Here's the different Faction/Fraction/Playable Race ways to implement Cardassians
1: Full Playable Faction like the Federation and KDF - Impossible
2: Fraction like the Romulans that allies with FED/KDF - Impossible
3: AoY Style Starting Story which ties into FED and/or KDF - Possible but Unlikely
4: Playable Race like Ferengi for FED and/or KDF - Possible
5: Status Quo as Aliengen - Most Likely
Options 1 and 2 are frankly impossible and will never happen. Option 3 is technically possible but unlikely. Why? The Galor and Keldon are/were already lock box ships and any AoY style release requires a new ship pack in the C-Store. Such a "Cardassian Ship Pack" won't happen without those ships. Option number 4 is also possible but what would the point be from Cryptic's point of view? Where's the profit from doing so? Option 5 is the likeliest unfortunately.
Cardassians are my favorite Star Trek race but the writing is on the wall and the release of the Keldon all but confirmed that true fully playable Cardassians won't happen.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
There's also the possibility of throwing Cardassians into the LTS rewards the next time they want to update that and try to draw more players into getting it.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Yeah a playable Card faction is out of the question most likely. What I could see is that they open the Cardassian race to the c-story for all three factions, with the Cardassian people entering into the other factions after the fall of their own military. This would get the fact of not being able to put the cardassian ships that are in the lockboxes out of the way, as they would merely just be another cadet/recruit for the existing three factions. While also making sense as with the limited resources that the Cardassian people have at their disposal, people wishing to explore or do duties in the fields they had been in prior to the fall would look to these factions for open positions, and these groups might find use for the knowledge of such people too.
See, this argument dips into the greater argument of what Expansion 4 will be...
I highly doubt Cryptic will ever do something like Legacy of Romulus again. The devs have strongly hinted this, and I believe them. They'd be dumping FAR too many resources into it, with little or nothing for endgame players. That's not viable.
I personally think Expansion 4 will have the new Exploration System, and will introduce that with the Gamma Quadrant. There will be a story arc to get us there, but this screams "repeatable endgame content" to me.
So, if this is true... how much is left to do a Cardie faction? I'm no developer, but not much... not enough to make a fully fleshed-out faction. A new playable race + true Cardassian Union Lock Box seems more likely. Or, perhaps, a Cardassian reputation.
There is simply no good business reason (i.e. financial) to do a Cardassian faction or for that matter, any new "faction". People always talk about how they want this or that in the game and talk about how it could be accomplished. Yet they never come up with a solid financial reason for the company to do it. People need to stop thinking about being fans and start thinking about making a board room presentation to the company.
Cardassian's were one of the first aliens I actually liked besides for Romulan's, I would love a Cardassian faction but since some of the ships are already lockbox ships and that the Cardassian features are already part of the custom alien race it doesn't seem all that possible at this point.
I find it dumb how they could add Ferengi as playable but not a proper Cardassian as playable.
I haven't heard anything on this topic lately, so thought it is time to check if it's still in the planning stages or not.
Does Cryptic still have any plans to implement a playable Cardassian faction?
According to ingame lore, the Cardassians became an agarian society after the events of Deep Space Nine.
They're still an independent power, but nominally aligned with the Federation.
So that seems like a good place to start for a new faction, probably the last/only one we can expect.
But how will the storyline be handled?
These are the potential situations:
1: Mini-faction, like the Romulan Republic. A few missions, then you choose to be either Starfleet or KDF. Potentially a source of player disapproval, as it was not well received that the RR weren't a fully independent faction.
2. A completely independent full faction still requiring the allegiance choice. This may be the thing that causes the faction to be dropped from consideration, as creating a full third faction may be too much work.
Some of the work has already been done, we have a number of Cardassian playable ships already.
I assume that may be another source of conflict, someone who has those ships already might resent the fact that a playable Cardassian can acquire them either through levelling up or via purchase in C-Store.
It's scheduled right up there with the Reman quarters access in New Romulus.
