Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[Dakkon7]

No worries about the lack of updates, hope your real life situation is going well. [:)]

[rjord2021]

I am looking at the option of adding in the Excelsior-class USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) under the command of Captain John Harriman as well as the Ambassador-class USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett.

There has been very little seen of these Enterprise captains with John Harriman seen in the Generations movie and Rachel Garrett seen in the TNG episode: "Yesterday's Enterprise" with both in a number of novels..... I am hoping that in the future there are new Trek tv series covering both of these captains.

I want to add both the Enterprise-B as well as the Enterprise-C and they will be added to the mod using the time travel techniques used by the original Enterprise under Kirk's command.

The crew of the Enterprise B and C will be added using the role play however if there is enough requests I could be persuaded to add both of these ships into the main mod gameplay itself. This would be done in a way that would explain how they could occur in the same timeline as each other as well as in the Kirk era timeline.

[Dakkon7]

Cameos are fine with me, but the setting of the original series has enough depth to it that I don't think it needs other era's characters and ships intruding in on it.

[rjord2021]

To make sure this mod is as true as possible to Star Trek I am constantly referring to the original episodes and novels.

I have every Star Trek book and comic that have come out since James Blish wrote the first book in January 1967. Blish wrote the novelizations for the original series and apart from a couple of exceptions none of the episodes for Enterprise, TNG, DS9 or Voyager ever made it into print format. This means to research which aliens and worlds are in Star Trek I would need to watch 726 episodes of Star Trek over 30 seasons each around 45 minutes duration. I do not have time to do that.

In the last month I have created print versions of all 726 episodes of Star Trek and added them in to my collection of Star Trek books and novels. Each episode is roughly 15 pages and when I want to refer to the episodes where the Borg appear i can now refer to the 20 tv episodes and one movie where the Borg were encountered.

As far as TV goes The Borg were encountered once in the Archer era, seven times in the Picard era and 13 times by Voyager.

With Voyager there will be 50 books published by the end of 2017. My collection of Voyager in print format are 258 books including the Voyager episode novelizations.

The episode novelizations are created from the original transcripts for the shows.

What this means is that I can use windows to search all my Star Trek novels looking for what happened for example on the planet Vendikar so that all species, stories etc that ever occurred on Vendikar will be in the mod.

I have also created pdfs for every tv episode of Doctor Who from 23 Nov, 1963 to 1 July 2017 (all 12 Doctors) as well as every episode of Stargate which will be used for my other mods in progress.

[rjord2021]

For this mod I look at reference material to try and keep things as factual as possible.

One of the questions is what do the planets look like from space..... I really liked the look of Tattoine with the blue line around the planet showing the atmosphere .... however looking at the image below this shows what the Earth looked like taken from one of the Apollo missions.

I also know what the color of our Moon is thanks to a picture taken of the spacecraft orbiting between the Earth and the Sun which showed the Moon passing between the spaceship and Earth...did not realize there was an orbiting spaceship further out than our Moon.

[rjord2021]

The picture below shows the new planets being added into the mod. I am using a technique in photoshop where I now also use specular mapping to enhance the images.

In the picture below the top half shows the source image taken from the Blue Marble Nasa website.
The result in photoshop is shown below with shadows.

As Distant Worlds Universe does the shadowing I am not creating the shadows for the images going into the mod.

The clouds are also added with a sense of depth to them as shown below.

[rjord2021]

Picture in prior post had atmospheric effect removed by NASA.... the picture below has atmospheric hazing added back in by photoshop.

[rjord2021]

Lots of detail going into each planet such as the example below of what I do with each image created for ocean worlds with a mix of cloud, sea and land.

In this example for Earth I focus my attention on changing the 2D clouds on the left and applying different layers in photoshop to give cloud shadows and depth to the clouds on the right.

[rjord2021]

When cloud detail is added I then apply the atmospheric effect to the planet ......

[rjord2021]

New graphics in mod

Starfleet Headquarters..... Where it all begins....

