Lol, fantastic

[Exodion]

Yay

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?utm_campaign=MMORPG%20News%20Alert%20 Email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=MMORPG&loadnews=15401&bhcp=1

[cmahecha]

I hope they never let borg as a playable race. They would have to be nerfed to the level of other factions. Would be nice if they are kept as the epic nemesis throughout the whole game.

[Commander_Nate]

I hope they never let borg as a playable race. They would have to be nerfed to the level of other factions. Would be nice if they are kept as the epic nemesis throughout the whole game.

They've said they won't so I think we're good there.

[Demonspirit]

cool i wouldnt mind piloting a borg cube.

[cmahecha]

They've said they won't so I think we're good there.

Unfortunately, we are not good there :(

http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/221/al-rivera-talks-star-trek-online/2

Do you intend for there to be other playable factions added at a later date or will there always just be two? The Borg would be an awesome faction to play...

There is no shortage of ideas from the IP. Certainly, we have considered Romulan, Borg, Dominion and more. We are not committed to anything specific at this time – we’re just focusing on Federation and Klingons right now.

[QoSheba]

Can imagine a few people would be against having the borg as playable race, if done right however i imagine it would be good fun cruising around in a cube.

[Frostbourne]

There seems to be great difference of opinions from developers considering this.

I imagine this guy is gonna get a slating from his boss.

[Paulo999]

lol they would have to nerf the borg ships so much :O or just give the Allies Species 8472 :D that works :D

[RowdyDurango]

would be weird to see the borg not functioning as a collective.... Dominion would be really cool

[Corehaven22]

Okay this has been brought up before. And the community cried out they DIDNT ever want Borg as a playable race. There were few that did, like maybe 3 or 4 and dozens upon dozens that didnt. Sometimes I really do wonder if Cryptic pays any attention at all.

[Commander_Nate]

Unfortunately, we are not good there :(

http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/221/al-rivera-talks-star-trek-online/2

Do you intend for there to be other playable factions added at a later date or will there always just be two? The Borg would be an awesome faction to play...

There is no shortage of ideas from the IP. Certainly, we have considered Romulan, Borg, Dominion and more. We are not committed to anything specific at this time – we’re just focusing on Federation and Klingons right now.

There have been dev comments on these boards saying the Borg won't be playable as well as some chats if I'm not mistaken. They were made a while ago but I still think they realize that making them playable pretty much kills the idea of the Borg.

At PAX most of them said they wanted to make the Romulans playable.

[Hardac]

No Borg for playable race, please. They're the epic boogymen. They should stay that way. I hope the first faction expansion brings us the Romulans. I want to command a d'deridex.:D

[Profedius]

I play the Borg a lot in the games that offer them, but I hope they never allow them to be played here or if they did they would set it up as some kind of monster play and limit the players to an area and smaller Borg ships.

I want to be scared when I see a Borg ship knowing that I have no chance alone in destroying it.

[Corehaven22]

I play the Borg a lot in the games that offer them,

You do? What games might those be? Ive never heard of a game where you could play borg.

[Sirjohn45]

Ok no Borg as playable race that would not work....but romulans etc heck yeah bring them all in :) lets party

[squidheadjax]

Hmm.

If they make Borg playable they should force Borg players to be on open voice communication for the entirety of their login time. With a Dev playing the Borg queen screeching orders in their ears the whole time, and that awful music that plays on elevators and while companies have you on hold on the phone droning in the background.

I don't know why people think playing a Borg character in an RPG would be fun. It'd be like playing someone else's big toe. Now, in an RTS, you can be the Queen, and have all sorts of fun putting your ants under the magnifying glass...

You do? What games might those be? Ive never heard of a game where you could play borg.

I'm guessing that poster was talking about ST Armada 2, and maybe SFC 3? Many of the other Star Trek games have them pretty easily modded in as playable.

