Any new factions or races planned in STO future? Entice me to start a new character.

wraithmeister · May 2022

Are there any plans to create new STO factions or races?

Over past 10 years or so I've done all the current factions and races to death... current account is full with all max level, max rep, max gear characters in every faction and wide variety of races.

It would be nice to have actual new races or factions (or both!) to start a new character on. Lots of possibilities - playable kunarke race in mirror universe faction, etc.

paradox · May 2022

sirsitsalot wrote: »

Planned? Who knows? They don't tell us what they have PLANNED. They just do it and then deploy it.

However, I rather doubt they will do another origin story character race. And even if they did, you would get all of 10 levels worth of content (if you're lucky) before either arbitrarily assigned to the UFP, or if you are lucky, be given a choice to join the UFP or KDF. After that, you'll get dumped into the same old content you've already done to death. They won't even update the existing maps to use origin story versions that are improvements. So once you've done your origin story, it means nothing for the rest of the game.

Also, if they DO make another origin story, it will likely have something to do with Star Trek Picard or Strange New Worlds. Maybe Lower Decks or Prodigy. CBS has more or less flushed TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT down the toilet in favor of all this New Trek. And Cryptic won't do anything on its own, content wise. Remember, they were running out of ideas before Discovery was announced. The only thing they seem to know how to do on their own is Mirror Universe story after Mirror universe story. I guess that's the only loophole they have for creative license in the 25th century era.

They were saying for a while that they were going to abandon the long single story arc missions and go for more episodic ones, but here we are again with what looks like yet another multi-episode arc.

I really wish we had a creative director with the lobes to stand up to CBS and negotiate for permission to take creative license with a caveat that they will not make up story events that contradict canon. Meaning if they do anything story-related with Strange New Worlds, it would be something parallel with what the show has already done and its resolution would compliment the resolution of events in the show.

But the creative director we have seems to only care about maintaining a status quo without adding new features or extending existing ones. They took out exploration, rather than making exploration worth doing. They stopped creating fleet holdings and have made no use of the fleet holding MECHANICS for anything else. It takes them MONTHS to create new playable content, and we blast through it in a matter of hours with the only thing left from it is new repeatable cookie-cutter missions that we'll be expected to run over and over and over until we've done IT to death as well.

The creator we have laso does not have the lobes to stand up to the owners and negotiate for the funds to grow the dev team so they can dedicate people to working on specific things instead of requiring everyone in their small team to wear so many hats that nobody can get anything done.

Oh... But they make sure that they've got someone working on ships to for us to buy or gamble for. We've got more ship options than we know what to do with while the game itself ultimately is just Meh. These ships are just a collection of pixels that people pay a fortune to collect, but on the day this game shuts down, will be inaccessible and have no meaning.

That is the reality I perceive STO to be. And in that reality, no, I do not see them doing another origin story. I will hold out HOPE that they will prove me wrong on a lot of these things. What I will NOT hold is my BREATH.

a Terran faction alone would most likely be arbitrary assigned to the UFP, since allying with the Klingon Empire makes zero sense for Terran characters.

thay8472 · May 2022

paradox#7391 wrote: »

a Terran faction alone would most likely be arbitrary assigned to the UFP, since allying with the Klingon Empire makes zero sense for Terran characters.

Unless a war between the Feds and Klingons were to be reignited.

evilmark444 · May 2022

From what they've said on the weekly Livestreams factions are unlikely in the near future due to the amount of work needed (but if they ever did do another one it sounds like Cooperative would be the likely choice), new races are more likely but still a lot of work, they've been talking about Disco Andorians for years now so that's probably the next one to happen but who knows when.

lianthelia · May 2022

Other than Discovery Andorians? I doubt there is much for races...factions I doubt we'll get a new one

phoenixc · May 2022

Andorians are not a new race, the DSC type is just another makeup for an already existing race. All the devs need to do with them is put a few new head customization options into the Andorian tab of the generator for the modern Feds. Of course, putting a new tab in the DSC generator for those who don't want to do a DSC Andorian via the 'alien' tab and still have the appropriate start scenario and crew would be better yet, but at least there is a way to do them in the right faction (and sub-faction with a little less convenience than modern Fed).

Why they haven't done that already is anyone's guess, but my guess is that they don't have enough character modelers and they are busy making new models (and updating models) for guest stars and whatnot.

