hey just a thought but if you get an intrepid (voyager) class ship that gets throw into delta quadratnt with little power and a mixed crew of rebles and star fleet will you aotumaticly destroy all borg (me haveing a dig at voyager)

sorry to all voyager fans

i think i would like to see the actual invasion of the planet that your invading.

I know I'm completely new to this (I just found this site about a week ago, and believe me was I excited) and hate to nitpick the first thing, but something odd hit me as I was looking through the "Minor race breakdown" link. In another forum, it was stated that no major empire can build minor race ships, even if they peacefully join you. Seeing as how the ships are by far my favorite part (especially the wicked looking desings for the Breen ships), I was saddened but figured that it might be too much programming work to include a feature like that into the game. I'd just have to make sure that I annex them after they build, then keep those ships away from any serious threats. Then I noticed some of the special features for a couple of the minor races.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it looks like at least a couple of the minor races have special structures which only benefit their particular ships, like the Nausicaans. The raiding benefit sounds good and is an interesting new unique ability, but it seems like it won't do anything if I don't have some of their ships--which rules out conquering them unless I want a generic nothing race. Even if I peacefully annex them and get a good number of their ships, those could end up being smashed by enemy patrols I'd think, which would mean I'd be getting no bonus from that race at all. Am I interpreting this right or just demonstrating how ignorant I really am of computer stuff and hoping no one notices?

Hi Ritter, welcome to the forums.

While I do agree with you about that you should be able to build minor races' ship when conquered or joined (I mean, why not), you are wrong regarding the bonusses. The Nausican bonus, for example, is a raiding bonus which affects all of your ships. Not only the Nausican ships.

Hey there Ritter, welcome to the site!

Centurion is right - the bonuses do affect all your ships, so they aren't "worthless" bonuses at all.

The reason why you won't be able to build minor race ships, (At least in the official game - you could always mod it if you want ) is because minor race ships will be weaker than yours.

As an example, the Vulcans will be the most powerful of the minor races, but even their strongest ship will only be 85-95% of the strength of your best ship, depending on the era you are in.

From a Militaristic point of view, being able to build minor race ships would simply be a waste of resources.

Also, when a race joins you, it becomes a part of your Empire. If they carried on building their own ships, then you wouldn't exactly have a unified Military, would you?

As an example, when the Federation was formed, the Human, Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite Navies joined to form one unified fleet, but the Human designs carried on as the basis of Starfleet. Whilst we know from several series that each race continued to produce their own designs, there has never been any mention of the races buildings ships specifically for their own private Navies - afterall, this would be against Federation policy, and would take resources away from Starfleet.

We know of things like the Vulcan defense fleet, but it was composed of outdated relics - clearly the Vulcans hadn't developed new, advanced designs in a long time, and if they hadn't bothered, there isn't much hope for other members.

And when it comes to other races, do you really think the Romulans, the Klingons, the Cardassians, or the Dominion would use the ships of other "inferior" races? They wouldn't by choice, they would simply stick to their own designs where possible and adapt them to their needs.

This is why you won't be able to build minor race ships in the offficial game. It will follow canon Trek as closely as possible, although not to a degree that it will be unplayable.

I know for a fact that a lot of people would agree with your ideas - there has been many discussions about it.

The simple fact of the matter is that the game will be moddable. If you don't like some aspect of the game, you can change it!

So I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you.

That's good to hear. I was kind of wondering since it says, "+x% Raiding (for X's ships)," so I thought it meant ONLY their ships. That would be really cool, though, if you could perhaps build up a "pirate" fleet and deny all knowledge of it. "You say you're losing lots of currency and supplies to some Nausicaan raiders? Hmmm, I'll have a chat with the Nausicaans and see what's going on." Better yet, maybe, use stolen Klingon/Romulan/etc. ships to frame them to another major power. I'm definitely glad to see this as a new bonus, though. It'll give destroyer class ships a lot more leverage when you're deciding how to best invest your shipbuilding resources.

Oh, and you can bet I'm going to modify some of the minor race ships. I can't wait to see the finalized Tamarian and Breen ships in action. If there's ever anything I can do to help--I suck at computer programming/design stuff, but I have considerable experience in writing, editing, drawing, project design, stuff like that--don't hesitate to ask. I know a project like this must be beyond ridiculously time consuming, so I'm more than happy to take as much of the weight as possible.

