Random Musings - 3 geeks on life, the universe and everything.

Star Trek-in across the universe… (Spoilers)

Written on June 2, 2009 at 9:01 pm about Films by Chris
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Okay, so I’ve seen Star Trek now. 4 times, in fact. And my opinion?

It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen, never mind ‘of the year’. It captures the essence of what the original ‘trek’ was about, without caricaturing it.

But that’s not what I want to talk about in this post. I want to look at the ‘in universe’ ramifications of this film’s plot.

So, let’s go from point 1:

First of all, all the time travel that’s already occurred in the past, prior to the destruction of the Kelvin? Because it’s before the branch point, it still occurs. The Enterprise E still helps with the first Human warp flight. Voyager still goes back and alters the 20th century’s computer age. And so on and so forth.

Secondly, after the Kelvin was destroyed, Starfleet obviously ordered a much more powerful technological advancement rate than occurred in the original series. Evidence for this can be taken from the fact the Enterprise in this time-line uses a variant on the pulse phasers previously only seen in Deep Space Nine, on the Defiant. Additionally, this explains the Enterprise’s late launch date (she should have been launched 11 years prior, but obviously, new developments resulted in delays and re-fits), as well as why she appears to have already undergone the refit that in the original universe, she wouldn’t have until shortly before the Wrath of Khan.

Along side this, in this time-line, she’s a heavy cruiser in both name and design, rather than an exploratory vessel first and foremost. She’s heavier armoured, and designed to be more manoeuvrable. She has better main phasers, and revolver launch torpedo tubes allowing for each tube to fire 6 torpedoes, one after the other. Even the Enterprise D, with it’s forward firing torpedo bays, could only fire 2 torpedoes from each launcher in sequence before needing reloading.

So, the destruction of the Kelvin acts as the first key point in this new time-line, and results in Starfleet going for a more advanced, more technologically powerful fleet. But neither the Romulan Empire nor Klingon Empire (the two major antagonists of the time period) are doing the same. Thus, Starfleet holds technological superiority in this time-line, as opposed to simple equality.

Third on our list is Kirk himself. In this time-line, he spent time as a delinquent for much longer, rather than joining the academy when he was 18. As such, he has a much more brash and aggressive personality, as he lacks his father’s influence. This is evidenced in the Kobayashi Maru scenario, where, in the original time-line, while he did reprogram the simulator, it was to make the Klingons respect his reputation, at which point he roped them into helping him conduct the rescue. This time round, however, his more aggressive and hot headed personality resulted in him simply altering the scenario so it would allow him to kill all of the Klingon ships with 1 shot each. As such, this Kirk is more aggressive, and thus, ironically, more likely to get the reputation that his original self attempted to garner.

Fourth comes in the form of ship losses and what that means for the time-line. To start with, in the original time-line, at this particular point in history, the Romulans were forced to purchase decommissioned Klingon ships in order to supplement their own forces, where as in this timeline, the Klingons have lost 47 ships to what they think is Romulan aggression, and thus will have no inclination to sell ships to them, and may even be recommissioning those vessels themselves to use as a stopgap. This leaves the Romulan empire seriously under-powered militarily and with the fact that the elder Spock has 20 odd years of manipulating the Romulans and their politics, he may be able to use this to result in a more Federation friendly Romulan government, which also allows him to increase the available gene-base for the Vulcans to rebuild with. At the same time, even with recommissioning of old ships, the Klingons are weakened militarily. While their attitude towards this may not result in increased friendly actions from them, the fact the Romulan ship guilty of attacking their fleet and doing so much damage was destroyed by a single Starfleet Vessel, along side the fact Starfleet lost a significantly smaller fraction of it’s fleet to this attack overall, may result in a Klingon Empire more inclined towards political combat than all out warfare.

And this leads us on to politics. The Vulcans were always the Federation’s voice of reason and stability in the prime universe. In this universe, their influence is greatly reduced. As such, the Humans and Andorians have a much greater influence, and both are more aggressive species than their Vulcan counterparts, the Andorians especially. As such, the Federation is going to be more expansionist and aggressive, while, ironically, being more able to forge treaties with their former enemies.

As such, this results in a universe with a much stronger United Federation of Planets, which may even result in the whole of the Undiscovered Country’s plot-line of a peace treaty with the Klingons occurring early.

And this is all before we account for the fact that A), in San Francisco Bay is a 24th century Mining Phaser, which uses technology developed during the course of the original series to start with. And B) There’s the elder Spock, again, who’s demonstrated he has considerable scientific and technological knowledge of the future, and who therefore can ensure that the Federation has several elements of it’s 24th century tech early, as well as warn them of the approaching Borg threat, and prepare them for the existence of enemies such as the Dominion.

