Remember we are talking about 12-packs of Ships if they release one of those Fleet grade Tac/Eng/Sci Packs for ALL Factions. Probably 16,000 Zen. You may find these limited to releases corresponding to the release of a new Specialization with the mechanics that go with it.
This would be ideal, I think (give everyone full recognition during the big events, try new schemes for miscellaneous releases) but when this would likely happen next is the Anniversary. That would directly follow AoD (which will likely have a lot of ships) and the winter event (one further ship to allocate, on top of the anniversary ship.) I would be quite positively amazed if Cryptic was able to build out a 12-ship bundle. It's not impossible if they've been significantly scaling up their ship production team but I would just be careful about setting any kind of expectation here, as there are a lot of other ways they could create a large bundle with available factions (ex. move down to 2/2/2/2 [one tailored for closest profession to the ship class, one more universal] or keep to 3/3/3 with a DOM event ship [ducking the issue until next time or setting a pattern for asynchronous inclusion of DOM. Ex. new spec: 3/3/3 with the next c-store ship being one-off DOM.])
It is not a given that any or all future Dominion Ships will be of the Vanguard variety with the T6 unlocking mechanism.
It is a point though that all c-store Jem'Hadar ships have the T6 unlock mechanism. It's the lock box, lobi, and promo (for the obvious reason.) I think the "Vanguard" designation is incidental though we'll see when the next Jem'Hadar ship(s) come.
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
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I actually kinda like the idea of porting over the idea of how the dominion ships can be unlocked thru play to be usable by their allied faction, and might be interesting to adapt that to the romulan faction (maybe even overall for all faction that you had to unlock them via play for the other faction like the dominion ships) honestly. One downfall to having faction locked ships is that the faction with the least population gets shafted for various reason most of all just potential sales gained from the ship being less since the population of the faction is much less. Now if you could unlock the ship for use with the faction that Romulan character is allied with there is a large potential population to get sales from that might keep the appeal of making that faction (dominion or Romulan) getting ships produce.
It actually bothers me seeing Romulans flying Federation ships. It just doesn't make sense to me. I can only imagine what the reaction would have been if the situation had been reversed and Federation players were given the ability to fly Romulan ships so they wouldn't have to make Federation ships anymore.
Even as a Romulan, it bothers me flying Fed ships. Like I can fly the Fed pilot ships now too (next to the Rom ones I have). That just feels weird. Good for all the extra ASScards, but weird nonetheless.
Did people really expect Dominion ships to be a thing post launch? They're even less of a faction than AoY was. I knew going in that the only likely addition to that roster might be a lifer ship.
Romulans, on the other hand, were sold as a third major faction in the game before LoR released. The reality was that was a lie, but at least we were getting relatively fair ship treatment. I knew as soon as the 'fly your ally's ships' thing was announced it was going to be a virtual death knell to new warbirds. I don't want to fly oddys/negh'var and sovvys/vor'cha as a Romulan, I haven't even used them for Admiralty because its a BS stunt by the Geckodevs to get out of doing what they should be doing. You can take this "gift" back and the ability to "double dip" doff for that matter, and support the Romulan f(r)action you put in the game.
But for Cryptic to say 'hey we have no time' then drop 2 new fed/kdf ship packs inside one month... that is some serious BS. I regret buying the new orleans bundle now because, at the time, I actually bought their line about no time. This new bundle is one that I would likely have jumped on in a second if it had a warbird, but as it is, I can only vote with my wallet and its now closed to STO. That includes the stuff I was planning to buy for AoD.
Right now, I'm half convinced the "new normal" will be 1-3 warbirds a year, probably bundled with a Jem'hadar ship.
Not paying another penny to STO since a long time ago, but assuming STO got its act together, actually fixed most major game-breaking bugs, tweaked the game to how it was pre-DR, expanded end-game, I'd stop buying all over again. Didn't make Romulan characters only to be told to play as another Fed/KDF alongside more Fed/KDF.
