Hello Dev Team &
@ambassadorkael#6946 , hope you've a wonderful day.
I remember a few years back, that the argument for not having the Romulan BOFFs be able to wear (i.e.) Starfleet uniform was due to the rights owner (CBS) specifically prohibiting it, due to it being "uncanonical" as no Romulans were ever allowed into SF - or something along the lines.
With Star Trek Picard obviously pushing that problem away, I was wondering - would it be now possible to revisit that policy, and allow for our Romulans, Lukari & other "allied BOFFs" to be customized to look as an integrated part of our crew?
Kind regards & hope this isn't a meaningless question.
Comments
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
They recently replaced the old embassy boffs with the new set. Did they fix the tailor options for the new ones?
I wouldn't know. I honestly never got even the old ones.
I've asked some folks in Reddit chat to test it - and apparently (tested on a BOFF claimed in December 2022 - so, after the change) - they still lack any additional uniform customizations over the old ones.
Perhaps I'm misremembering; it's been some time since I did anything with the Romulans. Either way, very drab, with IMO boring designs.
Yeah we got to remember that the Romulan Republic is only about 1-2 years old (the STO chronology is a bit messy) having been founded in 2409 so it probably is still working out things you need for proper nation instead of (semi)loose collection of refugees and revolutionaries.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
except they didn't, there's at least 2 radically different styles of rank insignia and at least 2 forms of uniform within the 3-6 years of the original trilogy films (it's 3 years between ANH and TESB but I don't remember if the chronology between TESB and ROTJ has been ever firmly established) alone, not mention the various agents who wear nothing but civilian clothes.
Also the economic situation is very different the Galactic Empire is more or less economically stable so the Rebel Alliance will have access to the civilian markets since it is for all intents and purposes an internal threat to the Empire.
Where as the Romulan Star Empire is gone, sure Sela's successor state has the same name but it has limited control over a fraction of what the old RSE had, most systems seem neutral in the conflict and it's more or less confirmed D'tan does not have access to resources of Sela's RSE, so D'tan followers/Romulan Republic act more like an external threat to Sela's RSE both who are fighting over the Corpse of the old RSE.
You do bring up some good points, however - if you look at the countries, which popped - even temporary - up post-WW1 (Poland, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic States, Finland, etc) - they all had uniforms (sometimes varied, but they were still clearly distinguished as a military force) despite the rather poor economic situation after the "Great War" just ended.
I'd suppose that replicating a bunch of uniforms in the 25. century shouldn't prove too much of a problem, especially if both the Federation & the Klingon Empire have provided their support.
I suspect actually producing the uniforms isn't the issue so much as getting everyone to agree on what the uniforms look like.
Also I'd like to point out that Finland did not in fact get uniforms for everyone (at least not proper ones) even in 1939, there's this "uniform" we called "model Kajander" which consisted of a national emblem, military belt and a winter camo jacket for front line troops. We didn't get proper uniforms for everyone until after the Winter War (note that I was born well after the war but I am a Finn) and that's a 20 year gap not a 2 year one.
Also Romulan Republic fleet seems to have everyone in uniform, it might be a bland(ish) uniform but still a uniform.
Well, there might always be temporary shortages in time of need - doesn't mean that the majority would wear the uniform. I don't really buy that argument, that "they wouldn't agree on what uniform to wear" - that's not a fashion contest, just an executive order made either by the ruling government body - or the CiC. As you observed yourself - the Romulans in-game do have some uniform designs. They are not set in stone because it's a game - and neither do the other factions, as it is a conscious decision of the game designers.
In the past, the argument was that it was due to licensing restrictions on the side of the IP-provider - as Romulans were seen as "enemy faction" on screen. As this has changed with the recent shows, don't you feel it being only appropriate to reflect that change in the "status quo" found within the game itself...?
