek kind of BEING Federation. Now that being said, those same people have a lot of love for the Klingons, Romulans, Gorn, Cardassians (i.e. the "bad guys", or the "underdogs") as that is how they were portrayed, and that appeals to SOME people. Frankly, for how many people are interested in playing ANY non-Fed faction as a PRIMARY/ONLY account.........that's going to be a small small number. Yes, there has been much debate as to how much of the player base plays Klingon or Romulan, but frankly it would be a pointless statistic as a LOT of those players only roll those factions as alts to enjoy a varied story line. I don't know the exact stat, and I don't think anyone does, but I'm assuming the majority of people with 1,2, or 3 Klingong/Romulan alts, probably have 3-15 FEDERATION alts, MOST of which get plaid more.
THAT would be a telling statistic that would END this debate:
How many Federation characters have played every available mission?
How many Klingon characters have played every available mission?
How many Romulan characters have played every available mission?
You could also continue that to: Have Achieved Tier 3 admiralty, have achieved Tier 4 commendation ranks, completed Reputation systems.....etc.
There ARE absolutely people that play PRIMARY Kling/Rom.......but if you checked into it, I doubt even 10% of the game plays a primary Kling/Rom with zero or only one or two Fed alts........
So taken in context, the amount of support given to appease a minute minority of the game is right where it needs to be. The law of superior numbers rules everything. Keep the majority happy, the outcome will be generally satisfactory.
While there are more ships for feds and the Romulan and KDF factions could use a couple key ship classes, I have to disagree with the topic as a whole.
The reality is that the Romulan faction merges into Fed or KDF fairly quickly (much like 23c) and aside from the ships, isn't really an end game faction. The KDF and Feds have access to the same missions and reputations by what, lvl30 at the latest? Beyond that, they are running in parallel.
So I ask, what exactly do the feds have that a Romulan or KDF player wants, aside from ships...that we all agree needs to be addressed?
Let us ATTACK fed installations at will. Give us missions were we actually fight the feds and can WIN not the weak as all hell ones we have in the Klingon war were you are forced to retreat. Let us blow up the fed stations in missions instead of TRIBBLE footing around being "nice".
I play my Klingon or Orion more. I'd rather sit and do nothing on my KDF toons, that do something while playing Fed. While I do have Fed chars that are at lvl 60, or close enough in the 50's. The only time I'm actually on them is once day, and that's just long enough to start Doff, Adm, and Craft. Then I'm off to my KDF characters.
Like I mentioned in my earlier post, where I mentioned Romulans and ships. I mention the Romulan's, because like the KDF they're asking for more Faction Specific ships. I also stated that the KDF ships were subpar. Which, if you've bothered with at all. You'd know their failed attempt at the T5(U) Bortasqu' and it's poor sales was the "driving point" for Cryptic not releasing any ships for the KDF for 3 years.
Now by subpar on this. I don't mean as bad as the Bort, it's just junk, looks nice though. I mean overall. While stat for stat they're on par with the Federation ships. So much so that they're a carbon copy of the Federation ships, with a KDF skin. Which for the KDF players makes them subpar. We're a bit more particular about our ships. Where as the Federation just enjoys the Class of the ship. For the KDF players, that's a secondary thought to Boff Seating, Weapons Layout, Consoles, Hull, Impulse Mods, etc. We look at the stat layout more than "Ohhh it's a cruiser or BoP." Which is why most of the ships fall in to the "subpar" category. They do not have that immersive feel of being a Klingon ship. This immersiveness is what made the lockbox KDF ships do so well.They felt like KDF ships.
@somtaawkhar I see you made it to the the Klingon page of memory-alpha. What you listed is 99% of that page. There is more lore there. But this would be more Faction Specific content, because it doesn't deal with any of the other factions. It's all Klingon. Which is why I said there was more Lore, Cryptic could use. But, with it being more Faction Specific, they won't. I did not say this was a bad thing. This is actually good, this means that unused Lore, can be taken up by Foundry authors as source material.
