Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[rjord2021]

As the stars in the galaxy map (posted 3 posts ago) made it a little difficult to see the planetary systems in the mod I have created a version of the galaxy map without stars... as seen on the right of the picture below.

At high-resolution detail there are still some stars to remove. Once that is done I will post the no-stars version of the background map for anyone who wants to download it.

[rjord2021]

Creating the D7 class Klingon battle cruiser

[rjord2021]

The tv show Star Trek Discovery due out in 2017 appears to be taking a few ideas from Ralph McQuarrie including having a Federation ship in an asteroid embedded space dock...

My analysis of the Star Trek Discovery trailer shows the tv show is clearly in the TOS era. With the registry NCC 1031 the font is the one used in the Kirk TV era pre the refit era of the Motion Picture where the font is in black with a red outline.... and the name of the ship from the Motion Picture onward is curved.

With Discovery the ship name is not curved and does not have a red outline around NCC 1031 so this clearly shows Discovery is either during the Kirk era or in the period between TOS tv era and the Motion Picture.

I am adding a few ideas in from Discovery such as the asteroid dry docks and the concept picture below shows an altered image of a TOS ship leaving a Discovery style dry dock.

[rjord2021]

With this mod I have mentioned before that with role play ship building will be slower and you cannot queue 10 ships for building and have them circling your home planet 15 minutes later.

In Star trek you would be looking at a long construction time for a starship looking at perhaps a few years to build a single ship in one dry dock. This is by far more realistic than having hastly assembled ships and an entire fleet in less than a year.

My idea for the mod is that there are fewer ships at the beginning with this number increasing as you begin to colonise more planets and build more space docks. However there needs to be a realistic brake in place limiting rapid construction of ships. This will add to the mod as you will suffer more hurt if you have 3 ships and any of them are destroyed by Klingons, Romulans or Orion Pirates.

The other thing to consider is that if the player ship construction is slowed down this needs to be the case with AI as well so you are not outnumbered by enemy ships 10 to your 1.

I have an idea of how to do this and will start testing this idea over the weekend.



Picture below : Utopia Planitia shipyards - Mars
Concept of what the shipyard at Mars looks like

In all my games I build the shipyard in orbit around Mars to recreate the fabled Utopia Planitia shipyards over Mars which built many ships up to and including the USS Voyager.

I have the Mars shipyard set as my one and only shipyard in my games.

[rjord2021]

You are going to see original TOS weapons such as these for every race in this mod

[rjord2021]

There is a well known saying in Star Trek..... "You can Never Have Too Many Weapons"

I have over 180 images of weapons to be used so far in this mod.

I may have an extension to the role playing "Trading System" where you as a trader can buy and sell weapons on the black market and come into contact with smugglers, thieves and black marketeers.

The buying and selling of Black Market weapons is strictly prohibited by Starfleet but if you play this mod as another race or even as an individual then you will gain bonus strength depending on which weapons you buy on the Black Market.

[rjord2021]

As the mod develops I am doing a 100% revamp of the Galactopedia.

Designed specifically for each of the 3 parts of my mod the Galactopedia has being renamed to Library Computer Banks with a new look and data records relating specifically to this mod alone.

Working within the limitations of the current Galactopedia the Computer Banks will provide all the information you need to play this mod either with or without role playing enabled.

Details of steps you need to take as Captain of your Starship when your ship warps into a new system are explained.

How to take a landing party down to a planet and complete missions , or fail them, and gain or lose command points, science points, medical points or engineering points.

When your ship has been in a firefight with the Romulans this mod will give you a detailed damage report showing which systems of your ship were damaged and how to get damage control teams to fix them. Damage to either the warp or impulse engines may leave your ship drifting in enemy space until damaged areas are repaired. If your communications are out you will not be able to send out a distress call.

This mod is being designed to bring the world of Star Trek to Distant Worlds in a new way and if you are a Star Trek fan like me you will love what is coming with this mod.

Screenshots of the new Library Computer Banks will be shown here soon.

