We know the slavers had the galaxy in chains millions of years before humans existed and that "stasis boxes" are left littered around in their namesake, but is this a potential area of investigation for STO? A Slaver Rep project?
The Slavers and the Kzinti were gifts from Larry Niven and I don't know if that makes them verboten for Star Trek expansion.
There was also an unknown 300,000,000 year old starship that the Enterprise encountered early on - it was grown, not built - and that would be an interesting story arc, perhaps?
0
Comments
The Slavers status is unknown to me but if Larry Niven was the creator of them, then most likely he retained all rights to them. And that means there will not likely be anything based on them on the game.
The old bio-genic starship could probably be brought in if they could come up with a good reason to do so. But I don't think that they have that yet on their storyline they have sketched out for the next couple of seasons.
KDF: Dahar Master Kan (Borg Klingon Tactical)::Dahar Master Torc (Alien Science)::Dahar Master Sisteric (Gorn Engineer)
RR-Fed: Citizen Sirroc (Romulan Science)::Fleet Admiral Grell (Alien Engineer)
RR-KDF: Fleet Admiral Zemo (Reman Tactical)::Fleet Admiral Xinatek (Reman Science)::Fleet Admiral Bel (Alien Engineer)
TOS-Fed: Fleet Admiral Katem (Andorian Tactical)::Lieutenant Commander Straad (Vulcan Engineer)
Dom-Fed: Dan'Tar (Jem'Hadar Science)
Dom-KDF: Kamtana'Solan (Jem'Hadar Science)
CoHost of Tribbles in Ecstasy (Zombee)
Partly true, the Kzinti and Slavers belong to Larry Niven AND his publisher. Niven actually was going to allow Trek to use his stuff, hence the episode of TAS in question which was adapted from a Niven short story, by Niven. However it was the publisher which blocked the partnership, not Niven.
We come in peace, SHOOT TO KILL!
Since you mention Niven, an encounter with the galactic evacuation fleet would make a good mission for this new age of exploration.
if it looks like star trek to me and feels like star trek to me then its good enough, I can always use my imagination to fill in the blanks if somethings slightly off anyway.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Yeah...SFC couldn't get the rights either so they named the second cat species Mirak instead of Kzinti.
Ferasan, actually (see. telepathic traits.) Caitians were also introduced by TAS but as semi-original creations belonging to Star Trek (hence Caitians as background FED representatives in the original series movies, ST4 for sure but there might be one or more hiding in the crowd shots of ST6 as well.) :P
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
So Niven isn't totally against letting Trek use them... As for the ship... I've oft hoped it'd be used as the basis for an STO Ferasan vessel of the Raptor class
and apparently he wanted them to be fairly badass looking
They could however actually go with that design showed there and just "Do it right" as Niven would have liked and just regard the ferasans as their own thing. One can dream.
What if... just maybe, the Slavers are Iconians? Memory Alpha says, "The Slavers were the founders of an ancient alien Empire, which was the master of all intelligent races in the Milky Way Galaxy about 1 billion years ago." Sounds about right to me... give or take a few millennia, which could have easily been a generic over-estimation indicating "a very long time ago".
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
No the Kzin are not the Slavers in Nivens universe. The race known as the Slavers were the Thrintun (singular Thrint). A toad like one eyed being who enslaved a race early on called the Tnuctipin who bio engineered an orginaism called food yeast that the bio engineered Thrintun food animal Bandersnatch (refered to as Whitefood by Thrintun) fed on. This yeast evolved into most life in the universe by the time Known Space universe stories started. Reference "World of Ptavv's" , http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/Thrint , http://www.digiplanet.com/wiki/Thrint
Years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Larry Niven at a con he is a real funny guy!
Other than the missile pods it isn't bad...but I'd prefer either removed to attached to the hull instead of attached to wings...or move the wings...
More like the Mirak ships...
They were able to use the Lyrans, Hydrans, and ISC, but not the Kzinti. So they got around that by turning the Kzinti into the Mirak.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
Seriously, they looked and acted like generic tiger people.... At least their ships looked right.
My character Tsin'xing
But if someone wants to pitch Ringworld Online, I'm all ears (working title... it doesn't have to be about Ringworld).
Supposedly the Voth came from Hadrosaurids, which were around in the Cretaceous period ca. BC 150 million, but that's by the by. If we were to pay much attention to Niven's description of Kzinti ships we would be fighting against flying saucers; the main attractions of the Kzinti were always their customs and culture, i.e. having to "earn" a name, an almost Klingon attitude towards honour, the hazards of a "scream and leap" attitude to strategy and so on.
In the end I suspect it all boils down to royalties: as much as we'd like to see more material from Trek being given the STO treatment the legal wrangling needed make such a thing very difficult to bring about. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see the Ferasans* get a fleshing out, but it just isn't on the cards.
When it comes to canon and TAS I understand that Yesteryear is the only part that Gene deigned to include, but he was also responsible for early TNG so he can get knotted as far as I'm concerned.
*Caitans too, I suppose, but did you ever notice how the only Caitans ever to get lines are about as far from Kzinti as it's possible to be?
My character Tsin'xing
the foundry EULA trumps wikipedia, IMHO. The EULA does not list TAS as a official source. maybe Bort or Trendy can shed some illumination?
Yeah I know...like I said...Mirak were meant to be Kzinti...their faction ship designation in game even was Z (Since K was for Klingon)
STO isn't the only Trek game that couldn't get access to Kzinti...
Even ignoring that... CBS trumps Cryptic. CBS says TAS is canon. Whether it changes (again) the next time there's a change in copyright ownership is a moot point, because the Office of Temporal Investigations has issued a gag order preventing me from revealing what happens to the Trek franchise in the future.