/STG/ - Star Trek General

I think we can all agree that this image contains the best ship. Whichever one you choose.

>The other is full of warcrimes.
That is a bit much.

You know what I've just noticed?

That main shuttle bay is extremely poorly placed.

I think the rounded one is a sensor array, reminiscent of the AWACS radar aircraft.
The triangular one is a huge pile of torpedo launchers, like a "Stalin's organ" katiusha truck.

The normal triangular one isn't all torpedo launchers (there are two launchers, one fore, one aft facing), there may be an all torpedo version (which would be pretty awesome, but sort of overkill).

>That main shuttle bay is extremely poorly placed.
Yeah it is. Got to be a good pilot, or every shuttle comes in under AI control.

>Got to be a good pilot, or every shuttle comes in under AI control.

Eh, it looks like there's enough clearance that you can just do a hard 90 degree turn once you've cleared the bay superstructure and be on your way. Doesn't seem that difficult.

Not too bad on the Phoenix model, where you have the loop to fly through

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Something like that would have been interesting for the NX01 design.
>Ship still uses conventional weapon turrets and spinning radar/lidar
>Prototype phaser cannon that blows out half the ships fuses when fired
>Missiles
>Crew initially armed with firearms and tasers
>Asteroid mining drones and built in refinery for producing new dilithium while on deep exploration because they burn it up constantly
Then just slowly upgrade the ship and equipment over the next few seasons as they learn more/refine what they know and stumble on/purchase new technologies.

>how do we redesign something iconic?
>let's make it as ugly and stupid-looking as possible
>excellent idea

>jjtrek.txt

Looks like what you'd get if you tried to build the Enterprise in space engineers

it's like WoW with less ankle fighting

This, all of this

You're making me want things that are impossible.

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I like to think that the Captain of the MIranda and Oberth spent the entire journey back to Earth shouting stuff like "WHO'S FLYING A DEATHTRAP NOW, PICARD?"

So, what did /stg/ think of Cryptic's fanfic competition?

It reminded me I have no idea about any backstory for my Captain.

Almost entered. But then I realized I didn't like the prompt especially with my orange county donut steel aliums and can't into creative writing anyways, even though several of my aliens have elaborate backstories in my head.
I give it a 6/10. The winners were OK, as far as that goes, but it encourages fanfic-tier stuff.

Did you execute the rest of your crew?

>I realized I didn't like the prompt

Yeah. For everyone except my TOS Vulcan, the story would have been "The Doctor spanked them after they were born."

Got half way through writing an entry and then stopped because I didn't think it was all that interesting a story.

Speaking of which, what are your captains like? Their backstories? How much do you roleplay them? This isn't a desperate attempt to make the thread Veeky Forums relevant again, I swear. What'd you write about them if you were just given an open prompt?

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Try the Homeworld franchise, there are a few good Star Trek mods that let you work your way up from diddling around in an Oberth to an ungodly rape machine of doom...

I'll summarize so as not to bore.

>Vulcan who joined Star Fleet as soon as he was able. Believed in it. Believed in it hard.
>Did much good for many people in his early career.
>An idealist and a great believer in the inherent goodness of all sapient entities.
>Shitty little pioneer ship captain, field promotion that in those carefree days.
>Good times. His best years. Many friends. Many good deeds done.
>~200 years later.
>He's a cynical old bastard full of bile and poison.
>His friends are dead, his ideals compromised and all he held dear rendered unrecognizable.
>He still tries to do the right thing, he really does, but his fuse is short and his ire boundless.
>No he isn't taking the old uniform off. It's the Star Fleet he joined, the Star Fleet worth joining.

Most backstory I've done is for a science alium.

So you know how in Bride Of Chaotica there's this race of photonic aliens who think biochemical life is a simulation? Voayger played that for laughs, but what if the scenario was played seriously? So a science vessel runs into a subspace anomaly and the crew ends up in one of those simulations. A redshirt or two ends up "repurposed" by the simulation, and eventually the photonic masters realize something's wrong but think it's just a glitch in the program. The ship crew end up working with the biochemical programs to try and get the fuck out of dodge before the system can reboot, killing everyone as everything is consumed to be repurposed. During those events, one of those programs is interested by the idea of life as an actual person and not a mere program to be used and recreated at will, and ends up joining the crew as they escape back to normal space.

So that's the backstory to one of my characters, an alien from another dimension created to serve as a recreational simulation for a race of photonic aliens, now adjusting to a normal life as a person unto themselves.

