Cythereal posted:

As of ViL, the only Federation ships Fedroms can't get are certain faction-specific lockbox ships because the lockbox morphs into a Federation, Klingon, or Romulan ship when opened.

Pure Federation upsides are having the gentlest learning curve in the game, your starting boffs have terrific traits, and you have more freedom than any other faction when it comes to trying different styles of ship while leveling.

Fedrom on the other hand gets you the unique warbird line of ships with access to all the Federation ships if you're willing to pay the dil for them (probably not a good idea, but you do you), access to New Romulus as a hub, and at endgame you have access to both the Romulan and Federation stock in the z-store, both to fly and for admiralty - no small benefit!

Klingons and Klankroms mainly offer the allure of marauding doff missions rather than the Federation's diplomacy. Marauding is very lucrative in terms of ec and indirectly in dil - you get lots of prisoners, and KDF and klankroms can turn in 10 prisoners at a time for 1k dil.