Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[rjord2021]

First 3 worlds added to Cardassian Space on the far left hand side of the Galactic Map.

Unefra III is introduced in a Deep Space 9 episode on stardate 2371 Season 3

[rjord2021]

My first attempt at creating The Badlands in the DMZ area between Bajor and Cardassian space.

This is a turbulent area of space and though I may not be able to give the Badlands the look they have on TV ...well so far anyway.... I can at least have this set as a dangerous area of space for spaceships to pass through.

[rjord2021]

Mapping each system takes anywhere up to 10 or 15 minutes depending on what information is available on that system....and we are looking at hundreds of systems across the entire map covering the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

From example Rondac III....

In 2375 this planet was the location of a Dominion cloning facility during the Dominion Wars and was a planet important in Trek history for the beginning of the Cardassian Rebellion fighting against the Dominion.

When mapping each system I look for the details such as the type of primary star in the system, how many planets are in that system and the name of each and every one of those planets.

As is the case with Rondac III there is very little in the way of details of what planets are in that system , or how many for that fact, so in cases like this it comes down to making a guess based on what data I have.

In most cases I can find the information I am looking for and put the systems and their stars and planets into the mod as they are recorded in official Star Trek cannon, but if that data is not available I make my best guess using what data I have and can go back to it at a later date if I have 3 planets in the system and I later find there were 7.

The level of realism going into this mod does slow down the mapping of the Galactic Map but I am developing this mod with the plans of playing Distant Worlds Universe for many years and when Distant Worlds 2 comes out transferring all this over to DW2 as well.

The importance of realism is , for example, if you go to the Sol system and find only 3 planets in there instead of the 9 we know, you lose all realism in the game.

So the development of this mod is going to be slower thab expected but the information I am collecting on each system will make it quicker for me to create the mod in Distant Worlds 2 when it is released so that I have a completed version in both DW1 Universe and DW2.

[rjord2021]

At the present I am slowly plotting each planet through Cardassian space moving from the left edge of the Galactic Map heading right towards Federation space and have also started adding some of the Bajoran worlds such as Bajor and Free Haven. There is no need for me to add the Bajoran Wormhole as it was not opened or discovered in the timeline of this mod.

As I move right across the map adding planets in each section along the way I will create a bridge to the Federation worlds already added to the map.

Then it is a matter of completing the remaining worlds in Bajor and the Cardassian Union and then adding other systems such as the Ferengi Alliance planets, the Tholian Assembly, the Gorn Hegemony and other territories.

[rjord2021]

With building the Galactic Map of the Alpha Quadrant , with the Beta Quadrant fully mapped and finished, I have created a bridge of systems linking Cardassian and Bajoran space to Federation, Klingon and Romulan space.

The last system I added to this bridge to Federation space was Axanar which is around 10.5 light years away from Sol and will be one of the early systems to be discovered if explorers head that way.

This of course is the location of the major battle between the Federation and the Klingons in 2251

Now that the link to the Federation from Cardassia is complete I am changing strategy with completing the rest of the Alpha quadrant.

There are still 66 sections of the map to complete, each with up to 10 systems in it with each system having between 1 and 9 planets.

So on average I have over 600 systems still to add to the Alpha Quadrant and roughly between 3300 and 5400 planets to add to the map....each planet added and named according to Star Trek canon of what planets should be in that system.

Still a way to go but my change in strategy will populate a larger area of the map with larger well known systems added first and the lesser known ones added later in priority.


A huge task still ahead to add 600 systems considering that for each system I look for the actual number of planets in that system and actual names for the planets.

Example , in the Axanar system there are 3 planets


Axanar
Delta Orcus II
Delta Orcus III

[rjord2021]

I am estimating that there could be several hundred races encountered in this mod and your chances of seeing them will depend on which race you are playing and of course which part of the map you are in. If you saw a character in TOS specifically I want to have them in the mod somehow and somewhere.

Using the new system I have in place I have just added the Xepolites race which though not playable will be encountered near Cardassia space.

A picture of them in alpha version is listed below... I need to do some work on it prior to adding to the mod.

One of the reasons I want to finish this mod in 2016, and expand on it when Distant Worlds 2 comes out, is because Star Trek has been a big part of my life and celebrates 50 years this year and Distant Worlds is a great way to pay homage to Star Trek.

[rjord2021]

As with mentioned in the last post another race called the Kressari have also been added to the mod.

Much like the Xepolite race they are mainly traders and may be seen if you are near Cardassian space or anywhere in the lower left regions of the map.

If you are playing Romulan or Klingon Empires your chances of seeing this race are much less than if you played the Federation....adding some randomness to the mod

[rjord2021]

Yridians..... once thought extinct but discovered after 2360.

These guys are traders and smugglers but have their own interests ahead of others so should not be trusted if you meet them.

