[PODCAST] The Foundry Roundtable Episode 120: Beyond the Furthest Starbase

drogyn1701 · January 2016

Welcome to the Foundry Roundtable, a weekly podcast dedicated to Foundry missions, mission building and other UGC issues starring Foundry authors Drogyn1701, Markhawkman and Greendragoon.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k77JM4Niugc

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NEWS

Recent Foundry Discussions

IN THE FOUNDRY

Dragoon shows off a ship interior map from Part 3.
Drogyn describes his new exploration mission.

MISSION REVIEWS

Photonomy 1: Fiat Lux by Castmodean

DISCUSSION

Foundry Exploration Initiative
Tech Topic: Building the FEI station space map

COMMUNITY QUESTION

What door do you think the FEI should use?
What are your thoughts on the FEI's space map?

EXTERNAL LINKS

Drogyn's Station Name Poll

We livestream on Wednesdays at 7:30PM EST/4:30PM PST on twitch.tv/thefoundryroundtable with episodes launching the following Monday.

If you have a topic you'd like to see us cover, have a mission you want promoted, or would like to be a guest-host, e-mail us at FoundryRoundtable@live.com or follow us on Twitter: @FoundryRoundtab

paxfederatica · January 2016

Re: Photonomy 1 review
Greendragoon suggested a True Way attack on Sol System as an alternate beginning... been there, done that.

(See "Ghosts of War, Part V").

Re: Station name
Foundry One seems a bit too fourth-wall-breaking to me. If I'd not been away from STO and known you were taking nominations I would have proposed Farspace Station Armstrong (a riff on Farspace Station Earhart, where young Picard had his fateful encounter with a knife-wielding Nausicaan). Given the available options, I went with New Dawn Station.

Re: FEI base
The Archer system sounds ideal to me, as does using the original ESD asset for the station.

One thing authors should do is populate the station space map with non-combat NPC ships to make it look as lively as locales like Sol and DS9 space. I was going to suggest having docked NPC ships as standard permanent features of the map, but that would be neither realistic (ships should be coming/going from there all the time) nor convenient for authors (they'd be more assets to share and have to copy their specific coordinates).

duncanidaho11 · January 2016

paxfederatica wrote: »

One thing authors should do is populate the station space map with non-combat NPC ships to make it look as lively as locales like Sol and DS9 space. I was going to suggest having docked NPC ships as standard permanent features of the map, but that would be neither realistic (ships should be coming/going from there all the time) nor convenient for authors (they'd be more assets to share and have to copy their specific coordinates).

That leads into another suggestion I had back in the main thread of keeping a list of ships (name and class) associated with the starbase. We could throw it out there for suggestions or just let it build up as a register of what authors are using for others to pull from.

captainhunter1 · January 2016

Really good episode guys, glad I caught it this time.

I agree with Pax, I think the Archer system is ideal for the station location. It meets a whole bunch of criteria (edge of known space, crux of three galactic powers, etc.) as well as being very explorer oriented (the Archer name alone invokes the exploration theme as well as what is written in the system description).

I really liked the backdrop everyone chose. It had a sense of wonder and 'remoteness' to it. That said, I think less is more when it comes to map objects. Placing planets and moons nearby loses some of the edge-of-space feel. But if others think having them there is an addition rather than a subtraction from the theme, who am I to argue? lol.

There were two things, well actually three, that I thought should be brought up about using the Archer system and what was built during the Roundtable episode. First, there are six planets orbiting Archer's sun according to the Star Charts and hence depicted in Sector Space. If a planet is going to be placed on the Starbase map, it should most likely be an exact copy of one of the planets shown in Sector Space (there are two tan planets I believe which would work 'canonically' for the one selected in the Roundtable). Two, there is an existing 'interior' Archer system in-game which has no nebula backdrop - it is the daily Archer Patrol mission for Archer IV (the M-class planet). Which brings up the third item (or not). The patrol mission will always be displayed above any Top 3 list. The mission is generic enough to not interfere with the new Starbase and exploration project (it involves helping some Imperial Romulans fight off Tholians in Archer IV orbit), but should it be addressed in someway by the project? (as well as the human colony that may or may not still be on the surface of Archer IV)?

To avoid many of the complications listed above, the station could be placed on the very outer edge of the Archer system (away from any planets and closer to a 'nebula' fringe).

And just for easy reference in this thread, here's a direct link to the Archer System listing on the STO Wiki: sto.gamepedia.com/Archer_System

drogyn1701 · January 2016

Some good feedback about the moons. It was looking a bit weird to me as well.

As for STO-canon things about the Archer system, well there are a couple options. If we like the system enough, we can just ignore the discontinuities. Hey if it's good enough for official content creators, than dang it we can do it to! Alternatively we can adjust what we're doing to match, although that screenshot on the wiki shows a really boring background

or we can shift to a new location.

markhawkman · January 2016

I like the idea of saying the starbase doesn't orbit Archer 4, and instead is one of the farther planets.

duncanidaho11 · January 2016

drogyn1701 wrote: »

we can shift to a new location.

Couldn't we just shift to a "neighboring star system" near Archer (and use the same foundry door?) The sector block locations aren't a complete atlas. :P

captainhunter1 · January 2016

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

drogyn1701 wrote: »

we can shift to a new location.

Couldn't we just shift to a "neighboring star system" near Archer (and use the same foundry door?) The sector block locations aren't a complete atlas. :P

Yeah, but doesn't that take away part of the coolness factor of using the Archer system in the first place?

Seems like it would be easy enough to say that Starbase XXXX is located either, a) in orbit around Archer VI, the outer most planet (and a big tan gas giant at that - which fits with the tan planet scheme on the Roundtable) or, b) that it is placed in static position at the very edge of the Archer system, bordering unknown space beyond - and hence the nebula effect in the distance that can't be seen from within the Archer system itself. The station map could still have a rogue planetoid or two on it (as opposed to full sized, named planets) if the community decides it still needs some 'terrain' to go with the station (I still think the clean map is the way to go, with Pax's idea of making it a really busy place to provide enough variation/interesting things visually). I personally like B.

markhawkman · January 2016

I like B.

theyredeadjim · January 2016

B sounds good to me...and they are perhaps still debating whether the planetoid actually qualifies as a planet

drogyn1701 · January 2016

Probably the confusion stems from me calling it a planetoid. The object we used was what STO considers a full-sized planet. However, in real life it's probably about the size of a minor planet or "planetoid" like Ceres, and we could use it as such.

markhawkman · January 2016

Enh? What's in a name?

[PODCAST] The Foundry Roundtable Episode 120: Beyond the Furthest Starbase

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