The little cash I have is going towards an indie game to play with friends, and eventually planetside2 to unlock end-game ASP. There, they treat their factions seriously (even if TR loses on weapon attachments) so I know the hundreds of hours aren't a waste, unlike STO where all your Roms essentially become Feds/KDF.
Not paying another penny to STO since a long time ago, but assuming STO got its act together, actually fixed most major game-breaking bugs, tweaked the game to how it was pre-DR, expanded end-game, I'd stop buying all over again. Didn't make Romulan characters only to be told to play as another Fed/KDF alongside more Fed/KDF.
The little cash I have is going towards an indie game to play with friends, and eventually planetside2 to unlock end-game ASP. There, they treat their factions seriously (even if TR loses on weapon attachments) so I know the hundreds of hours aren't a waste, unlike STO where all your Roms essentially become Feds/KDF.
i had some time on ps2 years ago, turtling away as a defender all too aware of cloaked idiots behind you who think they can sneak around when the cloak itself is making noises and get shredded by aa fire xD
on a more on topic note, i haven't spent money on this game in a very long time because i haven't seen a reason Cryptic are deserving of it. Recent cloned ships won't cut it, neither will ignoring faction needs outside Starfleet and the Klingons, i mean they created these factions, if they aren't prepared to put some effort into them they really should of done something else where they are willing to put their effort into instead, why waste time and effort on something that has no purpose.
of course i always remain open to anything even with my narrow view on the way things are with this game, but more often than not i don't agree with the way Cryptic get around to a few things, but that is my problem in the end. i should learn to forget about expectations knowing it is Cryptic.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
yeah sadly I think we have seen the last rom ships. I guess the ship dev has no ideas on new designs. I'd be good with reducing the number of ship releases, but then you start talking a 12 ship mega pack and how many players will sheel out the cash for them all?
It actually bothers me seeing Romulans flying Federation ships. It just doesn't make sense to me. I can only imagine what the reaction would have been if the situation had been reversed and Federation players were given the ability to fly Romulan ships so they wouldn't have to make Federation ships anymore.
Even as a Romulan, it bothers me flying Fed ships. Like I can fly the Fed pilot ships now too (next to the Rom ones I have). That just feels weird. Good for all the extra ASScards, but weird nonetheless.
I am the same way, I claimed all the ships for Admiralty, and I occasionally fly one to grind out the trait, but no Romulan Captain of mine will ever fly anything but a Warbird for his/her main ship. It just feels.. wrong.
We can only hope Romulans play a major role in the new Picard series. I'm sure that Cryptic would have no choice then than to add new Romulan ships.
Assuming of course the new Picard series features new canon designs for ships. Otherwise, we're still in the same boat as far as new designs for Romulan ships.
The romulans just got 500 new ships....now that they are allow to fly ALL the kickass T6 ones of their chosen faction
But real talk who cares for romulans when the federation is getting another new sub faction from TRIBBLE is that not more exciting for the loins?
People though want to be able to fly new Romulan ships on a Romulan character. Just like there are people who would prefer to fly own faction ships on their character.
People though want to be able to fly new Romulan ships on a Romulan character. Just like there are people who would prefer to fly own faction ships on their character.
Some people are also fine with pulling a ROM-D7 in 2410. People are many and various and while it would be nice to satisfy all people in all things; big complex projects like back to back non-ROM expansion/seasons may shift focus away from some people to accomplish broader objectives (and thereby service more people than those who lost out in these instances.)
Ie. having other kinds of nice things [besides more warbirds] like Jem'Hadar, Cardassian, Discovery era ships, T6 New Olreans [and a KDF ships to provide full inclusion], T6 Ambassador, and T6 Vorcha. They may not be the nice things that a ROM purist want to have (on a timetable of their specification, nevermind reconciling interests) but I don't think there's an argument to make here that simple rage [referring to the wider thread, to varying degrees] at new release schemes is sufficient by itself to promote constructive change. Namely, because "we have different priorities at this time" smashes the effort completely. It's a reaction to immediate stimuli facing off against a long-term release schedule backed by data and constructed with objective arguments. Cryptic likely took some rage into account with the decision to stock up on modern-era KDF/FED ships between ViL and AoD and confirming the expectation that forums tend to overreact to change isn't likely to move the needle in their discussions.
