I certainly appreciate your ideas and suggestions, and I agree that thematically the Ferengi would fit into the Wastelands. However, I personally never really warmed up to them, and they would be more than difficult to realize in terms of models. So they most likely won't make it into the mod.
Oh, and I definitely agree with Maj about the Rommies. Hence, they'll only show up as an NPC. They are intended to be a small, but high-level threat. Back when I had plans for a full campaign, they played a role in one of the missions that would have you do some things for them in exchange for information about Avalon-Delta. Also, they're basically almost done, so I don't really want to throw them out. I think I might explain them as border guards or something like that.
Actually, let me just put this down here for further reference. This is how I envision things right now:
Playable Factions:
- Federation (Intersolar Mining Corp.)
- Klingons (???)
- Cardassians (???)
NPCs:
- Romulans (RSE Border Guards?)
- Talarians ( The Syndicate)
- Species 8472 (Great Old Ones)
As you can probably tell from my previous posts, the Syndicate is meant to be the outlaw faction, running loads of illegal mining operations all over the sector. They're pretty aggressive, but won't pose a big challenge (unless you assault their base).
Finally, the 8472 were the original end boss of Wastelands, the eldritch abomination unleashed because you "dug too deep". The balrog to your space Moria, basically. Rather appropriate for a story about mining in dark places. As you may know, I've kind of retconned them as Lovecraftian creatures, a bit reminiscent of B5's Thirdspace aliens I guess. They are meant to be the most terrible threat in the Wastelands, a race of giant, space-dwelling life forms who may very well be older than time itself. Summoned from their native dimension by a terrible experiment more than a hundred years ago, they have lain dormant for some hapless mining team to stumble upon and promptly be eaten by.
Alright, that's the idea right now. Please remember that this was never meant to be a full-scale TC, hence the existence of NPCs and reduced number of playable races. I would love to have lots of different factions competing in the Wastelands, but unfortunately my time and energy is limited, so I have keep this project small enough to be actually able to complete it.
Also, as you can see, the Klinkers and Cardies don't have faction names yet. I invite you to suggest some. As long as it's not, say, House K'bek from the Khannadha Nebula, I am open for your ideas.