On the other hand, the DSC Federation generator should probably have DSC versions of the same four races the TOS generator at minimum (and TOS could seriously use the 'alien' tab). Also, people have been suggesting, both in the forum and in ingame chat, that Suliban be added to the Romulan generator for a long time.

And most of all, the Dominion faction is crippled roleplay-wise by having only a single, very much niche, race which enters the game at a whole three days old (not much background potential there to say the very least, and which (to add insult to injury) is also sexlocked (which probably the single most hated character restriction in the industry). It would be nice to be able to have Vorta characters who are actually IN the faction they are supposed to be in, and even better if other Gamma quadrant races can be done too.

evilmark444 · May 2022

phoenixc#0738 wrote: »

Why they haven't done that already is anyone's guess

I believe they said they wanted to get the female version of Disco Andorians made before releasing it, right now they only have character art made for males.

baddmoonrizin · May 2022

Not only do we need Disco Andorians, but also Disco Tellarites, and Disco Saurians.

captainbrian11 · May 2022

phoenixc#0738 wrote: »

Andorians are not a new race, the DSC type is just another makeup for an already existing race. All the devs need to do with them is put a few new head customization options into the Andorian tab of the generator for the modern Feds. Of course, putting a new tab in the DSC generator for those who don't want to do a DSC Andorian via the 'alien' tab and still have the appropriate start scenario and crew would be better yet, but at least there is a way to do them in the right faction (and sub-faction with a little less convenience than modern Fed).

Why they haven't done that already is anyone's guess, but my guess is that they don't have enough character modelers and they are busy making new models (and updating models) for guest stars and whatnot.

On the other hand, the DSC Federation generator should probably have DSC versions of the same four races the TOS generator at minimum (and TOS could seriously use the 'alien' tab). Also, people have been suggesting, both in the forum and in ingame chat, that Suliban be added to the Romulan generator for a long time.

And most of all, the Dominion faction is crippled roleplay-wise by having only a single, very much niche, race which enters the game at a whole three days old (not much background potential there to say the very least, and which (to add insult to injury) is also sexlocked (which probably the single most hated character restriction in the industry). It would be nice to be able to have Vorta characters who are actually IN the faction they are supposed to be in, and even better if other Gamma quadrant races can be done too.

.. from a roleplay POV, Jem Hadar OR Vorta aren;t exactly that great to RP. they don't really have much agency

phoenixc · May 2022

captainbrian11 wrote: »

phoenixc#0738 wrote: »

Andorians are not a new race, the DSC type is just another makeup for an already existing race. All the devs need to do with them is put a few new head customization options into the Andorian tab of the generator for the modern Feds. Of course, putting a new tab in the DSC generator for those who don't want to do a DSC Andorian via the 'alien' tab and still have the appropriate start scenario and crew would be better yet, but at least there is a way to do them in the right faction (and sub-faction with a little less convenience than modern Fed).

Why they haven't done that already is anyone's guess, but my guess is that they don't have enough character modelers and they are busy making new models (and updating models) for guest stars and whatnot.

On the other hand, the DSC Federation generator should probably have DSC versions of the same four races the TOS generator at minimum (and TOS could seriously use the 'alien' tab). Also, people have been suggesting, both in the forum and in ingame chat, that Suliban be added to the Romulan generator for a long time.

And most of all, the Dominion faction is crippled roleplay-wise by having only a single, very much niche, race which enters the game at a whole three days old (not much background potential there to say the very least, and which (to add insult to injury) is also sexlocked (which probably the single most hated character restriction in the industry). It would be nice to be able to have Vorta characters who are actually IN the faction they are supposed to be in, and even better if other Gamma quadrant races can be done too.

.. from a roleplay POV, Jem Hadar OR Vorta aren;t exactly that great to RP. they don't really have much agency

On the contrary, while Jem'Hadar are considered nothing but weapons, not people, by the Founders and start life with nothing but programmed skills (and start the game only three days after being decanted from their vat) the Vorta have the memories of their originals and all the recoverable memories of every generation of clone in their line.

