Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[rjord2021]

Spoiler :

The Klingons are not limited to one race..... there are others.
Photoshopping their picture this hour.

[rjord2021]

Christine Chappell has been added as a major character on the Enterprise. She is not a member of the crew when the Enterprise goes on her first mission but at some stage she will appear in the mod and be transferred to the Enterprise.

Christine will play a fairly big part in the role play as well.

This picture is of Christine prior to joining the Enterprise as noted by the different Starfleet emblem on her tunic.

[rjord2021]

I have photoshopped the creature from Man Trap and given it more high definition detail.
I originally had another image in mind but I didn't really like it and have opted to stick with the original look of the creature from the TOS era.
I am pleased with the resulting picture below so it will be added to the mod.

In the episode this creature was the last of it's kind and the race became extinct....though there was one held in stasis by Trellane at a much later date so the race was not yet extinct.

In this mod the creature is not extinct but there are not many of them left. After much thought I have decided that this creature would not show it's true form to other races during view-screen communications as it would not want to be recognized as a creature that kills for salt.

However the true form of the creature will be seen in the mod...just not when communicating with other races.

I am still deciding if this creature is playable or not.

The correct name of this race is the Fotiallan race. When you deal with the Fotiallans you may not remember who they are and what they do.

[rjord2021]

The Metrons from the Arena episode are a powerful race...however the appearance they were given for their brief time in the episode was all wrong.

The Metrons appeared as glamorous aliens in lace-up gladiator sandals and glittery dresses with makeup and this in my opinion was not the look of a dangerous race of beings.

I have completely overhauled the way they look in my mod as shown by the female Metron pictured below.

[rjord2021]

Friday's Child was an episode I like to forget as the Capellan soldiers look terrible in their costume and this is also the only episode I know where Kirk didn't seem to follow the Prime Directive when he didnt seem to mind when one of his security guards spots a Klingon and automatically fires at him.

This one was down at the bottom of my list for episodes I like but it did have Julie Newmar in it so it was saved from the position of bottom of the list.

As I cannot stand the way the Capellans look they have also had a makeover as shown below with a female Capellan leader who is more dangerous than she appears. She is a strong leader who has led the Capellans into the age of warp travel.

[rjord2021]

With the Metrons and Capellans I will still have characters from those episodes in the mod.. but they will be more in the background and appear in the role play side a little more....

I have simply added some new characters in to give those races the look I am after and make a stronger story.

With the picture below of Julie Newmar I show how I have tweaked the lighting to give the characters a more modern look

[rjord2021]

The Megans are a race who had visited Earth before but had been used and mistreated for their magical powers and now have a grudge against the humans of Earth.

After the Salem Witch trials, the Megans fled Earth for a distant planet to start a new life.

500 years later the Megans are heading back to Earth to settle their differences with Earth.


I have converted the Megans from how they appeared in Star Trek Animated and given them a new look for the mod. Their appearance in the mod with magic and wizardry is sure to cause problems for Earth and other races in the quadrant.

[rjord2021]

A lot of work has been done today adding more races in from Series 3 of Star Trek TOS.

The picture below is one of the warships for the Melkotians...... the other ships will be similar but with differing colors.


I did another test of the mod yesterday and have the building of ships turned down real slow for all races across the mod. The building of ships and starbases is now more realistic and when you have battles it will be more likely to be around 1 or 5 starships firing at each other and the loss of one starship being a very serious loss.

With Distant Worlds before when I lost a ship it would be Ök...no problems... I will just quickly build another ship...... this time the loss of a ship will be a heavy loss for any race.

When you think of Star Trek TOS episodes the ships battling each other were normally less than 5 and personally I enjoyed the fights with fewer ships than those where you have 30 ships in a fire fight.

The Enterprise would also be sent to a planet because..... You are the closest ship to Vulcan Jim... we need you to pick up Ambassador Sarek.

The mod is coming along very nicely and if you enjoy Distant Worlds with a few differences then this mod is for you.

[rjord2021]

This morning I encountered a badly damaged Federation vessel and took the Enterprise in to investigate. As we got closer my First Officer warned me that the damaged ship's warp core was going critical. Before we could get away or check for life signs on that other ship... it blew up.



So now I can test the procedure I use when any of my ships are damaged by another ship self destructing or simply blowing up due to heavy damage it sustained.

The following process is also used where a Federation ship is investigating ruins and there is an explosion on the planet. Determine any deaths and adjust the number of crew on board that ship.


The process for All ships in the Federation being damaged
--------------------------------------------------------

1. I pause the game and immediately go to the damaged AI ship and turn off automation.
If I do not do this the ship will automatically warp to the nearest starbase for repairs.
I need to check the damage to crew and determine any casualties or deaths.