As a point to the wider thread: Tell Cryptic something they either don't know or couldn't have easily anticipated from the forums. Analyze reasons (without personal bias), recognize context, and propose cogent alternatives that could better satisfy all interests than what they may be planning. Ie. Give constructive feedback, the rest does more harm than good to the points you're trying to get across.
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
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Let's simmer down a bit in here folks. Folks are free to debate but let's leave the flamethrowers out of it. Attack the arguments not each other.
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Yeah Thomas said in the livestream that they wanted to make Rom and Jem versions but didn't have time.
try designing a single 3 pack then instead of a pair of 2 packs....
Did you even bother reading what he said? He said that Thomas said in the livestream that they wanted to make Rom and Jem versions but did not have time. Remember a lot of their focus was on ViL. Also, imagine if you had to go through what the developers have to go through, especially seeing all the opening on the Cryptic Studios webpage which is one of the reasons they rely so much on player feedback on Tribble. I watched a mini doc on the Evolution of Tomb Raider. Man, when I saw the exhausting work that the bug finders had to do, the others had to do, etc it made me feel sorry for them especially pushing tough deadlines and having to patch the bugs that were not able to patched before the release date. I think as the players we need to try to understand why changes were made instead of thinking that they are lying to us (especially when lots of blog posts have a disclaimer that things are subject to change) or that there is a conspiracy against Romulans getting more ships for their faction. We need to cool it, think logically, and continue to play STO instead of acting like entitled people. This is a game, this is entertainment. Not beating up each other in the forums or the developers in the forums. We are better than this! We can be passionate, without being nasty to each other. Thanks.
Yeah Thomas said in the livestream that they wanted to make Rom and Jem versions but didn't have time.
try designing a single 3 pack then instead of a pair of 2 packs....
Did you even bother reading what he said? He said that Thomas said in the livestream that they wanted to make Rom and Jem versions but did not have time. Remember a lot of their focus was on ViL. Also, imagine if you had to go through what the developers have to go through, especially seeing all the opening on the Cryptic Studios webpage which is one of the reasons they rely so much on player feedback on Tribble. I watched a mini doc on the Evolution of Tomb Raider. Man, when I saw the exhausting work that the bug finders had to do, the others had to do, etc it made me feel sorry for them especially pushing tough deadlines and having to patch the bugs that were not able to patched before the release date. I think as the players we need to try to understand why changes were made instead of thinking that they are lying to us (especially when lots of blog posts have a disclaimer that things are subject to change) or that there is a conspiracy against Romulans getting more ships for their faction. We need to cool it, think logically, and continue to play STO instead of acting like entitled people. This is a game, this is entertainment. Not beating up each other in the forums or the developers in the forums. We are better than this! We can be passionate, without being nasty to each other. Thanks.
So...making 4 ships is somehow less work that 3 in your mind because?!? I know what goes into software engineering. I use to work in that field. But last i checked, working on 4 ships is more than 3. So instead of 2 two pack ships, had they worked on the vorcha, ambassador and say a T6 ha'apax, it would have been WAY less work. Especially since one of two packs of ships were entirely NEW ships to STO while a 3 pack of those would have had quite a bit of work done already for the dev team. Basically if you believe what was said by Thomas...yeah there is a bridge in Brooklyn I wanna sell you. And I seriously can't believe you used the term think logically after claiming that building 4 ships...with two of them needing entirely new skeletons would be less works than 3 ships...none of which would have needed the new skeleton. Because yeah, you understand so much about game development from watching a doc on it. What makes MORE sense is Thomas wanted to make romulan ships and the bean counters said no, make more KDF and fed ships because we sell more of those. In fact, just make two packs going forwards. Maybe we can even short change them on a pack discount. Which of course did not pan out due to complete player outrage. This was about the money...and it had NOTHING to do with not enough time. Not that there is anything wrong with a company going after more money...but the way they are going about it has been in a manner where I am no longer going to be one of the players who will support them is all.