If you want to help, get in contact with Iwulff or Skeeter - send them a PM with details of your skills and what you'd like to help with.

I'm sure they'd have some ideas on what you could do.

Iwulff is designing/writing the Database (Help system) for the game, and that will require considerable amounts of text. The race descriptions are all but complete, but if you notice anything that needs changing, feel free to suggest it.

Such a massive game will require considerably more text than just simply the race descriptions, so there's bound to be something you can do, no matter how small or big it is.

Is this the most up-to-date list of descriptions:

http://www.botfii.armadafleetcommand.co ... 47&start=0

If so (please, don't anybody take offense to this because I only mean it in a constructive criticism way), I can see a number of things which could be strengthened--mainly spelling, sentence variation, and some grammar issues. How do I know when those people are online to chat with them, or is there an e-mail address I can send to?

That thread is where the descriptions can be found.

The descriptions are updated as people notice any changes that need to be made.

If you have any suggestions, just post what changes need to be made in the thread, and one of the moderators will update the descriptions when they have the time.

That's why there are 27 pages in that thread... 8O

bump

Umm...congratulations on your first post, v1ryus. People tend to post a little more than that in their posts though.

Any particular reason why you bumped this thread?

Wow thats a unique first post... especially since its a permanent topic lol

This is clearly a subtle reference that has gone over the heads of many of our viewers. He has, with great economy of words, spoken to the core issue. This is the essence of our quests as fans to create a work of art in game form through communal effort driven by our love of the Star Trek fantasy. It captures the hope for the unobtainable that gives us inspiration in a universe driven by entropy and chaos. It is a distillation of the global understanding we gain when people from all over the world work together on a common dream and in so doing achieve new understanding. In this way we come as close to the dream of Star Trek as is possible in this imperfect world.

That or it just means bump.

I hope I'm posting this in the correct thread.

I miss one particular minor race, which was represented in the Federation Council, even though there isn't much canon known about them: The Caitians.

Whilst we endeavour to include every race we can in the game, we have a set of rules that we follow to decie whether a race is included or not:

• The race MUST have been seen and named in at least one episode from any of the five series or any of the films. Races seen or mentioned in the animated series, books, podcasts, or any other source material are not generally considered canon.
• A usable image of that race must be available for use in the game. Simple screenshots must therefore be of particularly high quality; even screenshots taken from a dvd can be of poor quality.
• They must be from this Galaxy.
• Where possible, they should have a named homeworld.
• At least one individual (Preferably more) of that race or society must still be alive. So whilst the El-Aurians are in the game, the T'Kon and Debrune are not.
• At least some basic information about that race should be known so that an ingame encyclopedia entry can be created about them.
• The race must have a unique trait of some kind that could be used to create a special, logical bonus for them.
• We should know at least a little bit about their relationships to the five Empires, or know how they behave on the Galactic stage so we can surmise how they would react to the five Empires when they meet. (Ie are they warlike, peaceful, treacherous, good trading partners, etc etc)

For a race to be in the game, the race must meet ALL of these requirements. In the case of the Caitians, they were never actually named in the film. The information about their race is also a little thin on the ground. Their homeworld has never been mentioned in any canon material, and we also don't know of any unique traits that could be used to create a special bonus for them. There is also confusion over whether they are actually the Kzinti or the Lyrans, and they've even been named "Regulans" in some non-canon material.

For these reasons, the Caitians are unlikely to make it in the game. But that doesn't mean they won't. If the problems i've mentioned can be overcome, then the chances of them making it into the game will improve. It is also extremely easy to use the editor to add races in, so you could always mod the game yourself.

...Unfortunately the editor is broken at the moment because Mike is working on a brand new version of it, but once that's released, there's nothing stopping you from doing it - or I could do it for you.

