Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated…….

Well what can I say after suddenly vanishing after three months? Not a whole lot. I was feeling burnt out/bored and wanted to devote some time to other things.

 

No matter though. Writing such as I do here is something I enjoy and something I view as a healthy escape. I slowly started getting back into it this past weekend and hope to make it a regular thing again.

 

So what am I working on? Well, the same as I was before, getting things together for my big TOS era compilation. I looked and I had finished the Class G/”Voyager” Long Range shuttle right around the first of the year I think. I’ve moved on and started work on the next class on my list that I haven’t previously written about – Pyotr Velikiy. Being a Cruiser (CA), this starts to crowd the field a bit with the assortment of Destroyers and Frigates Starfleet already has or is set to have. I took a look at how it was presented in the Hobbyist’s Guide……. and considered the justification presented there – that Starfleet needed to hedge their bets in case the structural engineering and M/AM powerplant of Constitution failed. That seems plausible……but here, I have Constitution entering service in 2220 and Pyotr Velikiy in 2239 – any kinks or flaws in Constitution’s design would be worked out by 2235 at the absolute latest I think.

 
An alternative that I’ve been letting percolate in my head here involves issues of politics and strategy. Back when I was writing on Constitution and I delved into the 4YW, I touched on Starfleet’s reticence to send ships like the Enterprise et al. to the front lines – utilizing them strictly in the exploratory and scientific arenas. This was the impetus for the development of Surya and other frigate classes, but I think over the long term, creating another Cruiser class makes sense.

 
Outfitted in a very balanced sense like Constitution, you would have a ‘hero’ class leading the order of battle during times of conflict (like the 4YW), while also expanding and building on exploratory and scientific capabilities by a significant order of magnitude. Constitution’s capabilities in these areas are already pretty well known. Together with it’s companion Pyotr Velikiy, they form a firm foundation that allows more specialized surveyors like Cahuya and Antares to truly flourish – at least those are my thoughts at the moment.

 

The Hobbyist’s Guide has been recently updated, though I haven’t had the chance to dig down into it and discover what changes have been made.  Also, Neale Davidson of Jaynz fame reclaimed his ‘jaynz.info’ domain and is going to be redoing his great Jaynz Ships of Star Fleet TOS guides (this group on Facebook is where I gleamed these latest bits).

 

Once again, it’s great to be back.  Hopefully I haven’t lost too many of my loyal readers, but to whoever sees this – all is most definitely well 🙂

 

Peace and Long Life

-The Dockmaster

To Boldly Go…….

Live Long and Prosper Challenger (OV-099 1/28/1986) and Columbia (OV-102 2/1/2003)………

 

Shuttle Notes

Good afternoon all, my Saturday has been abnormally busy and I only got comfortable here at the computer an  hour ago.  Did make quite a big change to my setup though, ditching my old monitor (21.5″ Asus V222H) for a brand new one (27″ Dell S2715H).  If you’re pretty particular, you might bristle at the fact this 27″ only sports 1080p/1920 x 1080 resolution (I’ve read reviews that mention 27″ monitors are often the best with resolutions like 2560 x 1440 or higher).  For me though, I’m not too picky about pixels and my desktop really couldn’t power anything too fancy (with a 512MB Intel HD 3000 integrated GPU), so I figured this will keep me pretty much future-proof as far as displays go.

 

What I’m working on though is the Class F shuttle.  I’ve got some freelancing to do later this afternoon, but I’m pretty sure I’ll either finish it tonight or tomorrow sometime.  It’s somewhat barebones, but given its basic utilitarian nature, this can be forgiven.  The major issue with this shuttle and small craft of this era overall is power.  “The Galileo Seven” complicated things by making an issue out of the use of fuel as a power source.  Timo Saloniemi’s Hobbyist’s Guide….. doesn’t mention this at all when talking about the Class F, so what I did was begin with the basic explanation regarding the use of bulk fuel and then replaced that with Timo’s ‘ion cascade powerplant’.

As an intermediary development that cuts fuel out of the process all together (at least in my mind….), I figure this is a good step towards the advent of miniaturized M/AM reactors that will accompany the shift to linear warp technology beginning in the 2270’s.    Really though, reading Timo’s descriptions of all the various small ships/craft in Parts II/III of his work (link right here – bookmark it!) makes me wonder about incorporating more later on.  Good inspiration for sure.

