/STG/ - Star Trek General

But if they DID ally, the galaxy would be theirs.

That's like saying "if 8472 and the Borg allied, they'd rule everything!" True, technically, but pointless because it is impossible.

I hate Neelix so goddamn much.

There's the two STA groups whose games get posted here every week. Limited visuals, so you can easily slap it on and not have to glance at a screen to follow the game.
youtube.com/channel/UCR6ApwWYGqLiiRgZaz2YHdw/playlists

>not knowing who really runs things

*rubs lobes*

Except the Klingons and Romulans actually were allied very briefly during the Domion War. It's clearly possible.

I think during the Dukat days the Dominion think of the Cardassians as "privileged subordinates", similar to how the Romans treated some of their buffer states: it's clear that the Dominion is the power player, but in exchange the Cardies get Dominion military support and protection, and enough leeway to maintain their dignity.
Weyoun's not as much of a military mind as Dukat, and the Jem'Hadar are probably excellent tacticians but only average strategists. Regardless, Dukat's rank and skills mean it makes sense for Weyoun to differ to him, even if simply holding the Federation off for 8 hours more is the better strategy than trying to cripple their fleet. I'd guess also that Weyoun does have at least some self-interest at stake here: if he greets the reinforcements with news of a glorious victory over the Federation rather than a stiff battle for they themselves to fight, his esteem in the eyes of the Founders will rise.
Of course, post-Dukat the Dominion basically drop all pretenses of the Cardies being anything other than another subject race.

i think that episode is where they get bumped down to shit status. Dukat joined and as he says makes the Cardassians the alpha power in the quadrant but once he fucks the dominion over by his miscalculations and changes the view of how good the cardassians actually are they get bumped down to surf status and the Breen fill that vacuum.

And they have been allies in the past, but then either Klingons going MuhHonor or Romulan backstabbing everything nature kicks in and the alliance will fall.

Look what I got in the mail today!

Of all the Romulans we see, they actually seem the most honorable faction, for the most part, aside from sneak attacks and the Tal Shiar.

The Romulan eagle clutching the Klingon emblem, like a tortoise it intends to crack open on the rocks below.
An apt description of how the Romulan Empire treats its “valued allies”.

Wow rude.

Humbly requesting:
"Star Trek Adventures Gamesmaster Screen & Player References"
from: drivethrurpg.com/product/229478/Star-Trek-Adventures-Gamesmaster-Screen--Player-References--TNG--TOS-character-sheets
Thanks.

Nice. Got a campaign lined up?

Where's the Command Division book, Modiphius? I want new official ships!

Different types of honour. The Klingons live by a Japanese-style honour code, all about appearances. No backing down from fights. Honour is perceived as a family virtue.
Whereas Romulan honour is, unsurprisingly, based off of Roman codes of honour, where duplicitous actions and acts of brutality against enemies are perfectly acceptable so long as it’s done correctly.

Ugliest Shop coming through.

What is Andorian honour?

Much like Barbarian honor.

>t. Oglaf

VICTORY AT SEA!

It's too bad Romulans were underused. I feel like we never really got to learn a lot about them despite them being such a major force in the Alpha Quadrant.

Well, it finally happened.

arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10772124

STO's money grubbing nature knows no bounds.

The Discovery actually looks better with the in game graphics than it does in the show.. makes it look like the nacelles are shorter and more proportional...

Todays freebie is a tier 5 Defiant.

Dhelan warbird for Rommies.

I'd go on slightly shady adventures in it. Preferably at the point it becomes out dated and sold on the civilian market.

>No matter how long the arm of the Federation might get, we'll just get ourselves a little further.

B’rel Bird-of-Prey Retrofit for klinks.

It's largely the fault of adding in Sela.

If they'd stuck with Tomalak, Romulans would have remained waaaaaay more popular with writers and the audience because he's a character that was clearly an equal for Picard.

Where as Sela was just shit.