• The race MUST have been seen and named in at least one episode from any of the five series or any of the films. Races seen or mentioned in the animated series, books, podcasts, or any other source material are not generally considered canon. They have appeared in Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home in some short scenes.
• A usable image of that race must be available for use in the game. Simple screenshots must therefore be of particularly high quality; even screenshots taken from a dvd can be of poor quality. Quite difficult to get a better quality picture than the one in Memory Alpha...unfortunately I don't own the DVD, so I can't make a screenshot myself)
• They must be from this Galaxy. They are, otherwise they couldn't be a member of the Federation at that time
• Where possible, they should have a named homeworld. The Homeworlds name ist Cait.
• At least one individual (Preferably more) of that race or society must still be alive. So whilst the El-Aurians are in the game, the T'Kon and Debrune are not. Theres no Info about them being extinct, so one could assume that they are still alive
• At least some basic information about that race should be known so that an ingame encyclopedia entry can be created about them. Nothing beyond their physical features(manes, tails etc.)
• The race must have a unique trait of some kind that could be used to create a special, logical bonus for them. Nothing canonial since there isn't much known about them.
• We should know at least a little bit about their relationships to the five Empires, or know how they behave on the Galactic stage so we can surmise how they would react to the five Empires when they meet. (Ie are they warlike, peaceful, treacherous, good trading partners, etc etc) We know that they are part of the Federation, so it is a logical conclusion that they share their ideals and mindset, so one can assume how they would react to the othere Empires.

Just checking the list for myself, though maybe someone can bring in some more canonial information

I can do a random event image for them:

-Random world
-Issue: Case of the Caitian flees
-Effect: 10 turns 25% production lost; due to uncontrollable itching.

Hi Koractu, as MOE noted this game is very modifiable. It would on take minutes to add a favorite race that did not make the grade. Well once the editor is back up and running anyway

Perhaps we should think up race-specific randoms for every race...

The game really is moddable Koractu, and as Val said it would take minutes - if that - to add the Caitians in. The only thing that is barring you from doing it is the broken editor.

The rules that I mentioned apply to all of the races - I didn't mention them just because they were the ones that the Caitians "break". As you pointed out, they do comply with some of those rules, - but not all of them, which is why they're not in the game. The image on Memory Alpha is actually of high enough quality as well - I was referring more to the fact that the only available images of *some* of the races are particularly poor quality, but there aren't any other images that could be used because that race has only been seen once. These images are usually from TOS or early TNG. More recent aliens tend to have higher quality images available of them because they've had better promotion or simply because camera and recording technologies have improved.

I will give it a try when the editor does work again.
The most sad thing about the Caitians is that there is more information, but it can't be rated 100% canon as the sources are different Pen&Paper Books and Novels.

If you're going to mod it in, you'll be able to say whatever you want about them - canon or not. The editor gives you boxes so you can write the first contact message and the encyclopedia entries. You can even select an option so the game knows you're writing a translated version. The game can in fact support translations of hundreds of different languages, but I wouldn't advise doing a translation as this would likely massively increase the size of the game database, decreasing performance. But the option is always there if someone decided they wanted to translate the game in future.

Hehe, good one, Billy.

Hello everyone! So I looked through the big database of races and compiled a list of the ones that still needed descriptions and "race reports" (the unique dialogue that each particular empire states when viewing a race)

Arkonian (All)
Eblarians (reports by race)
Enarans (All)
Enolians (All)
Ligonian (Race Reports)
Malurians (race reports)
Retellians (all)
Rigelians (all)
Takret (all)
Tandarans (all)
Torothans (all)


Unless there's a better place for me to be doing it, I will start filling in those races one by one. Let me know if this should be taken to a different thread, otherwise I'll just start plugging away.

These are rough drafts of the first two. I'm not 100% happy with them but figured I'd post. If you object to any particular part strongly enough I can change it, but I figure it's best to have something to work off of rather then just not post, so here goes:

Arkonian
The Arkonians have an interesting physiological feature in that their bodies hyrdation system is not based upon water. Instead, they rely upon a thick, brown liquid they refer to as "tarratt-aash" which is unpalatable to many other species. This has the advantage of causing their saliva to have tremendous healing properties, but has the disadvantage of making their bodies unable to handle rapid temperature changes.

The Arkonians achieved warp capability and were approached by the Vulcans, but first contact broke down quickly as their suspicious and deceitful nature soon drove the Vulcans away. Their distrust for Vulcans is so extreme that even now they are wary of any ship that has even a single Vulcan on board.