 

Jolan Tru

 

State of the Fleet 2.0

Happy New Year all!  If you got out and celebrated, I hope you had a good time 🙂  I myself stayed in with some pizza, a few beers and binge-watched some more of “The Wire”.

For 2016, I’ve made my workflow more convenient (not that it’s ever been too complicated….) with Google Docs.  With Microsoft still following a subscription path for mobile versions of their Office products and Apple’s iWork suite still not quite as simple & seamless as I’d like, Google Docs is the logical solution and adds much more utility to both my iPad and iPhone.  When I’m out and about, I can handle most of the writing on one of those devices and leave the addition of graphics and final formatting to Word ’11 at home.

I’ve also cut my PC out of the equation entirely.  The issue affecting my GTA V install seems semi-permanent at this point (judging by what I’ve found on various forums) and has also affected my Max Payne 3 install.  With my two most played titles now rendered inactive by Rockstar’s ineptitude,  I decided to just cut my losses (as gaming was the only thing I did on that for quite some time).  Now, the only change I’m considering is moving to a bigger (27″+) monitor (currently considering Apple’s 27″ Thunderbolt Display).

My office setup aside, I do have an update as promised 🙂

 

My last one didn’t take into account that the broad overview and the more detailed breakdowns by ship type were part of the same overarching ‘State of the Fleet’, so finishing those breakdowns is what I’ve been working on here for a while.

State of the Fleet 2.0

With that done, I’ve moved on and started filling in the blanks–addressing the classes in my master list from top to bottom.  Currently, I’m working on the Class F Shuttlecraft which is about 75-80% done.  The Daystrom Institute Technical Library gives the class an arbitrary service life of 16 years, however with its utilitarian nature and the lighter use I’d imagine they’d be subject to, I’m going to stretch that out to 25 years.  A retirement date of 2270 then would fit both with the scope of my work here and the rough roadmap for small craft that’s percolating in my head.

After I finish this, I’ll take a quick break to fill out the table of contents and get other formatting set for my compilation so I can start incorporating classes as they’re finished.  So, as long as time permits, it should be smooth sailing.

 

All The Best for a Happy and Successful 2016

 

Peace and Long Life

Hey all……..not much new to report unfortunately.  RL has been kicking my butt – things at work have gotten insanely busy and management has been keeping the rank-and-file like me under a microscope (my freelance gig isn’t much better).  Add to that the fact the latest Steam/GTA V update screwed up my whole install on my PC and the fact I’ve been suffering from a creative drought in general and yeah, writing has been a tough endeavor as of late.

 

That’s not why I’m posting though.  Through Facebook, I’ve come to learn about serious circumstances that have come to afflict Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz.  An unknown medical affliction has been draining him both physically and financially.  He’s got a GoFundMe page set up where you can both read his story and toss a little money his way.  Spread the word and keep him in your thoughts 🙂

Mojo’s Last Wishes

Jolan Tru

 

State of the Fleet 1.0 / Patrol Combatants

Hey all……..I don’t normally post anything during the week, but I was so close to finishing up the introduction of sorts to my compilation–literally, less than a paragraph–that I figured I’d open it up and get it done.  Not only that, the rest of my week here is going to be busy cranking out this month’s freelance work – want to make sure and devote my full time to that so when I wake up at whatever time Saturday and get my coffee going, I can get the formatting and associated formalities (table of contents etc) out of the way and then get to work on the ship themselves.

That said, I wanted to put up my rough draft or, “v1.0” of my intro – the State of the Fleet – that gives the reader an extremely broad/high-level overview of the developments in Starfleet from the end of the Earth-Romulan War (2161), well into the 23rd Century and the TOS era.  I try not to get into too much detail and keep things as simple/vague as possible.  Not only does that make it easy for me, it’s also convenient if and when I have to make edits/modifications which will almost be assured as I move from class to class.

