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I have replaced all areas of the mod where each civilization was referred to an Empire.

Empire now equals Race.

However I still have to replace where the text has empire with race....case sensitive.
This I will finish tomorrow as it took 2 hours to change all references to Empire with a capital E.

If you look below you will see the term Race now mentioned instead of Empire in 2 areas of the picture.

To make changes in my mod where I simply want to change a single word in a mod and replace it with another is easier said than done.

The file you need to go through to find the word you want to change has 6081 lines of code which you do not want to go through line by line..... and you can't say replace all instances of the word you want to change as this will definitely break the mod.

So Excel comes to the rescue and approximately 432 instances of the word empire are replaced by the word race in 3 minutes.

Before going ahead always backup your GameText file.

You open up the GameText file using the text import wizard setting as shown below. This will insert a blank column between the two columns of text as well as leaving the ; as the first character of the text in column C.

You must not change anything in column A!

Highlight column C and using Find and Replace do exactly as shown below making sure you have Match Case ticked in advanced options for Find and Replace.

Save the file as a txt file and you are done.

This makes it a lot easier to mod Distant Worlds and makes sure you don't accidentally change a value in Column A which could break the mod.

One of the fan favorite characters in the Star Trek movies was Lieutenant JG Saavik who was supposed to play a much bigger part in the movies but was written out by the producers of Star Trek IV.

The story line her character was supposed to have in the movies was very interesting and it was a pity she was ruled out of the movie series. Thankfully her character continued on in the comics and novels.

As I am a huge fan of the character I am including Saavik in the mod..... however it should be noted that she was born in the same year that Kirk, Spock and McCoy first stepped onboard the Enterprise.

I will not reveal how she gets in the mod but any Saavik fans out there will be pleased at her storyline in the mod.

As a hint the picture below shows one of the scenes courtest of photoshop showing how she will appear in the mod.

The United Federation of Planets

During the Kirk Era depicted in the first part of this mod.... the TV series Era...... my understanding is that there were 12 members of the United Federation of Planets...there may have been more.

When the mod begins there is no United Federation of Planets and Earth is on it's own setting out among the stars for the first time. During the game play you will meet new life forms and new civilizations and if you play the mod with role play enabled you will invite some of these civilizations to join a Federation of Planets.

When an allied race accepts membership into the United Federation of Planets the mod will have instructions on how to assign that race the status of Federation member in Distant Worlds.

At any time an existing member of the Federation of Planets may decide to drop out of the Federation and you will have instructions on how to do this in Distant Worlds.

The Return of Khan mod will be the first time you can play as the Vulcans , the Andorians or other races that have been part of the Federation and this not playable as a race. For the first time you will be able to play as the Vulcan race.

Vulcan and Andoria may never become members of the mod and each time you play the mod you will have different members in the Federation. You may at times have many members of the Federation... at other times the Federation may be small and insignificant with only two members. This means each time you play the game the gameplay will be different.


With the role playing I have a large number of cards already added to the mod but as yet have not had time to create an image for the card.... until that image is created I use the placeholder image I have designed below .

By doing this I can get on with developing the mod and role playing without being bogged down with the cosmetic side of the mod which can be added later.

Viewer Feedback required.

Over the next 48 hours.....starting from now...... I am asking for anyone who is interested in playing this mod to please leave a post letting me know which races you want to play in this mod.

The Klingons.... Romulans and Vulcans are already added. Can you please let me know your choice for other races from the Kirk TV Series or movies you would like to see as playable in the mod.

In 48 hours I will lock down the list of races I am thinking of going with....so please leave a suggestion if there is a specific race you would like to see playable in the mod.

Man, that's a large list.

Initial TV series only? Cartoon series? Follow on (DS-9, voyager etc.?) I Think you are looking original series only. So, a few of the major races...

Tholians, Gorn, Changeling, Kzinti, Tellarite, Orions, Platonians(?), Thasians, Ekosians, Providers, Capellans (a personal favorite), Elasians, Melkotians, Kelvans, Fabrini, Medusans, Excalbians.

Follow on series

Cardassians, Breen, Acamarian, Andorians, Bajoran, Betazoid, Borg, Jem'Hadar, Nausicaans, Hirogen, Ferengi, Bynar, Bolians...This list can get pretty big [:(]

Thanks for the list there Lecivius.......

What I look at is the stage of development these races are at during the Kirk era... if they have reached the era of having warp capable ships then I will add them to the list of species you can play.

Species from the Delta Quadrant such as the Hirogen Hunters, Kazon , Vidiians and Talaxians just to name a few will not be races that you can play in this mod...... however you may be surprised by some from the Delta Quadrant making it into the mod in one way or another. I am also releasing a version of the mod where you are in the Deta Quadrant and get to fight the Borg, Kazon, Talaxians, Ocampans, Vidiians, Hirogen, Krenim,etc . I am spending 1 or 2 days a week on the Delta Quadrant version of the mod and with luck this will be released at the same time as this mod.

Of the large list you mentioned I would say most of the races will appear in the mod if they are in planets in the alpha or beta quadrant. If the species were only discovered in the TNG and DS9 timelines, they will appear in the mod as they were 70 - 80 years previously.

I had planned to reveal next month the work being done on Star Trek : Voyager 2017.
This should release the same time as The Return of Khan mod........

However the post by Lecivius prompted me to release the news a little earlier. On Christmas Day I will add the first screenshot for Star Trek : Voyager 2017
.

