Faction restrictions are nonsensical and need to go away.

[Nerva Matapan]

- Klingons and Starfleet are actively designing and building warships together; NPCs can be friends, but players can't?

- The 'war' was always a bit of a joke (it was so forced; I don't think Cryptic ever had their hearts in it), and hasn't been a factor in the story for years (IRL).

- PvP have been deemphasized to the point where it is at some level below 'on life support' (in the medical examiner's room, prepping for an autopsy, perhaps?).

- There is such an enormous population bias towards the Federation that you're really self-gimping if you go Klingon or Rom/Kling or Dom/Kling.

- It's also clear that (unsurprisingly) the majority of development dollars go into Federation ship additions. This is logical, but it probably only makes the faction disparity worse. If Federation players could fly Klingon ships, it would likely help to increase the number of Klingon, Romulan and Dominion ships being added.

- Sol is so far superior to either Qo'nos or New Romulus that it's almost silly. It's not only better designed, it's also more attractive, more accessible, and is just a better place to loiter.

- Choosing an alignment means that ~half of Romulans cannot even play with other Romulans - they're treated like Klingons or Federation after the Romulan story ends; like they're at war with each other, despite clearly being Romulan first.

I cannot see a purpose to perpetuating the factions at this point. It doesn't make sense in terms of either the reality on the ground for lore OR gameplay. If we're all going to be one big, happy, 'space kumbaya'-fest, then the barriers that divide us should be similarly dropped.

[VoodooMike]

Eventually they'll eliminate the faction division.. at least on ships... unless they're too lazy. It'll basically be when they're too lazy to do major new content and that laziness outstrips the amount of work it'd be to remove the faction limitations, at which point they'll do it and assume that placates people for six months or something.

[Alone I Break]

Or at least make the whole faction restriction be lifted once you progress to a certain point in the story mode.

[Xautos]

From way back when, Branflakes was the community manager of STO. He was very open about the situation regarding the Klingons and Federation regarding the factions. Basically he stated it was all in the back end systems and that the person in charge of that didn't want to get into that and rewrite the code so it can happen.

6 years later and it seems the developers clearly don't consider it a priority or don't even want to change it, that would be my guess.

[ImperatorPavel]

Originally posted by Xautos:

From way back when, Branflakes was the community manager of STO. He was very open about the situation regarding the Klingons and Federation regarding the factions. Basically he stated it was all in the back end systems and that the person in charge of that didn't want to get into that and rewrite the code so it can happen.

6 years later and it seems the developers clearly don't consider it a priority or don't even want to change it, that would be my guess.

Or don't want to deal with the inevitable bugs that would come with removing the system. Given that the faction system is at the core of the game it might cause too many issues to remove and/or Cryptic now lack the developers who know that code to remove it.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by ImperatorPavel:

Or don't want to deal with the inevitable bugs that would come with removing the system. Given that the faction system is at the core of the game it might cause too many issues to remove and/or Cryptic now lack the developers who know that code to remove it.

We know the basics of how it all works based on the City of Heroes code which was leaked a couple years back. STO is based heavily on that same code (it shows in certain places, too). The restrictions will be data-related not code-related, so it's mostly just drudgery to go back and change the faction restrictions. Likewise, we've seen that its something that has to be added, not that exists by default, with the Titan being cross-faction due to them forgetting to make it Fed only.

[Jaynoble55]

Id be happy with with all factions accessing all ships. It 100% possible and they even did it by mistake with the titan. Other than that 100% onboard with the OP.

[Shellbie]

From Star Trek DS9

Michael Eddington : Nobody leaves Paradise, everyone should want to be in the Federation! Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day, they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it.

[Alone I Break]

Originally posted by Shellbie:

From Star Trek DS9

Michael Eddington : Nobody leaves Paradise, everyone should want to be in the Federation! Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day, they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it.

Not sure what the quote is supposed to argue for or against...

If the Klingon Empire enters the Federation at any point in the future, then I see no real reason for Klingon vessels to be denied accessibility to Federation members.

[Kazuma]

i have no idea why you are whining about this this is literally in their announced but unscheduled updates for 2021

[Firewalk]

Originally posted by Shellbie:

From Star Trek DS9

Michael Eddington : Nobody leaves Paradise, everyone should want to be in the Federation! Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day, they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it.

Eddington was a misguided zealot. No one was ever forced to join the Federation. The Borg don't ask, they just take try to take you by force until you succumb. Eddington was a great character but man was he a bloody moron.

- RA -

[Xautos]

Originally posted by Firewalk:

Originally posted by Shellbie:

From Star Trek DS9

Michael Eddington : Nobody leaves Paradise, everyone should want to be in the Federation! Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day, they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it.

Eddington was a misguided zealot. No one was ever forced to join the Federation. The Borg don't ask, they just take try to take you by force until you succumb. Eddington was a great character but man was he a bloody moron.

- RA -

Yet the Federation has values that are very insidious according to Garak and Quark:

"So now, Gaila owns his own moon.. and i'm staring into the abyss. And the worst part of it is my only hope for salvation is the Federation."
"I know precisely how you feel."
"I want you to try something for me. Take a sip of this."
"What is it?"
"A Human drink. It's called Root Beer."
"I don't know."
"Come on. Aren't you just a little bit curious?"
"What do you think?"
"It's vile!"
"I know.. It's so bubbly and cloying and happy.."
"..Just like the Federation."
"But you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to like it."
"It's Insidious."
"Just like the Federation."
"Do you think they'll be able to save us?"
"I hope so."

Zealot or not, he wasn't wrong about the Federation or the Borg.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by Kazuma:

i have no idea why you are whining about this this is literally in their announced but unscheduled updates for 2021

Keep in mind they also talked about making lockbox ships account-wide at one point years ago, too. Unscheduled features and QOL updates are anything but assured with Cryptic, especially if they're things that don't have a short-term path to profit.

[VoodooMike]

Looks like cross-faction ships are actually coming this month, based on a leaked loading screen, as well as the long-demanded KDF recruitment event. Here's hoping its done well.

[ImperatorPavel]

Originally posted by VoodooMike:

Looks like cross-faction ships are actually coming this month, based on a leaked loading screen, as well as the long-demanded KDF recruitment event. Here's hoping its done well.

If so, woot. I have the kurak KDF-side but not the Arbiter or Morrigu.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by ImperatorPavel:

If so, woot. I have the kurak KDF-side but not the Arbiter or Morrigu.

Well, the phrasing makes me a bit apprehensive:

Cross-Faction Flying: Level a KDF captain to 65 or visit the C-Store to fly ANY ship on ANY character!

Given that it is happening at the same time as the KDF recruitment event, it sort'v suggests you either have to make enough progress on a KDF recruit (meaning, a totally new KDF character) or pay ZEN to unlock the other faction ship access.