There is simply no good business reason (i.e. financial) to do a Cardassian faction or for that matter, any new "faction". People always talk about how they want this or that in the game and talk about how it could be accomplished. Yet they never come up with a solid financial reason for the company to do it. People need to stop thinking about being fans and start thinking about making a board room presentation to the company.
We'll discuss the money side of it first.
As always, Cryptic seem to make a bunch of C-Store only ships and keep adding to it on occasion.
Specifically, they keep adding T6 ships.
So a Cardassian faction=more C-Store ships=more money.
And then there's things like ship modules, lockbox keys (lobi for Lobi store goodies), Dilithium purchasing with C-Store points, DOFF packs and anything else a newly minted character would require.
You would only do all of the above if you had a brand new Captain with absolutely nothing ingame, so that is all the financial reasoning you need.
Whether or not there are enough Cardassian fans to justify the work involved is up for debate.
But I've observed there are players who will create a new character in a new faction just to have that character, regardless of whether or not the species is popular.
I think it's rare that you'll find a player who says "I'm not going to create that character because I don't like the playable species/faction concept".
And also, they'd miss out on the story content too, so that's another factor.
Granted, it might not be much, given how little RR and AOY seem to have, but even a small amount of new story content is better then no new story content.
However, my primary concern here (and with the other topic I raised) is that it's more about Cryptic demonstrating their commitment to keep improving the game.
Eventually they have to explore all aspects of the story, cover every non-aggressive faction as playable (for story content), just so there is content updates.
If at any point they formally announce they won't do this or simply don't do it at all, then the game is just in a development slump where the only new content we get is reputation, fleet holdings and a yearly featured episode.
Now for me personally, I want a Liberated Borg Cardassian.
That can only be done if they are a faction.
Otherwise it's just an ordinary Cardassian or a Custom Alien without the neural blast power I like using so much.
Also, I want Cardassian BOFFs too, I've never seen those in the game at all, so those might also be tied to a Cardassian faction.
I am fairly certain if the Cardassian faction plans aren't approved, at some point we'll see a Lobi store Cardassian BOFF.
Alternatively, what if they made a Cardassian Fleet Holding?
To get the BOFFs etc without having to invest in a new faction completely.
It's scheduled right up there with the Reman quarters access in New Romulus.
The Remans refused to install proper lighting, so all you see is a very dark room with minimal lighting.
Try not to trip over anything you can't see.
And don't scream when the Reman sneaking up behind you shouts "boo!".
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
In my opinion, there is only one way to truly establish the Cardassians now, and that is through the C-Store; some sort of package deal that enables a Cardassian character alongside Cardassian-specific clothing, doffs, boffs (x3 purple?), and ships/equipment per level up (a minimum of five unique ships here).
Further Cardassian (and Jem Hadar?) Bridge Officers can be purchased from the C-Store for all other players too, though the ships would (and should) remain Cardassian-player specific. Occasional T6 ship releases can be added if and when, though not the Galor or Keldon; maybe they (Cryptic) could actually add that final Dominion ship? For obvious reasons, a mini faction or AOY element just wont be practical. To further the Cardassian feel, a social zone can be established on Cardassia too, similar to Mol'rhian on New Romulus.
The mere fact that we haven't got a Cardassian Boff reward yet (when we've got Jem Hadar, Breen, Kobali, Voth etc) is practically a given that at some point, something will be done with the Cardassians. They're probably holding out though until such a time that they need to truly draw people (of significant numbers) back to the game.
cryptic has already said that none of the 'enemy-only' listed groups will ever be used by players: Hirogen and Cardassians fell under that umbrella at the time and still do. Yes, there is an allied faction, but most of the stories put them as bad-guys only.
Cryptic have said many things over the years, a good portion of which has turned out to be false. IIRC, a long time ago a group of people got into the game engine and four distinct emblems were found in certain folders; Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Cardassian. This leak was before the Republic was released too. At some point, Cryptic obviously intended to do something for the Cardassians on a much larger scale.