[Shatterhand]

Ugh, I hate even the IDEA of this; it's completely ridiculous. The Borg function as part of a collective mind, and since most MMO players seek to blaze their own trails while playing a game, playing a member of race that has no use for individuality makes no sense at all. They'd have to be nerfed to the point of total irrelevance, and with the way people whinge and moan about nerfing for balance reasons (CO, anyone?), there's no point in pursuing the Borg as a playable race. The fact that Amazon's pre-order perk is a Borg bridge officer is dumb enough, but this is delving into imbecile territory.

You want more playable factions? Start with the Romulans, then the Cardassians. Those two alone should give you enough content possibilities to last you for a long time.

[cocoa-jin]

PC borg has no requirment of being overly powerful for players or horribly nerfed for the NPCs.

PC Borg is so do-able, you'd guys woud see it of you put down the tall glass of fear and paranoia.

[squidheadjax]

PC borg has no requirment of being overly powerful for players or horribly nerfed for the NPCs.

PC Borg is so do-able, you'd guys woud see it of you put down the tall glass of fear and paranoia.

Do-able, but worth it?

You could have a faction of "free Borg" like Seven, but what makes the Borg the Borg comes from them being Borg, being the hive-mind, being implacable. An ex-Borg is a (insert species here) with some neat cybernetic addons and probably a tanker full of psychological scarring. You can do that already with the existing factions.

[Commander_Nate]

PC borg has no requirment of being overly powerful for players or horribly nerfed for the NPCs.

PC Borg is so do-able, you'd guys woud see it of you put down the tall glass of fear and paranoia.

How does it not?

The only PC Borg that would make sense is the Borg Queen, which there is only one of. That's too much power for one player to have. Having multiple Queens defeats the purpose of the Borg and makes them just some other faction.

[thefreshjedi]

PC borg has no requirment of being overly powerful for players or horribly nerfed for the NPCs.

PC Borg is so do-able, you'd guys woud see it of you put down the tall glass of fear and paranoia.

I think it will be possilbe later on cocoa-jin, but I'm hesitant for current release personally. I think it would be a nice addon in an expansion to have borg-hybrids as playable later on down the road. And I support it. But it would require at the minimum some balancing. We don't really even know how the game is going to be balanced as-yet, with the current pre-release information that we have. Beta will answer some of these questions, and further playtesting upon release will give us an early idea of the mechanics. Games like WoW (I hate using this example), are now experimenting with the release of different NPC's as playable characters now... it took them about 4 plus years to do it, finally, but there you have it.

-avery

[cocoa-jin]

Do-able, but worth it?

You could have a faction of "free Borg" like Seven, but what makes the Borg the Borg comes from them being Borg, being the hive-mind, being implacable. An ex-Borg is a (insert species here) with some neat cybernetic addons and probably a tanker full of psychological scarring. You can do that already with the existing factions.

Borg vessels can operate independent of micro-management from the Collective. They are always connected, but not dependent on some higher function telling it what to do. like any autonomous system within a body, the part only needs to operate in the interests of the whole...that doesnt mean the whole has to direct every action...there is no reason a Borg vessel couldnt go days, weeks onths or years with out any direct intervention or re-dirction of its actions from the Collective.

Allow the player to be the ship...or more accuratly, the Vinculum. The Vinculum commands all drones of that ship as pets. Now ou have a autonomous, Borg vessel that operates in the interests of the Collective through basic standing objectives(assimilate species and tech, find omega molecule, find spacial anamolies that may be of use to the Collective. Dont make the mistake of thinking its seperatedfrom the Collective, it isnt. Player chosen "tasks"(not orders) from a dynamic list of Collective interests could provide direct Collective orders essential to the completion of the quest.

Everything you do in achieveing these goals are dynamic choices made by the Vinculum/Ship to achieve the goal. What could a player do in game that isnt in the Collective's interests?...nothing.

I think it will be possilbe later on cocoa-jin, but I'm hesitant for current release personally

-avery

Im certainly not advocting it for reease either...but in due time(though sooner would be more desirable than later). It needs to be carefully modeled to provide a thoroughly detailed and in-depth experience on par with the Alpha/Betas...not in the same way though...it needs to be uniquely Borg/ the Collective(no water downed, token Borg, no ex-Borg, no Collective spin-offs...certainly not yet, not before "real" Borg).

