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Phew! That's a relief. Thank you, Ed.

I've started a couple of games with the new beta patch 1.0.5.5 and both times the Federation have ended up with an 'evil' reputation. I know that it's possible for any race in the game to become evil, but it shouldn't happen all the time. I'll try starting another game to see, but I think it could be because of the bias settings. They have a -20 disposition against the Klingons, so perhaps that is swaying their actions in favour of evilness?

While I try to resolve the above issue, I might take a few more days to work on adding the Lyran Star Empire before releasing version 1.1. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Phew! That's a relief. Thank you, Ed.

I've started a couple of games with the new beta patch 1.0.5.5 and both times the Federation have ended up with an 'evil' reputation. I know that it's possible for any race in the game to become evil, but it shouldn't happen all the time. I'll try starting another game to see, but I think it could be because of the bias settings. They have a -20 disposition against the Klingons, so perhaps that is swaying their actions in favour of evilness?

First of all Igard, you're welcome! Just remember though to traverse the Briar Patch 'uncloaked'.
Wouldn't want to mistake your ship for a hidden Giant Kaltor and fire at you!

Secondly, concerning the Klingons, talk to Ambassador Worf about the bias setting. -10 works best
for us Sona. Plus make certain you have no more than 3 pirate factions near you without doing something
about it.

Must go now, testing 1.5.0.5 build. Also have a 'facial touch-up' session i just can't afford
to miss. Cheers mate.....Jo Lan Tru!

BTW....say hello to Data for me...I know he's been in your liquor cargo looking for that bottle
of 2364 vintage Romulan Ale to ingest!

Lyran Star Empire. Feline species. Allied with the Klingons. Blood feud with the Kzinti. Also enemies of the Hydrans.

Cool ships.

Well, I attacked a starbase recently that looked like it had an expanding sphere generator...
That would make the Lyrans ready for DW!

Some of these you had to have modified yourself IGard... and they look great. I am not aware of all that many Lyran models out there...

The expanding sphere generator! Of course! I'd forgotten about that. TJ you're a genius.

This is why I post previews. The expanding sphere generator was an area weapon of sorts. It was sort of defensive wasn't it? It created and energy field around the ship so that anyone who got too close got fried IIRC.

I'll need to make area weapons a focus of these guys. Thank you for the reminder, TJ. [;)]

Goodness, Igard, very nice indeed these Lyrans and Hydrans! A true work of loving art. Not until now in such a fine game such as DW-RoTS, can we enjoy ships from all these races in Star Trek lore (Star Fleet Battles!). I am impressed and awed, it's rather like a dream come true! And yes, the Expanding Sphere Generator was an area weapon, and if memory serves, I think it was more defensive in nature, but certainly had its offensive effects on enemy vessels.

BTW, in my current early-phase Kirk era game (after having made some home-made shipset adjustments, since I seem to have finally learned how to do this with gimp, thanks to you and other players herein [&o] ), I'm having a rough time invading a Klingon moon-planet (I want it, after having patiently destroyed a medium space port with destroyers and frigates!) And just as victory seems to be at hand, there appear a fleet of Klingon destroyers and frigates, allied with the Tholians, and... lo and belhold!, Romulan warbirds!! [:D] Sneaky Romulans, always lurking in the background and then appearing out of nowhere... even without a cloaking device (any way to model this, I wonder)... such a nuisance! [8|]

Awaiting anxiously to add the Hydrans and the Lyrans... And have you thought about the Interstellar Concordium?? Imagine having eschelon fleets of ISC vessels in the Star Trek galaxy, hmmm... Take care, and do carry on, if you please! [;)]

TJ, you and Igard are walking trekipedias [&o]

We just seem to be blessed with good memory, my good Mr. Data... from a bygone era [sigh] [;)]

Oh, BTW, I was, ummm... forgetting (hehe [:D]) the invading Andromedans, with their intruiging ship design,
whereby the Dominator-class dreadnoughts and the Conquistador-class heavy cruisers (behemoths very heavily shielded and armed) were "mother ships" for their light cruisers, destroyers and frigates... I'm searching the Internet for some type of images that can hopefully be adapted to RoTS shipset formats.