Roleplay-wise Vorta are about as rich in possibilities as a joined Trill.

wraithshadow13 · May 2022

I was under the impression Kael said they were kind of stuck in a phase of lockboxes and the occasional mission here and there, so i really don't see them doing new races or anything that wouldn't be directly lockbox related. If that weren't the case we probably WOULD have more versions of existing races, like the Disco versions or the Kelvin style races. It's been said in the livestreams on numerous occasions that the art team just doesn't have the time for races or character skins because there is just no money in it.

paradox · May 2022

phoenixc#0738 wrote: »

Andorians are not a new race, the DSC type is just another makeup for an already existing race. All the devs need to do with them is put a few new head customization options into the Andorian tab of the generator for the modern Feds. Of course, putting a new tab in the DSC generator for those who don't want to do a DSC Andorian via the 'alien' tab and still have the appropriate start scenario and crew would be better yet, but at least there is a way to do them in the right faction (and sub-faction with a little less convenience than modern Fed).

Why they haven't done that already is anyone's guess, but my guess is that they don't have enough character modelers and they are busy making new models (and updating models) for guest stars and whatnot.

On the other hand, the DSC Federation generator should probably have DSC versions of the same four races the TOS generator at minimum (and TOS could seriously use the 'alien' tab). Also, people have been suggesting, both in the forum and in ingame chat, that Suliban be added to the Romulan generator for a long time.

And most of all, the Dominion faction is crippled roleplay-wise by having only a single, very much niche, race which enters the game at a whole three days old (not much background potential there to say the very least, and which (to add insult to injury) is also sexlocked (which probably the single most hated character restriction in the industry). It would be nice to be able to have Vorta characters who are actually IN the faction they are supposed to be in, and even better if other Gamma quadrant races can be done too.

If we're adding aliens to TOS, Caitians should also be included, they have shown up in TOS movies and TAS.

mithrosnomore · May 2022

paradox#7391 wrote: »

If we're adding aliens to TOS, Caitians should also be included, they have shown up in TOS movies and TAS.

But they weren't in the TV show, and that is where the TOS origin is rooted.
The cartoon I could see, but then people start wondering where the Edosians are.

I admit that I am a TOS guy, but I like the focus. Just the basics. The founding races and no other for TOS Captains.

And, as has been mentioned and I am about to get into, adding more races only matters so much.

=============

As stated, the OP's wishes don't seem to hold up to scrutiny.
If they did make a new race what does that offer? They would play that same race through the same stories that they have available now.
And with the alien option available, even if limited, it's not like you can't roll new toons with a different look if that is what you want.

A faction is a bigger thing, but they will not add a third full faction, so you end up with another TOS, Disco, or Jem Hadar situation. You get a new "origin story" to play through and then end up on ESD or maybe Qo'nos and *THEN* play through all the same missions that you have been playing through for so long.

Sure, you have the origin, that very beginning of the journey that would be new, but it's a difference of a few steps. Before long you are on that same familiar path that you have walked so many times before.

minidari · May 2022

The new Borg entity would be interesting.
But what I want, I have always wanted and will always want, the Romulan species that is not a race at the mercy of the federation or the Klingon Empire.

mithrosnomore · May 2022

minidari wrote: »

The new Borg entity would be interesting.
But what I want, I have always wanted and will always want, the Romulan species that is not a race at the mercy of the federation or the Klingon Empire.

This is, to me, the worst thing.

I am no major Romulan fan. I have a Romulan Delta recruit I made years ago just to (eventually) get those extras for my main, an Andorian Federation Captain that I spend almost all of my time playing (I have a Klingon Captain for that purpose as well that I play even less than the Romulan), but they should have had their own full faction.

I am just not sure how free Cryptic was to develop the Romulan faction.

The loss of one planet, any planet, should not bring an Empire to ruin. They had many worlds and starbases that would have carried on their culture, and while some may have taken a hard line position there are others that would have been more inclined towards the Republic's ideals, so even the need to find a new homeworld seems way overblown to me.
They would have had many worlds to choose from already settled.

Not even so much a civil war as just a schism. A number of worlds ruled by the Tal Shiar and a number falling in with the Republic, and while the Tal Shiar may have tried to initiate unrest on some worlds and even attempt a full-scale invasion of some smaller colonies or worlds that were more isolated from potential Republic allies, the same could apply in reverse with some isolated Tal Shiar strongholds facing well-supplied rebellions.

But none of that takes into account a simple reality: Creating an entirely new faction would have been a lot more expensive than creating what they did.
Not to mention the time that they would have had to dedicate, which would have taken away from other things that they wanted or needed to work on, which is also extra expense.

The chosen path requires fewer missions, fewer maps, even fewer ships because the Romulan Captains could cover the gaps with their chosen allies ships.

