Archive through November 03, 2014
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Archive through November 03, 2014
I might wonder exactly which X2 designs you are referring to...
As you yourself highlight, ADB has been successful in going further back to make its Vulcan, Andorian, and other Early Years designs stand out in contrast to what was shown in Star Trek: Enterprise. (Necessity being the mother of invention, since the ENT designs are off-limits anyway.)
And Adam's take on the Vincennes-class CX works quite well to show an alternate path of development to the Franchise's own Constitution refit (which I mention here due to both designs sharing a common ancestor).
I'd like to think that the Franchise didn't corner the market on "next step forward" designs when they worked up the Excelsior. There should still be a grand opportunity in Module X2 to come up with a new wave of Star Fleet designs that represent a step forward in starship construction but do so in a manner that is SFU-compliant.
@Gary - I would like to see that, and granted my initial thoughts on X2 are based in large part by the 'new' (Captain's Edition) X1 and comparison to the 'old' (Commander's Edition) X2.
For example, it was the CX Vincennes I was thinking of - it's a great looking ship, Adam did a fine job on it...but it does feel vaguely like something that wouldn't be out of place in TNG-era Trek. That sense of 'take something that existed before, and make it more 'swoopy' and 'streamlined' and such'.
I mean, he nailed it - the design DOES look more "modern" than the Constitution-class, but...
...well, why must that be the direction designs go in? The comparison to Franchise-Excelsior is interesting, particularly when you factor in the 'refit' on the Constitution-class from the movies, in that the team that did those design updates weren't necessarily trying to make the ships more "futuristic", but harken back to previous periods.
For example, Richard Taylor mentioned the warp engine 'intakes' on the Constitution-refit as an example...the design was meant to involve more the Art Deco-period...sort of like grilles on the cars from the 20s. Similarly, Excelsior was meant to be a 'newer, cleaner' design from Enterprise, and Bill George found inspiration in Japanese traditional styles of clean lines...
But, again, these really IMPRESSIVE designs (I think we'd all agree) were not just 'take something existing and make it more modern/streamlined'...they were simply identifying core concepts, and 'going back to the drawing board', as it were, to re-envision them using different art styles or techniques.
So...yeah, if X2 ends up being something like that...new races in the Xorks/new threats...maybe even changes to the existing landscape (would the Gorn really never have joined the Federation at this point? And surely either the Lyrans or Kzinti would have conquered the other by NOW. Would any of the ISC races ended up splitting apart from their primary government after the shock of their failed war?)...as well as really taking a FRESH approach to starship design, coming up with something not just derivative of existing ships (even if it's very well done derivations!)...then, hell yeah, I'd LOVE to see that!
But...egads, that turns this into an epic project...
Just so you know, the Federation Commander Tactics Manual is up on BoardGame Geek. Don't forget to rate it!
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/142865/federation-commander-tactics-manual
Hailing Frequencies has been sent. Communique #105 has been uploaded.
http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/Documents/Communique/Communique-C105.pdf
Here is the link for Hailing Frequencies: http://www.federationcommander.com/Newsletter/September-2014/index.html
Hailing Frequencies is our free monthly newsletter, filled with news, tactical information, and serialized fiction. Try it out!
Friday night we saw the finals of Cowboy Mounted Shooting. They fire black powder blanks from six-guns, and the burning sparks pop the balloons without risking mass casualties in the arena.
The side of the arena we were on was full; the other side (mostly empty) was for officials and big shots of the association. This was their 20th annual championship.
The horses are going pretty fast and these were the only two that the fastest shutter speed could show as anything other than a blur. The cowboys use two six-guns, shooting the blue baloons on the way out and then circling a barrel and doing the five red ones in a straight line. They normally take 14-18 seconds to do this on a horse going hell-for-leather.
They also have a shotgun round (five ballons with a pistol, then holster the pistol on the running horse and draw the shotgun, firing two blasts and two clusters of balloons) and rifle (five balloons with a pistol then the straight five with a lever-action rifle, riding hands-free).
Ramses confronts Eightball, the cat who rules the adjacent kingdom on the east side Ramsesland.
This is on the south side of my house. I own the vacant lot next to it, so we're on Ramsesland territory. The border between Ramsesland and Eightball land is the row of bushes behind Eightball, meaning that Eightball is intruding on Ramsesland by about 50 feet. Ramses took offense and drove Eightball back across the border with considerable violence.
Isis, our Inspector General, retired to Kitty Heaven this evening. She was diagnosed with intestinal cancer 18 months ago but was fully operational at her checkup in August. Since then she got worse. A month ago she suddenly started losing weight (half of her body weight at the end) and could no longer jump or climb as she had done her entire life. We knew that the end was approaching and gave her all of the love, food, and brushing she wanted. Just last week she took a long walk outside the fence that she clearly enjoyed. A few days ago things clearly went south. She stopped eating entirely and just sat in Leanna's chair. The doctor agreed with us that she had only a day or two left and that those would be very uncomfortable days. The end was peaceful as Leanna and I held her.