Ah yes, we must remember the ISC and the Andromedans eh, Igard? [;)]

Oh... now that I remember better [:D] : the Andromedan ships were not heavily "shielded" but instead used high-energy dampeners which made them very tough nuts to crack. One-ship fleets that were almost impenetrable. Hmmm, we must find some way to include these far-away folk... [8|]

I never actually played Starfleet Battles. All that I know comes from the Starfleet Command series of PC games and that's where I get most of these ship images.

I had an idea about the Andromedans. They come from the Andromeda galaxy obviously, much like the Kelvan empire from TOS episode, 'by any other name'. So I was going to add them to the Kirk era and use a portrait of their leader from that episode. So the Kelvans are the Andromedans. They were never added to the SF Command games, so I know very little about them.

Would they fit better in the Spock era? I might also make them extremely intelligent, give them no maintenance bonuses so they don't build too much and have them focus on shields and construction. It will then be up to the player to give them a small starting position with slightly better tech than the others.

ISC will come in the after this one. Next update should be later today if I'm happy everything is playing fine.[;)]

Today??!! YAY!! Lyrans and Hydrans... I can't wait! [;)]

As for the Andromedans, why yes, of course they may well be the Kelvans from "By any other name", a favourite episode of mine. As to its timeframe, it could be the Kirk or the Spock era, but I tend to put it in the Kirk era, if only because of the TOS setting. As for being very intelligent, most definitely, and I would say a good tech bonus to be sure. Lesser ships but very potent and techologically advanced with respect to all the Kirk era races, from the start.

But, are there any kind of energy dampening fields in RoTS to replace the usage of shields? (just to be in line with canon, at least Star Fleet Battles). Happy to hear about the addition of the ISC!

So do play on, Igard, and be happy, so as to make us all happy later today! Awaiting I am... O Great Star Trek Modder [&o]

I'm glad you said that, Caesar. It means I can put more into the Kirk era as there are plenty of races for the Spock era as it is.

Not at all! It seemed the logical thing to say.

As for the Hydrans and Lyrans, and in her day, the ISC, perhaps the Kirk era as well, I imagine?
At least the timeframe I believe would be correct, even if none of these races were ever mentioned in TOS canon.
But I think the Star Fleet Battles canon places them in the Kirk era. There was another game
of the same family of games, called Federation and Empire, a strategic level Star Trek universe, set in the Kirk
era, so...

As for F&E and SFB, they were truly fun boardgames, and I only played them solo and enjoyed it.
A great proportional movement system in SFB made things "realistic" as far as those days went, and the Command limits
in F&E seemed to work fine with that game scale.

Of course, with today's computer techology, games of such high quality as DW RoTS, along with dedicated modders ( [;)] ) the Star Trek universe comes wonderfully graphic and alive!

v1.1 released. Happy trekking. [:)]

My good Igard, you are a wonder, many, many thanks!! [&o]

Downloading right away... [;)]

Yay update! Question: where do you get all these ship images?!

You asked the key question....and now we'll see all the forgoten / deepest places of ST that the rest of us thought we knew.

Most of the images I use are from 3d models for the Starfleet Command series of PC games. You can download these models at battleclinic.com. I used to host the mods on the forums there until I had too many problems with the server and changed to filefront/gamfront.

All the models I downloaded are listed in the credits.txt file.[:)]

I've been searching the Internet for starship schematics, and I've managed to dowload several good images that I have been able to put into .png format with the transparency thanks to finally knowing how to use the Gimp software.

This is what I have done so far:

Most of them are classic Kirk era starships (original Franz Joseph designs o very similar: Federation-class dreadnought, Saladin-class destroyer, Hermes-class scout/escort; as an addition to this era, I've included the nice-looking Kelvin-class armed exploration vessel (from Star Trek XI, George Kirk's ship); another is Spock era: another version of the refitted Hermes-class scout/escort; some are from the Picard era (more or less): the Ambassador-class alternate cruiser shipset (Enterprise-C), and another (nice, darker-shaded) version of the Sovereign-class capital ship (Enterprise-E).

As an inexperienced modder, I will say however that once you start at this, it becomes very enjoyably addicting creating your very own with success... thanks to all you great modders out there in space, in a galaxy not so very far, far away... [;)]