And to leave you all with a happy thought: The movie has a few contrived co-incidences, correct? We’re talking a setting with the Q in it, though. And we all know how our friend Q likes to bother Picard and Janeway. They can’t very well exist if Earth is destroyed, can they? As such, perhaps these co-incidences aren’t so co-incidental.

Like a phoenix, I rise again. And again. And again. And a … holy crap, I’m on FIRE!!! AHHHHHH!

Written on September 7, 2008 at 9:07 pm about General, Life, Musing, Pen and Paper Role Playing by Chris
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Well, after Tom’s cheerful rant below, I figured it was time to share an update of my own.

Well, it’s notable that the Salford WARPS should be reasonably secure for this year. Hopefully the student union takes it’s thumb out of it’s ass and actually gets some advertising up. After a while of negociation and checking, it appears we require 15 student members to be ratified as an official society. Since we have 10 with just the guaranteed re-sign ups from last year, that’s not too difficult an issue, since the union appears to have woken up to the idea that they need to actually make sure the societies have ROOM to work in.

In addition, Phoenix, my DnD4th ed modification, continues at a steady pace. It’ll be ready for testing come the new university year, anyway. Barring any exceptional circumstances, I should be ready to work on a 2nd stage book set (The Titans Manual, Campaign Guide and Academy Training book) after this first test (Which is the UNMC player’s handbook, the vehicle manual (New and unique), the field inteligence guide (Monster Manual equivalent) and the GM’s manual). I’m also working on several stories in the setting, which should be interesting.  At the time of writing, I also have an initial scenario written up to 4th level, and plans for beyond that point in note form.

Unlike DnD, Phoenix is intended for an episodic campaign, dropping in at the key points in the character’s lifetime, as opposed to a continual campaign. This means GMs can limit what equipment the players get, as well as ensure that even if the campaign is going to cover several years, players don’t spend lots of time sat around twiddling their thumbs.

Anyway, in other areas, I’m generally doing ok. Probably re-sitting the year at university, but that’s not really a big supprise, and to be frank, I’d actually prefer it in some ways. Obviously not the cost, but most ways, I’m fine with it.

Oh, and in a final bit of news, Manchester has officially recieved 1 year’s worth of rain in a month, as of now.

So, while Tom and James work on ripping off Yhatzee….

Written on August 22, 2008 at 3:00 am about Life, Pen and Paper Role Playing, Tabletop Wargames by Chris
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I’ve been doing other crap.

First off, I’ve been helping organize the Salford WARPS for the new year. Since, unlike last year, the event’s officer isn’t 100% on the ball, (the events officer for the student union last year is it’s President this year) my job is distinctly more difficult that I would like. Between our domain expiring and trying to get sorted for the fresher’s fair, I’d rather shoot myself than continue to deal with it, in some ways. Or the union…. you know, that’s not such a bad plan. I wonder how much the severed head of a union exec goes for on ebay.

Second off, it appears that my sanity has slowly danced away with the penguins. Amongst others. So I’m actually beginning to be able to put an ending to 1 of my role playing games I’m running, which had (with player character help occasionally) wandered so far off the beaten track that it’s punched through a small city on it’s way to the goal. And then around the goal in an ever tightening spiral. Hopefully they’ll realize what the end aim of the story was sometime before next session, and I can then get it done with.

And third, I’ve been working on far too many game designs. This may be the cause of the second point, in fact, but I’ve designed an entire tabletop war game or 2 over the past month, begun writing a 4th ed DnD supplement, which I’ll share samples of over time, and also written up a campaign for said supplement.

So expect a few more random posts out of me as my sanity drains. Now, go away, I’m trying to invade Russia in peace.

Long time, no spawling ramble of doom

Written on July 8, 2008 at 2:51 pm about Films, General, Life, Pen and Paper Role Playing, Tabletop Wargames, Video Gaming by Chris
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So, I guess we really need to learn to update this more often, huh?

Anyway, it’s time for another installment of happy ramble funtime and stuff. Only, you know, the first 4 words of that statement are false. So just stuff.

So first off.

“In a mad world, only the mad are sane”

Elements of my life seem to have converged to be confusing, aggravating and stressful. I’ve had ups, downs, side to sides and all sorts of other directions. Kind of like a yoyo wielded by a maddened bear. But it looks like someone disarmed Bobo. I just hope that someone isn’t a bearlock…

But yes, life has once again calmed down. Admittedly, I’ve been stuck at home for nearing 2 weeks now, thanks to a pickpocket and the staff at GMPTE, who seem not to know the meaning of the word ’speed’. This may have contributed, since other than when I can actually afford to, I have avoided going out.

I’ve started writing a supplement for 4th edition Dungeons And Dragons. Label me a geek, but frankly, that’s a label I’ll wear with pride. Either way, it’s something to do. And frankly, designing a world is fun.

Ok, I think I’m gonna move on to other gaming areas.