State of the Fleet 1.0

Also, I noticed I neglected to include a few notable classes in the recent listing I put up.  Well…..mainly it was just the Federation class Dreadnought I’m sure we all know, but I spotted the Proxima class BB over on Memory Beta (link here; orthos here and here) and decided to throw that in the mix as well.  Federation was Starfleet’s answer to the Klingon B-1/Jul’Kar…….with phaser weaponry (that I didn’t mention in the above document), they figured this would be more than enough.  However, after looking at Proxima, I decided to slip it in, Starfleet hedging its bets against the infamous battleship construction programs of the IKDF.  The ships I’m talking about come from the old Guide to the Klingon Fleet that I still have  up right here.  Their potential is obvious, however during this period, the Klingons were too slow to act, lacked the necessary technical & engineering knowledge and expertise and eventually succumbed to astro-political realities.  Starfleet didn’t know this though, to them the Klingons were wildly unpredictable still, thus they needed to take every possible precaution–hence, Proxima.

This might change how I approach/re-write certain classes when I get up into the TMP era, but for now, Proxima will be Starfleet’s ‘black project’, resting on the back burner, but ready just in case……

 

Jolan Tru

 

Modular/Pre-Fab Construction in the 23rd Century

Hey all, still plugging away here.  Was mentioning the Kepler/K-Type station and I had a random thought.  Pouring over images and screen caps of K7, all struck me as rather primitive/utilitarian.  If it weren’t for the conical pieces at the center and top of each of the three ‘hubs’, it would almost make good sense as a pre-fabricated structure of sorts.  So I was thinking, why not make it a ‘pre-fab station’ ??

 

Here’s my train of thought.  You have the massive Ticonderoga–1,888m in diameter, 2,406m in height (according to Kristian “Reverend” Trigwell) and taking 8.5 yrs to build (according to me).  Sure, they’re obviously capable, but for a Starfleet focused on expansion and having to deal with one or more existential threats, they obviously can’t wait that long .  What they need is a functional command and control facility that could also coordinate the manufacture/storage/distribution/transfer of supplies and serve as a basic ‘beachhead’ of sorts in frontier regions (think ‘island reclamation’ here…..).  Think of this like a massive Lego set.  Each major component–the conical towers with the windows, the long, utilitarian support pylons, the 4 rounded sections (the 3 smaller ones on the ends of the pylon + the 1 larger one) and others–would arrive on station disassembled.  They would be assembled separately and then hard-docked in place.  Once the assembly was complete, life-support systems and basic utilities would be installed, letting further interior proceed unhindered.

 

Given the overall size of the finished product–450m in diameter, 488m in height and featuring 163 levels *(scaled this relative to my interpretation of the Watchtower/J-Type)–I’ve come up with some rough estimates for construction time……2 weeks give or take for the separate component assembly, another 3 weeks to put them all together and then 2 months to fit out the interior.  Given that this is a station and not a starship, cutting out major components like propulsion and scaling back/down others like weapons, sensors and the like would drastically cut down the construction time I would think and while it might actually take more time to finish out the interior, the station would at least be functional and able to be used (assuming you started with command/control facilities + essential systems).

 

The only limiting factor as to how many of these you could deploy would be the number of freighters/transport containers available to move all the components–let’s say 2 support squadrons at the minimum (each consisting of 8 TT’s and 4 FG’s), plus 1-2 Light Carriers to carry the requisite workbees and provide defense/overwatch.

 

I don’t know…….maybe the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet (or maybe I’ve had too much…..)……

 

Peace and Long Life

 

Attention on Deck!

New Star Trek Series Premiers January 2017

Hey all, I apologize for my earlier post that just had a link here……..I posted this while at work, had several other things going on and didn’t have time to properly compose my thoughts.

 

It’s great to have Star Trek back on the small screen where it belongs, it really is.  Though if you search the net enough, you’ll come to find out that this is the ‘launch vehicle’ of sorts to get CBS’ streaming-only platform off the ground.  Now I’m a ‘cord cutter’ myself and despite reading through sites like Ars Technica and CNet, it’s still a struggle for me to keep abreast of all the changes in the US Cable TV landscape.

I can see why CBS would want to keep any such series exclusive (the same way ‘Gran Turismo’ is exclusive to Sony and the PlayStation) in order to build themselves a solid foundation for an alternative/web-only/streaming-only service or content portal, but my concern there is twofold.  The first issue is a big one and really, it’s outside the purview of this blog, but I’ll get into it anyways.

