/STG/ - Star Trek General

Yep. It's basically alright. I'll keep watching in the hopes that it gets better, or at the very least doesn't go to shit.

Except ENT is actually counter to that. The Hero ship was just modified Akira from previous series and atleast one Klingon ship was a D7 that was used previous series aswell. They only started using original ships in the 2nd season I think.

what would Memory Omega be?

The place where requests for slash fiction and other trek themed porn would go.

Fan fiction and Chakat art.

Pretty much.

A good enough 1st episode, which can really go anywhere from here.

Ship stuff was pretty good. I liked how the enemy DD launched missiles after energy weapons took out the shields.

Except that:
1: The NX is only an Akira in the same way that a Galaxy is a Connie. It uses effectively the same combination of pieces, however there is a clear delineation in designs with regards to scale and aesthetic that's clear to the naked eye. You would not mistake an NX with an Akira and vice versa. Even moreso with the interior esthetic which is NASA meets early Trek with a heavy weighting towards NASA.
2: The D7 appearance was a consequence of the producers wanting a redesign of the completed D5 design(seen in Marauders and the s4 Klingon storyline) far too late, resulting in an argument between them and the designer. For unfathomable reasons, no doubt motivated their intent to spite the designer, they decided instead to use a shitty low poly D7 model they had lying around. The D7 was never supposed to be used, only Berman's hate boner made them use it.
3: They introduced plenty of new designs in S1, they just wasted them on shitty 1-shot aliens for the most part. The Xyrillians, the Suliban, the Elachi(Silent Enemy) stand out in my memory, while both the Vulcans and Humans got a few new designs along the way.

That's effectively what Memory gamma is.

>captcha uses a photo taken at the 5 minutes from where I live
Concern is real, lads.

I wonder if that was purely for narrative effect or if Braga/MacFarlane are paying that much attention to detail.

It's MacFarlane's dream project, it's absolutely attention to detail.
Funny thing, a couple days ago my dad and I were watching an episode of TNG and commenting that the crew might benefit from seatbelts, and that smaller ships should be capable of the same kind of acrobatics the Orville performs.

ENT is a mess, but in general, I think it could have worked (and really started to do so in season 4). They had an okay core cast, but they misused them generally, and in many cases flat out ignored them (Hoshi and Mayweather in particular).

I think ENT is better than VOY, but it has some of the same core problems: It sets out a premise (in ENT's case, Trek, but before the tech we recognize and the setting that started it all), and then fumbles with it.

For example, ENT does exceedingly well with the interior sets, and even I think, the uniforms. But they fumble it with spatial torpedoes and phase pistols, which are really just photon torpedoes and phasers with a different name. They also do that really annoying thing from VOY where everyone (in particular, T'pol) wanders around with a not!tricorder and scans things and exposits nonsense to each other.

The first two seasons are rough, with a bunch of bright spots. Shran is wonderful every time he appears, and I always look forward to it. Season three... I don't know. I think it's a breath of fresh air the show desperately needed, but they didn't know where they were going with it, and it shows. That's why they hired Manny Coto to finish off season three.

Who in turn gave us the excellent direction that season four has (even if I dislike some of the episodes and the ideas behind them, like the Vulcans needing Prophet Archer to reveal to them the True Words of Surak - however, these are relics of season one and two that had to be explained). But it was too little, too late, to save ENT.

Could have been great. Could have been up there with TOS, DS9, and TNG, but they flubbed it.

A minor point but I would have loved it if they kept the EM Pistols around instead of the Phase Pistols. It would have been interesting to see them have to be careful not to kill a target without just stunning everything.

Yep. It would have caused the crew to have to have different procedures for dealing with problems (and by extension, the writers would need to come up with more creative and interesting situations to deal with this).

And once primitive phaser weapons become available, it'd have felt like the protagonists had earned them.

>September 2017
>Still no playable Cardassians, Breen or Vorta in Star Trek Online.
Why live?

Plasma pistols and tasers would have worked great.

The problem was I think they got alot of Voyagers writing staff and to be frank creative and interesting is not what those people where capable of doing, also Berman sitting on the executive producer seat meant that even the smallest creativety and interest of stuff was squashed out.

Gamma Quadrant expansion is up next. Keep those hopes up.

It'll be about time again, just you wait.

So what's the Cardassian symbol supposed to be?

When making a new Federation/Starfleet member species, how far would you go? Being on Veeky Forums for so long has made me worried that I might be subtly injecting my magical realm, even though Caitians exist and that my players specifically requested "something new and exciting" for their Chief Medical Officer.

In season 5 the NX-01 would have been given a refit into something that looked like the picture I posted. Since DIS takes place around the The Cage, I wouldn't expect them to use a design that looks so roughshod, especially when the asian captain's ship is yet another Akira ripoff.