[rjord2021]

Some of the features of this mod currently being added:

- Planet classifications added to mod . Example : if a planet is volcanic according to the Star Trek universe then it will also appear as volcanic in Distant Worlds eg Rigel I

- Civilizations already on planets will be as per canon
eg Rigel II 500 million Orions, 250 million Kaylar, 200 million Rigelians, 40 million Humans, 10 million Chelarians

- Resources found on planets as close to what they should be in Star Trek
Eg Rigel I 41% normal metals, 7% radioactive elements, 5% gemstones, 3% industrial crystals and 1% special minerals


A lot of detail is going into this mod such as problems with the transporter when trying to beam the landing party back to the ship.
The mod will not be simply saying "The transporter is broken"

Instead as is the case with Damage Systems to the rest of the ship, the following components of the transporter could be damaged

Annular confinement beam
Biofilter
Gravitational compensator
Heisenberg compensator
Materializer
Molecular imaging scanner
Particle lock
Pattern buffer
multiplex pattern buffer
Phase discriminator
Phase transition coil
Primary energizing coil
Site-to-site transport interlock
Targeting scanner
Transporter console

Some of these quick to fix.... others not so quick. When you have transporter issues any one of 15 components may need fixing before you can bring the landing back to the ship.

[sdevault]

WOW...This is going to be awesome!

[rjord2021]

As each system of planets is added to this Distant Worlds mod I create the role playing cards that may be required once your ship arrives in that system.

Last night the Enterprise arrived in the 61 Ursae Majoris system and the roll of the dice directed me to proceed to Archer IV and orbit the planet.

Another dice roll and a landing party was assembled to beam down to the planet. Two more dice rolls gave the following results:

- The landing party can have a total of 6 people beaming down. The dice roll told me to only have 2 people going down.
With the planet Archer IV 6 people should have been on the landing party.
With the dice roll only giving me 2 in the party the mission to the planet was already in trouble.

- Another dice roll determined that Captain Kirk is not included in the landing party.
This is further trouble as Kirk's absence means fewer command points for the mission to succeed.

- Once the landing party has beamed down following instructions in the mod I then roll the dice again to see results of mission on the planet

-I got this card...oh no!






-While waiting for the storm to clear I watch the Distant Worlds screen as Orion Pirates have been reported in this sector and this would not be a great time for Orions to arrive in the system.

[rjord2021]

In populating the worlds with existing civilizations who may end up forming an Empire in their own right some of the planets need a lot of research.

For example the planet Xyrillia needs to be added to the map but there is very little if any information on exactly where the planet is located. The Xyrillians were only seen in one episode and referred to in 2 novels none of which indicated exactly where the Xyrillian home world was located.

For each planet going into this mod the planet is checked against Federation archives to determine what type of planet it is.... each planet is classified such as Class M, Class B, Class G, Class L or other classification.

Each class may have different landscapes.

Example A Class M World may be a water world such as Class M may be a water world (continental) , rocky or desert.

When your ships travel through distant Worlds and enter a new system they will scan the planets and then classify each planet as an M Class, G Class or other class world which will be shown in Distant Worlds. This is important to know the Class of World as you do not want to set up a colony on a class B world as the surface is molten and there is little if any atmosphere.

So getting back to the planet Xyrillia which has no information on what the world looks like or what system it is in.

I have now discovered a third source of information which then answers these questions.


The name of their home world: Xyrillia in the Prin Dovis Sector

Surface Water: 61%
Atmosphere: 1.07 is a standard pressure with 68% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 11% trace chemicals
Climate: Warm semi-tropical with tropical at the equator and temperate to sub zero near the poles.
Terrain: Vast jungles with bio-luminescent growth growing under the jungles canopies.
Population: Just over 5 billion

This information tells me exactly which type of world to add to the mod.

But any other planets or moons in the system.

Turns out that the system has 7 planets and Xyrillia is the 4th planet in the system.
Xyrillia also has 1 moon.

So my third source of information has given me all the information I need to add this world and civilization to the mod.

Using this method each planet will have the correct classification as deemed by Star Trek...eg Class M World or other
Each planet will have correct number of planets though limited as some planets have 12 moons
Each planet will be positioned in the correct order or planets in the system...eg 4th of 7 planets

[rjord2021]

When you play The Return of Khan you will meet races more advanced than you are. Each race is assigned a tech level.

For example the Xyrillians were hardly seen in Star Trek yet they were highly advanced and had holodeck technology in the Archer era.
They have a tech level of N which puts them in the same tech level as Klingons.

The difference between the 46 different tech levels will be only marginally noticed in Different Worlds as I am trying to keep each race on a roughly level playing field so you don't get wiped out by several highly advanced civilizations.