[rjord2021]

.... and new characters

[rjord2021]

I watched Discovery on Monday and have also today got the script...or was it the transcript... of the first 2 episodes.
The transcript gives an idea of what the episodes were about...some of the story was a bit hard to follow.

The transcript gives me some further information not in the episode.

First Officer's Log, edge of Federation space
Stardate 1207.3.
On Earth, it's May 11, 2256, a Sunday.

The picture below shows the new species introduced in Discovery..... parts of the script blurred for those yet to see the episode.

The Crepusculans do not have advanced technology and as they are still primitive they must not be interacted with.... General Order One.

With that in mind the Crepusculans are not a playable race and will only be seen in the mod when you visit their homeworld.

The Crepusculan homeworld was not named and I do not think it will be..... if it is not named I will give the planet the name "Crepuscula V".....


Part of the Discovery transcript Episode 1

[Dakkon7]

Hope you don't take too much inspiration from discovery, the mood is completely off if you ask me.

A Cardassian court has a lighter atmosphere and is less foreboding then how a federation court is portrayed. [8|]

[Hattori Hanzo]

do you expect to release this Star Trek mod in 2017 ?

[rjord2021]

Somehow I lost a fair bit of work when when moving to a new computer...have bmy research material but the mod appears corrupted somehow.

However despite this I am still looking at releasing the mod this year....

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: Dakkon7

Hope you don't take too much inspiration from discovery, the mood is completely off if you ask me.

A Cardassian court has a lighter atmosphere and is less foreboding then how a federation court is portrayed. [8|]

I think the director was trying to emphasise the gravity of the situation Michael was in with a court martial for mutiny.

Seeing in Episode 3 the fact that Michael was referred to as Michael Burnham the Mutineer..... I suspect that mutiny within Starfleet is a very rare incident if it has happened before.

Disovery is most likely going to be set during war while the Enterprise was specifically a 5 year mission to explore. It is altogether possible that the 3 members of the court were in darkness so they were not identifiable.

The atmosphere for the mod will be that of the tv series..... so dont worry about that.

I am actually impressed by the level of detail that the writers got right about Discovery so far.

Example: "No fewer than three officers of command or flag rank comprised the court. The senior officer of the court martial acted as the President of the Court."

The voice we heard sentencing Michael Burnham was actually that of the President of the Court.

I will be taking some things from Discovery such as:

Episode 3 starts with prisoners being taken by shuttle to the Tellun system. Tellun is a major dilithium supplier for Starfleet and the Federation so these prisoners will be working in the Dilithium Mines of Tellun.

Tellun is also a nod to a TOS Episode as these prisoners will be heading to either the planet Elas (2nd planet in the Tellun system) or to Troyius (5th planet in the Tellun system) which is where the Enterprise went in "Elaan of Troyius".

Also in the Star Trek timeline while this is happening with Discovery Leonard McCoy ends his relationship with Nancy Crater who was seen in The Man Trap

[rjord2021]

Work continues on the mod...sorry for lack of updates.

Have also been following the Discovery TV episodes...great to have Star Trek back on TV.
Am currently reading Discovery : Desperate Hours.

The book explains why the technology of an older ship looks more advanced than that of a newer ship and why did the crews wear different uniforms? Also a very plausible reason about why there were no holograms used in TOS...... the book comes up with a very credible solution to explain this as well as why the Enterprise did not have the advanced technology as seen in Discovery.

And of course The USS Enterprise under Captain Pike appear in the novel as well. A lot of research is done with the episodes and book...... prior to the Desperate Hours novel the TOS novel Child of Two Worlds novel takes place in the timeline in which the enterprise is attacked by Klingons.... this taking place in 2255 one year before the Klingon War starts in Discovery.

The book and its contents and explanations were previewed and signed off by CBS and the Star Trek producers and I suspect that the look of the Klingons will be explained in due course. Thankfully the Klingons did not appear in The Cage episode as that would have made it difficult to explain the change of Klingon appearance from Discovery to TOS.

