Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[rjord2021]

Development of this mod is going well and I have tested some ideas I have for the mod with some success.

For example, the Neutral Zone is a must have for the mod and below is a test shot of the Neutral Zone I added to the background of the mod using the same color as seen on the Enterprise's viewscreen. The text font will be changed once I have the Neutral Zone properly positioned and sized correctly.

Once I have this done the various areas such as the Great Barrier, the Neutral Zones, Nebula such as the Mutara Nebula, DMZs and the Bad Lands will be added to the 10 background star images I have created specifically for this mod.

I am researching the idea of setting up the Neutral Zone along the Klingon and Federation border as well.

Even though Starfleet is only now sending out Constitution Class starships to explore other systems outside Sol, the Neutral Zones are already setup. The explanation for this is that Earth has experienced aggression from both the Romulans and Klingons whose ships conducted raids within the Sol system. In this alternate timeline, the Vulcans stepped in to avoid a war and established Neutral Zone areas on the edge of Klingon and Romulan space.

If you are Federation this agreement allows Starfleet ships to explore and colonize new worlds.... as long as they did not pass through the Neutral Zone.

If you are Klingon or Romulan the agreement is that their ships will not pass through these zones either.

If you have the mod sending ships out automatically you have a huge probability that one of the ships will enter the Neutral zone sparking a war with the Klingons or Romulans. If you control where the ships go you can make sure none of your ships violate the Neutral Zone.

All planets within the Neutral Zones will be clearly marked as being in the Neutral Zone and banned from colonization by the Federation, Klingons or Romulans.

Positions will be marked on the map showing suggested areas to deploy Federation starbases. or Klingon or Romulan bases, along the respected sides of the Neutral Zone so as to detect any violations of the Neutral Zone. Ships belonging to other races will be cleared once identified.

The Neutral Zone will be widened to cover all planets in the Neutral Zones once I have them flagged as Neutral Zone planets on my map.

[rjord2021]

Each day I am adding more systems into the Galactic Map to recreate the Alpha Quadrant which I had completed before but sadly lost after a hardware failure.

In the lower right of the picture below you can see the status of the Galactic Map as it currently is today.

- the right hand side of the map is congested with every system and planet that makes up the 100% completed Beta Quadrant. There are 393 systems in the Beta Quadrant with each system having between 1 and 10 planets and moons.

- the left side shows the Alpha Quadrant being added daily with much work still to do. You can see a gap running down the middle between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Over the next few days 38 systems and roughly 228 planets will be added into this gap to link the alpha and Beta Quadrants together.

- At this stage every system and planet in the Beta Quadrant is in the map and every planet of every major system of the Alpha Quadrant will be in the map. To be added to the Alpha Quadrant over the next 2 days are well known systems such as Betazed and Haven.

- once the final 38 principal systems are added to the Alpha Quadrant every major planet mentioned in the TV series will be in the Galactic Map correctly placed and at the correct distance from other systems according to positions shown in the Star Trek Atlas.

- As all systems and planets are correctly placed the distances between Earth and other systems is correct. You will never find Cardassia or Ferenginar in close proximity to Earth.

[Hattori Hanzo]

always interesting: this is one of my favourite threads here in the DW:U forum [:D]

[rjord2021]

The changing face of Klingons

In each of the 3 parts we are going to see the different looks of the Klingons.

For example in the Classic Kirk era as seen on TV we will see the Klingons without Ridges (Group A) on the frontline in ships while the leaders back on Klingon worlds will be Klingons as seen in Group B

The mod will not have the Klingons as they appeared in Enterprise, TNG, DS9, Voyager or the 2009 movie as these 5 have even more differences with the Klingon warriors.


1: The Classic Kirk Era
- Group A and Group B Klingons

2: The Kirk Movie Years
- Group B and Group C Klingons

3: The Latter Kirk era
- Group C Klingons only

[rjord2021]

The changing face of the Romulans

Like the Klingons the Romulans have gone through a number of changes through the Star Trek TV episodes and the movies.

I am still working on the method to explain the changes in the mod specifically as Romulans in the Archer era looked like TNG and beyond Romulans

1: The Classic Kirk Era
- Group A Romulans

2: The Kirk Movie Years
- Group B and Group C Romulans

3: The Latter Kirk era
- Group C Romulans only

[rjord2021]

As this mod covers a 40 year period in the stardate calendar from 2249 to 2290 I am giving each of the 3 parts a distinctive appearance so you can tell which part of the timeline you are selecting to play.