On the Orion's. Congratulations! You summed up a grand total of two subsections of the Orion page on memory-alpha. Basically nothing more than what Cryptic put in game. As far as Nimbus III goes. We dealt with the Syndicate? No, we dealt with one, let me repeat that, ONE Syndicate Operative. Hassan was a lackey. What would have happened after his "capture/death?" Well, the Syndicate would have just sent a replacement. The Syndicate is an Inter-galactic organization. The loss of an operative and/or operation on a backwater, dust-bowl of the planet doesn't even hurt them. Also, on the "Capture Hassan" selection. This is a step outside of Lore. An Orion would rather commit suicide, than fail a mission. Sometimes going as far as destroying an entire ship and crew. This spawns back to the way they did things before they lost their neutrality.
While the Gorn did attack Cetus III. I can pretty much bet that you didn't know that was settled with a baseball game? Or that the Gorn won that game? How about that at current census, there are 24.6 million humans and 7.4 million Gorn on Cestus III? I didn't say the gorn had a lot of lore. Just that it more lore than the Naussican's and Lethean's have. The Klingons and the Orions have far more.
On the Hur'q. The reason the Hur'q can be used in the Iconian Arc is easy to explain. Hur'q is the Klingonii term for "Outsider." They are believed to be from the Gamma Quadrant. There is a TAS stub that states, "In TAS the Hur'q are believed to be an Ant like creature, with an exoskeleton resembling samurai armor." That's it, that is all the Lore on the Hur'q. The species doesn't even have a name, just the Hur'q or Outsider's. This is why I said, if Cryptic did a Gamma Quad expansion, it would be more Dominion Focused. That is what the majority of people know about the Gamma Quadrant.
The Klingons in Delta. Yes they were looking for the Kuvah'Magh. Even though this was concluded in the Klingon War Arc. It does not mean you can dismiss the Klingons in Delta because of it. They are as much a part of Delta as the others. They were left to colonize a planet. This make them a part of Delta Quad. The story line returns us to Delta, what Thirty-two years after Voyager was there. What happened to them? Did they survive? Did they die? This could have been a part of the one of the patrols. But again, this is not a bad thing. This can also be used as source material for foundry authors.
@snoggymack22 I mentioned the Romulan's in my post, because, like the KDF, they are asking for more faction specific ships. As to what they're asking for, I haven't frequented the Romulan Section enough to know. I just now they want more Faction Specific.
If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships. They wouldn't release subpar ships and call them the same as the Federation ships. Which this get's even more difficult for Cryptic. Because the KDF and Rom player's refuse to accept the Federation standard of One Cruiser fits all play styles. We love the fact that we have different ships, that handle and fight differently. The only thing we ask is that they be on par with the Federation ships. Which has been the problem for a while. There are few T6 ships they have released for the KDF and Roms that actually feel like they belong to those Factions. More or less they feel as though it's Federation ship, that just happens to look like a KDF or Rom design.
Bah, nonsense. If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships, they'd sell them to everyone.
KDF and Romulan ships being unprofitable has nothing at all to do with them being "subpar" or players refusing to accept "the Federation standard" and everything to do with the fact that there are twice as many Fed toons in the game as there are KDF and Romulan toons combined. There's no beating the numbers.
The majority is not allowed to buy KDF and Romulan ships, so surprise surprise they don't.
If they sold them to every one. Then they wouldn't be faction specific ships. That would be like Cryptic allowing the KDF and Romulan's to purchase a Constitution, Paladin, Galaxy, etc.
Of course at this point, they might as well. They've already taken KDF signature equipment and given to the Federation. Plasmonic Leech and Cloak come to mind here. I'm sure they're already working on a Federation ship design that incorporates the battle cloak and singularity drive.
If they sold them to every one. Then they wouldn't be faction specific ships. That would be like Cryptic allowing the KDF and Romulan's to purchase a Constitution, Paladin, Galaxy, etc.
