HoD, HoDwI’

Somehow I tend to end up on the underdog side in a way, if there is an MMO with multiple factions. It is not a deliberate choice, but perhaps subconsiously I go with what not everyone else picks, or it fits better with my character backgrounds – at least my favourite characters are often with that type of faction.

So in recent weeks I have played my Klingon Defense Force character (not Klingon, she is an alien who joined their ranks) a lot more than anything else. Despite the fact that there is a limited amount of PvE content for KDF characters I must say that I have still enjoyed it quite a lot.

Klingon side is warming up to me, sort of – as much as you can feel warm and fuzzy about a harsh warrior race.

My new battle cruiser I.K.S. SuS'a' in the middle, ready to depart from Qo'noS

The double reward weekend recently helped to bootstrap my character through Lt Commander levels and just today I reached the rank of Captain; only 4 grades behind my Federation character.  I am also looking forward to better titles once I get beyond Captain rank – really, why would you want a title of Rear Admiral Lower Half when you can be Brigadier General instead?

The Featured Episodes and Foundry have helped with the PvE side of things and the few missions that have actually been in place for KDF side has actually been quite good so far. (I have done 4 out of the 8 story missions in total that are specifically made for KDF)

Reading the STO forums I see a lot of frustration from KDF players about the attention (or lack thereof) that their favourite faction gets. The fact that one still cannot create a KDF character without having created and played a Federation character pisses a few off. Also that most of the C-store content is just for Federation side and there is less options for costumes, ship varations etc for KDFers. There is not that much to spend extra money on even if the players wanted.

My away team - M'Rel, Gor, Tiana, B'Etara and Nuslur

Given that some of the content that actually is there; I am quite sure that the Cryptic developers want to put in more KDF related content than they currently have – but probably it gets lower priority whenever something has to be cut back or postponed, with people looking at the bottom line and what may be more “safe” return on investment.

As a fresh KDFer I do sympathize though with what the veteran KDFers get pissed off with and perhaps see a vision of where Cryptic wants the game to be in 1-2 years from now. A vision with hopefully includes more than one healthly faction.

Getting into the Klingon mindset a bit more I decided to scrap my original story idea for a Foundry mission; I had a hard time fitting my original idea with Klingon behaviour. So it is back to the drawing board and think about some new ideas for missions.

Reading the forums and some of the detailed knowledge people have about the Star Trek world I still feel perhaps somewhat intimidated to try to make a story that fits with the canon. But you live and learn and you do not learn so much if you do not try.