Which Faction?

[StoriesBonesTell]

Does it matter what faction I pick? Does everyone play on just one? Does endgame have a mixed player pool of all the factions? I dont want to pick one, grind to cap then realize im one of only a handful of people playing that faction.

[cap-boulanger]

Some of all of that.

Starting out...

The standard Starfleet is the game's original faction, and artistically, it's supposed to be a few-years-later variant off of the TNG-DS9-Voyager era, so the aesthetics will look similar to the ones used in those series.

The TOS Starfleet and Discovery Starfleet factions (which artistically look like those series), merge together with standard Starfleet fairly quickly (TOS and Discovery each have about six or eight unique story episodes post-tutorial, and then get merged into the standard Starfleet story... after that the differences are purely cosmetic.)

Then there's Klingon faction, which is *entirely separate*. Separate player guilds (we call them "fleets", which can be grouped into "armadas"), separate social zones (to begin with, though some of the later-storyline ones are shared), and separate ships (though playing a klingon faction character to max level gives you an account wide ability - "Cross Faction Flying" - to use ships regardless of their faction, it is VERY MUCH NOT a full faction merge). The storyline does merge together eventually, but much further along than the three Starfleets.

Klingon faction does have a much smaller population (I would say the faction populations run about 80/20... maybe even 85/15... with Starfleet being the larger one).

Then there's Romulan and Dominion. Both of these factions start out with their own storyline and ships and artwork (like TOS and Discovery Starfleets do), and eventually you reach a point in the storyline where you are asked to choose to ally yourself with *either* Starfleet or Klingon (unlike TOS and Discovery, who do not get to choose). At that point, you'll be effectively merged into the faction of choice (though still with the unique cosmetics, and in the Romulan case, access to a couple Romulan-only social zones), including having same-faction access to that faction's ships (the Klingon unlock is only for the ships of the opposite major faction).

At endgame (once you reach the storyline merges actually, and earlier than that for standard Starfleet and Klingon), all players can interact with each other in those areas they have access to, including participating in *most* TFOs (STO's equivalent of "raids") together.

My advice, for a new player, would be to play standard Starfleet *or* Romulan allied with Starfleet first. (Unless you are a big TOS or Discovery fan, then do those.)

..........however.........

There are four periodically-repeating "recruitment" events, where newly created characters of particular factions (regardless of species) have access to a special "transponder" device, which will then give you additional goals/tasks that give additional rewards, and some of those are account wide benefits.

Those however REQUIRE that the character is created (and played through the tutorial) DURING the event.

I would recommend planning to create applicable characters (you'll need a total of six for this, as the Delta Recruit event is open to three factions) when the recruitment events take place, in order to have access to those rewards.

Or in other words, if you're starting a new character while a recruitment event is in progress, AND if you have not already participated in that recruit type, I would choose that.

BUT there is not one of those events right now, and probably won't be until at least January, so for now.... up to you!

(I would add, there is not a recruitment event that applies to Discovery Starfleet. There's two for Klingon and one each for all four of the other starting factions. In the case of the Romulan and Dominion recruit characters, you just need one of each, and your choice of alliance doesn't matter.)

[cap-boulanger]

Also... a quick note. There's 3 annual "seasonal" events (Winter, Anniversary, Summer) in which you can earn a *free* endgame-level (and account unlocked) ship simply for doing a 10-15 minute task on 20 days out of a 30 day window (well, I say "days", it actually has a 20-hour lockout each time you earn a credit toward the ship, before you can earn another).

The Winter event is starting this Tuesday (ending a few days after New Year's, but if you play every day, you would unlock the ship on Christmas Eve).

I have a much more detailed guide regarding ship acquisition, posted in the Steam guides section, if you are interested:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2735911494

[jonnin]

Originally posted by StoriesBonesTell:

Does it matter what faction I pick? Does everyone play on just one? Does endgame have a mixed player pool of all the factions? I dont want to pick one, grind to cap then realize im one of only a handful of people playing that faction.

1) No, it does not "matter". They all end up in the same place, as said above.
2) yes, endgame mixes the factions for most of the content.
3) the game is overwhelmingly federation flavor. The real factions are simply federation & klingon (KDF). Note that level cap isn't much of a grind, you can hit it in a weekend. And THEN the game starts in terms of gearing up, but the lower level story is worth taking your time and enjoying it.
3.b) Romulans are able to stack critical hit ideas sooner, cheaper, and easier. Romulans can align federation so you will still be with the bulk of the players socially after a short time. At the end of the day the difference is small, but early on, its a bit of a kick start.

[delta]

Huh, you're not kidding about the game being mostly Federation content. I just looked at the Klingon story arcs and some of them only have two or three missions each.

Also I take it they're never going to make a recruitment event for Discovery characters? So I should just make one whenever I feel like it, right?

[Sirius]

Originally posted by delta:

Huh, you're not kidding about the game being mostly Federation content. I just looked at the Klingon story arcs and some of them only have two or three missions each.

The same is true for Starfleet though.

That is to say, the bulk of episodes / seasons content is 'factionless' if you will and is the same for all factions.

It's merely the intro arcs that are different and longer / shorter for the various factions and Fed starting points.