[crow11383]

I don't imagine they would let a single person control a whole cube, maybe a scout ship.

[cocoa-jin]

I don't imagine they would let a single person control a whole cube, maybe a scout ship.

Exactly, the 5 man scout cube for a starter. They could have us scale up in various and increasingly larger sized Cubes and possibly Spheres of much smaller scout classes hulls. So maybe we never get a hull of more than 200 drones. All of various scout classed Cubes and Spheres. We dont have to get new ships like the Alpha/Betas, we could morph/grow our current ship through drone assimilation and resource acquiistions.

So instead of honor or prestege, plus credits. We could be successful assimilations(prestege) and resources(credits) required.

All heavy vessels would be NPC only.

[TruthSeer]

I really think he said Borg just because that was the that was the faction that was asked about. If the interviewer had said Cardassians the quote probably would have been something like:

"There is no shortage of ideas from the IP. Certainly, we have considered Romulan, Star Trek Online Cardassians, Dominion, and more."

Also I think the key word to remember is considered. Meaning they are looking into it, not that it's being worked on.

On a side note it really makes me happy how when asked this question they always mention the Dominion along with the Romulans. Which should give you indications of their plans more than anything.

[Shatterhand]

PC borg has no requirment of being overly powerful for players or horribly nerfed for the NPCs.

PC Borg is so do-able, you'd guys woud see it of you put down the tall glass of fear and paranoia.

This has nothing to do with fear and paranoia (and I'm not sure where you see fear and paranoia in the rationale behind not having the Borg as a faction, but whatever). While your Vinculum argument has merit, I'm still not sold on the Borg as a playable race and probably never will be.

The Borg are, despite the Star Trek franchise's penchant for overusing them, supposed to be the Big Bad of the known universe. They managed to wipe out whole armadas of Federation starships and decimate whole planets. The only reason the fleet survived the attack that occurred in ST: First Contact is because Captain Picard was able to use the remnant of his connection to the Collective as Locutus to find the Borg cube's weakness and exploit it. Trying to scale them down to a playable level just isn't logical. In order for them to continue being a malevolent force to be feared by all races, they have to be beyond player control; cold, calculating, and operating with a deliberate dark efficiency. This is best served under enemy NPC control, where the developers can inspire fear as well as a thirst for battle to salvage the quadrant from their menace. You don't get nearly the same dramatic and exciting effect having players flying around in Borg cubes just because they like the Borg and want to kick everybody's asses. I can't think of a better way to completely ruin their existence in the game than that.

[binkatron5000]

I could see the Borg being fun to play, but as has been pointed out, the logistics would be.... interesting... to work out. It would be kind of neat if a guild of Borg characters could get their own cube, and then as a collective/guild do some missions and kick some arse. Then for the individuals/small groups, scout ships could be used.

[cocoa-jin]

This has nothing to do with fear and paranoia (and I'm not sure where you see fear and paranoia in the rationale behind not having the Borg as a faction, but whatever). While your Vinculum argument has merit, I'm still not sold on the Borg as a playable race and probably never will be.

The Borg are, despite the Star Trek franchise's penchant for overusing them, supposed to be the Big Bad of the known universe. They managed to wipe out whole armadas of Federation starships and decimate whole planets. The only reason the fleet survived the attack that occurred in ST: First Contact is because Captain Picard was able to use the remnant of his connection to the Collective as Locutus to find the Borg cube's weakness and exploit it. Trying to scale them down to a playable level just isn't logical. In order for them to continue being a malevolent force to be feared by all races, they have to be beyond player control; cold, calculating, and operating with a deliberate dark efficiency. This is best served under enemy NPC control, where the developers can inspire fear as well as a thirst for battle to salvage the quadrant from their menace. You don't get nearly the same dramatic and exciting effect having players flying around in Borg cubes just because they like the Borg and want to kick everybody's asses. I can't think of a better way to completely ruin their existence in the game than that.

PC Borg doesnt come at the mutual exclusion of NPC Borg. I bet as a Klingon, I will engage many NPC Feds...there is nothing keeping the devs from running Klingon content that revolves around NPC Fed Fleets in our episodic or section-wide content.

