[JByb04]

A lot of you have already made the points I would make. So I will only offer this.

I am not a DPS Chaser, I've never been one, I likely will never be one. I tend to go for Canon Builds on all of my ships. So getting access to the Klingon Consoles, Weapons, etc does nothing for me.

In terms of story, I think most of us saw this coming with the Alliance Starship last year. I wasn't happy with it because to me it's just another way for Dev's to be lazy at the expense of Star Trek Canon. Which STO is the only thing we have to advance the story From Picard to S3 of Discovery. So Cryptic dropping faction walls and twisting canon to serve their financial needs doesn't sit well with me.

I don't have an issue with a Klingon being in Command of a Federation Starship. So long as that Klingon Captain is a Commissioned Starfleet Officer or serving in an exchange program. I would likewise have no issue with a Romulan serving in the same capacity. I do have a huge problem with an Armada of Federation Starships being used by Non-Federation members. That would be like the U.S. Navy letting anybody use a Ford Class Aircraft Carrier or other warships. Doesn't even make a whole lot of sense in the real world. For some people this could be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back. I'm not going to rage quit by any means. I'll maintain my own head canon as I've had to do with other aspects of the game. Since I've been railing for years against Cryptic promoting us all to the rank of Fleet Admiral and then sending us off to fight on the front lines.

Sometimes I wish they would reach out to us and ask before making some of these changes. Instead of acting completely caught off guard when they ignite a dumpster fire.

[darthnovawave]

Interesting point about canon. If we look at the TV shows, Star Trek Enterprise teased that Klingons join the Federation by the mid 26th century, and we know from Star Trek Discovery that the Romulans eventually reunify with Vulcans and also somewhere along the way become staunch Federation members as well. While we've only seen 2409-2411 in game so far (aside from the temporal hijinks), the Khitomer Alliance might arguably the devs trying to write in a first step towards that one big happy Federation family where everyone does use the same ships.

For those who want to themselves play a head canon where the red/blue wall exists, this really does nothing to that. Aside from seeing a faction logo on the player icon in space, you'll never know who is on the bridge, and likely a few Fed ships at Qo'nos and even more likely a few KDF ships floating around ESD will not be noticeable in the jumble of other cross-faction ships already orbiting these worlds.

The only real loss here is the game economy, which disproportionately hits dps chasers in particular. We saw massive inflation hit the departing cheap gamble box prizes people chased for "meta" DPS builds, but those in the wrong faction have never had a cheap and easy route to that stuff anyway (which mostly meant the same Fed where most players spent all their game time). Now it sucks for everyone, at least from what we know from the past. However, we don't know if the devs now or in the future will do anything to compensate for this change, as removing one possible uncommon drop from the gamble box RNG mix is already going to tweak the odds of everything else left. They have hinted in the past in Ten Forward streams that they want to create more paths to T6 ships, including making things like lobi, lockbox, and other ships event prizes in addition to the Zen options. As much as we decry "greedy Cryptic", they know there is a breaking point where people will ragequit and I don't think any of them want to work themselves out of a job entirely.

[Bridger]

As much as we decry "greedy Cryptic", they know there is a breaking point where people will ragequit and I don't think any of them want to work themselves out of a job entirely.

A major problem is not only that everything in game is more expensive than ever and for sure will get more expensive if they don't do anything to compensate but doing it right now in the middle of a pandemic with how many people have lost their jobs is an extremely terrible timing.

Lockbox ships are nearing the cost of Promo Ships the Atlas for example is 900 Million EC and I recently sold a Tarantula for 700 Mil they used to cost between 400 and 450 Mil EC we are looking at a prize increase of up to 50%

[Three of Seven]

I hacked the CCTV in Cryptics office to see how they came about this decision.

[Sul-Matuul]

A major problem is not only that everything in game is more expensive than ever and for sure will get more expensive if they don't do anything to compensate but doing it right now in the middle of a pandemic with how many people have lost their jobs is an extremely terrible timing.

Lockbox ships are nearing the cost of Promo Ships the Atlas for example is 900 Million EC and I recently sold a Tarantula for 700 Mil they used to cost between 400 and 450 Mil EC we are looking at a prize increase of up to 50%

People keep crying about the cost of things in the game but how many of those same people even within this very community literally all rushed out to buy the Fed Legendary bundle last year for several hundred £/$/€....

How many of those same people are going to rush out to buy a Klingon legendary bundle in a week or so if one comes out.

I’ve been out of a job for half a year now thanks to this pandemic. Believe me, I know extremely well how hard this global situation is affecting people because I am one of those suffering.
But nothing annoys me more than people whining about the cost of a few gamble box items when they are happy to pour hundreds of £’s at overpriced legendary bundles.
Some of us can only dream of flying those legendary ships and yet when the devs do something amazing like opening up all the ships to us which will save people like me a fortune others are whining about losing access to their cheap meta gear as if that is the only thing that matters.

[Bridger]

But the Legendary Ships have not been a single character unlock but an account unlock back than only for Feds but now for everyone.

[Three of Seven]

People keep crying about the cost of things in the game but how many of those same people even within this very community literally all rushed out to buy the Fed Legendary bundle last year for several hundred £/$/€....

Ummm, I don't like the cost of things in game, and I have never rushed out to buy a legendary bundle, I'm sure there are many others like me, although, I don't see what this has to do with KDF being allowed to flying Fed ships, it's the same as the US giving Iran access to their latest navy ships, it doesn't make sense.

[Sul-Matuul]

Ummm, I don't like the cost of things in game, and I have never rushed out to buy a legendary bundle, I'm sure there are many others like me, although, I don't see what this has to do with KDF being allowed to flying Fed ships, it's the same as the US giving Iran access to their latest navy ships, it doesn't make sense.