Tech levels will play a part in the role playing however and when scanning a new planet from orbit you will discover races with a tech level of "AA Prehistoric Age eg Alpha Carinae II" to "X Non-corporeal Age eg The Organians"


The use of tech levels will not make Distant Worlds overly complicated but it will play a part in the role playing side of the mod.

For example, if you go to Kavis Alpha IV which only appears in the 3rd part of this mod you will find this planet is in the Ion Age and the planet is flagged as "RESTRICTED: No contact permitted"

This means you can scan the planet from orbit but no landing parties are permitted on the surface. If you do, then you will be directed back to Earth to face a Starfleet Board of inquiry where it is likely the Board will "roast the Captain alive" due to his alleged improper actions as a ships Captain.


When you arrive at a planet marked as "RESTRICTED: No contact permitted" you will throw 4 dice instead of 2 to determine if a card is played meaning that the Captain defies the Prime Directive. There is currently a 4% chance this may happen.

The fate of your captain and possibly crew by the Starfleet Board of inquiry will be determined by dice throw and the entire crew may be thrown out of active duty.

Playing as James Tiberius Kirk you would have to imagine that the card would have a story strong enough to cause Kirk even to think of defying the Prime Directive. Such a card would possibly be a rescue mission to save Spock and / or McCoy from certain death.

[rjord2021]

With the role playing side of this Distant Worlds mod there has been a change to the Gameplay.....

Previously I had mentioned there would be a delay before you were allowed to re-throw the dice when for example you were beaming a landing party down to the planet.

With testing I have changed this so that you can now keep on throwing the dice again and again with no delay until you get the result as per the RPG card. There will be enough going on Distant Worlds Universe that you may have to respond to a Klingon attack on a Federation colony and suspend throwing the dice until the Klingon attack is thwarted.

You are also limited to 10 throws to get a result as per the card. If you do not get that result then the default action occurs....eg Landing party now beams down to planet.

Note: With some cards this may not be good as a default action may be that time ran out to complete a part of the mission and you only have one chance left to complete the mission.

[rjord2021]

Sometimes I need to go back and check the planets in Distant Worlds for accuracy

For example, there was an issue with the name of the planet that the Xyrillians come from ....Is it actually Thera and not Xyrillia?
I was watching the Star Trek episode featuring the Xyrillians and the one stated "That's Thera... it's where I come from."

I am rewatching episodes of Star Trek to check the accuracy of this mod. Further research showed that Thera was actually the name of the city and the planet is still called Xyrillia.

[rjord2021]

Shakedown Cruise in the mod.....


In Star Trek it is common for new ships to undergo a Shakedown cruise.

A shakedown cruise is an operation where a new starship and her crew tested the ship's systems and it is usually a routine or even a brief ceremonial "maiden voyage"where the shakedown can reveal flaws inherent in the vessel's construction.

The mod will have shakedown cruises for new ships.


You may have thought that after the ship is constructed, a new captain and crew assigned to it and the ship leaves the dry dock that it is then put on auto and forgot about. Not the case.

Before the new ship can head off to explore new systems or join a fleet of ships the new ship will need to undergo a shakedown cruise. As is the case with most things in this mod you do not get to decide where the shakedown cruise heads.

When the ship leaves dry dock you will roll 2 dice as shown below in the concept diagram. Whatever the dice comes up with is the direction that the ship will go generally until it reaches an unexplored system or arrives at a planet or meets another race.

When it reaches that destination the shakedown cruise is considered complete and the ship can be assigned to the ship's captain to begin exploring the galaxy...ie...goes automatic.

[rjord2021]

The Two Neutral Zones in this mod

At some stage in this mod you will arrive at conditions where you will arrive near one of two Neutral Zones.

A neutral zone is an area of space not claimed by any political power and are areas created as buffer zones and borders between the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans.

The Romulan Neutral Zone was put in place first with the Klingon Neutral Zone being added later.

Since your ships are on auto you will need to monitor the Neutral Zone and make sure none of your ships cross it unless there has been diplomatic understanding with the Klingons or Romulans. Since the Klingons and Romulans hate the Federation is unlikely there will be any diplomatic negotiations....

If you see one of your ships nearing the Neutral Zone you will need to put your Starfleet hat on and change the ship direction away from the Neutral Zone.