However, Fed gets the most ships and shinies and generally speaking yes, the old meme holds true that this is basically "Starfleet Online"

But don't discount the other factions because of this, Romulans have a pretty long intro arc (longer than most I would say), and you should probably play one of each faction just because (wait for the recruitment events where applicable)

Originally posted by delta:

Also I take it they're never going to make a recruitment event for Discovery characters? So I should just make one whenever I feel like it, right?

Pretty sure there never will be, yes, though not 100%. I *think* there was something official telling us "no", but my memory isn't the best, so grain of salt unless someone confirms it.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by delta:

Huh, you're not kidding about the game being mostly Federation content. I just looked at the Klingon story arcs and some of them only have two or three missions each.

Also I take it they're never going to make a recruitment event for Discovery characters? So I should just make one whenever I feel like it, right?

Several of the kdf missions are epic though, both in length (like the grelthor (sp) ones) and telling of their story. Romulan as well, goes over the loss of their planet and modern background. The ancient fed one is incredibly short... you get kicked into the future after the shortest possible intro.

[NIkto Barada]

sigh, we had a catch 22 situation where due to less missions and fewer easy doff acquisition methods klingon stuff was barely bought, including ships. this later included romulan and dominion .
atm fed rules any race can now use all ships if they leveled a kling to 65 or bought that option. not sure why 65 not that hard to reach.
btw great answers here. love the community being so helpful

[steventirey]

Originally posted by NIkto Barada:

sigh, we had a catch 22 situation where due to less missions and fewer easy doff acquisition methods klingon stuff was barely bought, including ships. this later included romulan and dominion .
atm fed rules any race can now use all ships if they leveled a kling to 65 or bought that option. not sure why 65 not that hard to reach.
btw great answers here. love the community being so helpful

It probably didn't help that when the game was launched, the KDF side wasn't even completed. Feds had a full set of missions starting from level 1. KDF characters still started at level 1, but the first story missions weren't until level 20. Meaning you had to PVP for 20 levels to advance. (This was later changed to requiring a level 20 Fed in order to make a KDF character which automatically started at 20, then changed again by giving the KDF missions from level 1). The Fed side was always favored, even right from the beginning. So its no surprise the Fed side is more popular.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by NIkto Barada:

sigh, we had a catch 22 situation where due to less missions and fewer easy doff acquisition methods klingon stuff was barely bought, including ships. this later included romulan and dominion .
atm fed rules any race can now use all ships if they leveled a kling to 65 or bought that option. not sure why 65 not that hard to reach.
btw great answers here. love the community being so helpful

And it continues to this day. Ive always been KDF -- my feds are just admiralty monkeys that I made back when my fleet was active to be with them. But ... and this is a longstanding problem ... there has always been a sci ship problem for romulans and to a lesser extent klingon, but now its so bad both factions may as well not have science ships at all. The fleet nova pilot has all sci seats for spam, flanking, 2nd deflector, pilot moves. The next closest I think is the t5u/x/etc flying saucer, with flanking & 2nd deflector & all sci seats. And those ships are getting stale/old. THe last rom sci ship that was acceptable to me was the dyson, and that was many years back, and the last kdf sci ship I flew was before 2nd deflectors & raiders even existed(?*), a BOP (forget which) worked. So I fly the federation pizza cutterish model. I fly a few other odds & ends for fun, but the lack of a ship is why I stick my head in, play a month or 2, and head back out for the rest of the year for the last 2-3 years.

* maybe 2nd deflectors existed, I forget, but it was before they added like 50k hits to half your skills.

[cap-boulanger]

I get all the conspiracy theories and neglect theories, but given the source material, I think Starfleet was always destined to be the super-faction anyway, in terms of player population. And of course it's more profitable to build for the majority of players.

I mean, if you go through all the series, all the movies, etc... how much of it is set aboard non-Starfleet ships or bases? I don't know the number exactly but less than ten percent seems accurate... and that is not even consistently the same non-Starfleet...

[Sirius]

Originally posted by cap-boulanger:

I get all the conspiracy theories and neglect theories, but given the source material, I think Starfleet was always destined to be the super-faction anyway, in terms of player population. And of course it's more profitable to build for the majority of players.

I mean, if you go through all the series, all the movies, etc... how much of it is set aboard non-Starfleet ships or bases? I don't know the number exactly but less than ten percent seems accurate... and that is not even consistently the same non-Starfleet...

Fair point.

Reverse psychology might work:
Get them to create a Klingon and a Romulan spin off series and let's see how fast we are getting actual new ships for those factions.

Joking of course, but yeah your point is well taken.

[Salty]

i heard federation was for fembois tho ?

[Sirius]

Originally posted by Cracky!!!:

i heard federation was for fembois tho ? :orks:

You are trying too hard.

Go lie down for a while.

[Salty]

Originally posted by |x|SiriuS|x|:

Originally posted by Cracky!!!:

i heard federation was for fembois tho ?

You are trying too hard.

Go lie down for a while.

picard was a fem ... so was riker .. so was data... even worf

[delta]

Going back to recruits...if I've unlocked something on a Delta/Gamma/Temporal/Klingon recruit then is it available for any other character I subsequently make?