Do you want a faction-specific ship, or do you want a ship that looks like it has a Klingon design, or a Romulan design, or a Gorn design, or a Nausicaan design?
The two things are not neccessarily the same thing. Faction specific means only one faction can use it. But is that the important goal?
If the T6 Vor'Cha was for some reason a cross-faction ship, would you not fly it because it's available to Feddies and you wouldn't feel very Klingon in it, even though you use the Vor'Cha costume and Klingon hull materials?
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
If they sold them to every one. Then they wouldn't be faction specific ships. That would be like Cryptic allowing the KDF and Romulan's to purchase a Constitution, Paladin, Galaxy, etc.
Do you want a faction-specific ship, or do you want a ship that looks like it has a Klingon design, or a Romulan design, or a Gorn design, or a Nausicaan design?
The two things are not neccessarily the same thing. Faction specific means only one faction can use it. But is that the important goal?
If the T6 Vor'Cha was for some reason a cross-faction ship, would you not fly it because it's available to Feddies and you wouldn't feel very Klingon in it, even though you use the Vor'Cha costume and Klingon hull materials?
No I wouldn't fly the vor'cha in this example. Not because it is cross-faction. Just because I was never partial to the cruiser style. I'd seriously have to consider it though if it were a qin heavy raptor. This is also assuming that it had an over-all stat, boff seating, consoles, etc. that give that feeling it was designed for the KDF, by the KDF. So if they made a cross-faction Qin Heavy Raptor(T6). I would put it on m list of ships to buy, as long as the latter part about stats was right. The fact that it looks like Qin Heavy, has very little bearing on that decision.
Just like I've been seriously considering the Temporal Sci Ship for my KDF Sci officer. But this is more due to a lack of options.
Though you do pose an interesting question with this. One that hasn't appeared in the Klingon Discussions about ships.
If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships. They wouldn't release subpar ships and call them the same as the Federation ships. Which this get's even more difficult for Cryptic. Because the KDF and Rom player's refuse to accept the Federation standard of One Cruiser fits all play styles. We love the fact that we have different ships, that handle and fight differently. The only thing we ask is that they be on par with the Federation ships. Which has been the problem for a while. There are few T6 ships they have released for the KDF and Roms that actually feel like they belong to those Factions. More or less they feel as though it's Federation ship, that just happens to look like a KDF or Rom design.
Bah, nonsense. If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships, they'd sell them to everyone.
KDF and Romulan ships being unprofitable has nothing at all to do with them being "subpar" or players refusing to accept "the Federation standard" and everything to do with the fact that there are twice as many Fed toons in the game as there are KDF and Romulan toons combined. There's no beating the numbers.
The majority is not allowed to buy KDF and Romulan ships, so surprise surprise they don't.
If they sold them to every one. Then they wouldn't be faction specific ships. That would be like Cryptic allowing the KDF and Romulan's to purchase a Constitution, Paladin, Galaxy, etc.
Yes, they should of course sell those to everyone, too.
Comments
All ships that are not race/faction specific belong to the Federation. Which is why we ask for more faction specific ships. We aren't the Federation. We didn't decide to play KDF or Romulan so that we could get Cross-Faction, or even futuristic "Space Barbie Federation Ships." As far as the Future Federation is concerned. That entire story line from start to finish is nothing but utter and complete trash. It's an direct slap in the face to both the KDF and Romulans. Hell it's a slap in the face to every race they involved in it. If I wanted a one faction fits all kind of play, then I'd join the Terran Empire. Hell with the "Future Federation" drivel they vomited up for the story, they might as well change the name of the game to Terran Empire Online.
But the state of the game is not something I blame the Devs for. I only blame the devs for the bugs that have been around since launch, or those they have been around since the introduction of the Reps system. That have yet to be acknowledged and fixed. The state of the game falls squarely on the players and their inability to see past, "Ohh shiny, new Fed ship." Cryptic's blinded by this as well. Cryptic's inability to balance the Factions and keep them balanced has cost them more players and money than they realize.
