Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[rjord2021]

Star Trek - The Return of Khan Mod

#####################################

1.1 The very beginning of the Mod

#####################################


The following is how I have been playing distant Worlds for the last 4 or 5 months as I test the mod during development.
Playing the mod in the way I am going to outline it over the coming weeks is purely optional and you can choose how you want to play it.

When I play The Return of Khan mod the first thing that is obvious is that Distant Worlds Universe is played at a slower rate.

In the real star Trek Universe 10 ships are not manufactured in 5 to 10 minutes and the next ship queued for construction certainly does not enter first stage of production until the prior ship has left space dock.

Playing this mod in full Trek mode will require ship construction to be manual and not an automatic procedure controlled by Distant Worlds.

As I said before procedures in distant Worlds are slowed down in this mod and you will play at a more realistic rate following the actual procedures set out by Starfleet.



The picture below is the first role play card you will have to play

The card will tell you when to begin construction on the Enterprise which will be the first Constitution Class ship assembled.
Captain Kirk will be assigned his mission when the Enterprise is near completion.
Space dock construction crew departs and the Enterprise crew board the Enterprise via Transporter or Shuttles.
Captain Kirk and the bridge crew take their positions on the bridge.

Accurate Starfleet procedures are followed to prepare the Enterprise for departing the Space Dock.
The Enterprise leaves space dock under impulse power.
The course is set and the Enterprise undergoes a Shakedown cruise in the sol system visiting each planet.

But before we get too far ahead.... one important step needs to be performed.
You need to allocate Captain Kirk with Command Points he has achieved so far since leaving Starfleet Academy.
If Kirk has 6 Command Points to start with missions will be easier to complete.
If Kirk has 3 or less Command Points he will be inexperienced and likely to make mistakes during missions.

All of these are explained on the first role play card you will play.

This all sounds complicated and something that will take time but the role play is actually very quick ....under 5 minutes.....and the time you will be waiting the most is for the ship to be constructed in Distant Worlds Universe.

[rjord2021]

Star Trek - The Return of Khan Mod

################################################

1.2 Assigning Command Points to Captain Kirk

################################################

When dealing with new life forms and new civilizations he is likely to meet during the game, Captain Kirk will rely on his experience to get through some of the more challenging missions.

To work out Captain Kirk's experience prior to joining the Enterprise you would simply roll one 6 sided dice. An ideal time to do this is while the Enterprise is being constructed.

It is important to only roll once and accept whatever the dice rolled...each value from 1 to 6 will give 6 different experience points.

Generally a 6 will be a good thing as you give Captain Kirk 6 command points before he even steps on the Enterprise.
However.... some missions will be easier if you have low command points and these will be explained when you encounter those missions.

So generally the picture below seems like bad news...only 1 command point for Kirk making him less experienced.
However, this low command point ranking will be good at times while bad in other times depending on the mission.


Rolling a 1 may not be so bad.....

[rjord2021]

Star Trek - The Return of Khan Mod

################################################

1.3 My roll for Captain Kirk's Command Points

################################################


During missions Captain Kirk may win or even loose Command Points.
If he only has 1 Command Point it is important he does not lose that point.

[rjord2021]

Star Trek - The Return of Khan Mod

################################################

1.4 Set Sol as your Starting System

################################################


Go into the Editor, double click on the Star and change the Star name to Sol.

You also want to have Earth as your starting planet.

Depending on your preferences you can add in all the planets of our solar system or as I am doing..... if there are only 3 planets name them Mercury, Venus, Earth etc.

Not having all the planets in Sol would add more of a challenge to the nod...... and would be explained by the fact that every time you play this mod you have created an alternate timeline.

With an infinite number of alternate dimensions out there in space there will be a dimension out there somewhere where there is only 3 planets in the Sol System.

[rjord2021]

Star Trek - The Return of Khan Mod

################################################

1.5 Set Ship Building to Control Manually

################################################

The mod requires the settings under options to be changed where Ship Building is not suggested but is manually controlled by you.

The Federation and other races in the mod will take longer to build their ships to keep the mod as real and close to the tv series as possible.

There were only 19 Constitution Class Starships like the Enterprise built by the Federation so it would be unrealistic to have 60 Constitution Class Starships in the mod.

I play Distant Worlds Universe on expert mode as seen below where everything is manually controlled by me.

It is your preference how you play the mod but this mod works best with ship building manually controlled.

[rjord2021]

Star Trek - The Return of Khan Mod

################################################

1.6 Time to Build The Earth Space Dock

################################################

Before you can build the Enterprise you will need to create the means by which to build the starship.

Go to the construction yard and purchase the Earth Space Dock.

The Name Space Dock has been added to the mod ... circled in the picture below...... and some other changes will be made to this screen to give it a Star Trek feel to it.