I continue to add to my collection of every Star Trek book , comic, short story and tv episode transcripts and as you see below I have created in book format the stories for the first 6 episodes of Discovery.

[rjord2021]

For those who want to play the mod historically accurate to the timeline I have events and races encountered starting from 2 years after the TNG movie: First Contact where Picard and the Enterprise go back to 2063 and meet Zefram Cochrane.

The first event was meeting the Vulcans...but if you have not met them yet that part of the timeline is delayed until you do.After you make contact with the Vulcans you will have the UNSF Verne-class starship under the command of Captain Peter O'Brian encounter a disabled Vulcan starship near Neptune.

One of the first things you will do is launch the galactic survey cruiser SS Valiant (NCC-S1104) from Earth which in the original timeline disappears with all 25 crewmembers and whose recorder marker is then found by the Enterprise. The 25 crew are still alive on a planet near The Great Barrier and all 25 crew have the same telepathy and psychokinetic powers as Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner had in the pilot episode Where No Man Has Gone Before.

The 25 crew will be on any of the planets in Federation space and may or may not be encountered during gameplay.

The mod is built on the original timeline which is changed by Distant Worlds gameplay.

The crew of the Crossfield-class starship USS Discovery, the Walker-class USS Shenzhou and the Discovery's sister ship USS Glenn will appear in the mod around the time of Captain Pike being on the Enterprise.

They will lead to the arrival of Kirk, Spock and McCoy etc joining the mod.

[rjord2021]

The USS Shenzhou and USS Discovery make an appearance in the mod....... but how can they appear in this mod 10 years later after the Discovery timeline?

The mod will undergo the following changes to start getting my work out ASAP.

- It will be separated into 5 separate mods

: Early Federation (Era beginning 2065)
: The Archer era (Era beginning 2151)
: The 4 Year War ( Discovery Era 2256)
: Kirk TV era -2265
: Kirk Movie era :2270

Only the 4th and possibly the 5th will have role play included while the other 3 are Distant Worlds Universe maps only.

The picture below is concept art only .......

I am hoping to have the first part of the mod out in November which takes place immediately after Zefram Cochrane test flights warp in the Phoenix. The first mod will strictly follow the events from 2065 to 2151 prior to Enterprise and will only have a small number of the alien races that appear in the next 4 parts of the mod.

[rjord2021]

The first part of my mod that I am working to complete will actually be based in the Star Trek time line well before the time where Zefram Cochrane attracted the attention of the Vulcans.

This first part delves into the 100 year war between the Vulcans and Andorians....... the Kzinti have invaded Sol and the Klingons are attacked by a race called the Hur'q...

When the Klingon Empire was facing the likely threat of being wiped out by a modified form of Levodian flu...in other words The Klingon augment virus..... it had been noted that the Augment virus afflicting the Klingon Empire was "the gravest threat since the Hur'q invasion."

The Hur'q , despite hardly ever being mentioned, were around from before 1268 and wiped out as a race in 2372.

The Hur'q invaded and plundered Qo'noS in the 14th centuryearly in the Klingon timeline and the Klingons had acquired warp drive from the Hur'q, by capturing and reverse-engineering some of their ships when they resisted their incursions.

I am including the Hur'q as the Hur'q invasion was one of the first attacks that threatened the very existence of the Klingon Empire.

I have added the Hur'q to the mod....and found the Hur'q spaceships

- The Hur'q Hiveship
- The Hur'q Heavy Raider
- The Hur'q Interceptor

which are being textured and added to the mod.

Characters included in the Hur'q are:

- Imperator S'Kanon- S'Kanon is the effective leader of the Hur'q Hive Ship
- The Hur'q Queen- The Queen is a mindless breeding machine. her entire purpose is to breed and produce offspring to maintain the Hive Colony.
- Colony Master D'Nakon- D'Nakon is the individual in charge of maintaining the health of the colony.
- Sub-Commander Nu'chei - Nu'chei is the Hur'q equivalent to the head of security and a sort of field marshal all rolled into one.