I will be deeply disappointed if he doesn't look like Clint Eastwood with pointy ears...

Also, has he realized that everything is bullshit and given up emotional repression for the grumpiness that is a logical response to the stupidity of everything?

So I've a couple worth mentioning.

My Romulan, Kharrus, I have as the second son of a powerful Romulan Senator. His elder brother was expected to take the Family seat, so he did the done thing and joined the military. He played a bit part in the Dominion War as an adjutant to an Admiral and ended up with his own command after the war.

By the time that Romulus get's destroyed, Kharrus' family are major detractors of Sela and her Tal Shiar allies. Accordingly, when Sela takes power, Kharrus' brother and close family all die under mysterious circumstances. Kharrus knew enough to disappear before the Tal Shiar came looking and took up residence on a colony. In short order he got involved with the Republican movement and became an operative.

By the time of STO, he's a major player in Republic Intelligence services. Rather than actually being Admiral (you), I have Kharrus as one of their contacts. Sort of like that spook from the Delta Rising arc.

Then there's my Fed-Cardassian, Skoran. He was an early attempt to introduce Cardassians into Starfleet service. After a spotty record, he got dishcharged and returned to the Cardassian Defence Forces.

Now he's a privateer for the Cardassian Union, hunting down smugglers and True Way convoys and redistributing their supplies to loyal Cardassian citizens. And sometimes killing Klingons, because when you're Cardassian, killing Klingons seems like a good idea.

Reminds me of my KDF cardie who's trying to make enough to buy her own Galor/Keldon through privateer work, salvage, and smuggling illegal instant ramen packs.

Oh holy fucking shit yes he has.

Total emotional repression is not the logical conclusion if you are tying to build a sustainable society that actually does stuff. Like not stagnate. In a species as fucking unstable as Vulcans it is a necessary first step towards mastering emotions and riding them, for one thing it means your sanity and impulse control remains intact.

He looks more like Victor Meldrew with pointy ears and a beard.

I haven't played STO in ages, but my main Klingon dude was Khamlet, son of Khamlet.

Other than the gag name I didn't really RP at all. 'course, at the time there wasn't any PvE content whatsoever for Klingons...

I don't roleplay my characters. There's little point in an MMO I fear. My characters generally have a little snippit about them if I feel arsed to write one, but in general it's something short and to the point.

My Klingon's is: "[character] is a Klingon. Figure it out."

I'm not sure I'd write about any of the characters given an open prompt because of my contempt for fan fiction, and the fact that any good ideas you had you no longer own in any meaningful capacity once you start playing in fanfiction pool.

Word to the wise: Fanfiction is for exercising your writing muscles. Keep your good ideas for your own creations, lest the owners of the property take them from you.

This is the one I put the most effort into:
>Lady Millia Dietz Melda-Td-Miezela is the Second Half-Princess of the First House of Riatorf'ld-Detzdl 'a Melda, Arch-Duchess of Candh Bletxkii, Duchess of Candh Pollkis, Sub-Barroness of Foriils-Td-Gulsd, Cantor of Pried Skozlku, Cantoness of Pried a'Tir, and Meister of Pried Lotandkltiigarf (as she is always introduced), from the small Tyldirran colony world of Riatorf'ld, near the old Cardassian border. Though rather young, she had a lot of responsibility on her planet (not all the titles are strictly honorary). However, she chose to join Starfleet to avoid a marriage with a much older half-sibling that she did not like in the slightest (and which would have added another seventeen titles to her name). The life of a cadet rather suited her (especially working with EPS conduits), but her natural talents and leadership experience made her stand out, even well before graduation. With the Klingon War raging, and the return of the Borg (among other issues), Starfleet was looking everywhere for those with the ability to command - ships are easy to replace, but not experienced officers. Lady Melda was a shoe-in, after taking command during a Borg attack and saving her ship.
Made her after reading some Jane Austin or Honor Harrington or something. Eventually married one of the same species boffs that had a similar story as her, to get them both out of political bs marriages. Also, all-female race. Well, I guess they're technically hermaphroditic, but no penis anywhere.

How long did it take you to think up all those titles?

If he's anything like me he just sat on his keyboard and added royal titles until it made (grammatical) sense.

There's no reason you can't write it for your own enjoyment and adapt it further on down the line. That's actually how I ended up getting my first short story published. It started off as a little fluff piece for a Star Wars game I was going to run. I decided that the core concept was entertaining on it's own and removed any references to star wars. That being said, I've written other stuff that wouldn't work outside of an established universe and I'm quite content for it to remain entirely dependent on prior familiarity.