[rjord2021]

Cardassia VI otherwise known as Cardassia Prime

We know the Cardassians lived in this system however at some stage they were a race called Hebitians which were non military and not like the Cardassians we know. At some stage the Cardassians enslaved the Hebitians and formed the Cardassian Empire

I need to research Cardassian history and see which race was on Cardassia at the time of the Kirk Era.

[rjord2021]

Back in 1978 and 1979 a series of 12 books called Fotonovels came out for Star Trek which were re-tellings of 12 "Original Series" episodes with word balloons and text being arranged over the stills from the episode in the style of a comic book or graphic novel. I read these 12 books again and again and again because back then there were no dvds or even vhs recorders.

When James T Kirk's adventures came out on DVD I decided to create my own version of the photonovels for every episode of all 3 seasons of the original Star Trek.... however I only did a few episodes.

With the release on Blu-ray I rebooted my dreams of a Fotonovel for every episode of Trek TOS and with access to 97,568 high def images covering all 81 TOS episodes my Fotonovel project is almost complete.

There are 528 characters that have been seen in TOS seasons 1 to 3 and with those characters that make it into my mod their images are high def images coming straight from the 97,000 plus bluray images. Some characters were only seen in the background and the image was pixly and poor when taken from dvd...however the blu-ray version of them is so much better.

Below is the picture of Captain Pike taken from the DVD version of The Cage episode. The picture in the next post is the high def version of the same picture.

[rjord2021]

And this picture is the high def version showing quality of images used for characters and races in this mod.

[rjord2021]

I finally managed to get the entire list of Federation leaders

2087–2101 Harmon Axelrod
2102–2104 Ursula Yare
2105–2110 Cristofur Thorpe


and then Presidents of Starfleet up to 2268

2162–2164 Thomas Vanderbilt
2165–2172 Haroun al-Rashid
2173–2176 T'Maran
2177–2184 Avaranthi sh'Rothress
2184–2192 Jonathan Archer
2193 – 2196 Gralless
2197 – 2200 Sardix
2201 – 2204 Thortathanal
2205 - 2208 Barbara Einicrox
2209 – 2212 Suessor
2213 – 2216 Todahlahr
2217 – 2224 Richard Morvehl
2225 – 2228 Janissa Kurvannis
2229 – 2232 Greshlahrigm
2233 – 2240 Madza Bral
2241 – 2244 Paula Christenson
2245–2248 Samuel Solomon Qasr
2249 – 2252 Jacob Varis
2253 – 2256 Sanara Dadari
2257 – 2260 Claton Mintaine
2261 – 2268 Kenneth Wescott


I am still looking at the idea of starting the mod at the beginning of the 4 year war and possibly having this mod divided into 3 mods with 3 eras in mind

1. pre-Kirk era

2. Kirg era

3. post Kirk era

[Hattori Hanzo]

I am still looking at the idea of starting the mod at the beginning of the 4 year war and possibly having this mod divided into 3 mods with 3 eras in mind

1. pre-Kirk era

2. Kirg era

3. post Kirk era

mhhhh.. practically 3 sub-mods.. sound VERY interesting [X(]

[rjord2021]

This mod and any and all sub-mods attached to this project will have a degree of alternate reality to them each time the mod is played.

For example, I have 32 Presidents of the United Federation of Planets starting from President Jonathan Archer in 2184 through to Ra-ghoratreii in 2288. The stardates these Presidents served in office are in correct stardate order but playing them in strict order will lack any element of surprise as you would know who would be next President elect. So a degree of randomness will take place so that characters will have a slight variation in who serves in what order... example.... first President to serve will be from a list of 4 Presidents that will serve their terms in random order.

Of the 32 Presidents only 3 have pictures so I have created 29 new pictures representing each President that will be seen in the Federation.

Example is below where we have Paula Christenson President of UFP from 2153 to 2158

The same is being done with all other races to add a random factor to the mod so when playing the mod you will not know which of 3 or 4 people will be leaders etc.

[rjord2021]

Version 1 of Admiral Archer 30 years after serving as captain.....still needs more work and needs to be aged a little more as well as tidying up some pixel issues around the face.

[rjord2021]

Currently going through the list of 320 Federation starship captains and pulling out the list of captains serving between stardates 2249 and 2321.

While doing this I am also noting the class of starship that captain was commissioned to, it's name, it's registery and its operator.

Example James T Kirk
Ship Name : USS Enterprise
Class: Constitution-class
Registry: NCC-1701
Owner: United Federation of Planets
Operator: Starfleet/UESPA

Example Spock (2294)
Ship Name : USS Intrepid II
Class: Oberth-class
Registry: NCC-1730
Owner: United Federation of Planets
Operator: Starfleet/UESPA

Example Matthew Decker
Ship Name : USS Yorktown
Class: Constitution-class
Registry: NCC-1717
Owner: United Federation of Planets
Operator: Starfleet/UESPA


With the Yorktown this was the ship that Gene Roddenberry used when submitting his Star Trek proposal to NBC in 1964.