Jeff Combs really did carry the entire Andorian race on his back now that I think about it. I think it would have been cool to see Shran join the crew of Enterprise in season 5 like they were planning.

Is STO good? I played it for a couple hours a while back and had a bit of fun destroying a borg cube in my shitty Miranda-type

Go as far as you want. The Federation has a ton of species and all of them have the potential to be their own fleshed-out niche.

>Is STO good? I played it for a couple hours a while back and had a bit of fun destroying a borg cube in my shitty Miranda-type
It's worth playing through the story missions at the very least. Most are half-decent, some are bad, but there are some real gems too. Whether or not you stick around for endgame content is up to how much you end up liking the gameplay or space barbie.

Looks like a cobra to me.

But cardassians don't have hoods. Maybe it's some kind of animal on their homeplanet, maybe even an earlier stage of evolution in their species. But then again it's not like Starfleet has a chimpanze as ther emble or anything.

I believe The Official Starships Collection companion for the Galor-ship mentioned that the symbol of the Cardassian Union is supposed to be the symbolic representation of a mythical warrior called the Galor. But idk how accurate that is or where they got it from.

Well he definitely had some serious pauldrons in that case.

Pretty much this, but I'd add on a few things:
>The gameplay - at least in spess - is pretty trek-y, but the ground is garbage.
>Standard canon-y builds are easy enough to make and okay-ish for playing.
>Space barbie usually requires a lot of grinding to play the freemium game, but there's basically nothing that's completely paywalled.
>You can be a minmaxing dps munchkin too if you want, but it's not that big of a deal because you just need a reasonable build to PvE, and PvP is so hilariously broken you'll be insta-shredded no matter what.
>The Foundry (UGC) has so much more and better gems than the missions.
>The memes are stale.
>The global chat is cancer that seems to solely consist of edgy alt-righters battling it out with leftypols who think they're Gene reincarnated.
>It's still fun, somehow.

Meant to reply to , too.

Last time I played it was just constant Gorn puns. Which was interesting to say the least.

Most of the old running gags (Where's Sulu, Kurland Here, etc) have receded into the cringe level of history, but Gorn jokes are probably the only old meme the community looks upon fondly (ish)

I watched The Orville.

I am ok with this.

That pretty much sums up everything, but for a more detailed thing that doesn't contain spoilers:

I liked the little details, like the reveal of the Orville being like the reveal of the Enterprise A both musically and in shot composition, with a nice overview of the ship so we get a good look at it. The design of everything worked, it's clearly not huge budget but they put the money where it matters in making sure not every alien was just a bumpy head human, and the ones that were didn't look like crap. The colours and style felt something like a modernised TNG; lots of muted scenery accentuated with stand-out bright colours on characters and lots of daylight. I'm sure that bit is incredibly intentional contrast against Discovery and the like.
The dialogue was a bit clunky in the first half but then establishing everyone and everything within the time limit is never easy so I'll let it pass. The humour I expected to be the weakest part but still I actually smiled at points, and didn't find myself cringing (which was what I expected). Some of it was a bit crass but a lot of it was just banter, and the banter worked fine for me. The plot itself was a bit rushed as a consequence of all the establishing but again was fine, didn't capture the imagination much but gave most of the cast something to do.

It surprised me by not feeling like fanboy wankery. And whilst I didn't go into this expecting the seconding coming of Star Trek (so I wasn't let down), it came out better than I thought it might have been. Because it so easily could have been awful.

I think what I am trying to say is this show has a lot of potential to fuck up or get great, but clearly it's heart is in the right place and the foundations are far more solid than I expected. It's not just a tribute to what Star Trek was, and instead is clearly managing to be it's own continuation of Star Trek's core themes and tropes but in it's own style.

That's good to hear. I haven't seen it yet but it was wondering about it. Is it very comedy focused like the trailers made me think or not?

Ok so im out of the loop.
Checked some images of this Orville thing and it looks like Galaxy quest.
Are they related? Or is this just another comedy take on star trek?

Most of the big "jokes" were in the trailers. The overall tone of the show is more like if the world of Star Trek was populated by 21st century office workers, in that there is crude banter and passive-aggressiveness among the crew. It might devolve into typical MacFarlane, but it has the potential to be good if it stays its course.

It's like a TOS episode with a bit more banter and a little bit of toilet humour, but not much. Not all of it lands, but in ratio of jokes to drama, it's about a Trouble with Tribbles balance (though not as good as that episode).

Not related. It's a little awkward to sum up because it isn't just a parody. Nor is it just a fan-film with a budget. It's like Macfarlane and company took TOS or really more TNG, changed up the visuals and naming so it's clearly not but really is star trek at the same time, and then built something new on top of that. It's not just a retreading of old ground, but it does play out like an episode of star trek, not a parody of one. Not even a loving parody. The characters are people who can be jokey, not jokes in and of themselves.

