Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[rjord2021]

Over the next week I am doing a major review of the Galactic Map in my mod after discovering some fictional planets that should not be in the map.

There may be a quicker and more effective way to do this mod and this is something I am looking at over the coming days.

[rjord2021]

Kazarites were spotted in the Motion Picture as well as in Star Trek IV and though they were seen only briefly in the background the Kazarites from the planet Kazar have a part in my mod.

The problem is that the Kazarites are described as white furred aliens and the only picture of them in existance (pre-concept idea? ) had the Kazarite in black fur in what looked similar to a clown costume.

For my mod the Kazarite has been photoshopped from scratch and now looks a lot more like what I imagined a Kazarite should look like.

[rjord2021]

Yesterday was spent fixing an issue with over 150 character pictures which for some reason were not the correct size of 300 x 300.

While fixing this issue which took some time it gave me the opportunity to photoshop some of the pictures I was not happy with.

I also finished an analysis of the maps of the alpha and beta quadrants as shown by Star Trek Online and have ruled out using that map as it makes no sense to me and includes systems I have never heard of.

I will complete the map using the 3 sources I have been using including one which shows on the map every place Kirk and crew went in the TOS series. I just need to verify those locations before they go into this mod.

[rjord2021]

The way this mod will go forward is as follows.

I am working on releasing the alpha 1.0 version soon so you can get an idea of how this mod works.

The map which comes with alpha 1.0 will be very limited and will include the Klingons among the first 10 races in this mod. The final version of the mod will have every race ever seen in Star Trek with those races split between those you can play and those that appear in event cards when you orbit their planet.

I have chosen the Klingons to be in alpha 1.0 as they are the classic villians from TOS.

EDIT:

Races seen by Voyager will not be in the mod except perhaps one race.

[rjord2021]

The role playing side of this mod is playable in 2 different ways.

Every episode in Star Trek TOS features in the mod if you play with role playing enabled. You will not see these episodes if you play the mod as strictly Distant Worlds Universe.

The 2 ways the role playing can work are:

1. You can play the part of Captain Kirk with his original crew Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura and every minor character you saw on the Enterprise. Eg Riley, Boma,etc. This method allows you to explore the Star Trek universe as the crew of the Enterprise with the role playing cards referring to the characters by name.

2. You can play as another captain assigned to any ship and relive the episodes that Kirk and Crew experienced. The role playing cards in this case are different and do not refer to the original crew of the Enterprise.


When you experience the episodes the result may be the same as how you saw it on tv but may differ depending on :

- what is happening in the mod. Eg. The Vulcans declare war ... Or the Federation of Planets is politically or economically collapsing.

- what decisions you as the captain make. One wrong decision on a landing party can prove fatal

- The results of throwing the dice may result in a failed mission bringing a first contact with a new life firm in a bad situation.

[rjord2021]

I had to research the worlds in the Delphic Expanse to try and determine if they survived when the Expanse ceased to exist.

My understanding is that when the Expanse was destroyed the space returned to normal space and was no longer chaotic, turbulent and dangerous.

So the Delphic Expanse will not be in the mod however the worlds and civilizations inside the Expanse are in the mod but in normal space.

[rjord2021]

The Xindi will play a part in the mod even though they were never seen or mentioned in the Kirk era.

Two things to consider:

1..The Gorn and Tholians were never seen on tv for the TNG and DS9 series but were in the Archer and Kirk eras. I am pretty sure that the Gorn and Tholians existed after TOS but were not mentioned as they were simply not considered by the show writers.

2.. The TOS series were stories around Kirk and the Enterprise and it is conceivable that other ships and crew met the Xindi in their own exploratory missions. With the number of explorer ships in Distant Worlds at least one or more will have stumbled on the Xindi

The same can be said about the Borg which would be in early development. They were not mentioned in the TOS tv era obviously and should not be a major force in the mod..... but with time travel etc a small number nay be found in a system or on a planet.

With the Xindi being reclusive and the Borg being in the Delta Quadrant they will be in the mod in a limited way.

[rjord2021]

My research shows that the species that eventually became the Borg originated from the Alpha Quadrant before fleeing to the Delta Quadrant. This mod may concentrate on the Borg species as they were before turning Borg and with the limited appearance of the Borg as we know them.

[rjord2021]

Wrigley's Pleasure Planet from the Episode "The Man Trap" added to the Sol System in orbit around Mars

[Lecivius]

FYI the Tholians were never seen, but they were mentioned, in DS9.

Just as a curiosity, any idea when this will be ready? "It will be ready when it is ready!!" is an answer [;)][:D], still, just curious as to how things are cooking.

[rjord2021]

If I waited until everything was completed it could take 6 to 12 months worst case scenario.

However I am looking at trying to release the mod in stages so that you get to play it earlier.

What I could do is release version 1.1 only with planetary systems seen or mentioned on season 1 of Star Trek TOS.
Then 1 or 2 weeks later add in Season 2 and then Season 3 after that. Then add in the aliens and worlds from movies 1 to 6 followed by the alternate timeline movies 1 to 3......

During these stages release an updated
and add trading to the role playing side of
mod.

This would complete part 1 of the mod at version 1.5

Version 1.6 would be part 2 of the mod

Version 1.7 would be part 3 of the mod

Version 1.8 would be adding in new worlds seen in the TNG and DS9 eras.

As for the new tv series races and new planets will be added depending on what timeline the show is in. It would not be prior to the Archer era or the Kirk era in my opinion and would have to be either between the Kirk and Picard eras or after DS9.