The seperate thread for Star Trek : Voyager 2017 can be found here
tm.asp?m=4201144&mpage=1&key=&#4201144

Captain's Log

The Enterprise has finally left our solar system on a shakedown cruise to test the systems on our new ship. We have dropped out of warp and are travelling at impulse speed after experiencing some minor issues with our warp engines. I am confident that our Chief Engineer Mr Scott will work his magic and have our warp engines back online soon. Our ship sensors have detected a large ship directly ahead and despite our efforts to hail the ship there has been no response. I am waiting on additional scans by our ship's science officer who is scanning the ship for life forms before I decide if we beam over to the alien ship.

Work on this mod continues every day over Christmas and Beyond.......

In the next 30 days I will be away from home for 23 days.... normally this would mean that the development comes to a halt but I am working on putting procedures in place that will allow me to carry on work on this mod as well as Star Trek : Voyager 2017.

These procedures involve getting new hardware for my business over the next few days which will allow me to take my mod files with me wherever I go.

This took a few hours to do in Photoshop but it shows the Leader of the Teenaxi preparing to meet with James Kirk who is in the company of visiting delegates from the Fibonan Republic.

The Teenaxi and Fibonans have refused to talk to each other for over five hundred years after the Teenaxi were forced to flee the planet Fibona after many Teenaxians had apparently been eaten.... an accusation the Febonans have denied ever happened.

This meeting has been organised at the wishes of the Federation Council to get both the Teenaxi and Fibonans to settle their differences in order for both worlds being accepted as members of the Federation. Without them finding some accord there would be no way these two races would be allowed into the protective arm provided by the Federation and Starfleet.

This is one of the missions that James Kirk will face when the Enterprise encounters the Teenaxi and Fibonan civilizations and both races promptly request help from the Federation.

Adding random encounters to the mod......

Did you ever want to recreate the moments shown on tv where the Enterprise picked up an unknown signal or suddenly a green hand suddenly appeared directly in front of the ship?

Or perhaps you have just discovered a comet and Spock wants to take some readings of the comet.

I have worked out the process of adding random events, objects or people into the mod so that if you play this mod with role playing you will experience the unexpected.

For example below is a picture where the Enterprise was knocked off course and thrown into Klingon space..... as the ship was heading back towards Federation space they passed through the Nekkar System and discovered a Federation Space station in orbit around Nekkar III.

The space station shown below will be seen in various options in the mod and will be shown in one story-line where the crew of the Enterprise arrives for a week of Shore Leave o find unwelcome danger on the Space Station.

The station is still a work in progress.

ORIGINAL: rjord1

However the post by Lecivius prompted me to release the news a little earlier. On Christmas Day I will add the first screenshot for Star Trek : Voyager 2017
.

That's what I'm here for. To screw up the works [:'(]

In just under 48 hours from now my work will take me away from home for the rest of December and all of January.

This morning I purchased a 2in1 laptop _tablet which I will take away with me and which will have the mod files installed....

There is a lot to do on this mod in the next 5 weeks and with the new hardware I am now able to work on the mod wherever I am.

Roy

Development work on this mod is progressing well and I have added another 11 episodes of the original TV series into the mod.

For example I have added the following to the mod today.

When you arrive at the planet Psi 2000 you will have a variety if possible missions that may occur.

One of them will have you play out the events of the episode "The Naked Time"

I have run through a test of this mission and it was very challenging and the crew of the Enterprise were almost all killed.

Went to the planet a second time in a new game and Kirk, Spock and McCoy were stranded on the planet infected by an alien spore that prevented the landing party returning to the ship.

Both missions relied heavily on Dr McCoys medical points ,..the more points he has the quicker he finds a treatment.

During the Xmas break I have stress tested this mod to make sure what I have planned will work.

Looks great so far.

As each episode is added I do a test to make sure that the missions you go on work perfectly.

Before I get back to development....

I have added Charlie Evans and the Thasians as a playable race.

Charlie was a dangerous individual who would have destroyed the Enterprise if the Thasians had not stepped in.

This mod will tell a different story to what was seen in Charlie X.

This time Charlie is much stronger, is leader of the Thasians and he is power hungry and quite insane.

Dr McCoy will have many challenges on this ship and he will have to cure ailments of ship crew or sick people in colonies.

Medical conditions he will come up against are ranked as minor... Eg space sickness... Or severe such as Rogath Blight

I have around 80 medical conditions that could strike down any one one on the crew..including Kirk and Spock.

If they are killed by a medical condition they must be removed as a character....this will require steps to be taken to bring on the replacement.

Some of the conditions are:

Ankaran Flu
Bendii Syndrome
Chamberlain Virus
Dramia II plague
Levodian Flu
Neural shock
Omega IV virus
Sakuro's Disease
Tarellian Plague
Thelusian Flu
Transporter Shock
Varaxian LM-7
Yarim Fel syndrome

Some of these are harmless and some of these can kill

I have had to create the ships of the Charlie X led Thasian Empire from scratch as there was only one ever image seen of these ships as shown in the inset image top right of the picture below.

There were many ways the Thasian ships could appear in the mod and I have settled for this version as shown below which I created in paint.net and photoshop.

My version looks similar to the TOS version yet a more modern appearance and a bit more realistic.

The ships may change slightly before this mod is released.

The Thasians as they appear in the mod

CHARLIE: Oh, please, don't let them take me. I can't even touch them! Janice, they can't feel. Not like you! They don't love! Please, I want to stay. (fades away)

This was how charlie X appeared in the Original series but things are a lot different now in this mod with Charlie much stronger than the Thasian people.

Missions involving landing parties in Distant Worlds now have replaced backgrounds

Later today screenshots of the mod in the Distant World screens. This will give an idea of how the mod will work in DW.