There is nothing keeping PC Borg being light vessels on par with Alpha/Beta hulls(though much smaller pound for pound and in crew numbers than a comparable Alpha/Beta hull), while leaving NPC Borg as specialized or high level content.

There is nothing keeping us more less isolated in certain areas of the galaxy just like Feds and Klingons will be isolated in their strong hold areas...with limited access in fringe systems and neutral zones. Basically PC Borg could be isolated the same way, with limited incursions into fringe and border areas. We would be the light scouting forces, the feelers, the Long Rane recon of the Collective...the NPCs would be the "can of whoop a$s" dispatched into "strategically viable" target areas as NPC and Raid content as the devs see fit.

We'd engage NPC Feds and Klingons just like you uys engage NPC version of each other. We could run into Species 8472 as high end raid content for us...shoot, we may your only hope against them in the Alpha/Beta quad...the Collective and Voyager worked together against them before...we even sacrificed a Cube to protect Voyager.

We'd be able to use the Genesis system to find new races, new phenomena, new tech in our neck of the woods too. But when we engage the Feds or the Klingons, it can be on a completely and distant front from the Fed/kling conflict areas...though a few three-prong fronts would be fun too(remember, we'd be on par with you guys).

[Nanoteki]

I could see the Devs talking it over and considering the various factions in the ST series as a playable faction in game. Though after careful and thoughtful consideration I would conclude that making the Borg a playable faction is for a lack of a better word retarded. /thread

[cocoa-jin]

I could see the Devs talking it over and considering the various factions in the ST series as a playable faction in game. Though after careful and thoughtful consideration I would conclude that making the Borg a playable faction is for a lack of a better word retarded. /thread

Aw:o, not that was almost inteligent and productive.:(

[Morgomir]

If the Borg get added it should be after the Cardassians and Romulans do, the Borg are just way too powerful...and they dont think for themselves.

[cocoa-jin]

If the Borg get added it should be after the Cardassians and Romulans do, the Borg are just way too powerful...and they dont think for themselves.

I agree with after the Cardies and the Rommies...but who are the they in the Collective.

You are looking at it from the same perspective. The Collective does think for its self(singular). The various parts dont exhibit the same type of self-identity like we do, but the parts(ship and its drone compliment) do operate and make choices on their own...its always tied to the interests of the Collective, but the parts can operate on their own.

No one has to tell a Cube to assimilate a vessel or scan an anamoly...but the Collective can re-direct them and keep them from doing it, or re-direct them to do something else it deems more important.

Drones dont think for themslevs because they are just tools...but players wouldnt play as drones, players will be the part of the Collective that controls drones, the ship's Vinculum.

[TruthSeer]

I think the Borg could work. But if they are added I think they should be added last. I think as they add factions each of them should have species exclusive to them (without the use of the Species Creator). Then the Borg faction would have access to all of the species. (This is also my view of how a neutral factions should be done)

Saying the Borg shouldn't be playable because they don't act as individuals doesn't really hold any ground with this game because even with the other factions we aren't playing as individuals. We're playing as crews and ships.

[cocoa-jin]

...this game because even with the other factions we aren't playing as individuals. We're playing as crews and ships.

Exactlt Fed/Kling players are playing more like a PC Borg than they think. The player/Vinculum/Captain in ultimate control of AI crew, BO pets and ship.

[theNater]

"Have considered" is not the same as "are considering".

Just because the folks at mmorpg.com forgot that, doesn't mean we need to.

[Faerlzress]

My goodness. It is amazing how this comment was taken out of context.

All he said was that they had considered many of those races. Many of us here considered those races as possible as well. That doesn't mean anything more than they had thought of it and considered it at one time way back when we were working on this project. He was just listing the obvious possibilities that come to mind from the Star Trek IP and previous games.

[Tain01]

Borg are a galactic force of nature.

They should not be a playable race.