Sela was Empress, sure, but I don't see any reason why Tomalak couldn't have been dealt with more often.

It's not just Sela. The Romulans were getting dicked over behind the scenes as early as Search For Spock.

Viking, maybe. Honour seems to mostly be about killing people for them, none of this "for appearances" crap.

The Discovery Klingon ships look even more out of place in STO. Jesus.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=FH8lvwXx_Y8

>Empress
Only in STO.
She was just some high ranked asshole in canon.

She was a Commander with the Tal Shiar, I think.

All the more reason why Tomalak could have been the "main" Rommie BBEG.

How so?

Bad guys for Search For Spock were supposed to be Romulans. The Bird of Prey was originally designed to be a Romulan ship. It was eventually changed to be Klingons who had stolen a Romulan ship, and in the final product all mention of the Romulans was dropped with the Bird of Prey being a Klingon ship. This is why the Bird of Prey has wing designs painted on the underside, to mimic the designs on the Romulan ship in TOS.

Insurrection was also supposed to be all about the Romulans finally being given enough screen time, but well. We all saw how that worked out. And then all the ideas Piller couldn't use in that movie got pushed forwards into Nemesis really awkwardly.

Eh, If i was going on slightly less then legal adventures, Id want an old Archer class...

Because of reading that work by Pillar, I have somewhat more sympathy for Insurrection and Nemesis. Insurrection was seemingly ruined by poor opinions from management while Pillar just wanted to make some kind of decent show. Nemesis was ruined entirely by people just recycling ideas from Pillar's early screenplays without any kind of spirit to them.

Oh man! You are my ship soul mate. The Archer class is so comfy. I'm just now on the fourth Vanguard book.

What IS the sound when ships cloak and decloak?

Something the computer generates to assist the crew in knowing what's going on, same with every sound in space.

Almost tickles my autism, just needs the nacelles to hang down so that they "see" at least 50% of each other under the fantail. Doing so would:
>eliminate the need for the heavy landing legs, the nacelle pylons and deflector housing can take the weight
>balance mass above and below the impulse exhaust
>make the warp coils accessible when on the ground
>improve access to the aft docking point
>open up the possibility of a mini-Nebula multimission pod or Miranda-style rollbar

nonessential systems powering down/up as they go stealthy/active

An auditory interpretation of the Cherenkov radiation shockwave generated by the spike in tachyon emissions.

it's kind of a chwhrwhrwhrwhrwhrwh, like a pitchbent transporter sound or something

A lone bridge officer's surprised humming.

Not enough hiding space for the mildly naughty cargo we will be sneaking past the border patrols.

The ship’s plasma and exhaust ports closing to shut down emissions.

No idea what causes the noise but it's one of my favourite sound effects, right next to the Photon Torpedo firing.

Also, take notice of the BoP interior in Search for Spock. It looks nothing like a Klingon bridge.

They even replace it in the next film.

I wonder what they actually used to make it. It's been the same since TOS, hasn't it?

I recommend rachelwatchesstartrek.com - Chris Lackey from the HP Lovecraft literary podcast (huge Trek fan) and his wife Rachel (never watched Trek before) watch and review episodes. Very funny, but also with some interesting insights as they look at each episode from a fan and non-fan perspective.

They’re currently about half way through TOS season 1, so there are a good few episodes to check out (plus extra reader comments shows if you back the show on Patreon for a couple of bucks per month).

Hi, I'm an alien species from a far off planet in the milky galaxy called the Bajorans. I may look exactly like human, but I'm different I swear! I have nose ridges and wear a hoop chain earring to signify how different and unique we are as a species.

Hi, I'm an alien species from a far off planet in the milky way galaxy called the Betazoids. I look ridiculously human, in fact we look exact, but I'm different I swear! I have telepathic abilities which makes me alien.

Hello Bajoran, I'm blue da ba dee da ba daa or so the saying goes.