2. Using role play I determine if there have been any serious injuries on board.
If crewmen have died then I adjust the figure for number of crew on board that ship using the Editor.
Each ship has a running total for how many crew are on board.
When you receive a message telling you a ship was destroyed it will also tell you how many people were on board.
I am testing the idea of having number of crew on enemy ships logged as well.
3. Next I need to determine what part of the ship was damaged.There can be more than 1 section out of action.
For example if the Warp Drive is damaged the ship cannot move from that location.
If the warp drive is seriously damaged and needs new parts the Communications Officer needs to send a distress signal to Starfleet.
Next I need to determine if any other part of the ship is damaged.
Communications system is offline.... Chief Engineer works with his team to bring communications back online.
When communications is back the Communications Officer sends the Distress Signal to Starfleet.

4. Back at Starfleet the Distress signal is received and Starfleet instructs the nearest ship to provide assistance.
Check the map to see if the Enterprise is the closest ship.
If the Enterprise has a landing party on the Surface of a planet role play determines if Enterprise leaves them on the planet and gives assistance. If so, the enterprise retirns to the planet to pick up the landing party characters left on the planet.
Enterprise is not the closest so find the closest ship and turn off its automation.
Send the closest ship to the damaged Federation vessel.
On arriving roleplay decides when the damaged ship has been repaired.
Once repaired set both ships automation back on.
Rescue ship will go back to it's mission or embark on a new one.
The damaged ship now has warp drive and will head to the nearest starbase for ship repairs.

5. If the damaged ship has no shields or weapons systems are down it will escort the damaged ship to the starbase for repairs.

6. While both ships are repairing the warp engine they are both open to attack by Klingons or Romulans.
The Klingons and Romulans are set to attack the Federation whenever the chance falls in front of them.


Despite being the captain of the Enterprise you will also need to respond to Starfleet when a Distress signal is intercepted.
For Distress Signals you will need to take control of both the ship in distress as well as the ship sent to provide assistance.
During Distress Signal Missions I have the speed set at 0.5 to slow things down.

[rjord2021]

When the Captain of a Federation ship alerted Starfleet they had found ruins on a planet and asked for permission to investigate the ruins.... if Starfleet gave that acknowledgement and there is an explosion previously I would have said Oh No! and then carried on with what I was doing.

Now when there is an "incident" .... not necessarily an explosion... gameplay will now ask me to determine what happened.

It could be any of the following for example.

- The entire landing party or only some of them... red shirts....were killed down on the planet
- A crewman picked up a disease, was quarantined and died in sickbay
- A member of the Landing party picked up a disease which is spreading on the ship.
- An unknown alien is on board the ship and crewmen are dying.

No matter what the case.... I now need to no longer ignore the Incident at the ruins message and actively see what happened.
This may involve turning off Automation of that ship and sending the nearest ship to provide assistance...possibly the Enterprise.

If there is a disease on board killing crewmen......
... one dice throw to determine if the Chief Medical Officer has treated the disease successfully.
... if not throw one 12 sided dice to see how many people are in sickbay
... Throw one dice to determine if the Chief Medical Officer has treated the disease successfully.
... If not throw one dice to determine how many people in sickbay have died.

By this stage the Chief Medical Officer should have a cure
If not roll the dice to see how many people are sick...add to the previous total of sick people less those that died.
Roll the dice again and if not treated determine how many more people died.
If you have bad luck the disease could wipe out your entire crew.

After the disease epidemic is over , role play determines if the sick people are treatable on board or does that ship have to go to a starbase

[rjord2021]

Determining number of crew on each ship.

When a Federation ship is constructed and leaves dry dock, I need to assign the number of crew on board that ship.

Each class of ship in the mod has the standard number of crew.
However this may be more due to number of visitors or ambassadors on board.

When assigning crew role one 12 sided dice...add this to the standard ship compliment for that class of ship using the Editor.

While exploring space and you see a Federation ship with less than the standard crew on board, send it to the nearest Starbase or Earth to take on more crew.

Normally you will see it has low crew numbers after an incident occurs with that ship such as a battle with a Bird of Prey.

With any battle with other races, for every ship involved..including enemy ships... role the dice to see:

- if there were only light injuries
- if there were deaths, record the number of deaths for each ship involved and add record to captains log

When the enterprise returns to Earth or a Starbase, role one dice to determine how many crew are leaving the ship and then roll another dice to determine how many new crew are joining the ship.

Make sure you keep above the minimum standard crew for your ship.

[rjord2021]

Spending tonight on making a big change to the mod where you can play any race that appeared in Star Trek Kirk era that was not a primitive race and a few races that appeared in TNG and DS9 as early versions of their races.