As for loosing ownership of my rp material, if somebody wants to steal my "Captain Bligh, but in space" character idea, they're more than welcome.

I'm inclined to agree. Fan fiction and licensed work is generally only enjoyable with context. Even then, a lot of it is garbage. If you find something that is enjoyable without the context of its pre-established setting, there's no reason it can't exist as it's own standalone thing.

I found the duck, can you?
upper pylon, near left edge of saucer

Any other deck plan Easter eggs?

Basically . I wanted it to be pretty ridiculous (like Lwaxana), but familiar. I decided I wanted a name for a duchy, a barony, and a township, and just started typing letters to make words. Then the place-names I also just typed letters. I figured that titles would fall under the universal translator, plus wouldn't make sense if they were just random ayy titles. Basically I wanted to give the idea of a rather complicated aristocratic bureaucracy.

There is a bicycle under the main shuttle bay in between the yellow shuttles
There is a spy, or mysterious dude on the second saucer deck on the right most edge, at the end of the turbolift shaft, running in to a doorway
There is a boat to the right of the lower "cap" on the computer core
An R2 unit one deck up and slightly left from the computer core

Weyland-Yutani logo under the impulse engine.

I like the subtle implication that Starfleet uses laser pointers to trick Caitians into signing up.

Shark in the section behind the torpedo launcher, just above the deflector

My third Rom alt, Shirara, has almost the exact same backstory, only the brother was her dad. And rather than being in the Republic by choice, she's only in it to preserve what was left of her family's influence, and hates D'Tan almost as much as the Imperialists, but has a personal grudge against Sela and her lackeys.

Car five decks above the shark
Flux capacitor left of the warp core
Some of the legend descriptions

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Well I had 4 characters I played regularly.

>Human Captain, survivor of Battle of Vega and after was assigned captain of several ships, usually due to prior CO dying or some shit (my explanation of the switching between ships) currently is CO of Monarch Class Exploration Cruiser and it was something running joke that everyone thinks his ship is Galaxy Class, which irritated the character to no end.

>Klingon Engineer: This one was kinda different take on the normal Honor&Glory Klingons as he is actual engineer who built himself a energy Batleth (those ones you got from the NotYoda Ferengi from that Q Christmas Land) most memorable moment is him getting threatened by Klingon Trill going all "muh honor" and my character is more interested of the design and materials of the daggers the Trill was waving during her hissyfit and suggesting he could forge better ones for her.

>Cardassian Science Officer, made with the Alien Race and with some isntructions how to make Cardie from the Forums. Became the Cardassian Liason officer of the Fleet I was rping, lost his family during the Dominion War when Founder gave the order of the Jem'hadar to start killing Cardassians so he hates most Dominion things but especially Jem'hadar.

>Ferengi Engineer/Barkeep, I made this character when I got the Ferengi D'Kora out of Lock Box and fleet needed a barkeepe for regular rp in the Starbase. Former offcer in the Ferengi Fleet such as it is. respects Grand Nagus Roms reforms as he sees Rules of Acquisition as more of guideline than actual thing to wrap your whole life around. Quite honest for a Ferengi trader, sold protective suits and other stuff to Romulan Republic when that started.

Here are my three human captains.
>Captain from Mirror universe who survived Leetas purge of her competitors and fled to the prime universe where he has been working to undermine Leeta
>TOS captain who got temporally displaced (canon due to the game) and now just appears as an eccentric admiral who pulls hundred year old ships out of the mothballs so he can internally refit them slightly and then fly them to the final frontier, also forces the entire crew to wear old stylish uniform
>WoK styled captain aka Space suit Dave, going around wearing old Federation uniforms and forcing his bridge crew to wear them also, is also using the old stylish phasers both as ship weapons and as personal weapons (not much story here, just a flavor character).

I can't find it, but theres a comic about a Catian bridge officer onboard the Enterprise

You talking about the one where she's just a cat?

>a normal Starfleet captain that got stuck in the mirror universe for a few years and then came back with some "interesting ideas" that got him bumped front line deployment.

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That's the one, thanks user

Make sure to always bring your lolis on diplomatic missions.

For the record, that's an actual character from TAS

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Is there more of this? There's something slightly off about the spacing on the engines but otherwise looks decent.

>Watching Chain Of Command and Picard gets tortured

Damn good two-parter, though.

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another episode where the cardassians prove to be the best aliens in trek.

How many lights do you see, detective?