GECKO has stated many times that
-Cardassians
-Ferengi
-Jem'Hadar
-Borg Cooperative
Are the only races/groups with a large enough pull to be made into a playable faction, and several people at Cryptic hae expressed an interest in doing playable Cardassians.
The Ferengi just aren't that sort of faction; they're traders, smugglers, not warriors or fighters. I can't see them working as a faction, especially when we've already got them as Bridge Officers. The Cooperative, as mentioned above, are finished. I think if anything was going to come of them, we'd have had word of it by now.
The Cardassians (and Jem Hadar) are the only likely candidates, and depending on lore, Cryptic could merge them. We've seen reengage Jem Hadar before, so there's no reason to think some wouldn't have put their loyalty and honour into something else after the Dominion War.
Why not make a new Dominion faction that Cardassians are a part of (along with Jem'Hadar, Vorta, Changelings) with a whole new Gamma Quadrant map? fix the bugs first though right?
Vorta and Changelings would never be playable because they don't take part in fighting.
I'll grant you the founders - they'd be too powerful anyway, but the Vorta are designed. I wouldn't think it beyond possibility for them to be designed as fighters, maybe not as efficient as the Jem Hadar, but still capable.
Don't really care for another faction. It is just going to end up as another minor faction.
A Cardassian faction is not a major draw for potentially new STO players. Time and effort must be put into the development of new ships that will simply cannibalize the sale of most other starships since most players do not have or want to spends the funds to simply buy all the ships they like from the C-Store. Not worth the effort.
Cardassian's were one of the first aliens I actually liked besides for Romulan's, I would love a Cardassian faction but since some of the ships are already lockbox ships and that the Cardassian features are already part of the custom alien race it doesn't seem all that possible at this point.
I find it dumb how they could add Ferengi as playable but not a proper Cardassian as playable.
The Alien Generator is not a reason.
Before LoR People used to create Romulans aswell and play those as KDF or FrED toons using Alien Romulan lookalikes.
Haven't seen one extra option instead going for a Cardi what ever crippled faction or flashy tutorial they could add Cardasians to the Romulan Republic and form a new Greater power.
Charachters still would have to chose KDF or FrED but had access to Cardi and Romi facilities and Equipment.
By doing so they could breath new life into the Republic and drive up sales of existing Romulan and new Cardi Ships.
From a Lore standpoint Cardis and Romi do had rather good relations in the past considering how xenophobic Romulans tended to be.
crazy idea, mirrior universe namely the cardassian klingon alliance. make it a season thing not a full expansion. a mission or two explaining how you got to the main universe. no problems with ships just use mirrior universe version. can quietly add main universe cardassians to the feds. can be part of a later mission line pretty easily, ties into ds9/gamma stuff easily. balances out AoY a little.
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 hate to say it, but I don't understand why some have this idealist vision of what a Cardassian faction would look like. Why would anyone think that they'd be treated differently to the RR and TOS factions?
Truthfully, after seeing how RR was handled, I have no expectations about getting anything truly unique or special.
As scary as it is, I've revised my expectations downward gradually until I expect very little at all.
To the point where I don't even care if this hypothetical Cardassian faction has a story at all, as long as I can align the resulting playable Captain with Starfleet (so they can join my fleet).
This is my list of goals:
1. Liberated Borg Cardassian.
2. Cardassian BOFFs.
3. Cardassian specific ships.
I don't think that's too much to ask, not in the long term.
Time and effort must be put into the development of new ships that will simply cannibalize the sale of most other starships since most players do not have or want to spends the funds to simply buy all the ships they like from the C-Store. Not worth the effort.
So if I understand this opinion correctly, you'd rather they keep making more Starfleet, KDF and Romulan ships rather then commit any time to giving us new unique ships we don't have outside of lockboxes or don't exist at all?
I can't see that as a viable decision.
I'm already ignoring the majority of the existing/new ships because I have simply have no need to purchase them.