Video game wise, I’ve finally reached rank 55 on COD4. At least on my primary account. Keep your eyes open for “BlackLiger” or “Warlord”, since those are what I tend to use. I’m trying to gain the other achievements, not that it’s easy.

Some of these achievements, however, look impossible unless you’re really lucky. I mean, I only got “On the edge” by throwing a grenade INTO a building while the enemy shot me through the wall (get 3 or more kills while near death).

Tabletop game wise, I’ve gotten into playing Horrorclix. It’s a nice little game system, with some inventive ideas. And it’s fun, and funny. I’ve got an actual hero team together, finally, with a squad of ’special forces’ and their commander, Major Harper. These guys aren’t brilliant, but they are powerful if used right. And they are funny, because like all steriotyped horror movie ‘heros’, the bigger the gun, the less damage they do, except in rare circumstances (Named heros, for example).

And movies. Movies I can rant about. For starters, KUNG FU PANDA IS A BUCKET OF AWESOME WITH EXTRA AWESOME! Seriously, I’m a fan of Jack Black films anyway, but Kung Fu Panda is EXCELLENT. It’s certainly in the list of films I’ve got to acquire at some point.

“There is no secret ingredient”

Next, well, The Inedible Mulch…. Uh.. I mean Incredible Hulk. DAMN this is actually an awesome movie. People who downbeat it seem to have gone in expecting far more than the Hulk ever COULD give. He’s the HULK, people, not Dr Strange. His ’shtick’ is to find a monster and hammer it into the floor repeatedly. You want to watch a thinky movie, try something other that a ‘comic book action hero’ movie.

And in the same vein, Iron Man wasn’t too bad. I want a computer like that, if nothing else, for lazyness purposes. And to build me a multi billion dollar super suit which can beat up tanks with little effort, obviously…

And of course, finally:

Welcome James to our little blog here. He’s our newest writer, and about as sane as 2 wet cats stuck in a sack. And that’s before we go into the releasing pheromones that make them more aggressive.

Applications to join our blogging bunch can be submitted to “Info@Spartalive.net” once you’ve registered on this blog itself.

Empires

Written on December 11, 2007 at 5:41 am about Video Gaming by Chris
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“Watch the left. No, the left. LEFT YOU DUMB FUCKER!”

Not an uncommon turn of phrase in Empires, I’ll admit.

So, Empires is a Half Life 2/Source mod. 1 player per team takes command, and has an RTS like control where they build up a base for their team, while the other players are essentially their ‘units’. Given that these units are human, they don’t always obey orders, and don’t always need them. After a couple of rounds, it’s common to see teams which need no orders issued, and so work cohesively as a force.

Also, the Northern Front tanks are just funny. Kinda like Ork vehicles in Warhammer 40k.

So, it’s multiplayer only, but that’s no big deal. With a good team, it’s an epic game to play. With a bad team, it’s the source of much rage and anger. But really. It’s epic when you can load up a heavy tank with just missiles, no machineguns, no cannons, and make it into a rolling RPG battery. And it’s great for just pelting the enemy base with missiles. Stick an engineer’s ammo crate behind your tank and you have a plentyful ammo supply. Done right, you harrass the enemy base till they send tanks out after you, at which point, freindly forces can smash in and wreck as much as possible.

Or the slow moving siege. Build walls, stick turrets behind em, and use artillery to shell your way in, while heavies attempt to smash through the enemy defences.

The map EMP_MONEY is best for that tactic, though.

In any case, you should try Empires if you get a chance. It’s a nice mod, and well thought through. Even if the learning curve is a little steep.

Stardust, International Markets and rainstorms.

Written on December 1, 2007 at 10:12 pm about Films, Food, General by Chris
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Well, I went to see Stardust today with my sister and my freind Danny.

An awesome film, and one of the few unique stories I’ve seen on the big screen in a long time. The concept of a wall, seperating worlds, is not new, but since Neil Gaiman is probably the main proponent of this idea, with Terry Pratchett being a close second, and the film being based on a Gaiman graphic novel, I think that can be forgiven.

Anyway, on to the international market here in Manchester. Every year, this comes around, and this year is no exception. It’s awful crowded during the weekends, but the food is good, especially the real vanilla fudge. Those of you seeking to bribe me in any way shape or form can’t go wrong with 200g of fudge, especially chocolate fudge.

Also, the German section of the market does real bratwurst. These things are awesome, with sempfh mustard. Really tasty.

And rainstorms. I hate rainstorms. The rain itself is ok, if agrivating. It’s the crowds that annoy me. You always get the fuckwits under their brollies who block up a section of the pavement to chat, and then the moron pushing their way through. I have a twisted ankle thanks to that, from yesterday. And none of the bastards around me helped me up either. Oh well. In any case, I do wish rainstorms wouldn’t occur. Rain is ok, but sudden occurences of 30 gallons of water hitting me from above aren’t.