I was replying to his post about the packs. Trying to understand the dev decision. I did not say anything about making 4 ships is somehow less work than 3. You are putting words into my mouth that I did not say in your first sentence. I believe what Thomas said, go ahead hit me. I did not make any claims that building 4 ships would be somehow less work, I was responding to his comment and the fury against Cryptic for doing packs with only 2 factions represented instead of 3. Please do not gang up on me. Thanks.
Yeah Thomas said in the livestream that they wanted to make Rom and Jem versions but didn't have time.
try designing a single 3 pack then instead of a pair of 2 packs....
Try designing a KDF/ROM/FED 3 pack that includes the New Orleans, Ambassador, and Vor'Cha (while supporting two different ship platforms and providing inclusion of each faction.)
2 packs of 2 worked better with the given optimization problem and, thanks to a little creativity and the ship tailor, my KDF/ROM's pretty darn happy with what they did get.
It's an alliance ship, deal with it.
And to be frank, if there was a ROM support cruiser in these bundles I wouldn't have bought it (even though my ROMs were in greatest need.) The Vor'Cha's usable on more of my characters and the customizations options are sufficient for me to personalize a ROM-themed variant for that character (I was fine with the paint job, Tor'kaht parts were a bonus.)
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IF you believe what Thomas said, than you believe that 4 ships was less work than 3. Two of which needed entirely new skeletons no less...over 3 ships that could have been done with using old skeletons. So yes, you did in fact say that 4 ships is less work than 3. Once again...logic. Because they produced 4 ships while saying they don't have time to produce a 3 pack.
Ignoring of course that those 3 ships would have to be allocated to one variant, so that would involve eliminating either the recon destroyer or support cruiser (nevermind that the system design for the two was finished.) And of course that would come at the direct cost to the incremental increase in build options and gameplay style thanks to having more ship types (accessible to all players.)
Ie. it's a pretty darn simple trade off. Your 3 ships would absolutely not have satisfied the given set of design criteria.
So, save the ROM/DOM ships for a time when they can offer more to the game than token aesthetic inclusion on a couple miscellaneous bundles (geared to introducing a few T6 variants of canon ships. We really didn't need DOM/ROM equivalents for this one.)
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We can only hope Romulans play a major role in the new Picard series. I'm sure that Cryptic would have no choice then than to add new Romulan ships.
Even if Romulans have a major role in the new Picard series, I doubt there will be any new Romulan ships from it due to the destruction of Romulus. Romulans would likely be flying patchwork ships based on the classic Romulan Warbird and Romulan civilian ships.
Of course, there is the rare possibility that the new Picard series will establish that the 24th Century portion of Star Trek 2009 happened in an alternate timeline and Romulus still exists resulting in new Romulus ships.
1) Why does the new orlean have to be in the pack? They could have planned that for a later release instead of bundled in a rather clumsy manner with a cryptic designed KDF ship. Now will a romulan support cruiser made from say the ha'apax done as well as the new orlean. HELL NO. So I understand WHY they did what they did. Because money. But that doesn't have to be MY money.
2) Actually I don't have to deal with it. I can just spend no money. I can also stop playing the game,
3) What you personally would and would not get is somewhat irrelivant. So is what I would do honestly. What matters is the player base as a whole. And don't worry sweetie pie, more people are okay with the abandoning of the romulans than not. So nothing will happen immediately to your precious game. No matter what this or other romulan players do or don't do.