What does it matter if people can fly the other faction’s ships?
Is it really going to affect your own enjoyment of the game?
Nothing is stopping people from RP‘ing the way they want, or going somewhere they’ll never see a weird ship they think is wrong.
The game has been full of inconsistencies since it launched so this is hardly something new that will affect anyone’s ability to play the game in anything but a positive way - it give players more choice which is always a good thing.

Plus even in the real world countries sell their warships to other nations when they have no use of them. That’s how places like Argentina, India etc get many of their naval assets. It’s not something totally unheard of.
It’s not top of the range stuff like brand new carriers but exchange of gear and material still happens.

[Three of Seven]

What does it matter if people can fly the other faction’s ships?

I mean, it doesn't, but let's not pretend it's Star Trek anymore, it has slowly been losing that character, and giving ships that belong to one faction to another erodes the character of the game even more.

"Hello Picard, this is Gowron, Captain of the IKS Voyager, today is a good day to die!"

It's stupid.

Is it really going to affect your own enjoyment of the game?

Yes, so did having Fleet Admirals running around everywhere, and taking orders from people I outrank, there's so many problems that have slowly been creeping in.

Nothing is stopping people from RP‘ing the way they want, or going somewhere they’ll never see a weird ship they think is wrong.

I don't want to roleplay, but I do want some level of immersion in a game, I mean, if you want a generic space MMO, that's fine, that's what STO is becoming. Also, you can't really go anywhere without seeing a weird ship if you actually want to play the game, load into ISA and find a Klingon Galaxy Class? Cringe.

The game has been full of inconsistencies since it launched so this is hardly something new that will affect anyone’s ability to play the game in anything but a positive way - it give players more choice which is always a good thing.

Just because the game has been full of inconsistencies for a long time doesn't mean it needs to add more of them. As for giving players more choice, sometimes, it's not a good thing.

Plus even in the real world countries sell their warships to other nations when they have no use of them. That’s how places like Argentina, India etc get many of their naval assets. It’s not something totally unheard of.
It’s not top of the range stuff like brand new carriers but exchange of gear and material still happens.

They sell their old stuff, yes, but not the latest, or even ship models that are still in use, no one wants a possible future enemy to be able to have ships/weapons that can compete with them.

[Sul-Matuul]

It's not a Star Trek simulator though. It's a theme park game with bits from all over the franchise mixed together.
You can fly an NX-01 in the same mission as a 26th Century timeship and both are competitive.
You can arm your Federation ship with Romulan plasma weapons, whilst giving is a neon pink shield visual.
The in game story has had 3 wars within a year of the same time period, all galaxy wide events.

This is not the game for a canon accurate, one-2-one simulation of the Trek universe.

If people want such immersion in a Trek world where they really can't handle seeing the wrong type of ship in orbit of Earth or being flown by a teammate they need to assess if this is the correct game for them I think.

Other players having more choice to play their own way in a game should not affect how you enjoy the game. It doesn't stop you playing your own way, it doesn't make you less competitive, it doesn't nerf your character or build. It gives players more choice and more options to enjoy something they like to play.
I will never argue against giving people more choice in a game such as this.

[Three of Seven]

If people want such immersion in a Trek world where they really can't handle seeing the wrong type of ship in orbit of Earth or being flown by a teammate they need to assess if this is the correct game for them I think.

There are no other modern Star Trek games, that's the problem, and there's no other Star Trek MMO. If there was another Star Trek MMO, I'd be checking it out, and if it's good, I'd be sticking with it, but there isn't. STO can do whatever it wants because there is no compertition.

[darthnovawave]

---Comment Withdrawn----

[Sorotia]

At this point I kinda wish they (or well probably someone else, a bigger studio) make a STO 2 or something.

STO is just a total mess and it seems recently the Devs are completely content with phoning it in. There were signs of this merger coming years ago (they decided to stop making cross faction packs for example)

I can't think of a time where we've gotten so little content and what little we do get feels like little more than busy work because it's long and drawn out for the sake of being long. Instead of new reputations, gear, and TFOs we get month long grind events where the gear is often gimmicky and or throw away.

The Devs are constantly looking for new ways to make money with little effort, they keep monetizing more and more systems. Looking for new ways to cut costs and Three hit the nail on the head, they can do this because there is no competition. As long as they can still keep up their obligations to CBS I imagine they don't care what happens

[Sul-Matuul]

Just out of interest I looked back through the ship releases over the last few years to see who has been given what and it's nowhere near as bad as some would make out.
Ignoring gamble box items the releases were roughly as follows back to when the MW ships dropped:

Federation - 14 ships
Klingon - 10 ships
Romulan - 6 ships
Jem'hadar - 7 ships

But there was also at least one cross faction set in there (the Cardassian ships) and that's not taking into account that Romulans had access to almost any allied ship and vice versa since the end of 2019; plus in that same time there's been a wealth of event ships that are cross faction too.

The Feds do get slightly more ships released but I'd hardly say that the other factions are completely ignored and the Klingons definitely have been getting a fair number of ship dropped.

[Buckaroo]

At this point I kinda wish they (or well probably someone else, a bigger studio) make a STO 2 or something.

STO is just a total mess and it seems recently the Devs are completely content with phoning it in. There were signs of this merger coming years ago (they decided to stop making cross faction packs for example)

I agree, we need a new Star Trek MMO that comes at it from a different perspective, but still allows us to be a hero in our own story and fly the ship (or ships) we like. Star Trek Online has been a great game for this, but it has become outdated with little REAL life being poured into it.