It just is star trek with a little bit more silly humour and banter and a different skin on top.

"Happy Arbor Day."

I'd say Galaxy Quest is more of a delightfully wholesome tribute to Trek, while the Orville just seems a straight-up comedic take on the setting.

If you'll indulge me, the slightly cheesecake pic-related is the kind of species I wanted to try and introduce. They come from a few D&D games I've run where Dragonborn aren't scalie-bait. Obviously I'd have to get her in a specialized Starfleet uniform that accommodates her scales and tail, but that's a minor problem all things considered.

I vaguely had in mind that her species could come from an mostly-arctic world, and that features like the horns and scales are both for temperature regulation and for defensive purposes. I wouldn't go so far as to compare them to Klingons, but they are sort of a warrior-like race. Maybe the Andorian Ushaan would be a better comparison. Though obviously instead of using a certain tool/weapon they use their natural ones. Other than that, I'm open to any suggestions on how to fluff them appropriately. Or be told that this is a terrible idea. Either one really.

I also think it'd be better if she wasn't the CMO, and was instead either a science officer or an engineer. Both positions would come with the enlisted rank of Senior Chief Specialist. That way in case my players don't like her it's easy enough to make her supporting character drift back into the faceless void of all the other people on the ship.

Dragon-folk are going to be magical realm no matter what, so just bee urself.
As far as uniforms go, just go with a skirt. You didn't say what time frame, but either TOS minidress or TNG skant will work.

Hey, it's not gay if there's a skirt, so that's a plus too!

So like this then. That should work. I'll do the proper thing and give the Captain player a final say on whether this does or does not meet their requirement for "new and exciting," instead of just dropping the character on them during the tour of the ship.

On a mostly unrelated note - I forgot Troi ever wore this.

I forgot how much of the show had Troi hanging around with her greek hotness.

In it's own way, The Orville is as wholesome as Galaxy Quest, I think. It has the handicap of the guy responsible for Family Guy is responsible for the humor in it, but there were so many scenes of cool Star Trek stuff with the somber, hopeful music and the characters legitimately being awed at the prospect of space exploration and space adventures that it sold me. It's a parody, sure, but it's definitely a "We love you and all your crazy bullshit" parody and not "This shit's fuckin' stupid".

And the pilot had time shenanigans without actual time travel, that's always cool.

Am I alone in liking Archer and T'pol's growing relationship?

Yes, it's shit apart from Twilight, which is absolute fucking kino.

Catsuit girls look better in uniform, no exceptions.

Fuck, wrong pic.

wut?

Agreed

You heard me.

The sad part is that even with her as mostly eye candy, I actually liked Jolene Blalock. She wasn't bad as a Vulcan, and when she wasn't handed generic antagonist "Humans are retards" lines she didn't do badly.

She even complained about inconsistent stuff like the scene where T'pol eats popcorn, despite it having previously been established that Vulcans don't touch food with their hands. Berman shot her down. She was also pretty critical of some of the show's direction, and felt that they were sending it to an early grave.

They hired a bimbo who was smarter than they were. Really makes you think.

Attention /STG/!
Where's the best place to buy model Starships? All the listings I can find on Amazon are either the shitty AMT kits, tiny Eaglemoss models, or the Diamond Select toys, which are currently all >60 dollars excepting the NX-01

Unfortunately nowhere. Get the older Polar Lights kits if you can, but the newer ones using their name have terrible QC and don't fit for shit.

I used the code BOGO and got Eaglemoss BoP and Ent-D models for a combined $5, all I had to do was call after they came to cancel my subscription. Dunno if you can still do it.

Well there's always the not exactly illicit or secretive market for resin ships and stuff to customise plastic kits. Ugh! Models appears pretty good if you're in the US, decently priced and nice quality from what I've seen. Image not mine but related.

There's a bunch like them out there though. Also Shapeways if you want to spend a bajillion dollarydoos on 3d printing stuff..

...

Damn, I've been spoiled too much by Bandai I guess. I don't have the tools/paints to do any kits well, so I suppose I'll just wait for the Diamond Select sutff to get reissued so they're not so expensive.

>Axanar
Hadn't heard about this. Dying Oligarch Syndrome has set in, eh?

What's Dying Oligarch Syndrome?

Bullshit I just made up to evoke the image of some old asshole with a copyright claim desperately clinging to it and swinging wildly at their own fans as the well dries up.

Was that why they decided to pair Trip and T'pol together?

I doubt it. I'm willing to bet the writers just had no idea where to take either character, and decided "massage to cure headaches and insomnia = intimacy = love affair".

Archer and T'pol actually had more chemistry, but it would have been improper for the captain to be romancing someone under his command which actually would have made it more interesting.

>which actually would have made it more interesting
ENT's slogan.