1. Dev priority, they wanted two ship types released between AoD and ViL. FED/KDF two packs provided full coverage. If we didn't have, say, the D'Deridex in the game then there probably would have been a strong argument for a classic support cruiser/warbird bundle but as it happens there really wasn't any strong contender to either bundle from the ROM/DOM side. They could have allocated resources to a single pack with new variants, but that would have restricted releases to a single c-store pack (for the sake of a more desirable hull model for a subset of the population...) to tide players over during the relative quiet between seasons. That does translate to money, but also keeping the lights on, folks employed, and the company growing (which is important if you want there to be more available manpower for ships, so opportunity trade-offs don't become absolutely critical, as they were for the KDF back in the old days.)
Plus as directly quoted earlier, Thomas wanted to make the New Orleans. It's an interesting canon FED ships and this is a Star Trek game.
2. Okiedokie. Bear in mind that I bought the Vor'Ral in large part because I could use it for the KDF and ROM. A single ROM variant under the old release scheme would have probably resulted in me passing on this ship (which would have been a shame, I love it on both characters.) So, your wallet is closed but mine's open. Cryptic can watch their data and provide context from there (and I'm quite comfortable leaving it at that.)
3. Given that the entire basis for complaint here is personal wants, you'd best not draw attention to the limited application of aesthetic preference.
I'm good with this. You're not. Okay, have anything else to say? There's significant scaling problems if you want to get into the realities of developing more factions in STO and supporting existing ones. You can pretend they don't exist but insulating weak arguments from critical evaluation isn't the best way to provide actionable feedback. ViL has changed the mechanics of the ROM but there are some good compromises for c-store releases which I've suggested variously in this thread. 3 ship bundles, there's stronger arguments against them now. So, let's see about something else (with some potential upsides for those who want a stronger warbird experience.)
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Comments
This would be ideal, I think (give everyone full recognition during the big events, try new schemes for miscellaneous releases) but when this would likely happen next is the Anniversary. That would directly follow AoD (which will likely have a lot of ships) and the winter event (one further ship to allocate, on top of the anniversary ship.) I would be quite positively amazed if Cryptic was able to build out a 12-ship bundle. It's not impossible if they've been significantly scaling up their ship production team but I would just be careful about setting any kind of expectation here, as there are a lot of other ways they could create a large bundle with available factions (ex. move down to 2/2/2/2 [one tailored for closest profession to the ship class, one more universal] or keep to 3/3/3 with a DOM event ship [ducking the issue until next time or setting a pattern for asynchronous inclusion of DOM. Ex. new spec: 3/3/3 with the next c-store ship being one-off DOM.])
It is a point though that all c-store Jem'Hadar ships have the T6 unlock mechanism. It's the lock box, lobi, and promo (for the obvious reason.) I think the "Vanguard" designation is incidental though we'll see when the next Jem'Hadar ship(s) come.
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Even as a Romulan, it bothers me flying Fed ships.
Romulans, on the other hand, were sold as a third major faction in the game before LoR released. The reality was that was a lie, but at least we were getting relatively fair ship treatment. I knew as soon as the 'fly your ally's ships' thing was announced it was going to be a virtual death knell to new warbirds. I don't want to fly oddys/negh'var and sovvys/vor'cha as a Romulan, I haven't even used them for Admiralty because its a BS stunt by the Geckodevs to get out of doing what they should be doing. You can take this "gift" back and the ability to "double dip" doff for that matter, and support the Romulan f(r)action you put in the game.
But for Cryptic to say 'hey we have no time' then drop 2 new fed/kdf ship packs inside one month... that is some serious BS. I regret buying the new orleans bundle now because, at the time, I actually bought their line about no time. This new bundle is one that I would likely have jumped on in a second if it had a warbird, but as it is, I can only vote with my wallet and its now closed to STO. That includes the stuff I was planning to buy for AoD.
Right now, I'm half convinced the "new normal" will be 1-3 warbirds a year, probably bundled with a Jem'hadar ship.