This. It probably has to do with the structure of DS9. By being a static show, it forced the writers to use longer narratives and to develop the major players. Hence we know more about the Cardassians and Bajorans than the Romulans.

Early on, I often felt like the Cardassians were meant to be the Romulans but somewhere along the line they decided to go with a different aesthetic. The Romulans were criminally underused.

I think they designed the Cardassians to be dime-store Romulans, for when they wanted to use Romulans but didn't want to over-use Romulans.

I think they needed the kind of friend/enemy thing that Romulans are but that were not anywhere near as much of a threat so they'd have somewhere to escalate from.

I love that episode where O'brien gets captured and sent to trial on Cardassia and you learn everybody that goes on trial is guilty until proven guilty, you see some of the worst aspects of humanity in the Cardassians and then you understand that they've just got a truly alien mindset, they can be a deeply spiritual and philosophical species that was in contact with Bajor a thousand years ago but at the same time their lizard-brains are different and they have to punish the guilty so that the people and state prosper.

I...tend to go on for a bit. I come up with backstories at the drop of a hat, though Traja is basically "Romulan Worf".

>What'd you write about them if you were just given an open prompt?

>Traja
Definitely a mirror universe story where she has to deal with her Mirror counterpart. I believe in the Mirror universe Romulus wasn't destroyed, so Mirror her would be much more stereo typically Romulan, and have a connection to the Senate in the form of her dad.

>Hsakku
Something something fuck Klingons something something acquire bitches.

>Evelyn Medina
It would involve her trying to take shore leave on Risa, getting interrupted by Daniels trying to be friendly, and involve her chewing out him for removing her from her proper time while simultaneously decrying all the stupid stuff about the 25th Century as opposed to the 24th.

>that episode where the female cardassian scientist thinks miles was wanting to marry her because they kept arguing
>when you realize that every time someone was telling dukat or garak to fuck off they thought it meant they were being friends
Tsundere

good thing Romulans are completely neutered by the time of Nemesis/JJtrek!

>Bajorans are easily one of the most verbally aggressive species in the franchise
>which meant Cardassians saw them all as being a bunch of tubosluts
No wonder Dukat had a fetish

Also, they're alien enemies that *gasp* actually look alien, which is always nice in Trek.

From the Cardassians' perspective, they'd only put someone on trial if they knew they were guilty so the trial is a formality. To suggest that someone actually on trial was innocent would be to suggest that the authorities are incompetent.

I prefer the long view that, like the Klingons and Vulcans have also been shown to be, the Cardassians aren't a uniform and timeless monoculture. Because they are just insane, and so close to Bajor it makes little sense that they'd only invade about 50 years prior to DS9 if they'd really been this totalitarian, grasping state since time immemorial.

I can't remember if it's canon or not, but I was under the impression Cardassia occupied Bajor for its resources because it fucked up all its own colony worlds.

well in Chain of Command we learned that Cardassia was a learned highly spiritual world that probably mirrored Bajor but overpopulation and famine forced them into desperation and a military junta. So even though the Gul that interrogated Picard lamented that the beautiful sculptures and tombs were sold off to fund the war "he never had to worry about his daughter going hungry".

I don't think Cardassians are a monoculture like Klingons but I think out of necessity they had to embrace Fascism/Aggressive colonization and imperialism.

Maybe after the Dominion War and the federation rebuilt them they could return to their spiritual ways and make amends with Bajor.

>Because they are just insane, and so close to Bajor it makes little sense that they'd only invade about 50 years prior to DS9 if they'd really been this totalitarian, grasping state since time immemorial.
I think the backstory has the Cardies being a normal, religious folk until a massive famine fucked their culture up just a few decades prior to the series.

Kira must have been a walking wet dream to him. Her mom, too.

There had been contact a long, long time ago. Dukat discovered Bajoran lightship ruins on Cardassia Prime after Sisko made his little trip. I suspect based on what we saw on camera, the current culture had been dominant for a few hundred but less than a thousand years - a long time, to be sure, but not enough to leave a significant mark on their biology. That's why you had Cardassians breaking type all the time on DS9.

What do Cardassians do when they actually want someone to fuck off?

Cold shoulder.

Be as friendly and polite as possible. Like Garak. Whenever Garak is actually friendly with someone, it's unsettling as fuck because you know he's plotting about three dozen different ways to kill them with no evidence.

But Cardassians love to talk. Shunning is probably the worst treatment for them.

No, he'd already have plotted them and the conversation is creepy because his demeanor is the most obvious facade in the universe.