Pretty much. Especially the Temporal Cold War, the building of the Federation that should've been woven into S1, and the initial effects and ship designs which went way too quickly into modern Trek.

As somebody who likes ENT, this is painfully accurate. I think it may have been the low tech and the closer proximity to real Earth analogues, but something about it felt like it was always accidentally being interesting and then squandering it.

I'm going to admit that I didn't like ENT on first viewing, and I considered it the worst Trek for a number of years. However, on repeat viewings, I found things I liked and... there's a lot of "could have been" in there that makes me sad.

VOY, however, I had to force myself to watch, and I don't think I can do it again. Maybe a handful of episodes I could stomach watching again, but not the whole thing.

My unofficial and totally subjective ranking is: DS9>TOS>TNG>ENT>TAS>VOY

...

>She wasn't bad as a Vulcan
She was terrible as a vulcan though. She couldn't pull off "emotionless," or even "stoic"; she just went with "constantly annoyed but trying to hide it, and even then not succeeding". It was so bad they even made it a thing that T'Pol was always bad at managing/hiding her emotions (which fits better with what they were doing with the Vulcans in ENT desu).
>Was that why they decided to pair Trip and T'pol together?
It probably tested better to have the younger-looking, hotter people hook up rather than a middle-aged guy and a younger hottie (T'Pol is technically older than Archer, but he looks a lot older). I bet they were planning on having Archer hook up with the other captain eventually anyways. Archer/T'Pol was always pretty forced anyways - it was enough that they came to respect each other as professionals, and then people, overcoming each other's biases and bigotry, and eventually becoming friends; adding a romance on top would be too much. Besides, if you want a weird captain/crew relationship, it should be Archer/Sato.

Too bad Sato is a damp blanket that's not a misuse or misunderstanding of the phrase - I'd call her a wet blanket, but that's too strong of a description for such a non-entity.

Axanar was a fan film set about the same time as STD with actual Trek actors (including Soval, played by the original actor), a non retarded ship design, and generally doing a good job of modernizing the TOS look.

It would have at least added some continuity to Trek history. TOS didn't even allow women to command starships or wear pants, so having Archer essentially banging his cute Asian receptionist would have underscored how primitive ENT was by modern standards.

Sato x Reed

So I just looked up some clips of Axanar.

What the fuck was wrong with the mics on that set? They are so bad.

Axanar was a massive scam, that's what was wrong.

>women not allowed to wear pants

Except, that that is incorrect. "Number One" in "The Cage" wore pants, as did several other onscreen female characters, who were also later featured in "The Menagerie, Parts 1 &2", so it's canon.

>women not allowed to command starships

If there was any Trek episode I'd like stricken from the record for the absolute stupidity of it, it would be "Turnabout Intruder". I blame Gene for it though, because he wrote it, the madman. If I was to interpret it favorably for some reason, I would posit that Janice Lester was just crazy, and blamed Starfleet in her mental illness rather than blaming the mental illness itself.

However, I've often shot down notions of "Threshold" being non-canon, so I don't get to be a hypocrite. It's canon, and it sucks.

>Poseidon from ST: Legacy
Am I the only one who remembers that game? It had ALL the casts' voices and the engine was solid enough for modding...

But it's disputable, ignorable, given we have examples like the captain of the NX-02 being a woman.

And it's more easily ignorable than Threshold because there's at least a framework around it that conflicts with it. It doesn't make any sense, the context is a quote from someone insane, we've seen female captains both before and after in the timeline and so on.

Honesty, the only thing that seems canon about it in retrospect is that a confirmed incredibly unreliable narrator said it.
Basically, it wouldn't hold up in court.

They kinda hinted at that in S3, in the alt-future where they were unable to stop the Xindi.

ENT faced huge criticisms for not being modern Trek from the fans and the execs. Internally, a lot of the backstory developed for Trek over the years, along with the books and comics, meant that without rapid development Earth should have been curbstomped by most species in the setting when you consider the tech disparity between early warp-capable Earth and other established groups. ENT presents Earth as something of an unstated Vulcan protectorate, but the Vulcans themselves seem pretty hands off most of the time.

That's my feeling, but you know how we get in these threads from time to time (I'm just as guilty of it as anyone else. I'll always be upfront and honest about that).

A Manta-lorian

...

STA question: Does reputation reset after a promotion, or does it stay at 15? I feel like I'm missing a whole paragraph somewhere.

Huh, so next on STO, we will be getting Tellarite, Orion and Suliban ships.

arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10637404

>you can finally play as the suliban lunchbox
fucking sold

Maybe they'll make an in-game Version of the Kumasi that doesn't look like shit next

What are the chances of us ever getting Suliban as a playable race?

12%

Too bad the gameplay was fucking garbage.
It did, however, have some interesting starship designs for certain eras (TMP klingons, TMP romulans, fed proxima, poseidon, yorktown, etc.)