The little cash I have is going towards an indie game to play with friends, and eventually planetside2 to unlock end-game ASP. There, they treat their factions seriously (even if TR loses on weapon attachments) so I know the hundreds of hours aren't a waste, unlike STO where all your Roms essentially become Feds/KDF.
i had some time on ps2 years ago, turtling away as a defender all too aware of cloaked idiots behind you who think they can sneak around when the cloak itself is making noises and get shredded by aa fire xD
on a more on topic note, i haven't spent money on this game in a very long time because i haven't seen a reason Cryptic are deserving of it. Recent cloned ships won't cut it, neither will ignoring faction needs outside Starfleet and the Klingons, i mean they created these factions, if they aren't prepared to put some effort into them they really should of done something else where they are willing to put their effort into instead, why waste time and effort on something that has no purpose.
of course i always remain open to anything even with my narrow view on the way things are with this game, but more often than not i don't agree with the way Cryptic get around to a few things, but that is my problem in the end. i should learn to forget about expectations knowing it is Cryptic.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I am the same way, I claimed all the ships for Admiralty, and I occasionally fly one to grind out the trait, but no Romulan Captain of mine will ever fly anything but a Warbird for his/her main ship. It just feels.. wrong.
My character Tsin'xing
But real talk who cares for romulans when the federation is getting another new sub faction from TRIBBLE is that not more exciting for the loins?
Assuming of course the new Picard series features new canon designs for ships. Otherwise, we're still in the same boat as far as new designs for Romulan ships.
People though want to be able to fly new Romulan ships on a Romulan character. Just like there are people who would prefer to fly own faction ships on their character.
Some people are also fine with pulling a ROM-D7 in 2410. People are many and various and while it would be nice to satisfy all people in all things; big complex projects like back to back non-ROM expansion/seasons may shift focus away from some people to accomplish broader objectives (and thereby service more people than those who lost out in these instances.)
Ie. having other kinds of nice things [besides more warbirds] like Jem'Hadar, Cardassian, Discovery era ships, T6 New Olreans [and a KDF ships to provide full inclusion], T6 Ambassador, and T6 Vorcha. They may not be the nice things that a ROM purist want to have (on a timetable of their specification, nevermind reconciling interests) but I don't think there's an argument to make here that simple rage [referring to the wider thread, to varying degrees] at new release schemes is sufficient by itself to promote constructive change. Namely, because "we have different priorities at this time" smashes the effort completely. It's a reaction to immediate stimuli facing off against a long-term release schedule backed by data and constructed with objective arguments. Cryptic likely took some rage into account with the decision to stock up on modern-era KDF/FED ships between ViL and AoD and confirming the expectation that forums tend to overreact to change isn't likely to move the needle in their discussions.
As a point to the wider thread: Tell Cryptic something they either don't know or couldn't have easily anticipated from the forums. Analyze reasons (without personal bias), recognize context, and propose cogent alternatives that could better satisfy all interests than what they may be planning. Ie. Give constructive feedback, the rest does more harm than good to the points you're trying to get across.
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My character Tsin'xing
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try designing a single 3 pack then instead of a pair of 2 packs....
Did you even bother reading what he said? He said that Thomas said in the livestream that they wanted to make Rom and Jem versions but did not have time. Remember a lot of their focus was on ViL. Also, imagine if you had to go through what the developers have to go through, especially seeing all the opening on the Cryptic Studios webpage which is one of the reasons they rely so much on player feedback on Tribble. I watched a mini doc on the Evolution of Tomb Raider. Man, when I saw the exhausting work that the bug finders had to do, the others had to do, etc it made me feel sorry for them especially pushing tough deadlines and having to patch the bugs that were not able to patched before the release date. I think as the players we need to try to understand why changes were made instead of thinking that they are lying to us (especially when lots of blog posts have a disclaimer that things are subject to change) or that there is a conspiracy against Romulans getting more ships for their faction. We need to cool it, think logically, and continue to play STO instead of acting like entitled people. This is a game, this is entertainment. Not beating up each other in the forums or the developers in the forums. We are better than this! We can be passionate, without being nasty to each other. Thanks.