Keeping this exclusive makes sense for CBS from a financial standpoint, but with the proliferation of such web-only/streaming services………Hulu, Amazon, Netflix et al., the value proposition for your average consumer rapidly erodes after stacking up so many subscriptions.  Eventually, one would run into a brick wall at which point he/she would be forced to slim down their subscriptions and potentially miss out on content, or cut the cable altogether again, taking them all the way back to square one so to speak.

The other issue is equally obvious I think.  In using a new Star Trek series to build a web/streaming foundation, the issue of quality could (or will) eventually be sacrificed in order to achieve financial viability for said service.  I’m not a fan of ‘nu Trek’ or  JJ Abrams whatsoever.  His ‘alternate universe’ though is dumbed-down enough to the point where your stereotypical network executive just might take it and run with it.

Wait a minute though, let’s step back and take another look at this.  If they’re going to broadcast one, two or maybe three episodes on network/cable TV and then go streaming-only, you remove pretty much all the barriers that end up watering down promising film and TV projects.  The issues of universes and aesthetic conventions aside, the paramount issue becomes storytelling.  Getting away from what what we’ve seen already on the big and small screens, the richest and most diverse storytelling has come from the multitude of authors who make up what I like to call ‘TrekLit’ (this is what I mean).

TNG and VOY were alright, DS9 got better and ENT really started to show promise.  It was set in the right era and you even had Manny Coto who wanted to finally bring the Kzinti to the screen, but alas, said stereotypical execs were short sighted as usual and pulled the plug.

Now here we sit.  Really, whether you set this in the ‘prime’ or ‘alternate’ continuity, it doesn’t quite matter to me when all is said and done.  What will make or break a new series is the quality of a) the writing and b) the stories.  Look at some of the novels that have come out in since 2001-2002.  Vanguard, A Time To……, Destiny, Seekers……….not to mention the relaunches of both VOY and DS9 (refer to the above link for more).  With the freedom of not having to deal with network or studio executives and their ilk, there exists the opportunity to explore uncharted territory and tell stories like they haven’t been told before, just as they have been in those novels.  The question is, will the powers that be do so or not??

Class I Lineup

Hey all, as I’m getting close to finishing up the ‘State of the Fleet’ and about ready to dive into overviews by type (Cruiser, Frigate etc, if you’re familiar with the general format of SoTSF), I thought I’d shoot out the list of classes I’m planning to include (my ‘to do list’ going forward).  This is pretty well fixed and I won’t be making any additions.  If anything, I might remove or reclassify certain classes, but that’s unlikely right now.

Also, you’ll notice that I’ve included a number of stations at the end as well…….their inclusion is a tentative idea right now that I’m not sure I’ll stick with (have every one of them except Keppler/K-Type written up)

Aside from that, the only thing to note are some of the oddball classification abbreviations.  The London class has three, denoting its uses as a Troop Transport (TTR), Freighter (FG) and Hospital Ship (AH).  I also put down the Sherman class as an ‘FGD’ for Freighter-Drone befitting its general acceptance as a ‘cargo drone’.  For the Cahuya and Antares (this one) class Surveyors, I turned to wikipedia (link) and put both down as ‘AGS’ denoting them as ‘surveying ships’.

Class	Type/Classification	Introduction
D-17	Attack Fighter	2234
Class F	Shuttlecraft	2242
Class G/’Voyager’	Heavy/Long Range Shuttlecraft	2245
Cutter
Archer	CU	2254
Corvette
Mercury	CO	2160
Destroyers
Saladin	DD	2224
Larson	DD	2240
Burke	DD	2245
Kiaga	DD	2247
Seawolf	GB (DD)	2249
Akula	DH	2252
Detroyat	DH	2208
Marklin	DH	2228
Frigates
Surya	FF	2242
Loknar	FF	2242
Coventry	FH	2245
Cruisers
Baton Rouge	CA	2205
Kearsarge	CL	2230
Constitution	CH	2220
Pyotr Velikiy	CA	2239
Carriers
Santee	CVS	2245
Independence	CVL	2236
Victory	CV	2218
Yorktown	CV	2251
Transports
Ptolemy	TT	2224
Montojo	TTL	2240
Cochrane	TC	2242
Dolland	TTH	2247
Wasp	TA	2246
Aaken	TC	2248
Edward	TC	2261
London	TTR/FG/AH	2261
Freighters
Independence	FG	2229
Sherman	FGD	2235
Surveyors
Cahuya	AGS	2231
Antares	AGS	2245
Scouts
Hermes	ST	2224
Stations *(tentative)
Ticonderoga		2192
Kepler/K-Type		2245
Watchtower/J-Type		2261
Foxtrot/F-Type		2267

