The amount of patches and weekly fixes are a real pain with this game.
But if you want to have some fun in the short term and remain a F2P player it's worth the wait. I have a life time membership and I personally haven't enjoyed the direction they have taken the game.
I haven't played for a few months now. I will return at some point, but I find taking a long break is sometimes good.
A suggestion, stick with only one or two characters, over the past 12 months they have made it hard to run multiple characters and actively develop them due to the introduction of both the rep and fleet assignment systems.
I find the Klingon faction the most fun, but it's also the least developed. The Federation has the most players, but they also have a lot of people who harass new players, so be careful there. I don't know much about the Romulan faction as I haven't played much there, but considering you have to side with either the Fed or KDF you're pretty much playing one of those factions anyway just as a Rom in a Rom ship. Though some of the missions are fun, the Romulans and Klingons do have the best missions that are the most fun.