In all this time, I have only purchased two ships, because I needed the consoles to complete the Starfleet Assault Cruiser Technology Set that came with the Command Assault Cruiser.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
I don't deny I would appreciate a fully featured faction.
But the question isn't whether or not how much we would like it, but if Cryptic is willing to invest in the extra time/personnel/work hours to provide us with a full Cardassian faction.
Precendent so far suggests they would not.
After all the personal disappointments regarding content so far, I lowered my expectations accordingly so I'm not continually expecting something that will never be offered.
And are the Cardassians really heavily involved with the Dyson Sphere?
From what I saw, they were just one delegation among many, no more significant then Starfleet, Romulans, Dominion or whoever else was attending.
That seems to repeat each time there's a multispectral diplomatic event or strategy meeting.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
Here's the different Faction/Fraction/Playable Race ways to implement Cardassians
1: Full Playable Faction like the Federation and KDF - Impossible
2: Fraction like the Romulans that allies with FED/KDF - Impossible
3: AoY Style Starting Story which ties into FED and/or KDF - Possible but Unlikely
4: Playable Race like Ferengi for FED and/or KDF - Possible
5: Status Quo as Aliengen - Most Likely
Options 1 and 2 are frankly impossible and will never happen. Option 3 is technically possible but unlikely. Why? The Galor and Keldon are/were already lock box ships and any AoY style release requires a new ship pack in the C-Store. Such a "Cardassian Ship Pack" won't happen without those ships. Option number 4 is also possible but what would the point be from Cryptic's point of view? Where's the profit from doing so? Option 5 is the likeliest unfortunately.
Cardassians are my favorite Star Trek race but the writing is on the wall and the release of the Keldon all but confirmed that true fully playable Cardassians won't happen.
wrong optio 3 is viable because only one cardi ship remains not in a box..the hideki which would be a T1 ship, like the pioneer you would get the hideki play through the 6-8 missions , then choose a faction and go from there.
I have played this wonderful game for almost 7 years, i have 23 seperate accounts and my primary is a lifetime subscription, i have 165 individual toons over those 23 accounts, my sole reason for being here and continuing to play this wonderful game, is the fact that i love the Cardassian Faction and look forward to the day that they join this game as a playable full fledged faction that is NOT alligned with either the Feddies or the Klinks, i believe that even though i have two Galors and one Keldon ships amongst my many players i would drop signifigant Zen in order to start a Fleet with my beloved Cardassians and would re-purchase said ships without any hesitation. If anyone reading this post have influence over the powers that be, please be aware that there are many others like myself who love and would love to play as a full fledged Cardi, thank you for your attention.
Comments
1: Full Playable Faction like the Federation and KDF - Impossible
2: Fraction like the Romulans that allies with FED/KDF - Impossible
3: AoY Style Starting Story which ties into FED and/or KDF - Possible but Unlikely
4: Playable Race like Ferengi for FED and/or KDF - Possible
5: Status Quo as Aliengen - Most Likely
Options 1 and 2 are frankly impossible and will never happen. Option 3 is technically possible but unlikely. Why? The Galor and Keldon are/were already lock box ships and any AoY style release requires a new ship pack in the C-Store. Such a "Cardassian Ship Pack" won't happen without those ships. Option number 4 is also possible but what would the point be from Cryptic's point of view? Where's the profit from doing so? Option 5 is the likeliest unfortunately.
Cardassians are my favorite Star Trek race but the writing is on the wall and the release of the Keldon all but confirmed that true fully playable Cardassians won't happen.
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Moderation Problems/Issues? Please contact the Community Manager
Terms of Service / Community Rules and Policies / FCT
Facebook / Twitter / Twitch
If the faction is as fleshed out as the Romulan Republic faction, then that would indeed be a bonus to the game.
If the faction is the sorry state of affairs that the AOY faction was, then I don't think we really need any more of that in the game..
I welcome new factions in the game, just so long as they're a fleshed out 0 - 30 level faction.