[emery0]

The number 1 reason you can not have PC Borg's would be because all the players would be b*tching they only got 2 ships round and square and the klingons got 13. :rolleyes:

[cocoa-jin]

Borg are a galactic force of nature.

They should not be a playable race.

The Collective is a sentient being of impressive power and ability...that is all. They are no more a force of nature than other powerful and impressive advisary encountered by the Feds.

Thats like saying we shouldnt play has Klingons because they are chocolaty...ok that ws a bit exterme.

But if you are saying they should remain powerful and awe inspiring, thats fine...player Borg wouldnt neccesitate any change in that. NPC Borg would remain the juggernauts of old, but PC Borg would represent the less than juggernaut parts of the whole...even Achilles had his heel. Even the Great White shark has less deadly parts. Even the Lion's paw could be hampered by a thorn.

Let the Juggernaut remain, the PC Borg would just be chinks in its armor, gaps between its plates. The presence of weaker Borg vessels does not deminish the awesomne of the overall Collective, it doesnt prevent them from bringing their awesomness to bear in pursuit of its interests.

[Tain01]

The Collective is a sentient being of impressive power and ability...that is all. They are no more a force of nature than other powerful and impressive advisary encountered by the Feds.

If you're aware of that I don't know why it needs to be discussed further. While I agree PC Borg is doable, it isn't doable without the cost of credibility. It'll either involve the "humanization" of the Borg, or having them downplayed to the point that it would be merely irritating to see one as opposed to a proper response, which would be the 24th century equivalent of soiling oneself.

When I say they're a force of nature, I mean that in a metaphorical sense. They show up seemingly at random, assimilate an entire world, and then aren't heard from for awhile. Kind of like a hurricane, if the hurricane was picking up people and turning them into itty bitty hurricanes to make its own hurricane bigger.

You said it yourself. Sentient being (singular, this is important), impressive power, ability, etc. This does not lend itself to players running around doing their own thing as Borg. Having a multitude of mini-cubes running around going "laffoutloud no really we're going to assimilate you" right before they got curb stomped by a fleet is not impressive and would only serve to discredit what could easily have been a more powerful tool for the game.

[RoydEris]

I hope they never let borg as a playable race. They would have to be nerfed to the level of other factions. Would be nice if they are kept as the epic nemesis throughout the whole game.

i hope so too, it wouldnt be a borg anymore

[tevushkasht]

I don't see any problem with having the player play Borg at all. You are after all roleplaying. As fortune has it, humans are very good at playing a mindless drone since for most of them, it is their natural state.
The only point where a Borg ship would be overpowered is in a pvp situation with an equal number of opponents.
Possible solution: a Borg cube is collectively controlled by (up to 5 or so) players. Each extra player adds a few abilities to the cube and controls a different part of it. For example, one player would just have a weapon and movement. If a second player joins on the cube, it gains torpedoes and grows stronger. Now one player controls movement, the other shoots. A Borg Cube should have sufficient abilities on it to give each player something to do.
My point is that there are for sure systems possible that would give you a very involving and genuine Borg experience without making them overpowered.

[Geist06]

My goodness. It is amazing how this comment was taken out of context.

All he said was that they had considered many of those races. Many of us here considered those races as possible as well. That doesn't mean anything more than they had thought of it and considered it at one time way back when we were working on this project. He was just listing the obvious possibilities that come to mind from the Star Trek IP and previous games.

Quoted for emphasis.

Granted, it would be neat to have some players being drones in a ground episode or a instanced "Borg World" where you have one side trying to achieve a goal and the other being.. well.. the Borg (in a straightforward "PVP Battleground" concept)

Course, I'm more looking forward to Romulans, Dominion / Cardassians (can't decide which one of those two I'd rather play as first...) as expansions...

[Cormoran]

hmmm, i'm guessing someone at mmorg.com had their trigger finger on the copy paste button?

Either that or cryptic has changed the borg to the point that they're no longer identifying what they have ingame as simply 'borg' but 'star trek online borg'. this could potentially mean the possibility of playable borg.