For this to work when selecting the race that you are playing, I am not going to have an image of the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire etc.

Instead the race picture will show a character associated with that race.... example James T Kirk for the Federation showing how Kirk appears in 2249 in the TV episodes, then in 2270 as he appeared in the Motion Picture and finally in 2290 as he appeared in Generations.

[rjord2021]

Each race picture and each character picture going into this 3 part mod is carefully selected for the classic Original Series look and feel I am aiming for and once I have the picture I want I then heavily photoshop it so I have something like this.

[Twigster]

Please know that you have some players very eagerly awaiting this release. It looks like its going to be absolutely awesome, and I for one would like to thank you (along with the other outstanding modders here) for the hard work! [&o][&o][&o]

[rjord2021]

One more post to finish off the night.... adding the Romulan race picture was a little more diffacult.

The Romulan Commander played by Mark Lenard was the most remembered Romulan in the TOS episodes....however Mark also plays Spock's father and his Romulan character was killed off in the Original Series.

I decided instead that Mark Leonard will appear as Sarek in the mod and for the Romulans I will instead have the leading role played by the female Romulan Commander which appeared in The Enterprise Incident.

In the episode she was never named but in 3 books she was given two different names. I have chosen to name her Romulan Commander Thea who is an ambitious officer seeking to broaden the scope of her powers greatly.

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

always interesting: this is one of my favourite threads here in the DW:U forum [:D]

Just a quick message to thank you for your comments in here...... I never really knew if anyone was interested in this mod but always great to see your comments.

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: Twigster

Please know that you have some players very eagerly awaiting this release. It looks like its going to be absolutely awesome, and I for one would like to thank you (along with the other outstanding modders here) for the hard work! [&o][&o][&o]

Thanks Twigster......

Finishing the galactic map is the most challenging part of this mod as each system of planets takes between 10 to 15 minutes to research and then add in its correct place in the map. Once the map is done all 3 parts of my Kirk era mod will be able to use that map.

The most challenging part of the mod is when I play the Federation and have a cloaked Romulan ship enter my system... I am still tweaking the cloaking effect but the cloaked ship is almost impossible to see

[rjord2021]

Romulan Commander Thea only appeared in one episode of the Original Series and my 3 part mod needs 3 pictures of her at different ages.

When all else fails I will use a picture as below until I photoshop a better replacement image.

I already have an idea how she will look as a Praetor in the 3rd part of the mod but this will need a little trickery and photoshopping.



In the picture below the image on the left is planned for the 2nd part of the mod and the image on the right is planned for the 3rd part.....the 3rd part is still to be finalised with color changes etc.

As is the case with Vulcans Romulans have a long lifespan so I do not want to age Commander Thea too much in this 40 year period.

[rjord2021]

One of the more diffacult challenges was to find out the who the leaders of the Vulcan High Command were during this period.

T'Pau of Vulcan is the initial leader elected to the Vulcan High Command and over the last 2 days I have come up with 4 additional leaders... a difficult as there is very little information on who took over from T'Pau.

The character shown below ...one of my Archer era character favourites played by Joanna Cassidy.....is being resurrected from her days in the Archer era ...even though she was supposedly killed off in 2154..... however I have a good storyline for how she is alive 95 years later.....

2 clues

1. Mirror Universe

2. She was punished by the Elysian Ruling Council ..... refer to animated Episode (TAS: "The Time Trap")


Saying that..and if you know who this character is.... she was not alone when punished by the Elysians so expect to find some surprises.

[rjord2021]

One of the first 3 leaders to be seen leading the Federation in this mod is an Arcturian and there are not many images of an Arcturian to create a character image for Jacob Varis.

Doing some research on a possible Arcturian sighted in the Search For Spock movie.

[rjord2021]

Each ship captain will be associated with the name of the ship they commanded in Star Trek canon..... when that captain appears in the mod and is assigned to a ship you can recommission the ship and rename the ship to the one used by that captain.


Example..... Robert April is still captain of the Enterprise. When Christopher Pike appears he will be on the USS Yorktown. If Robert April is still in the mod aboard the Enterprise then you can keep Christopher Pike on the Yorktown. However if April is no longer in the mod you can recommission the Yorktown to the Enterprise.