I highly doubt Cryptic will ever do something like Legacy of Romulus again. The devs have strongly hinted this, and I believe them. They'd be dumping FAR too many resources into it, with little or nothing for endgame players. That's not viable.
I personally think Expansion 4 will have the new Exploration System, and will introduce that with the Gamma Quadrant. There will be a story arc to get us there, but this screams "repeatable endgame content" to me.
So, if this is true... how much is left to do a Cardie faction? I'm no developer, but not much... not enough to make a fully fleshed-out faction. A new playable race + true Cardassian Union Lock Box seems more likely. Or, perhaps, a Cardassian reputation.
I find it dumb how they could add Ferengi as playable but not a proper Cardassian as playable.
Tbh at this point in the game i would rather prefer the lukari to cardis as a playable faction, the lukari seem much more intresting as a species.
It's scheduled right up there with the Reman quarters access in New Romulus.
We'll discuss the money side of it first.
As always, Cryptic seem to make a bunch of C-Store only ships and keep adding to it on occasion.
Specifically, they keep adding T6 ships.
So a Cardassian faction=more C-Store ships=more money.
And then there's things like ship modules, lockbox keys (lobi for Lobi store goodies), Dilithium purchasing with C-Store points, DOFF packs and anything else a newly minted character would require.
You would only do all of the above if you had a brand new Captain with absolutely nothing ingame, so that is all the financial reasoning you need.
Whether or not there are enough Cardassian fans to justify the work involved is up for debate.
But I've observed there are players who will create a new character in a new faction just to have that character, regardless of whether or not the species is popular.
I think it's rare that you'll find a player who says "I'm not going to create that character because I don't like the playable species/faction concept".
And also, they'd miss out on the story content too, so that's another factor.
Granted, it might not be much, given how little RR and AOY seem to have, but even a small amount of new story content is better then no new story content.
However, my primary concern here (and with the other topic I raised) is that it's more about Cryptic demonstrating their commitment to keep improving the game.
Eventually they have to explore all aspects of the story, cover every non-aggressive faction as playable (for story content), just so there is content updates.
If at any point they formally announce they won't do this or simply don't do it at all, then the game is just in a development slump where the only new content we get is reputation, fleet holdings and a yearly featured episode.
Now for me personally, I want a Liberated Borg Cardassian.
That can only be done if they are a faction.
Otherwise it's just an ordinary Cardassian or a Custom Alien without the neural blast power I like using so much.
Also, I want Cardassian BOFFs too, I've never seen those in the game at all, so those might also be tied to a Cardassian faction.
I am fairly certain if the Cardassian faction plans aren't approved, at some point we'll see a Lobi store Cardassian BOFF.
Alternatively, what if they made a Cardassian Fleet Holding?
To get the BOFFs etc without having to invest in a new faction completely.
The Remans refused to install proper lighting, so all you see is a very dark room with minimal lighting.
Try not to trip over anything you can't see.
And don't scream when the Reman sneaking up behind you shouts "boo!".
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
I don't even have the energy to bother talking about the Cards yet again...
A Smart Ferengi, now that would be a scary thing.
In my opinion, there is only one way to truly establish the Cardassians now, and that is through the C-Store; some sort of package deal that enables a Cardassian character alongside Cardassian-specific clothing, doffs, boffs (x3 purple?), and ships/equipment per level up (a minimum of five unique ships here).
Further Cardassian (and Jem Hadar?) Bridge Officers can be purchased from the C-Store for all other players too, though the ships would (and should) remain Cardassian-player specific. Occasional T6 ship releases can be added if and when, though not the Galor or Keldon; maybe they (Cryptic) could actually add that final Dominion ship? For obvious reasons, a mini faction or AOY element just wont be practical. To further the Cardassian feel, a social zone can be established on Cardassia too, similar to Mol'rhian on New Romulus.