I may even add the new aliens and worlds each week as the tv show would make them canon in the Star Trek Universe.

In answer to your question....

As soon as possible....stay tuned.

[rjord2021]

I am hoping to have the first screenshots next week or the week after to show some of the mod.

The screenshots will show screens from Distant Worlds as well as the role playing side of it.

The screenshots will more than likely show where it all started with the Episode "Where no man has gone before" or the next Episode in chronological order "The man trap" where Kirk and crew meet the Space Vampire.

[rjord2021]

According to Star Trek Online the Xindi reappeared after a long time of self imposed exile in the Delphic Expanse.

This does not make sense as the Expanse was destroyed in the Archer Era.

I am therefore assuming that the expanse still exists but as normal space or that the expanse was destroyed and the Xindi exiled themselves on their home world which was in the Expanse.

[rjord2021]

Two posts ago I said Man Trap was the episode after Where No Man Has Gone Before.

This was incorrect and the first 10 episodes by Stardate are

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" 1312.4
"Mudd's Women" 1329.8
"The Corbomite Maneuver" 1512.2
"The Man Trap" 1513.1
"Charlie X" 1533.6
"The Enemy Within" 1672.1
"The Naked Time" 1704.2
"Balance of Terror" 1709.2
"The Squire of Gothos" 2124.5
"Patterns of Force" 2534.0

This means the screenshots may be of what happens when you arrive at Rigel XII in the Mudd's Women episode.

[rjord2021]

I finished reviewing the Galactic Map I created for the mod and unfortunately I am not happy with it as there are too many issues with it that would take too long to fix.

So as to not waste time over it I started work on the Star Trek Map V2.

Last night I gathered all locations visited by the Enterprise or mentioned in the first 6 episodes of Season 1 which are in order as follows:

Where No Man Has Gone Before
Mudd's Women
The Corbomite Maneuver
The Man Trap
Charlie X
The Enemy Within
The Naked Time
Balance of Terror

With these 6 episodes I have added 146 planets in 20 systems to my map using a new source map which I am satisfied is more accurate.

Tonight I will add in a further 14 episodes which will give a good map to use for testing the mod and getting to a stage where I can show some screenshots.

One of the issues I am looking at is that the Deneb system has 20 planets which would probably be too much to add to one system in Distant Worlds.

Alpha Leonis system has 13 planets and the Sol System will have 26 bodies added which includes minor planets and moons

[rjord2021]

Just a note on the Star Trek 2017 tv series.

Apparently the show will not be an Anthology Show as rumoured which is great news as I do not believe the show would have survived by telling different stories with different crews each season. My understanding is that it will be one time period and instead of focusing on one ship or station it will be about several ships and crews in one story.

The show will not be between TOS and TNG eras.

When it begins showing in 6 months time I will look at the planets and species individually as they appear and decide if and how they would be added to the mod. I need to look at each species and look at how they would have appeared 100 years earlier in the TOS era.

[rjord2021]

Have finished going through the first 26 episodes of Star Trek TOS in Stardate order and this has given me 322 planets in 51 star systems which are now being added to Star Trek Map V2.

Ceti Alpha V, the Gateway Planet with the Guardian of Forever and the 22 planets and 13 moons of the 3 systems making up Alpha Centauri are just some of the worlds being added over the next week.

[rjord2021]

With the Return of Khan mod I am adding to the role playing side events which are literally game-ending.... this is purely optional and you can choose to ignore if you so wish.

Many of the stories in Star Trek would have dire consequences if Kirk and his crew failed a mission.

For example, in the mod when you arrive at Gateway if you go down to the planet in a landing party you may go through the time portal and arrive in New York City in 1930 and meet Edith Keeler.

3 objectives need to be met and if all 3 fail depending on your command points and the dice throw there is a 12% chance that Edith Keeler survives which changes the future timeline resulting in the Federation never being formed..... Game Over and you would exit Distant Worlds and start again.

This again is optional and these game ending events are only a few..... but some missions have dire results if you fail and I am adding in to the mod options of what happens if a captain fails his mission.

Most of the time a failed mission results in negative diplomacy points with the native species of that planet, a rule where you cannot revisit that planet for a period of time and a rule where for that same time you cannot contact them unless they contact you first.

All explained in the RPG event cards for that specific event.

[rjord2021]

In the mod when your explorer ships discover a system called "K'lai Klinzhai"

You have stumbled into Klingon space and can expect to see a lot of these.







If you ignore the Neutral Zones and stray into either Romulan or Klingon space you will be attacked.


I originally had the Klingon homeworld in the Qo'noS System however with the proper naming for the systems when I find "K'lai Klinzhai" I am less likely to remember that there are a bunch of deadly Klingons in that system who will not like you venturing into their space.

This is the case with other races where you may not recognise the system until you enter it.

[rjord2021]

The new banner gives a clue to the story about Khan.

With the mod Khan and his crew still flee Earth on the Botany Bay but never meet Kirk and the Enterprise and are thus not woken up in events shown in Space Seed.

Khan never meets up with Marla McIvers and his future is changed completely and events of the Wrath of Khan never eventuate.

The drifting Botany Bay is discovered by a small cargo ship piloted by the woman shown on the left of the banner. She wakes up Khan and eventually joins his crew and takes them to a distant planet from which Khan plans his revenge against the Federation and the United Federation of Planets.