Quote from: jdurall;386466When I was working on STO (the Perpetual version prior to the Cryptic one), on the design team we called all of the random aliens "Bumpos," after their bumpy foreheads.

My condolences for your loss.  Perpetual's version was sounding more and more like a brilliant game with every piece of info I heard about it, something truly unique in the MMO space.

Then along comes Cryptic and makes Champions in Space with more bugs.

Quote from: RPGPundit;386457Trollman is right.  That's the real problem I've had with every incarnation of Star Trek.  What one would want from Star Trek is something akin to Traveller; where the focus of the game was centered on material and random tables for creating not just new aliens, but new planets/star systems and new cultures and new conflicts for the crew to resolve.  Shitloads of random tables would always help in that.

Instead, every Star Trek game I saw was basically less like Traveller and more like a Forgotten Realms manual, trying to cover all the niggling little details you see in Star Trek Episode 109-DS9 and Star Trek Novel #245987 and Star Trek Miscellaneous Canonical Merchandise #34598.
So you get a ton of carefully researched information meant to allow nerds to nod their heads and give their seal of approval that the game is Following Canon, while losing the entire spirit of what Star Trek is supposed to be about.

That's why from what I've seen, the best game to run Star Trek would be something like Starblazer Adventures.

RPGPundit

Isn't this exactly the same attitude we accuse 4e players of possessing?  Why is it suddenly acceptable to just ignore the very idea of creativity because there's prewritten stats for some of the races?  

And furthermore did you miss the post where I pointed out there is a whole chapter on designing alien cultures, with even some random tables for parts of the process?

Quote from: J Arcane;386487My condolences for your loss.  Perpetual's version was sounding more and more like a brilliant game with every piece of info I heard about it, something truly unique in the MMO space.

If it makes you feel any better, the vision the creative director and some of us on the design team had was utterly cast aside by the producer. He hired two designers and a co-producer from Blizzard, and decided that the game would be a World of Warcraft clone.

He had the art style redone so that you could easily make visual connections between the races.

The Federation
Vulcans became Elves
Andorians became Blood Elves
Tellarites became Dwarves

The Klingon Alliance
Klingons became Orcs
Ferengi became Gnomes
Cardassians became Undead
Gorn became Tauren

He wanted hunting/skinning rules, etc. When they downsized and the Creative Director and I were let go... it was a relief.

I wrote about it a couple of years ago.

Holy fuck that guy was a retard!

RPGPundit

Quote from: jdurall;386503If it makes you feel any better, the vision the creative director and some of us on the design team had was utterly cast aside by the producer. He hired two designers and a co-producer from Blizzard, and decided that the game would be a World of Warcraft clone.

Yeah, I recall reading it being sort of the last ditch effort by management to try and make it more mass market or some bullshit like that.  

Unfortunately, it's also the model that Cryptic went with by and large, while also stealing whole cloth from Starfleet Command.

Quote from: J Arcane;386674Yeah, I recall reading it being sort of the last ditch effort by management to try and make it more mass market or some bullshit like that.  

It wasn't last ditch... it pretty much started a year before they got desperate.

It was literally the producer having never played any MMOs other than WoW and thinking that it was the only way a game could possibly be successful.

Quote from: jdurall;386734It wasn't last ditch... it pretty much started a year before they got desperate.

It was literally the producer having never played any MMOs other than WoW and thinking that it was the only way a game could possibly be successful.

Ugh. I really can't think of a franchise I would want to be less like WoW than Star Trek. I really think it would be better as sort of a Sims Online type deal with mystery instances that you solve to get Latinum that you can spend to get knick knacks from the planets you are on that you can put in your quarters that other people get to see when they come over for parties.

While there is something to be said for grabbing a phaser rifle and shooting Dominion Soldiers in the face, that's really the least important thing about the Star Trek galaxy. The part where you solve problems by talking about them and blithely accept that the only way to make other cultures more like yours is to lead by example is the part that's actually important.

-Frank

-Frank

Quote from: jdurall;386734It wasn't last ditch... it pretty much started a year before they got desperate.

It was literally the producer having never played any MMOs other than WoW and thinking that it was the only way a game could possibly be successful.

It is truly staggering how many incredibly ignorant people are in creative production fields.  

I really wanted to play the original game they announced, and it's a shame it was basically killed before it ever made it out of development.

Quote from: FrankTrollman;386737While there is something to be said for grabbing a phaser rifle and shooting Dominion Soldiers in the face, that's really the least important thing about the Star Trek galaxy. The part where you solve problems by talking about them and blithely accept that the only way to make other cultures more like yours is to lead by example is the part that's actually important.

-Frank

Yes, that's true, but when you put it that way I can totally see why a computer gaming exec wouldn't want that; as I can imagine few nerds who'd actually want to play that (I can imagine many who'd CLAIM that's what they'd want, but then wouldn't actually play it).

On the other hand, there's still a jump between Star Trek Federation Troops Shooting at Cardassians or whatever, and Thinly Disguised WoW Elves fighting Thinly Disguised Dwarves or something. That's the most asinine bit.

RPGPundit

Anyone know of any DecTrek software, like a chargen program or anything?

I love me some chargen software.

I'm also thinking I could probably get some mileage out of Traveller stuff for system and sector generation too.

Quote from: J Arcane;387248Anyone know of any DecTrek software, like a chargen program or anything?

I love me some chargen software.

I'm also thinking I could probably get some mileage out of Traveller stuff for system and sector generation too.

I think someone did something in Excel for chargen, but I can't find it right now. You might look on TrekRPG.net for the link.

Quote from: PaladinCA;387332I think someone did something in Excel for chargen, but I can't find it right now. You might look on TrekRPG.net for the link.

I found this here, which has a chargen program, albeit a somewhat unclear one, and some other handy resources: http://strpg.patrickgoodman.org/