While the game is Federation focused, that doesn't mean that is all they should focus on. In a multi-faction game, showing bias only to one faction hurts it, far more than it helps it. PWE and Cryptic are both running a business. The point of that business is to make money. Which they could do, simply by releasing more ships. They wouldn't even have to really come up with any new content. Since that's not really what their consumer's, the players, want. The players of STO want high powered space barbie. And this is all they want. As long as this is all their consumer's want. Why should PWE and Cryptic care about anything else?
Think about it. When it comes to content. The only thing you can FAIL at is the Elite Queue's. You can't fail at anything else. This I discovered by working in the foundry. There is no way to set up a mission to where any choice the player can make, would cause them to fail the mission. You can't even set a "if you die this many times, you fail the mission" on it.
Now everyone also talks about the power creep. This isn't so much a problem, as it is a design flaw. Every Episode and Queue is designed around the level 40 promotion ships. Which is why the T5 and T6 ships feel like God Mode. The game isn't designed around them. Nor is it designed to handle the Specializations. They would have to rebuild the entire game to fix that. But it does give their consumers what they want, God Mode Space Barbie. I give Crytpic some credit here. The event T6 ships and the AoY Mk XIII upgrade, are a step in the direction to balancing things out. Which gives me hope that over the next few seasons they may be working on balancing things out around the T5 and T6 ships. This is one of those we will just have to wait and see on.
Events, like Summer and Winter, should be the only place for anyone to get cross-faction ships. The Z store should have been reserved for Faction Only ships. Which is what the KDF and Romulan's have been asking for, for years. We aren't saying they shouldn't make Federation ships. We're saying they just need to make more Faction Specific ships. I admit that Syndicate Science Support Vessel 2 pack, was something I made. You can find it in the KDF section of the forums. You can see I didn't do it alone, but worked with others to build them to that point. They could still use some work, and I do need to add a Ferasan ship to it. I didn't do this in the hopes of them being put in game. I did it, so the dev's could look at it go, "So, this is what the KDF want in a ship." One of the more active posts in the Klingon section is the "In Search of the Soul of Klingon Ships." It's been a discussion, that I hope the devs have been paying attention to, as to what the KDF players are actually looking for in a KDF ship.
Now as far as content goes. The main thing they could do here is to go back and revisit all the Episodes that are cross-faction. Since they have it set to where the Federation and Klingons are the two primary factions. The only thing they need to do is adjust the missions to give them a Federation Play style, and a Klingon Play style, not just the one play style. They could also breath life back in to the PvP of the game. Just by adding which side you want to play on, as a choice in the battle zones. Since all the battle zones are focused on territory and resources. Give the player the choice of which side they want to be on. Are you trying to claim these resources for the Blue Team or the Red Team? This would also give them the leeway to add more factions like the Romulan's. They are their own faction, but they are tied to one of the the Main Two. This would just mean that all Cryptic would have to do is add in the faction specific ships and a tutorial. With the adjustment to play style on the cross-faction missions, everything else is set.
I know this is a tl;dr post. I had not planned for it to be so. But plans seldom survive first contact. So here it is.
Reason #1 Star Trek is built around Starfleet. There is simply more material to draw from. More classic ships, more classic uniforms, more classic weapons, more information regarding most of the Federation species. And while there is classic Klingon and Romulan material that can be drawn from it's very small in comparison. Let's compare material from TOS between Starfleet and Romulan Star Empire respectively.
Starfleet has one ship, one set of uniforms (three if you count "The Cage" pilot and "Mirror, Mirror" uniforms).
Romulan Star Empire has one ship and one set of uniforms.
TOS Films
Starfleet got two new uniforms and three new ships. (Four if you count the Constitution Refit)
Romulan Star Empire got nothing.
TNG comparison.