And even the Klingons and Federation are on that path now. We are all just sticking our noses into whatever business we can find, whether it truly be our faction's business or not.

phoenixc · May 2022

minidari wrote: »

The new Borg entity would be interesting.
But what I want, I have always wanted and will always want, the Romulan species that is not a race at the mercy of the federation or the Klingon Empire.

The Romulans are not back to the height of their power, but neither are they at the mercy of the other two major powers by the end of the Romulan arc, and by the time of Sphere of Influence the Romulans are able force them to back down on a decision they were trying to make concerning the war that would have been the safe way but definitely against Romulan interests (and they were right about its importance, but I don't want to spoil it).

wraithshadow13 · May 2022

With Picard being a "prime timeline" sort of show, They should really reconsider how they're doing things in the game here. The Romulans, as stated above, shouldn't be forced to join the feds or the KDF. I GET that the game was built on a two-sided concept but there are plenty of ways to work things into the game without having to force everyone to the federation. ESPECIALLY when they even forced the KDF into the federation, just to cop out and only make content for one group now... more so, after the debacle of the KDF recruitment event.

Romulans should definitely get a revamp, allowing them to be more of their own faction, or at least, have a story expanding out how the Romulans are doing NOW, after so long after the Tau Dewa stuff.

The funny one for me, on a personal level, is the fact that they've been so gung-ho about "no playable borg" and thanks to one of the shows, we now have that very excuse to do so. They ignored the collective and the cooperative as places to build a new faction but now that it's a canon federation species, they kinda maybe possibly HAVE to do a Borg faction spinoff. I would assume like they did the Jem'Hadar, so they're still their OWN special thing but at least a bit more playable than not.

paradox · May 2022

wraithshadow13 wrote: »

With Picard being a "prime timeline" sort of show, They should really reconsider how they're doing things in the game here. The Romulans, as stated above, shouldn't be forced to join the feds or the KDF. I GET that the game was built on a two-sided concept but there are plenty of ways to work things into the game without having to force everyone to the federation. ESPECIALLY when they even forced the KDF into the federation, just to cop out and only make content for one group now... more so, after the debacle of the KDF recruitment event.

Romulans should definitely get a revamp, allowing them to be more of their own faction, or at least, have a story expanding out how the Romulans are doing NOW, after so long after the Tau Dewa stuff.

The funny one for me, on a personal level, is the fact that they've been so gung-ho about "no playable borg" and thanks to one of the shows, we now have that very excuse to do so. They ignored the collective and the cooperative as places to build a new faction but now that it's a canon federation species, they kinda maybe possibly HAVE to do a Borg faction spinoff. I would assume like they did the Jem'Hadar, so they're still their OWN special thing but at least a bit more playable than not.

I for one would like Borg Vulcans and Borg Andorians, why do Humans get to be the only Fed race to represent the Borg?

wraithshadow13 · May 2022

paradox#7391 wrote: »

I for one would like Borg Vulcans and Borg Andorians, why do Humans get to be the only Fed race to represent the Borg?

You would think Vulcans would be a preferred species given the fact that they're smarter, stronger, more durable, and resilient.

As much as i would hate to see Cryptic's monetization of this, It would be nice if they added themed packs for the character creator. Packs like Augment, Assimilated, Cyborg, Symbiotic, etc. The pack could come with titles, racial traits, a certain number of cosmetic items, and whatever else for that theme, like weapon skins or such. There would be a lot of potential for something like that, I just really wouldn't trust them to do it well or reasonably price it.

With the Lore change, I wouldn't mind them making more borg content, but maybe they could use some of the newer tech (like that used for the inquisitor) to randomize the races in the collective. It WOULD be nice to see more diversity there.

avoozuul · May 2022

It would be great if they added more previously faction only races as buyable cross faction.

paradox · May 2022

avoozuul wrote: »

It would be great if they added more previously faction only races as buyable cross faction.

Like Fed Orions, seeing as they've been part of Starfleet and we already have Fed Klingons.

faelon · May 2022

I think we have a chance of some new playable races. Which are mostly new character head models. We may see Disco era Andorians for example. But I doubt we will see a whole new faction ala JH or Romulan anytime soon.

As for STO being locked to Disco/Picard/SNW? Ummm? You did notice how much the current Storyline pulls from ST:TMP, didn't you? If anything SNW gives us the hope of more TOS or even ENT content being carried along with it. We (thankfully) have not see much in the way of 32century Disco content beyond the ship designs. Just looking at Picard season 2 I think the only thing we will likely get from that is the new Stargazer. (bets are on it being Promo box...)