I was replying to his post about the packs. Trying to understand the dev decision. I did not say anything about making 4 ships is somehow less work than 3. You are putting words into my mouth that I did not say in your first sentence. I believe what Thomas said, go ahead hit me. I did not make any claims that building 4 ships would be somehow less work, I was responding to his comment and the fury against Cryptic for doing packs with only 2 factions represented instead of 3. Please do not gang up on me. Thanks.
Try designing a KDF/ROM/FED 3 pack that includes the New Orleans, Ambassador, and Vor'Cha (while supporting two different ship platforms and providing inclusion of each faction.)
2 packs of 2 worked better with the given optimization problem and, thanks to a little creativity and the ship tailor, my KDF/ROM's pretty darn happy with what they did get.
It's an alliance ship, deal with it.
And to be frank, if there was a ROM support cruiser in these bundles I wouldn't have bought it (even though my ROMs were in greatest need.) The Vor'Cha's usable on more of my characters and the customizations options are sufficient for me to personalize a ROM-themed variant for that character (I was fine with the paint job, Tor'kaht parts were a bonus.)
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Ignoring of course that those 3 ships would have to be allocated to one variant, so that would involve eliminating either the recon destroyer or support cruiser (nevermind that the system design for the two was finished.) And of course that would come at the direct cost to the incremental increase in build options and gameplay style thanks to having more ship types (accessible to all players.)
Ie. it's a pretty darn simple trade off. Your 3 ships would absolutely not have satisfied the given set of design criteria.
So, save the ROM/DOM ships for a time when they can offer more to the game than token aesthetic inclusion on a couple miscellaneous bundles (geared to introducing a few T6 variants of canon ships. We really didn't need DOM/ROM equivalents for this one.)
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Even if Romulans have a major role in the new Picard series, I doubt there will be any new Romulan ships from it due to the destruction of Romulus. Romulans would likely be flying patchwork ships based on the classic Romulan Warbird and Romulan civilian ships.
Of course, there is the rare possibility that the new Picard series will establish that the 24th Century portion of Star Trek 2009 happened in an alternate timeline and Romulus still exists resulting in new Romulus ships.
1. Dev priority, they wanted two ship types released between AoD and ViL. FED/KDF two packs provided full coverage. If we didn't have, say, the D'Deridex in the game then there probably would have been a strong argument for a classic support cruiser/warbird bundle but as it happens there really wasn't any strong contender to either bundle from the ROM/DOM side. They could have allocated resources to a single pack with new variants, but that would have restricted releases to a single c-store pack (for the sake of a more desirable hull model for a subset of the population...) to tide players over during the relative quiet between seasons. That does translate to money, but also keeping the lights on, folks employed, and the company growing (which is important if you want there to be more available manpower for ships, so opportunity trade-offs don't become absolutely critical, as they were for the KDF back in the old days.)
Plus as directly quoted earlier, Thomas wanted to make the New Orleans. It's an interesting canon FED ships and this is a Star Trek game.
2. Okiedokie. Bear in mind that I bought the Vor'Ral in large part because I could use it for the KDF and ROM. A single ROM variant under the old release scheme would have probably resulted in me passing on this ship (which would have been a shame, I love it on both characters.) So, your wallet is closed but mine's open. Cryptic can watch their data and provide context from there (and I'm quite comfortable leaving it at that.)
3. Given that the entire basis for complaint here is personal wants, you'd best not draw attention to the limited application of aesthetic preference.
I'm good with this. You're not. Okay, have anything else to say? There's significant scaling problems if you want to get into the realities of developing more factions in STO and supporting existing ones. You can pretend they don't exist but insulating weak arguments from critical evaluation isn't the best way to provide actionable feedback. ViL has changed the mechanics of the ROM but there are some good compromises for c-store releases which I've suggested variously in this thread. 3 ship bundles, there's stronger arguments against them now. So, let's see about something else (with some potential upsides for those who want a stronger warbird experience.)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!