Starfleet got two new ships. One new uniform. (Three if you count the DS9 uniform which was seen on TNG and the "All Good Things" uniform)
Romulan Star Empire got one new ship and one new uniform.
So just from the the beginning of TOS to the end of TNG.
Starfleet: 4 uniforms (9 if you count the uniforms seen once.) And we are not counting the many dress uniforms. 6 ships. (7 if you count the Constitution Refit.)
Romulan Star Empire: 2 ships, 2 uniforms.
My point is that Starfleet will always have more content to buy because there is more content to draw from. The story is about Starfleet. Hell the Romulans are barely even fleshed out as a race. So why don't they just create new content do you ask? Because Trek fans are very opinionated about new ship and costume designs. When they released the design for the U.S.S Discovery a few months ago the Trek fans jumped on their keyboards and expressed their opinions immediately. Some liked it. Some yelled "Fire Photon Torpedos! Full Spread! Don't stop until she's blowen out of the sky!" The content that is there for the Romulan Republic is pretty good which brings me to my next reason.
Reason#2: I could actually end up buying all the Romulan content. Because let's face it very few people own all of the content on STO. For some the Lifetime Subscription is financialy beyond their reach. And even still the console players don't get the monthly Zen allowance. But if I spend a little here and a little there I could end up get everything for the Romulan Republic. But when it comes to the Starfleet content I'm going to pick and choose because dispite there being more content for Starfleet some of it isn't that great. 23rd Century Dress Uniforms and TNG First Season Admiral uniforms are a waste of time for me. I wouldn't buy that content anyway. I'm happy with what the Romulans have at the moment and more is on the way I am sure considering the move to console.
This was actually something Perpetual was planning to do, at least according to Memory Alpha. Gonna see if I can find a primary source for it.
My character Tsin'xing
Let me ask you this on that. Which would you rather buy. The Federation BMW? Or the KDF/Rom Kia?
This is why the Lobi and lockbox ships did so well. Everyone knew those ships would be on par with the Federations. It is also the reason that people bought the cross-faction ships. It's the only way to get a ship that is on par with Federation ships.
People are smart enough to not buy junk. Even if it is the only option presented to them. This is one area where quality matters far more than quantity.
If you're Romulan, there's a good chance you ARE Federation. That's the thing about the Romulan "faction" it is either Federation or Klingon allied.
Again, this game and its development team have made the decision to go faction neutral. And after years of moving in that direction it's really past the event horizon on that.
I just don't see the faction specific game you want to play existing unless you or someone else goes and makes it.
There is plenty of Lore about the Klingons, Orions, and Gorn they could use. There isn't m much on the Nausicaan's and Lethean's. For this one just needs to step over to memory alpha and look up the race. It not like there isn't plenty they could use. They just aren't using it.
If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships. They wouldn't release subpar ships and call them the same as the Federation ships. Which this get's even more difficult for Cryptic. Because the KDF and Rom player's refuse to accept the Federation standard of One Cruiser fits all play styles. We love the fact that we have different ships, that handle and fight differently. The only thing we ask is that they be on par with the Federation ships. Which has been the problem for a while. There are few T6 ships they have released for the KDF and Roms that actually feel like they belong to those Factions. More or less they feel as though it's Federation ship, that just happens to look like a KDF or Rom design.
As far as the Hur'q go. I wouldn't expect Cryptic to touch on this much. There is only one Episode in all the shows and movies that touch upon it. That's the one where Kor and Worf find the Sword of Kahless in the ruins on a gamma quad planet. So that's about all the Hur'q, Cryptic is likely to bother with. Add to this, by canon, the Hur'q are believed to be extinct. Another reason for Cryptic not to do more than touch upon, the Sword of Kahless tie in. And the only reason they're likely to touch upon this, is because there was two Federation personnel involved as well.
