Well I did say "any of us publicly know". Obviously only you guys know what your license covers, all the rest of us are just guessing.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 16, 2018 - 02:54 pm: Edit

We have "publicly" said many times what I said, so you being the public could and should have known. Which just explains why I had to "correct" the statement. No harm done.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - 08:02 pm: Edit

The day SVC is no longer the head honcho of ADB and the SFU is the day the SFU will never be the same.

By Dennis Surdu (Aegis) on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - 11:27 am: Edit

Does ADB have any rights to the code that was used for the SFB based game Starfleet Command? That game was really well-received, if a bit buggy. Much like the resurgent interest in Jordan Weissman's Battletech, it would seem the time is right :-) Perhaps Hairbrained Schemes would be interested in developing?

By Matthew G Lawson (Mglawson) on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - 12:44 pm: Edit

Well there is the Table Top Simulator from Steam that allows you to create and play just about any game....now there is SFB one in which the author says he's not violating any copyright stuff by designing his own counters and charts, but I'm no lawyer. And there is someone who has made 3D models which do include some races like the Vudar and Peladine...so not sure it's really legit. It is a neat program though, I'll probably pick it up next time it's on sale. Programing rules and such I don't know how it works, importing models seem easy enough.

By Nick Blank (Nickgb) on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - 06:26 pm: Edit

Starfleet Command (Gold edition) is still being sold by gog games. But they do not currently have the 2nd, Orion Pirates, or 3rd games.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, July 19, 2018 - 11:40 pm: Edit

Right, Table Top Simulator, et al., make creating games like SFB a snap.
The big bucks come from the art. Art which, interestingly, is being made every day on Shapeways.

Just sayin'.

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Friday, July 20, 2018 - 01:48 am: Edit

That's what made me bring it up, Randy. The files they are making for Shapeways can probably be used as is, or at most some minor re-formatting, in a 3D game. Then you also think of the Shapeway's mini's themselves like MTX and link to the actual miniatures from the SSDs.

Then you have a version of SFBOL that modern gamers would at least consider playing, which serves as a gateway into the SFU for the modern gaming audience.

And, of course, it be a great thing for the existing SFB players... but that is really just icing on the cake.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, July 23, 2018 - 06:01 pm: Edit

A new trailer has been posted for season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery.

As a reminder, this series is streamed on Netflix outside of the US (where it remains exclusive to CBS All Access) and Canada (where it is aired on Space and streamed on CraveTV).

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 09:16 am: Edit

Interesting question posed over on Trek-BBS:

Star Fleet finds the people of a pre-warp planet have found an ancient yet still functional warp-capable starship from a long-dead race on their planet.

Does the Prime Directive apply? What may Star Fleet do in this scenario?

Thus far, it appears the consensus is "watch / no nothing".

Thoughts??


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Zamboni (Szamboni) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 11:45 am: Edit

If the ship is native to the planet, they may watch and do threat assessments until they get it operational.

If the ship is from somewhere else, then Star Fleet may establish contact sooner since the native's world-view has already been contaminated.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 01:52 pm: Edit

I believe the intent of the question was the ship was not originally from that planet.

Someone put forth the argument, based on a TNG episode (one I don't remember ever seeing) that says the Prime Directive only applies to Star Fleet (or rather, Starfleet) and not to Federation civilians, and furthermore Starfleet can't get involved to fix problems caused by said Federation civilians. That seems to be a big loophole, one the Federation Senate / Council would close in a heartbeat.


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Zamboni (Szamboni) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 02:29 pm: Edit

I was working on that question for a storyline, that Star Fleet does its best to maintain the Prime Directive, but the Prime Directive doesn't fully apply once the planet is contacted by someone else. It looks good on paper, but it's more of a guideline out on the frontier where Star Fleet can't keep interlopers away from uncontacted worlds.

If Star Fleet can't legally fix problems, it may be because there's another government agency that specializes in PD violations - covert or overt - and has access to wider selection of specialists (police, anthropologists, cultural attaches, hackers, telepaths, assassins).

The Navy moves out, the FBI moves in. (Section 31?)

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Maintain a low, atmospheric orbit in the clouds so everyone can see you. Use basic holographics to darken the sky, create lightning blasts, thunderous noise, and a spotlight on your ship. Use your thrusters to create strong gusts of winds to blow the trees. Then announce on a loudspeaker for all to hear:

INSIGNIFICANT WORMS!! YOU HAVE ANGERED "THOSE WHO WATCH FROM ABOVE!" YOU ARE NOT YET INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THE "GIFT" THAT YOU HAVE STUMBLED UPON. YOUR BRAINS ARE TOO SMALL!!!