Same thing with Kirk. He will appear in the mod on the USS Faragut which can be recommissioned to the USS Enterprise if Pike is retired or killed.... or you can transfer Pike to the Farragut before giving Kirk the Enterprise.

All the information on each captain and which ship they will command will be stored in the Galactopedia for quick reference.

[rjord2021]

For each race in the mod I am keeping true to Star Trek canon and fact.....

For example with the Federation captains for the first part of the mod (The Classic Kirk Era) I assemble a list of Federation starship captains from stardates 2249 through to and including 2269.... each ship captain along with the name of every Federation ship he commanded.

For example looking at the USS Yorktown we see it first captained by Christopher Pike in stardate 2240, then by Matthew Decker 10 years later in 2250 and Joel Randolph in 2286. There is a 36 year gap between Decker and Randolph so I use a 2nd search technique looking at each ship on memory-beta.wikia and find more captains for the Yorktown.

Example... in the pilot episode of Star Trek Christopher Pike is on the Yorktown... not the Enterprise... with Number One as his first officer. In 30 years I never knew Number One by anything other than that name but research for this mod shows her name to be Robbins who commanded the Yorktown in 2270.

This was not on my initial list so Captain Robbins is added to the following list

Commanding officers of the Yorktown:
Captain Christopher Pike (2248-?)
Captain Matthew Decker
Captain Von Holtzbrinck
Captain Evan Foster
Captain Robbins
Captain Joel Randolph

The same with the USS Enterprise with this list where I have picked up one new admiral name and 2 captains..each who had temporary command of the Enterprise.

Commanding officers of the Enterprise:
Captain Robert April (2244, 2245-2251)
Admiral Charles Rasmussen Temporary captain (c. 2245, KIA)
Captain Christopher Pike (2251-2264)
Captain James T. Kirk (2264-2270, 2273-2278, 2280s sporadically)
Captain Zarlo Temporary captain (2266)
Lieutenant Styles Temporary captain (2269)
Captain Willard Decker (2270-2273)
Captain Spock (2278-2285, sporadically as Academy instructor)

Admiral Charles Rasmussen and Captain Zarlo are mentioned in comic form only. Characters only mentioned in comics will still be in the mod but will have a lesser role.

[rjord2021]

Will Kirk make his appearance in the mod near the beginning of Part 1 of 3 in the mod....?

The answer is No.

There are 10 groups of Federation captains and Kirk is in the 6th group so in effect he will appear around the half way mark. This will allow Robert April and Christopher Pike their time in charge of the Enterprise before Kirk arrives.

[rjord2021]

Many of the characters in the mod are missing suitable pictures as they may have been background characters or did not appear on tv or in film.

At this stage I am bypassing picking up the pictures for individual characters and leaving it to a later date.

I am using pictures for the Federation using Transporter pads as seen in the Enterprise's Transporter room.

For Admirals and Captains I am using a tranporter picture where a character in Gold command uniform is materializing onto the transporter pad.
For characters in the Science or Medical field the character materializing is in blue.
For security or operations..... the uniform is red.
Other characters are in black.

Doing some tests this picture is pretty effective.

Klingon and Romulan characters will have similar pictures but beaming on to Klingon or Romulan ships instead.

[rjord2021]

With adding planets to the mod I have added where possible the images of that planet taken directly from the tv episodes or movies. If the planet was only seen in the original series of Star Trek I have used the much-improved planets shown in the remastered version of TOS.

[rjord2021]

Tarsus IV. Stardate 2246.

Starfleet has a colony on Tarsus IV but a distress signal alerts all nearby starships that Kodos the Executioner has just killed 4000 colonists on the planet. Tragically, Hoshi Sato, communications officer serving under Captain Archer, was killed along with her family by Kodos.

Each planet visited by Archer, Robert April, Christopher Pike, Kirk , Picard and Sisko where colonies had been established or alien civilizations had been found will be included in this mod.

What this means is that apart from the 27 races you can play there could be a hundred or more colonies in this mod spread across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants that are each capable of forming Empires.

So if you are the Federation and facing hostile Romulan and Klingon Empires you may suddenly find other Empires threatening you such as the Vians, Deltans, the Prytt Alliance, Takarans, Yridians and any one of a hundred or more civilizations.

Adding these civilizations will add more to the gameplay as you will not which of the worlds with alien civilizations on them are suddenly going to become a friendly or hostile Empire in the region.