Entry by either side into the Zone constituted an act of war so if your ships enter the zone and meet the Romulans or Klingons the result will be war.

If you encounter Romulan or Klingon ships in Federation space this can also lead to war and diplomats will step in to try and diffuse the situation. The results of negotiations will be decided by a dice throw. If the dice comes up with a declaration of war then you will go into the Diplomacy screen and declare war.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: rjord1

Shakedown Cruise in the mod.....


In Star Trek it is common for new ships to undergo a Shakedown cruise.

A shakedown cruise is an operation where a new starship and her crew tested the ship's systems and it is usually a routine or even a brief ceremonial "maiden voyage"where the shakedown can reveal flaws inherent in the vessel's construction.

The mod will have shakedown cruises for new ships.


You may have thought that after the ship is constructed, a new captain and crew assigned to it and the ship leaves the dry dock that it is then put on auto and forgot about. Not the case.

Before the new ship can head off to explore new systems or join a fleet of ships the new ship will need to undergo a shakedown cruise. As is the case with most things in this mod you do not get to decide where the shakedown cruise heads.

When the ship leaves dry dock you will roll 2 dice as shown below in the concept diagram. Whatever the dice comes up with is the direction that the ship will go generally until it reaches an unexplored system or arrives at a planet or meets another race.

When it reaches that destination the shakedown cruise is considered complete and the ship can be assigned to the ship's captain to begin exploring the galaxy...ie...goes automatic.

in my opinion in that example using two 6-sides dices is wrong because the chance to get each result from 2 to 12 is not equal; and also you cannot get the "1" result..

the player should much better use a 12-sides dice instead !!!

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo



in my opinion in that example using two 6-sides dices is wrong because the chance to get each result from 2 to 12 is not equal; and also you cannot get the "1" result..

the player should much better use a 12-sides dice instead !!!

This is an example of how the Shakedown Cruise works and it is up to you how you roll the dice. You can use a 12 sided dice or two six sided dice...that is really up to you.

With the example above to roll the dice and have a 1 selected this is what I do..... instead of rolling both dice at the same time roll them one at a time. If the first dice comes up with a 1 then 1 is the result. If the result is not a 1 then roll the second dice and that is the resulting direction to take. All of this will be explained in detail when the mod releases.

There are also dice rollers on the Internet such as www.random.org/dice/ for people who don't have dice and may prefer to use their tablets or ipads as a dice roller.

But yes ideally a 12 sided dice is a better option for those who know where to get them.

[rjord2021]

An example of some of the different mission cards you will see for a planet.....

In Distant Worlds when you enter orbit around a planet with an existing population on it these cards will come into play and determine if you send down a landing party to the planet or communicate to the planetary leaders from the ship.

Not all leaders will allow you to beam down to the planet.

Each planet with a civilization on it will have a minimum of 6 mission cards that will appear according to dice throw. Once all 3 part of the mod are complete I hope to be able to add more mission cards per planet so there will be a minimum of 12 possible missions per planet...but that is for a later date.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: rjord1

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo



in my opinion in that example using two 6-sides dices is wrong because the chance to get each result from 2 to 12 is not equal; and also you cannot get the "1" result..

the player should much better use a 12-sides dice instead !!!

This is an example of how the Shakedown Cruise works and it is up to you how you roll the dice. You can use a 12 sided dice or two six sided dice...that is really up to you.

With the example above to roll the dice and have a 1 selected this is what I do..... instead of rolling both dice at the same time roll them one at a time. If the first dice comes up with a 1 then 1 is the result. If the result is not a 1 then roll the second dice and that is the resulting direction to take. All of this will be explained in detail when the mod releases.

There are also dice rollers on the Internet such as www.random.org/dice/ for people who don't have dice and may prefer to use their tablets or ipads as a dice roller.

But yes ideally a 12 sided dice is a better option for those who know where to get them.

is not any difficult to get a 12 sided dice.. [:)]

anyway, if someone don't know how to get one, he or she can use instead 12 "counters" numbered from 1 to 12 to be randomly draw from a cup.

it's the only way to have the exactly equal chance to take any one of the 12 random directions.

using two 6 sided dices will result in nearly 45% chances to go in the directions 6, 7 and 8 instead of the regular 25% of the cases.