Also, it seems fortuitous that I went ahead and removed pretty much all of my material from TNG forward.  I’ve been trying to access longtime resource/file repository BCFiles and finally found my fears confirmed.  From what I’ve been able to gather, FileFront’s sites for games like Bridge Commander, Command & Conquer et al. were designed/built in a rather byzantine fashion and could not be easily upgraded/changed in any way – trying to fix/modify one thing, would break 3 or 4 others.  Finally after so long, they passed the point of no return and their masters took everything off line.  This forum thread spells everything out.  As I’ve mentioned though, with my new ‘enlightened’ philosophy on Starfleet’s evolution combined with the many excellent orthos and schematics already out there from artists and designers such as ‘admiral-horton’, Neale Davidson (Jaynz) and others, there’s really no need for me to go browsing through in-game screenshots for inspiration.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Jolan Tru

 

Of Scouts and Surveyors……..

Happy Friday all – not sure what my plans for tomorrow will entail, so I’m not too sure how much writing I’ll get done.  That said, I thought it good to get this out.

While writing my ‘State of the Fleet’ opener, I’ve obviously positioned the original ‘Class I Trinity’ if you will (Constitution, Saladin/Hermes and Ptolemny) as the backbone of fleet development and operations going forward.  Constitution covers the exploration/scientific study sphere, Saladin/Hermes covers defense/offense and Ptolemny covers support/logistics.  Every other class that comes afterwards will either expand upon or fill in the gaps between these three major spheres.

What I was initially wrestling with though was how to describe Hermes.  It’s classified as a ‘scout’ obviously, but in thinking back, I don’t recall anyone or any work ever really spelling out a definition for that.  So, I went back to both the Federation Spaceflight Chronology and the Hobbyist’s Guide……. for a more detailed look.  The FSC’s description is pretty general in comparison to the Hobbyist’s Guide that positions Hermes as a sophisticated sensor and communications platform, a key to maintaining coordination between fleet elements during extended patrols, combat missions and the like – being to Starfleet what the E-3 Sentry is to the USAF.

That being said, moving forward, vessels of smaller size geared more specifically toward missions of scientific study–like Cahuya (link), Antares (link) and Oberth–are going to classed as ‘surveyors’ in my system here.  As I’m seeking to slim down and unify the fleet moving from the 23rd into the 24th century, Oberth will be the obvious candidate to carry the surveyor banner, but what of the scouts?

Well, Hermes is the class that starts it all off.  Then you have the Akula class Heavy Destroyer which builds on Saladin, with a more powerful defensive/offensive loadout, but also builds on Hermes as well, introducing ELINT and ECM/ECCM capabilities to the fleet (becoming more like the USN’s P-8 Poseidon).  Moving on into the Linear Warp/TMP era, there is the ‘SWACS’ variant of the Abbe class (also known as the Kelso class – link here) that trades Abbe’s torpedo pod for an ‘AWACS’ style sensor/communications dome, but with the way I’ve described the original Akula, I’m going to keep that Abbe variant 23rd Century only (for the most part) and pin the scout banner on Akula II (links here and here).

Moving into the Lost Era and the 24th Century, it seems more likely than not that at some point, technological evolution and Starfleet’s push to fully adopt the ‘multimission’ ethos will make the classification totally irrelevant.  That said, the Saber class (which most sources, official or not, call a ‘scout’) will most likely get reclassified and that will be that.

Also, I found another great designer to check out on DeviantART……..’kelso123′ (link) has a nice handful of designs up, the majority being from the TMP era, including some pretty crazy looking dreadnoughts & battleships.  The two that intrigue me the most include the ‘Inchon’ class Assault Transport (a radical take on the old Chandley class Frigate from FASA) and the ‘Akagi’ class Shuttlecarrier (due to its size and the fact it has the same number of shuttlebays as Yorktown/Yorktown II, I’d be more inclined to call this a full-on CV, looks to be based on the one ‘Guidomc’ did here).

 

Q’apla!