If anything we oddly have the exact opposite problem. Picard Season 2 actually drew in assets from STO. And I don't think anyone would deny that at least some of the people in charge of Lower Decks play STO? Heck one episode practically IS the Klingon Tutorial and starter missions.

paradox · May 2022

westmetals wrote: »

It's all going to be speculation... since they removed the calendar from the game, we very rarely have had anything announced more than about two weeks out, and the few exceptions to that have generally been the annual seasonal events.

As for playable Borg, they have said for a long time that they are off the table for multiple reasons, one of them being the PvP and flanking issues with geometric ships that don't have easily identifiable 'front', 'rear'. or 'side' positions when stopped. (Note that the few "liberated Borg" playable ships we do have in game, are all non-geometric.)

Why would anyone do PVP in the first place?

phoenixc · May 2022

paradox#7391 wrote: »

westmetals wrote: »

It's all going to be speculation... since they removed the calendar from the game, we very rarely have had anything announced more than about two weeks out, and the few exceptions to that have generally been the annual seasonal events.

As for playable Borg, they have said for a long time that they are off the table for multiple reasons, one of them being the PvP and flanking issues with geometric ships that don't have easily identifiable 'front', 'rear'. or 'side' positions when stopped. (Note that the few "liberated Borg" playable ships we do have in game, are all non-geometric.)

Why would anyone do PVP in the first place?

The problem with geometric ships is not just for PvP, it is also that just flying them can be a problem because with all the spam it is easy to get confused about which direction your nose is pointed if there is no nose visible.

Also, reportedly the ships look silly banking and flying like normal ships, something that could be a turnoff for players.

phoenixc · May 2022

Even if the devs don't come out with new prefab races it is easy to make a lot of the canon races using the 'Alien' tab. I have done most of the non-prefab humanoid races in TOS like the Vaalians, Fesarians (complete with Balock's "Hyde" as a boff), Violaceans, even an albino Ithenite (there is nothing like their copper skintone available) for instance. Also Vorta from DS9, Kobali from Voyager, Abicians from Star Trek Continues, whatever race Jayla is in the Kelvin stuff, and a number of others, some of which are not even Trek.

The 'Alien' generator is quite versatile, much more so than what most games provide for custom races (if they even have them at all).

faelon · May 2022

Well there's the new Pandronian's from TAS and Lower Decks

phoenixc · May 2022

reyan01 wrote: »

wraithshadow13 wrote: »

I was under the impression Kael said they were kind of stuck in a phase of lockboxes and the occasional mission here and there, so i really don't see them doing new races or anything that wouldn't be directly lockbox related. If that weren't the case we probably WOULD have more versions of existing races, like the Disco versions or the Kelvin style races. It's been said in the livestreams on numerous occasions that the art team just doesn't have the time for races or character skins because there is just no money in it.

This.

Gambleboxes/expensive ship bundles are their only priority. Forget anything else.

They are also probably the only thing they can do quickly since making items and ships are the closest they get to easily-produced content in the game with the fewest number of people tied up working on them.

They are obviously doing things with the code or we would not have the avalanche of bugs lately, but since they don't announce anything anymore until it drops there is no way to tell exactly what and they may even be doing new races, though I suspect they are probably scrambling to fix the clipping and other tailor problems since space Barbie is a major part of the game, which would tend to slow new race offerings down since it is the same team.

Personally, if they were to introduce any new races I would prefer they do Vorta (or even 'alien') for the Dominion and make the "faction" more than just a single genderlocked-race, one tutorial mission, and a few ships (really, that minimal tutorial is the only thing that makes it even anything like a faction instead of just a race unlock and a few ships like the Cardassians).

That would fix the problem of the faction being utterly useless for those who have no interest in making a Jem'Hadar since currently there are no other options, which in turn would have led to more sales of the Legendary Dominion Captain Bundle and greater participation in the Gamma Recruit event (which MMO Populations shows is a trough instead of the spike all the other recruitments have). There is money there and still they don't do it, so money is not the only factor.

Unfortunately expanding the Dominion faction like that would entail more than just shoving a new head model and new trait in the c-store or tailor so it will probably never get done, extra money or not, especially since the devs have already stated their opinion that Vorta should not be captains (despite the fact that all Dominion officers, including ship captains, shown in DS9 were Vorta).

Any new factions or races planned in STO future? Entice me to start a new character.

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