Convergent Evolution is a thing.
Also in TNG they found out all life in the galaxy was created by one ancient race that evolved before anyone else. So everyone sharing similar traits isn't that crazy.

Supposedly the only difference physically is Betazoids have dark eyes. That's it.

Oh yeah. I forgot that episode was even a thing.

betazoids should have had pure black eyes. that would have looked way more distinct.

You're right. Pic related is so much better. Because science fiction isn't about telling great stories and exploring the human condition. It's about the cool effects and slapping prosthetics on every patch of available skin. You couldn't possibly be expected to accept that making the narrative enjoyable is more important than adding a few more bumps to an actor's head.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

They tend to be

One is important. The other is a luxury. If you fuck up your story, then no amount of mushy plastic on someone’s face will save you. You fuck up your prosthetics and you just go with face paint instead.

It's a false dichotomy, good sci-fi should have both interesting stories and interesting aliens (if it has aliens).

Good sci-fi stories are ultimately about using the extraordinary, speculative and fantastical (though obviously futuristic) to tell metaphors related to real life. While the story is ultimately more important, creative looking characters, and by extension creative looking aliens, help accentuate.

Once again, an added bonus, not an essential. Same as basically anything that isn’t crucial to your story.

A good product will have those "luxuries" and "added bonuses" instead of scraping by with the bare minimum.

Arguably the sets are more important to the story. The feel of the location is crucial to making your show.

Not really disputing that. Just talking priorities. Criticising a show for having human looking aliens is basically just nitpicking, at the end of the day.

>good guy aliens look like humans because we want the audience to automatically empathise with them.
Welcome to sci-fi 101, guys. Next we’ll be explaining why the “by the books” guest star is nearly always painted as an asshole.

I believe the Klingon cloak sound has changed several times across the various series and movies and is based on various synthesized sounds rather than any modified original (as is usually the case in Star Wars, for example). The first one is also used as the Romulan cloak noise; but not in at least one TOS episode, when the Enterprise cloaks - that's more of a low timpani note.

youtube.com/watch?v=KMxxtQYZMP8

The Enterprise-D used the Romulan cloak sounds when it was given the phase-cloak from the Pegasus; the Scimitar also uses the same sound, but it's more or less lost in the sound mix.

The Defiant uses the Romulan cloak sound, and I just realised, that goofy-looking giant lightbulb they show is the cloak in the first episode is based directly on the Romulan cloak from TOS.

I think - from memory - that Klingon cloaks also use the Romulan sound now, or the original Klingon sound, whichever you want to call it, but I don't know that.

Voyager's use of Species 9001 was, in retrospect, a little braver than some efforts for a season cliffhanger elsewhere in the same franchise.

Will there ever be another good Star Trek movie or show?

Nope

It'll be like the DC movies where they keep churning them out until they get one flukey good one out of sheer dumb luck.

...

did the magical transporter technology that the founders and the section 31 guy used to get around in ds9 ever get an explanation?

They just used the backdoor that's in all Feddie tech to erase their digital presence.

but aren't the transporters on ds9 cardassian spec?

Cardies have shit for sensors, and that's what does the detecting.

CRAWLING IN MY SKIN

the imagers probably are, but the computer core was completely overhauled before the Klingon attack, and then again after it was destroyed by Sisko when he gave up the station, and probably again when they re-took it (you'd imagine SFI would want to take the Dominion core intact rather than risk anything being overwritten)

Anybody mind sneaking in an A.dventures p.df upload?

I don't know, seeing the Sarcophagus in STO makes me think that with a little tweaking to the exterior and greebles you could have something that fits traditional Klingon aesthetics. The Discovery looks a lot better, but looks more Undiscovered Country/TNG than its actual time setting.

Can I redeem this on PS4? How?

I think they've been adding little A/V effects nods to TOS just to confirm that it's TOS era, and maybe TOS would have looked as fancy if it had been made with modern effects available.