The Republic at this point is still a fairly loose gathering of multiple groups, many of whom were rebels or downtrodden minorities in the old RSE, so D'Tan probably wants to do things with a light touch at least until it all solidifies into a more cohesive society so as not to spook the more skittish of the factions he is trying to weld together. Before that welding fully takes hold and the new national identity becomes solidified it would not take much to tear the Republic apart, especially if those factions start noticing any whiff of the old RSE's iron fist of authoritarianism under D'Tan's silk gloves approach.
If you read the bios of other players you see that kind of patchwork quilt effect in action, many of them are pirates who came in from the cold, RSE units who refused to follow Sela and have nowhere else to go, Obisek's forces after the merge with D'Tan's group, survivors from semi-independent colonies destroyed by Hakeev and the Elachi, etc.
Many of them don't consider themselves to be part of the Republic themselves (or not yet anyway) and at least for the moment consider themselves more allies of necessity than actual citizens and part of some official space navy and so they keep whatever uniform (even if the 'uniform' was civvies) they had before they made common cause with the Republic. And all that is part of the charm that draws players to playing a Romulan in STO.
As it stands far more important in the list of priorities for the Romulan Republic then new uniforms and trying to push that forward would be seen as the old RSE returning.
EDIT:remember that Romulan Republic has groups like Obisek's Remans in it who barely trust D'Tan (and the PC if Romulan) but have little to no trust towards any other Romulans and would sooner resort to thalaron weapons then see the old RSE return.
EDIT2:Often these things are not so much a case of not having the capacity to produce/buy items but the ability of procure those items getting caught in Red Tape.
The original topic was - do we want to have the possibility (note that it's an option - not a "mandatory" ruling), for them, to be able to wear the faction-appropriate uniforms, while serving on our (non-Romulan) ships, or not?
I only wear the Republic uniform when I need to turn on the charm on Tiaru Jarok, the Intel gloves adds a bit of a badboy look to it.
Logical no, perfectly in character for Romulan yes very much so.
Colius Bio, been updated in 2411,
"I grew up on Romulus and I come from a long line of Imperial Navy Officers and Tal Shiar agents, my parents were part of the Tal Shiar until they mysteriously dissappeared while on a mission investing reports of borg activity (I eavesdropped their conversation with Hakeev), after I was orphaned, I stowawayed on a ship, I was Immediately found out, I spend most of my youth serving on that same ship under Malem as well as D'Vex and Nevala, as the resident child genius the science career was a given, as a young adult, I did some security jobs on Virinat to earn enough funds to get off this rock, I managed to seduce every woman on the Virinat colony, even Toven Khev's sister (which he doesn't know about), I was planning on following my parents footsteps as a Tal Shiar agent but life had other plans for me, I reluctantly joined the separatist traitors and quickly rose through their ranks, they eventually grew on me and I've been using their resources to find my missing parents since but I don't support D'Tan's decision to form an alliance with the filthy vulcans and their federation lapdogs, Sigh... it's been 2 years, since my last log, I finally found my parents, they were Borg drones, I had to put them down, with Sela's imprisonment my chance at rebuilding the Star Empire into a force for good greatly diminished, I still don't care about D'Tan or his goals, however I do enjoy Jarok's company, I might stay with the Republic for her, we've gotten pretty close in these last 2 years, I might take my chance at asking her out one day."
My character Colius is usually overly confident, Believes in Military traditions, very xenophobic, He was trained at young age at the art of Espionage and Hand to Hand Combat by his parents (He was basically a child soldier, way before the Elachi attack), is very Pro-Tal Shiar, he was a womanizer before he met Jarok, he was part of the Maiori Malem's crew adding more stuff to his already impressive skillset like pistol training, however I wasn't planning turning him into a bumbling Jarok simp, that kind of just happened on it's own, however that said it works narratively since it at least gives him a reason to remain with the Republic, even if most of his views doesn't really align with them, Jarok kind of serves as a morality chain.
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They are not like Warf with his dual citizenship who joined Starfleet directly but was allowed the sash on his Starfleet uniform as a sign of unity or whatever.