• Cardassian: The Arkonians share our love for suspicion, deceit, and a hatred of Vulcans. They will make a fine addition to our empire.
  
• Federation: The Vulcans were wise not to trust the Arkonians. Their capacity for deceit and treachery is only outmatched by their xenophobic suspicions. However, if they can be shown the errors of their ways, they may grow to be more accepting of alien cultures.
  
• Klingon: Although they claim to have the spirit of the warrior, these weaklings chose to lie and decieve instead of confronting them with honor. We will crush their puny empire and show how real warriors handle their enemies.
  
• Romulan: The Arkonians share our displeasure with our distant cousins, but their paranoia has blinded them into paranoia. We will have to show them exactly how different we are from the Vulcan race.
  
• Dominion: Although they have a fleet, this race is but another example of the inferior species that populate the far corners of this sector. We will easily crush them into submission.

Eblarians (reports by race)

• Cardassian: The Eblarians serve a hierarchy that resembles our own empire. Assimilating them and their technology should prove to be an easy task.
  
• Federation: The Eblarians have a strong passion for acquiring technology, but not the morale background to act ethically. With a few alterations, their Hierarchy should be able to benefit both the Federation and the galaxy as a whole.
  
• Klingon: These fat creatures show surprising backbone. When they see something they want, they take it like true warriors. We just need to instill some courage and honor into their so-called Hierarchy and they will prove to be a fine asset for the Empire.
  
• Romulan: The Eblarians have advanced technology that they have seized from all across the galaxy. They are also a dogmatic, cautious race that looks before it leaps. Absorbing them into Empire will allow us access to both their technology and their methods, a fine prize indeed.
  
• Dominion: The Eblarians show intelligence by not trying to stand in our way. Their technology makes them a target, nonetheless, but perhaps a diplomatic channel could prevail. If not, the Jem'Hadar will easily crush these cowards.

Hi Praguepride, and welcome to the forums!

The races in your list are all new. All of the other races have been in the database or the game for a long time, so have undergone a lot of development, which is why they have descriptions and whatnot. As the races in your list have had a lot less development time, they haven't had their information typed up.

This doesn't necessarily mean that it's not been done though.

The database is being made and maintained by Dafedz. I haven't spoken to him in a while, but i'll see if I can contact him and ask whether he's actually written the descriptions etc for the new races. If not, then we will happily use what you've posted. If he has already written something up, then we'll pit yours against his and go with whichever one is best.

Thanks for the quick reply. I was worried this forum might be dead or dying, but glad to see a head honcho still logging on regularly. I'm no artist or actor, but I can write and I can plan. Point me where I can be of service

Dead or dying?! The forums are certainly not dead or dying, and most of the admin log in at least once a day. Just because people don't post, doesn't mean they don't visit.

Well...except for Dafedz. He hasn't read my PM about your work, yet.

Please don't take ti as a slight, take it as a testament that you guys are still going. Before stumbling here I wasted quite a bit of time on dead mod after dead mod, posting again and again before realizing that nobody has been on that forum in almost a year.

I'm surprised that there is life out there and I'm all eager and excited to help

Hmmm...... I estimate the percentage chance of this forum dying anytime soon to be -60%. Yes, that's right, it is so unlikely that it is a NEGATIVE percentage chance. After all, if the site goes dead, then who am I gonna send my Random Event descriptions to? And who will continue work on the graphics end of ships and planets? And who would be the programmer who art in SharePoint? No no no, there's simply too much work to do around here to simply go off and shut down . Erm... did I say work? I meant experiences to be shared

Thanks praguepride - great efforts. Your input is welcome for these new races, as I haven't had a lot of time to work on them recently. By all means continue for the remining races when you have the chance, look forward to reading them...

Would about having the possibility of the same race of people splitting from an empire? For example, if morale is very low in the Federation for an extended period of time, perhaps allowing ~15% chance of a split between loyalists and Maquis-separatists? I remember this feature was a possibility that existed in Civilisation I, when the capital city was conquered the empire could split between loyalists and separatists that would either form a new nationality or join a rival empire.