There's a moment in the life cycle of every MMO with multiple factions when the developers realise that providing updates for both/all factions is actually a hell of a lot of work, and wouldn't it be easier just to get everyone running the same content?
No question about it, there are good reasons to do this. Every MMO launches with grand promises about future content delivery, and none of them have ever come close to keeping those promises. It's already impossible to get new content out fast enough to satisfy player expectations without doubling the work by making new content for each and every faction, so it's never a question of if this will happen, only of when it will happen.
For my KDF captain in Star Trek Online the 'when' came about 20 hours into the game, with the mission into the gigantic space station I mentioned last time. It's a fairly smooth transition – the preceding mission, that acted as an introduction to the Romulan arc, is specifically Klingon, and the mission briefings still feel in character for the KDF – but still...
A lot depends on how this is implemented. STO has, as I said, managed to keep the missions feeling that they are something the Klingons would do, so far at least. I suspect it's only a matter of time though before I find myself in a storyline that was clearly written for Starfleet, because there's a tendency once the content starts to merge like this for it to lean into the default setting,* and the default setting for Star Trek Online is Starfleet.
*City of Heroes was bad for this in the co-op content, which often read as hero content that villains were grudgingly allowed to take part in, especially in the Rikti War Zone. Though thinking about it now it's possible that Vanguard were actually intended to be jerks.
Time will tell. I've closed out this 24 hours of STO before really delving into the Romulan story arc. Having just reached level 20 I've had an hour or two of fitting out my next new ship (another Bird-of-Prey, of course) and training up my bridge officers.
Will I return to this character when I come back to this game? Probably. Of all the other possible character origins only the Romulan story arc really interests me – I've done the unique Starfleet content before, albeit some time ago, and the other origins – TOS era Starfleet, Discovery era Starfleet and the Jem'Hadar – don't seem to have enough to them to justify a full run. So I might run a Romulan next time, but in the long run I think that I'll be experiencing most of what STO has to offer from the bridge of the IKS Mournblade.
For the glory of the Empire. Qapla'!
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