[cocoa-jin]

If you're aware of that I don't know why it needs to be discussed further. While I agree PC Borg is doable, it isn't doable without the cost of credibility. It'll either involve the "humanization" of the Borg, or having them downplayed to the point that it would be merely irritating to see one as opposed to a proper response, which would be the 24th century equivalent of soiling oneself.

When I say they're a force of nature, I mean that in a metaphorical sense. They show up seemingly at random, assimilate an entire world, and then aren't heard from for awhile. Kind of like a hurricane, if the hurricane was picking up people and turning them into itty bitty hurricanes to make its own hurricane bigger.

You said it yourself. Sentient being (singular, this is important), impressive power, ability, etc. This does not lend itself to players running around doing their own thing as Borg. Having a multitude of mini-cubes running around going "laffoutloud no really we're going to assimilate you" right before they got curb stomped by a fleet is not impressive and would only serve to discredit what could easily have been a more powerful tool for the game.

There is always away to maintain some level of immerssiveness. The behavior mentioned in the last paragraph would look and be almost as disgusting if done by Feds and Klingons...but there is no call to prevent either from being playable.

The singular sentinency of the Collective doesnt remove the fact that its parts can operate autonomously(just like your lungs breathe and eyes blink on their own). Though the Collective can micro-manage or re-direct a Borg vessel from its autonomous actions, there is no need to assume this interference is a daily or common occurance across all vessels. So each player can operate their vessel in an autonomous manner without it taking away from the under lying concept of a singular consciousness between all parts.

You or I arent any less a singular conscious being because my knee jerks or your eye blinks or Zinc's lungs cough on their own accord, yet still in line with the overall greater interest of whole. The Collective would be no less its singular being because its vessels are operated autonomously within the bounds of their possible and avialable taskings/duties/operations.

So what of the annoyiong behaviors that can be exhibited by the player...the same behavior that is just as annoying when doen as any faction character...well lets see. First e have to recognize that in an MMO, we have to seperate the player from the character. That allowances are to be made so that players can be the players, while hopefully not destroying the immersion of other players by allowing the player to corrupt the charcter and gameworld too much. Thats a tough balance to maintain and it wont be perfect.

We already see that Feds likly wont be able to break the Prime Directive whenever they want, they wont be able to bombard planets into the stone age when they want, we cant go rogue, we cant switch factions, etc, etc, etc...in many respects the process is already happening for Feds and Klingons.

So what about the Borg. Chat is tough, it can be a vehicle for communication for player to player and character to character...or even a schizophrenic mix/fusion of both, depending who is using it.

Perhaps we can look into seperating the comms...especially for Borg. Perhaps for charcter to character chat, we could use pre-scripted monolouges for the Borg whe speaking to other factions. If you want to speak/communicate in a manner other than Borg, you have to send an IM/in-game mail...thus seperating the player's comms from the charcter's. Borg to Borg can be regular chat. It'll replace the network comm and data process within the Collective with a means of communicating the player can deal with. If there is any player who disrupts one's sense of immersion as a Borg, one can always put that offensive player on ignore.

We dont have to humanize the Borg, we dont have to play down the Collective to something less than awe inspiring. The NPCs can remain powerful, the PC Borg will assume the already canon parts of the Collective of lesser tactical ability...scouts.

It was already determined in canon that the scout cubes would be no match for a Starfleet starship(why would it have to be so powerful, it wasnt tasked for such things). We even saw in the Enterprise that a small group of Borg(TNG era) was defeatable even in the 22nd Century(or was it 23rd?).

*edit*
Actualy, it was determined that the larger Borg scout hull(shoe-box) at 350meters long, was equally matched by an Interpid class vessel. http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Borg_probe
The Scout Cube being much smaller, a few meters long, is likly also an easy match for most starships.

[cocoa-jin]

Between the various canon Borg scout ships and assimilated vessels, there are several potential PC Borg vessels of canon that would be on par with Alpha/Beta ship hulls...with the shoe-box/coffin shaped Borg scout ship being an equal match to an Intrepid class hull.