The mere fact that we haven't got a Cardassian Boff reward yet (when we've got Jem Hadar, Breen, Kobali, Voth etc) is practically a given that at some point, something will be done with the Cardassians. They're probably holding out though until such a time that they need to truly draw people (of significant numbers) back to the game.
Cryptic have said many things over the years, a good portion of which has turned out to be false. IIRC, a long time ago a group of people got into the game engine and four distinct emblems were found in certain folders; Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Cardassian. This leak was before the Republic was released too. At some point, Cryptic obviously intended to do something for the Cardassians on a much larger scale.
Keep Dreaming! That ship sailed!
The Ferengi just aren't that sort of faction; they're traders, smugglers, not warriors or fighters. I can't see them working as a faction, especially when we've already got them as Bridge Officers. The Cooperative, as mentioned above, are finished. I think if anything was going to come of them, we'd have had word of it by now.
The Cardassians (and Jem Hadar) are the only likely candidates, and depending on lore, Cryptic could merge them. We've seen reengage Jem Hadar before, so there's no reason to think some wouldn't have put their loyalty and honour into something else after the Dominion War.
I'll grant you the founders - they'd be too powerful anyway, but the Vorta are designed. I wouldn't think it beyond possibility for them to be designed as fighters, maybe not as efficient as the Jem Hadar, but still capable.
A poor argument.
Maybe this is just the true endgame for STO, come to the forums and post walls of text on the same subjects over and over and over and over.
A Cardassian faction is not a major draw for potentially new STO players. Time and effort must be put into the development of new ships that will simply cannibalize the sale of most other starships since most players do not have or want to spends the funds to simply buy all the ships they like from the C-Store. Not worth the effort.
That is a part of any MMOs end game.
The Alien Generator is not a reason.
Before LoR People used to create Romulans aswell and play those as KDF or FrED toons using Alien Romulan lookalikes.
Haven't seen one extra option instead going for a Cardi what ever crippled faction or flashy tutorial they could add Cardasians to the Romulan Republic and form a new Greater power.
Charachters still would have to chose KDF or FrED but had access to Cardi and Romi facilities and Equipment.
By doing so they could breath new life into the Republic and drive up sales of existing Romulan and new Cardi Ships.
From a Lore standpoint Cardis and Romi do had rather good relations in the past considering how xenophobic Romulans tended to be.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Truthfully, after seeing how RR was handled, I have no expectations about getting anything truly unique or special.
As scary as it is, I've revised my expectations downward gradually until I expect very little at all.
To the point where I don't even care if this hypothetical Cardassian faction has a story at all, as long as I can align the resulting playable Captain with Starfleet (so they can join my fleet).
This is my list of goals:
1. Liberated Borg Cardassian.
2. Cardassian BOFFs.
3. Cardassian specific ships.
I don't think that's too much to ask, not in the long term.
So if I understand this opinion correctly, you'd rather they keep making more Starfleet, KDF and Romulan ships rather then commit any time to giving us new unique ships we don't have outside of lockboxes or don't exist at all?
I can't see that as a viable decision.
I'm already ignoring the majority of the existing/new ships because I have simply have no need to purchase them.
In all this time, I have only purchased two ships, because I needed the consoles to complete the Starfleet Assault Cruiser Technology Set that came with the Command Assault Cruiser.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
But the question isn't whether or not how much we would like it, but if Cryptic is willing to invest in the extra time/personnel/work hours to provide us with a full Cardassian faction.
Precendent so far suggests they would not.
After all the personal disappointments regarding content so far, I lowered my expectations accordingly so I'm not continually expecting something that will never be offered.
And are the Cardassians really heavily involved with the Dyson Sphere?
From what I saw, they were just one delegation among many, no more significant then Starfleet, Romulans, Dominion or whoever else was attending.
That seems to repeat each time there's a multispectral diplomatic event or strategy meeting.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
wrong optio 3 is viable because only one cardi ship remains not in a box..the hideki which would be a T1 ship, like the pioneer you would get the hideki play through the 6-8 missions , then choose a faction and go from there.