The Yorktown was the ship Captain Pike was on 2 years prior to his commanding the Enterprise.

In the 3rd Star Trek movie the USS Enterprise is destroyed but by the end of Star Trek 4 the crew have quickly got the USS Enterprise-A which had a very quick launch. This is because at the end of Star Trek 4 the Yorktown was renamed USS Enterprise-A and given to Kirk and his crew for once again saving Earth.

With this mod every captain and every character in every race will be in the Galactopedia along with the ship that character served on.

When for example Kirk appears in the mod you can assign him to a ship and then rename the ship to the USS Enterprise NCC 1701

If you want to play this mod strictly following Star Trek canon history all the information will be in the Galactopedia.....

[rjord2021]

As mentioned a few posts back this mod will be divided into 3 parts covering different parts of the timeline.
This will not include ships and characters from the Captain Archer era or from the Picard years.

The breakdown of the Kirk era will be roughly as follows

1: The Classic Kirk Era
- this is a period starting in stardate 2249 where we have Robert April, Christopher Pike and some other early captains such as Morgan Avery and Matthew Decker piloting the starships with Kirk and his crew eventually making an appearance. The general idea is that Robert April will be in command of the Enterprise when he appears early in the mod. If April is killed Christopher Pike appears and assumes command of the Enterprise and eventually James T Kirk arrives. When that happens Pike is moved to another ship and Kirk gets the Enterprise. Space threats will come from classic TV threats such as the Planet killers as seen in the episode "The Doomsday Machine" and Khan and his crew will appear as they did in the episode "The Space Seed"

2: The Kirk Movie Years
- Roughly 20 years later in stardate 2270 and we have newer ships and Willard Decker commanding the Enterprise-A. Kirk will appear roughly 3 years later and assume control of the Enterprise-A. Stories and events will take place in the period up to stardate 2288.Space threats will come from movie threats such as the Whale Probe and Khan and his crew will appear as they did in the episode "The Wrath of Khan"

3: The Latter Kirk era
- It is 2290 and Kirk is in command of the Enterprise at the very start, Sulu is on the Excelsior and Spock is on the USS Intrepid II . The crew is split up on different ships and Uhuru will appear as captain of the USS Hermes early on in the mod. Sulu's daughter will appear and take command of the Enterprise-B which by this stage should be under the command of John Harriman who took over the center chair when Kirk went missing presumed dead in 2293. Montgomery Scott will also make his appearance on the USS Challenger. As for Khan that will be discovered when you play this latter era mod. Did he die in the prior mod or survive to take revenge on one Captain James T Kirk?

[rjord2021]

The Borg !!!

One Vulcan scientist, T'Uerell, was around in the Archer era, the Kirk era and in the era where she encountered Captain Picard, Admiral Janeway and Captain Sisko.

T'Uerell appears in the 2nd mod soon after a period where she was working with the Klingons to once again destroy the Federation with a Klingon beam weapon. It is a few years later and she is working alongside cybernetic creatures she has discovered that are assimilating Klingon vessels.

The 2nd mod will have T'Uerell lead a young and expanding Borg faction under a collective controlled by T'Uerell herself.

This Borg faction will be stronger in the 3rd mod and will not only face the Federation, Klingons and Romulans but will also face the possibility of the Main Borg collective arriving in the Alpha Quadrant under the leadership of a young Borg Queen.

The Main Collective may arrive with a full Armada of Borg Cubes to bring the smaller faction back into the collective. If other races get in the way they will be assimilated and their technologies added to the Collective.

[rjord2021]

Will you violate the Neutral Zone?

In the first and second parts of this mod tensions are high between the Federation and the Klingon and Romulan Empires. In order to prevent an outbreak of war between the Romulans and Klingons, an agreed area of space not claimed by any political power has been setup to keep these civilizations apart. To send ships into the Neutral Zones will surely lead to a conflict and the direct violation of the Neutral Zone could lead to war.

Starfleet takes violation of the Neutral Zone seriously and any captain who violates the Neutral Zone will face serious charges and lose his captaincy.

As my map has each planet in the Quadrant in the correct places the Neutral Zones and DMZs will also be added in their correct places. Testing will occur shortly to add the Neutral Zones to the map and planets inside the Neutral Zone will clearly be marked. Colonization of these worlds are strictly forbidden and colonizing a planet in the Neutral Zone will take you closer to war.

The picture below shows what will happen to ships found in the Neutral Zone.

[rjord2021]

Of the 320 Federation captains I was reviewing this morning the list has been cut down to 64 to be used across the different parts of the mod.

Some captains will be used in all 3 parts of the mod... others may only appear once.

Thr command crew on the Enterprise will for example appear in all 3 parts but looking younger in part 1 and older in part 3.