>>and the Romulan stuff is all new (though, as with the Klingon
>>stuff, I've never been a big fan of playing the bad guys in
>>factionalized computer game worlds, and the TNG-era Romulans are even
>>assholier assholes than STO's "peace is for pussies" Klingons).
>
>I often have the same problem, which is why I almost never played
>redside back in City of Heroes. Luckily for me, the devs decided to
>not make the Romulans the bad guys, instead having them be a splinter
>group that went 'you know what? This whole Imperial asshole stuff just
>isn't working for anyone except the Tal Shiar. Let's try something
>different.'

I was just about to post this. The Romulan REPUBLIC (as opposed to the Empire) seem like lovely folks, and the Romulan story content is hands down the best in the game. Plus their ships are all varying levels from above average (D'derix) to the best ship on the game (Scimitar). And the costumes are neat. I've got a cool Colonial Warrior motif going on with my Rom.

Honestly if you stack the factions against each other, the Federation comes off as the most evil of them all. This article (http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/love-letter-to-admiral-tnae.html?m=1) goes into it pretty well, but while the Romulans are dealing with the Tal Shiar and the Klingons are largely participating in internal conflict, Federation players find themselves performing the sort of actions that could precipitate multiple wars. PLUS playing the Klingon 1-20 content puts you in contact with Worf, who is a great bloke.