When it comes to the Gamma Quadrant. Expect this to be more Federation/Dominion, maybe even Cardassian, focused. Because if you notice, in the Delta Quadrant, they didn't even touch upon the Klingon's from Voyager. They were nowhere in the Delta Quadrant Story line. Even though they had been there for 80 years before Voyager made an appearance.
You keep using Romulans in this discussion which is odd. The Romulan ships are not sub par. They do look like their own Romulan designs. And being Romulan has a slight tactical advantage. What is it that a Romulan can't do?
Science was more difficult up until the Eternal was released, but Science one can claim is the Federation's strong suit. The T6 Romulan flagships though, are DPS beasts.
So for the Romulans:
1- They got an expansion, with a ton of lore specific content.
2- They have a ton of ships from start to finish.
3- Their ships and their singularity cores are unique yet very powerful.
4- Their access to SRO's give them a slight tactical advantage.
The Romulan faction simply doesn't fit that description you've put forth.
Bah, nonsense. If Cryptic really wanted to sell KDF ships, they'd sell them to everyone.
KDF and Romulan ships being unprofitable has nothing at all to do with them being "subpar" or players refusing to accept "the Federation standard" and everything to do with the fact that there are twice as many Fed toons in the game as there are KDF and Romulan toons combined. There's no beating the numbers.
The majority is not allowed to buy KDF and Romulan ships, so surprise surprise they don't.
THAT would be a telling statistic that would END this debate:
How many Federation characters have played every available mission?
How many Klingon characters have played every available mission?
How many Romulan characters have played every available mission?
You could also continue that to: Have Achieved Tier 3 admiralty, have achieved Tier 4 commendation ranks, completed Reputation systems.....etc.
There ARE absolutely people that play PRIMARY Kling/Rom.......but if you checked into it, I doubt even 10% of the game plays a primary Kling/Rom with zero or only one or two Fed alts........
So taken in context, the amount of support given to appease a minute minority of the game is right where it needs to be. The law of superior numbers rules everything. Keep the majority happy, the outcome will be generally satisfactory.
Let us ATTACK fed installations at will. Give us missions were we actually fight the feds and can WIN not the weak as all hell ones we have in the Klingon war were you are forced to retreat. Let us blow up the fed stations in missions instead of TRIBBLE footing around being "nice".
I play my Klingon or Orion more. I'd rather sit and do nothing on my KDF toons, that do something while playing Fed. While I do have Fed chars that are at lvl 60, or close enough in the 50's. The only time I'm actually on them is once day, and that's just long enough to start Doff, Adm, and Craft. Then I'm off to my KDF characters.
Like I mentioned in my earlier post, where I mentioned Romulans and ships. I mention the Romulan's, because like the KDF they're asking for more Faction Specific ships. I also stated that the KDF ships were subpar. Which, if you've bothered with at all. You'd know their failed attempt at the T5(U) Bortasqu' and it's poor sales was the "driving point" for Cryptic not releasing any ships for the KDF for 3 years.
Now by subpar on this. I don't mean as bad as the Bort, it's just junk, looks nice though. I mean overall. While stat for stat they're on par with the Federation ships. So much so that they're a carbon copy of the Federation ships, with a KDF skin. Which for the KDF players makes them subpar. We're a bit more particular about our ships. Where as the Federation just enjoys the Class of the ship. For the KDF players, that's a secondary thought to Boff Seating, Weapons Layout, Consoles, Hull, Impulse Mods, etc. We look at the stat layout more than "Ohhh it's a cruiser or BoP." Which is why most of the ships fall in to the "subpar" category. They do not have that immersive feel of being a Klingon ship. This immersiveness is what made the lockbox KDF ships do so well.They felt like KDF ships.
@somtaawkhar I see you made it to the the Klingon page of memory-alpha. What you listed is 99% of that page. There is more lore there. But this would be more Faction Specific content, because it doesn't deal with any of the other factions. It's all Klingon. Which is why I said there was more Lore, Cryptic could use. But, with it being more Faction Specific, they won't. I did not say this was a bad thing. This is actually good, this means that unused Lore, can be taken up by Foundry authors as source material.