Construction of the spaceport is controlled by a role play card which will indicate when Starfleet has given their approval for construction of the Space Dock.

[rjord2021]

Changes to Starfleet Personnel in the mod

- Removed 3 Federation of Planets Presidents who served prior to Kenneth Wescott.
Kenneth Wescott was the President in Office during the Original 5 year mission of the Enterprise
15 Federation Presidents now in the mod

- I have added more Starship Captains to the ranks
Over the 30 year period covered by the 3 parts to the mod there are now 55 captains serving in the Federation
If the captains are all killed then First Officers during that time will be promoted to Captain Status

- Last night I completely revamped the names shown in the Federation characters file
The list of names is now more accurate to what is listed in Star Trek history

- Bridge personnel for each of the ships will be featured in the mod under their correct ranks

- The Enterprise now has tagged with the ship the total number of crew onboard
The crew numbers will change with deaths during missions or transfers on and off the ship
As Captain you will need to manage the number of crew on board to maintain ship integrity
In the 5 year mission there were 431 officers and crew on board
After the Enterprise refit this number was extended to 500 as seen in part 2 of this mod

As your crew number diminishes you will need to :
- go to starbases or Starfleet Headquarters to see if new crew are available to transfer on board
- Availability of new crew is determined by role play
- Success in this game will require you to keep crew levels at peak operating numbers

[rjord2021]

Preview shot of the USS Collins commanded by Vice Admiral Patricia Carlson.

This is a Soyuz Class Starship which is a Starfleet border cutter that can be used as a light attack fighter.

Most of the time it would be patrolling a single system though it can warp into a distant battle.

Being lightly armed and shielded it is best used for patrol within systems rather than in a head to head battle with the Klingons.

[rjord2021]

Star Trek - The Return of Khan Mod

################################################

1.7 Bridge Crew Transports Over to the Enterprise

################################################


When the Enterprise has been constructed at the Space Dock the crew of the starship will begin transporting across to the ship.....

The characters making up the Bridge Crew , Engineering and Medical Departments will be stationed on Earth and transport over to their stations prior to the ship leaving Space Dock.

The picture below shows the crew of the Enterprise on board the starship.

You will notice that they are grouped together on the enterprise under the new role of "Ship Crewmen - Officer ".

Under the mission column the phrase Waiting at USS Enterprise will be changed.... most likely to "Stationed at....." which will work if the character is located on a ship or a planet.

Gary Mitchell and Carol Marcus are also shown on duty on the personnel list.


If the Enterprise is destroyed in battle all of these characters will be listed as KIA.

[rjord2021]

Testing the new Federation Class Dreadnought

[rjord2021]

There has never been a Federation Style Construction ship shown in the Kirk Era TV series and this means the ship needs to be created from scratch. This is the case with other races too eg a Vulcan or Andorian or Klingon or Romulan construction ship do not exist.

Below is my work in progress but almost complete version of what the Federation Construction Ship would appear like in my opinion. Warp nacelles and impulse drives at the back and cargo pods in the front containing the worker-bees as well as the materials needed for construction.

[rjord2021]

The Ferengi Alliance prefer to remain neutral when it comes to galaxy politics as making enemies would diminish business opportunities. When they make First Contact with a new species they tend not to identify themselves which is why despite many encounters with the Federation the Ferengi were never identified as a species until well into the Picard era.

However, things have changed in the galaxy and Ferengi ships in the Kirk era now find they are being attacked by ships from an unknown species resulting in their entire cargo of gold-pressed latinum being stolen.

The 44th Rules of Acquisition : "Never argue with a loaded phaser."



As the Ferengi build war ships to protect Ferengi trade in the TOS era, I am now creating my version of what the Ferengi ships look like since they were first seen in the Archer Era and then again in the Picard era.

Below is a test I did today on one such design.

[rjord2021]

As you may have guessed from the last post, you are able to play as the Ferengi as they do battle with those who choose to steal their gold-pressed latinum.

As profit is the most important thing to a Ferengi playing as a Ferengi will allow you to follow Rules of Acquisition such as Rule 80

"If it works, sell it. If it works well, sell it for more. If it doesn´t work, quadruple the price and sell it as an antique"

.... and you as the Ferengi can sell items in the mod for profit.

[Dakkon7]

Awesome, love your attention to detail.

What were you planning to do about the Cardassians? From my understanding their isn't too much fluff to go on regarding what their soceity was like before they formed the Cardassian Union, aside from probably being family orientated.

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: Dakkon7

Awesome, love your attention to detail.

What were you planning to do about the Cardassians? From my understanding their isn't too much fluff to go on regarding what their soceity was like before they formed the Cardassian Union, aside from probably being family orientated.