For Role Play playing as the Federation would be required, followed by the ability to role play as Klingons or Romulans in later updates.

However for people who do not want to play as role play you will be able to play as the the Tholian, Vulcans, Breen, Gorn, Elasian, Tellarites, Iotians, Kelvins, Klingons, Romulans, Andorians, Harry Mudd, El-Aurians, Cherons, Q ..... etc

[rjord2021]

Currently working on the Iotians..... the race whose society was based on a book called "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties" left behind by the USS Horizon.

In the episode Piece of the Action Leonard McCoy discovered he had left his communicator on the planet. The Iotians made use of the inner workings of McCoy's communicator and learned transtator-based Federation technology as Kirk feared they might.

By the time the next Federation starship arrived to the planet, the Iotians had built a Federation starbase-like installation in orbit and were all wearing Starfleet uniforms.



With Distant Worlds I can't have the Iotians as "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties" in starships so I have developed the story continuation where they are encountered and are dressed in Starfleet uniforms.

I need to work on what ships they have as they saw the uniforms of Kirk's landing party but they did not see the enterprise.....or did they considering they built a starbase like installation in orbit.?

With the Federation not making First Contact with the Iotians it makes no sense that they would be in starfleet uniforms....however if you play the mod with roleplay it will make sense when you play the story.

Working in photoshop on the new Iotians images.


EDIT

Image added of the process of adding a Starfleet uniform to Bela Okmyx
Image is still a work in progress.

[rjord2021]

The Episode By Any Other Name has always been a favorite of mine with the scene where two crewmen are turned into dehydrated porous cuboctahedron solids and then the villain of the episode punishes Kirk by crumbling one of the solid cubes in his hand effectively killing Kirk's crewmen.... or woman in this case.

So this is one episode I have been longing to add to the mod.

The picture below shows the character Kelinda who will be the main character seen for the Kelvans.

The leftmost side of the picture is from a Hi Definition source of the episode.
The rightmost side is the result after processing it through photoshop.

As with all other pictures, I have improved the color and enhanced some details not seen in the original picture.
I also removed the silver bar from the wall behind Kelinda as the picture looked better without it.

Removing the bar took about a minute. I used the color picker to sample the colors near the silver bar, changed the brush setting to 50% and simply replaced the silver pipe with the wall.

My process for changing the colors strengthens the pictures and in my opinion approves them greatly with nice strong colors.

With this episode in the mod one of the possible stories will reflect what happened with the crewmen in this episode.

[rjord2021]

Scalosians have been added to the mod and this means I am about half way through the list of races that I am adding to the mod.

Deela , Queen of the Scalosians, was played by Kathie Browne who was one of my favorite actresses from the 60s.
Her character in Wink of an Eye was pretty strong as a Queen who was trying to save her people from extinction.

I have made the Scalosians a big part of the role play with a story following on from what actually happened in Wink of an Eye.

[Dakkon7]

ORIGINAL: rjord1
I did another test of the mod yesterday and have the building of ships turned down real slow for all races across the mod. The building of ships and starbases is now more realistic and when you have battles it will be more likely to be around 1 or 5 starships firing at each other and the loss of one starship being a very serious loss.

With Distant Worlds before when I lost a ship it would be Ok...no problems... I will just quickly build another ship...... this time the loss of a ship will be a heavy loss for any race.

I'm glad you've changed the building rate of ships and other related construction projects. It's something I've been looking for in distant worlds mods for some time.

Other than that every looks fantastic as usual. [:)]

[Dakkon7]

Speaking of Capellans, with some of the remaining races why not try for a more martial and hard sci-fi look. If it's applicable that is.

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: Dakkon7

Speaking of Capellans, with some of the remaining races why not try for a more martial and hard sci-fi look. If it's applicable that is.

Once I have all the races in for the TOS Series and add in a few extra from TNG and DS9, I have about 20 races that will have a hard sci-fi look...... I didn't want to add them in yet until I had got the priority races in first.

The Borg, Cardassians, Dominion and others will also have a more military look for the younger version of their races.

[rjord2021]

I am also looking at the option of limiting warp drive within a solar system. When ships are going between planets in the system they are normally there within 2 seconds... and then on again to the next planet.

As Kirk said in The Motion Picture

"In order to intercept the Intruder at the earliest possible time, we must now risk engaging Warp drive while still within the solar system"


My understanding is that ship classes after The Motion Picture were capable of warping within the system but classes prior had a safety issue which prevented warping within systems.

If I cannot limit the ships within the solar systems then I have a Plan B I can take this mod to.

[Dakkon7]

I don't know, a solar system is pretty large. Plus it might not be a good idea for pacing, depending upon how large the systems are it could bog down the gameplay.