On the Orion's. Congratulations! You summed up a grand total of two subsections of the Orion page on memory-alpha. Basically nothing more than what Cryptic put in game. As far as Nimbus III goes. We dealt with the Syndicate? No, we dealt with one, let me repeat that, ONE Syndicate Operative. Hassan was a lackey. What would have happened after his "capture/death?" Well, the Syndicate would have just sent a replacement. The Syndicate is an Inter-galactic organization. The loss of an operative and/or operation on a backwater, dust-bowl of the planet doesn't even hurt them. Also, on the "Capture Hassan" selection. This is a step outside of Lore. An Orion would rather commit suicide, than fail a mission. Sometimes going as far as destroying an entire ship and crew. This spawns back to the way they did things before they lost their neutrality.
While the Gorn did attack Cetus III. I can pretty much bet that you didn't know that was settled with a baseball game? Or that the Gorn won that game? How about that at current census, there are 24.6 million humans and 7.4 million Gorn on Cestus III? I didn't say the gorn had a lot of lore. Just that it more lore than the Naussican's and Lethean's have. The Klingons and the Orions have far more.
On the Hur'q. The reason the Hur'q can be used in the Iconian Arc is easy to explain. Hur'q is the Klingonii term for "Outsider." They are believed to be from the Gamma Quadrant. There is a TAS stub that states, "In TAS the Hur'q are believed to be an Ant like creature, with an exoskeleton resembling samurai armor." That's it, that is all the Lore on the Hur'q. The species doesn't even have a name, just the Hur'q or Outsider's. This is why I said, if Cryptic did a Gamma Quad expansion, it would be more Dominion Focused. That is what the majority of people know about the Gamma Quadrant.
The Klingons in Delta. Yes they were looking for the Kuvah'Magh. Even though this was concluded in the Klingon War Arc. It does not mean you can dismiss the Klingons in Delta because of it. They are as much a part of Delta as the others. They were left to colonize a planet. This make them a part of Delta Quad. The story line returns us to Delta, what Thirty-two years after Voyager was there. What happened to them? Did they survive? Did they die? This could have been a part of the one of the patrols. But again, this is not a bad thing. This can also be used as source material for foundry authors.
@snoggymack22 I mentioned the Romulan's in my post, because, like the KDF, they are asking for more faction specific ships. As to what they're asking for, I haven't frequented the Romulan Section enough to know. I just now they want more Faction Specific.
If they sold them to every one. Then they wouldn't be faction specific ships. That would be like Cryptic allowing the KDF and Romulan's to purchase a Constitution, Paladin, Galaxy, etc.
Of course at this point, they might as well. They've already taken KDF signature equipment and given to the Federation. Plasmonic Leech and Cloak come to mind here. I'm sure they're already working on a Federation ship design that incorporates the battle cloak and singularity drive.
The two things are not neccessarily the same thing. Faction specific means only one faction can use it. But is that the important goal?
If the T6 Vor'Cha was for some reason a cross-faction ship, would you not fly it because it's available to Feddies and you wouldn't feel very Klingon in it, even though you use the Vor'Cha costume and Klingon hull materials?
No I wouldn't fly the vor'cha in this example. Not because it is cross-faction. Just because I was never partial to the cruiser style. I'd seriously have to consider it though if it were a qin heavy raptor. This is also assuming that it had an over-all stat, boff seating, consoles, etc. that give that feeling it was designed for the KDF, by the KDF. So if they made a cross-faction Qin Heavy Raptor(T6). I would put it on m list of ships to buy, as long as the latter part about stats was right. The fact that it looks like Qin Heavy, has very little bearing on that decision.
Just like I've been seriously considering the Temporal Sci Ship for my KDF Sci officer. But this is more due to a lack of options.
Though you do pose an interesting question with this. One that hasn't appeared in the Klingon Discussions about ships.