Afterward, fire Phasers and Photons at the warp-capable starship, destroying it in a fiery blaze of destruction.

Turn off holographics, ascend back into space, and then monitor all communications on the planet with your feet up and a martini + olive in one hand.

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 03:19 pm: Edit

Almost forgot ... while in the clouds, use the holographic projectors to make the ship look like a giant angry head of SPP.

When you fire Phasers and Photons, be sure that the Phasers come from SPP's eyes and the Photons come out of his enraged mouth.

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 03:33 pm: Edit

The way I have always seen it, the "Prime Directive" is an outright lie. In reality the Federation are "pesky meddlers" who meddle in the affairs of everyone that they encounter. That's what you see happening in the episodes and movies. Almost every episode is about encountering people and then meddling in their affairs.

So I think they would do what they always do, meddle in their affairs while insisting that their highest law is that they never do that. If you pay attention too the story, this is who the Federation really is.

This obviously is not what was intended, but forced due to the fact that if they didn't meddle in the affairs of those they encountered the stories would all be very boring. Nobody would watch that show. So the "high ideal" was never a practical thing and the writers needed to find a new way around it for almost every episode.

By Steve Zamboni (Szamboni) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 04:45 pm: Edit

"...no Starfleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture."

On the other hand, abnormal or unhealthy developments can be interfered with freely.

In situations like the Klingons shipping weapons to one side of a civil war, the Prime Directive becomes more a character test than a policy. Captains brave enough to violate the policy are given even more sensitive missions. Captains that would let a planet burn rather than rescue survivors and break the Directive are transferred to freighters.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 05:45 pm: Edit

Steve Zamboni:

Even if the episode you mention, there was clearly interaction before the Klingons showed up. Kirk was the friend of the chief, who was aware that Kirk and his people had technologies and capabilities far beyond his ken. So there was already "cultural contamination" as a result of earlier contact. The team Kirk visited the planet with earlier would have become the stuff of legends and tails of the travelers from afar.

It should be noted that the "later" series took the Prime Directive much more seriously. Both Archer and Picard made choices to allow civilizations to die rather than interfere.

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 06:27 pm: Edit

SPP, don't chop me in half with your red lightsaber for this, but during Archer's time, there was no Prime Directive (yet).

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 07:09 pm: Edit

Norman Dizon:

You are correct, but Archer was setting the founding principal that Picard would later enact.

By Mark Hoyle (Usa_Retired) on Monday, July 30, 2018 - 10:29 pm: Edit

Didn't the "Prime Directive" get implemented somewhere in the middle of the Enterprise's 5 year mission.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - 10:02 am: Edit

The first reference to the Prime Directive occurs in the February 1967 episode "The Return of the Archons" (S1:E21). It is not, during that episode, referenced as something new.

By Jon Murdock (Xenocide) on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - 11:35 am: Edit

The Prime Directive's creation is hinted at in Enterprise as they wrestle with the idea. Kirk's crew was always under it but it was much looser then in later shows. Kirk and company routinely beam down and visit with natives that Picard would only have observed. Janeway mentions how loose it was in the days of the early Starfleet Captains and listed a few (a list that included Kirk and Sulu) and mentioned sometimes being envious of their relative freedom.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - 11:02 pm: Edit

Of course, the functional premise of the FJ Tech Manual (which the SFU spins off of) is that the Original Series Trek is simply one extrapolation of the Air Force tapes that the SFU is another take on.

IE., both probably wrong in a lot of ways, and certainly the 'entertainment'-focused series moreso, but both based on similar factual foundation. IOW, the Prime Directive "in reality" (*cough*) was probably followed more closely than seen in that TV series made in the 1960s based on data from Air Force tapes archiving backups transmitted by a mysterious ship that briefly dropped in from the 23rd century...

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, August 06, 2018 - 11:47 pm: Edit

Sir Patrick Stewart is set to reprise his role as Jean-Luc Picard in an upcoming CBS All-Access series.

Personally, I hope the show will take a leaf from the novel The Buried Age, in terms of highlighting Picard's latent interest in xenoarchaeology (as shown in the TNG episode The Chase).