[TastyCT]

Borg should be an Unlockable race, later in the game, when you have a high enough rank, you should get a mission to fight them where in that mission you have an option to fight your way out of a borg cube or be captured and turning into one. That way your high rank gives you the power to control a large borg cube and be powerful at the same time. You could then at a later stage play a mission if you wish to become free of the borg and return to your original race.

If they were to impliment the Borg in this way, it would be more true to the star strek series. being strong and taking on enemys that outnumber you.

[Faerlzress]

The only way I see borg being playable is as PvP battle grounds. Similar to the Blood Moon event. After you are assimilated you go about trying to destroy the Klingons/Fed players in the event/battleground. But I don't see them ever being a player species because it would ruin having one of the major end game enemies. They would end up having to be as average as every other player in the game. It also wouldn't make sense that they would honor the neutral zone area unless they are free for all pvp against everyone?

It just seems highly unlikely.

[cocoa-jin]

Borg should be an Unlockable race, later in the game, when you have a high enough rank, you should get a mission to fight them where in that mission you have an option to fight your way out of a borg cube or be captured and turning into one. That way your high rank gives you the power to control a large borg cube and be powerful at the same time. You could then at a later stage play a mission if you wish to become free of the borg and return to your original race.

If they were to impliment the Borg in this way, it would be more true to the star strek series. being strong and taking on enemys that outnumber you.

There is no need for the player to have to "earn" his way to being Borg. As mentioned above, there are canon Borg vessels of comparable strength to the current Alpha/Beta hulls in game.

Players can "earn" their way up from starter caliber to stronger vessels as Borg...just like the Alpha/Betas.

The uber strong Borg need not ever be player Borg, in fact it should never be player Borg. Uber Borg needs to remain as NPC Borg content for the Alpha/Betas. High end Borg content could be PvE based just like it is for the Alpha/Betas, with PC Borg doing Species 8742 raids, Alpha/Beta Alliance raids, quest against these NPC types, random run-ins, etc.

The really cool thing is that PC Borg can have quests that utilize uber NPC Borg as quest-mates. We could participate as support vessels during NPC Borg raids into the Alpha/Beta quad.

PC Borg could and would be just as exciting, immersive(almost), diverse and dynamic as any other meatbag content. Some of you are beginningto see it, some are you are beinning to appreciate and embrace it...welcome to the Cocoa-llective :D

[cocoa-jin]

Aw...thats it?

[squidheadjax]

Meh. The Borg at most any scale are an impersonal entity, and their personified projection of the Queen is narcisissitic, solipsistic, and sociopathic. Eve already caters plenty to that sort of player.

[cocoa-jin]

Meh. The Borg at most any scale are an impersonal entity, and their personified projection of the Queen is narcisissitic, solipsistic, and sociopathic. Eve already caters plenty to that sort of player.

I wouldnt call the Collective necessarily impersonal...the drones for sure, but I wouldnt apply that to the Collective. I wouldnt make that judgement without being able to relate and interact with the Collective's conscousness. The closest we've gotten is the Queen...and she is by no means impersonal.

The Collective doesnt consider others as mindless, unintelligent or even inconsequential. Instead, they feel the potential of these valuable minds are wasted on useless ambitions and purposless desires. They explicitly say they will absorb their target's uniquess. They seek the experiences, the knowledge and utility of their minds and intellect. The Collective only feels its interests are of greater importance than others...they consider the assimilation and participation in its pursuits as a gift, as an evolution and improvement over ourselves.

Sociopatheic...yes, this entity dismantles societies in favor of creating and adding to the singular organisim called the Collective. Destruction of socities as what it sees as an inefficient, unproductive, organic/natural failure at what they feel they achieve and continue to pursue its perfection through the facilitation of tech.

But it would be no more a draw or vehicle for a$s-hatery as any other Alpha/Beta faction. The meat bags have done their fair share of self absorbed, singular perspective, self imposed manipulation or dissolution of other societies in order to pursue or expand their belief systems and interests...it seems to be the natural progression of things. It applies from the microscopic, to the macroscopic, single-cell to multi-cell, from herds to societies...the Collective it just of the many fractal forms of life expanding and eventually contracting in the never-ending cycle of life and existance in the universe.