The Cardassian Union and the obsidian order was set up in 1871 so 393 years later at the time of this mod the Cardassians were expanding across the galaxy in order to find much needed resources.

The Cardassians did not meet any of the major species until they met the Klingons and subsequently went to war with them in 2286... the same year as the events covered in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.

The Cardassians then made contact with the Federation 3 years after that.

Up till this point the Cardassians were expanding in their part of the galaxy without meeting any stronger races to keep them in check...until they met the Klingons.

For this mod (where every time you play the game you generate an alternate version of the timeline) it will be assumed that the Cardassians met the Klingons and Federation 22 years earlier than the Prime Timeline.

The plan is that the Cardassians will appear in the mod in all 3 parts with the first part having negative bias settings and dislike between the Klingons and Cardassians . In the 2nd part they will have a distrust for the Federation and in the 3rd part of the mod the Cardassians are pretty hostile towards both the Klingons and the Federation.


I have a 123 page book which gives me a lot of detail on the Cardassians and what was going on prior to the Picard era...see an extract in the picture below......

As with many of the other races I have to create the Cardassian ships as I believe they would appear in this stage of the timeline.

And best of all..... the Cardassians will be playable in all 3 parts of this mod.

[rjord2021]

In addition to my last post...... not forgetting the Romulans but in Part 2 and part 3 of this mod the alliance between the Romulans and Klingons breaks down in 2292 and the two races will be blood enemies for the next seventy five years.

With all this fighting going on you would hate to see other races becoming aggressive.......

[rjord2021]

How much detail is going into this mod?

During the creation of each of the ship sets for each race that appears in the mod I am not paying too much attention to how big each ship is in the game. If I did that now the mod development would be slowed down by the attention to detail for each ship.

However I know exactly the size of each ship being added to the mod and before this mod is released each ship will be scaled down to the correct size.

For example looking at the picture below showing the USS Enterprise and the Klingon D-7 cruiser it would not be realistic to have the D-7 bigger than or even the same size as the Enterprise.

The Enterprise is 289 meters in length
The Klingon D-7 is 228 meters in length
The Romulan Bird of Prey is 192 meters in length


So to keep the scale of the ships correct and in this case the Enterprise being the longest of all 3

- The Klingon D-7 would be scaled down to 78% of the Enterprise and the Bird of Prey would be 66% the size of the Enterprise.


The correct size will however not apply everywhere.

For example the Doomsday Machine and the Borg cube are much larger than the Enterprise by almost 4 times the size.

And if you thought that was big consider that V'ger from the Motion Picture was 337 times longer than the Enterprise which is why it took so much time in the movie to show the Enterprise travel inside V'ger.

When creating the Cardassian ships of the 23rd century the largest will be a Cardassian Freighter which will be scaled down to 88% of the Enterpise size and the smallest Cardassian ship will be a transport at 35% of the Enterprise size.


The above is the reason why you will see the Enterprise being so large in the game.

[rjord2021]

The first Cardassian ship for the mod

- A Cardassian cargo ship of the 23rd Century on it's way to strip mine a world of it's resources. ( May be modified further before the mod is released)

[Dakkon7]

I just checked out Memory Alpha and you're right, which is pretty lame.

My original question about the Cardassians came from this little snippet (Can't post links yet on this account so search for "Picard and the Cardassian" on Youtube and go to 1:57) from Chain of Command, which implies a very different Cardassian society existed before the TNG series (Because I doubt they're talking about history that took place almost 500 years ago). One which was struggling but relatively peaceful, but then the military takes over and subsequently the expansionist period of their history takes place.

Damn lazy writers, they have the workings of a cool idea and then they throw it away in favor of not wanting to use their imagination.

[rjord2021]

I am hoping to try and tell the story of the Cardassian people starting off with the time when they were struggling with issues such as famine but were peaceful and then suddenly all that changed with one decision.

That is the great thing about creating a mod like this is that I can tell 2 different sides to the story. I am sure that the military takeover was not widely accepted so there would have been rebellion and uprising which would have been cut down swiftly by the Obsidian Order.

If you have any ideas that you would like to see with the Cardassians in this mod please feel free to suggest them and I will see if I can add them in.

It is possible in this mod to have a timeline where the military has not yet taken over until a little way into the mod at which stage they then start expanding out and strip mining worlds. In that case what would the Federation do and would they allow entire worlds to be left without resources or would they not get involved due to the Prime Directive which At its core was this philosophical concept:

"That Starfleet personnel should refrain from interfering in the natural, unassisted, development of societies, even if such interference was well-intentioned. The Prime Directive was viewed as so fundamental to Starfleet that officers swore to uphold the Prime Directive, even at the cost of their own life or the lives of their crew. "