Kestra

I can see where you’d be worried about that Fred, because I’m kind of one of those people. I have a vague recollection of watching TOS reruns with my dad when I was little, and the only TOS movie I think I watched straight through is “the one with the whales”. See, I don’t even know the name! I’ve seen the others in bits and pieces, but don’t remember a whole lot from any of them. The thing is though, I’d still be open to a movie about Kirk and Spock or even just the TOS era. It’s not my first choice, that’s for sure. But if they do it well, I’d actually appreciate the chance to be drawn in to that era. It would help to get past some of the cheesy props and just enjoy the characters. I’d dare to say that Star Trek fans would give it a chance no matter what it is. And after that, it’s just about whether or not it’s a well made movie, which we have to hope it will be. The following is a bit of an update, taken from Empire Online. (4/25) Basically we don’t know that it’s an Academy film. We don’t know much of anything, but Abrams has confessed to having a thing for TOS. I’ve heard a lot of people worried about it being “Star Trek: 90210” and I have to say I don’t have that same concern. I’d be more concerned about that if they were creating an Academy series (not film) with new characters. I just don’t think they’d go that route if they were doing a movie about Kirk and Spock, and more than likely a large portion of the movie would not be planet-based. Edit: I should add that the only thing that makes me cautious at this point would be the hint of a reboot. But as there's absolutely no reason to justify thinking that right now, it's not a big deal. Also Happy Birthday Fred, I just noticed that at the bottom of the index. :)

Did an avatar change and here's a quote for the occasion. :D (on taking new passengers) Kaylee: No, it's shiny! I like to meet new people, they've all got stories... Jayne: Captain, can you stop her from being cheerful, please? Mal: I don't believe there's a power in the 'verse that can stop Kaylee from being cheerful. Sometimes you just wanna duct-tape her mouth and dump her in the hold for a month. Kaylee: [kisses Mal's cheek] I love my captain.

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Actually I believe that's one that was modeled on a 3-d program, so the texture simply looks odd from the side. The blue is like any nacelle, and I think the "cloud" bits you're referring to have in fact something to do with the nacelle attaching to the pylon.

I know some people online that are into designing ships and such. One of the guys put together a comparison chart that has many of the fan designs as well as canon ones, so you can see the sizes and all. There is one for shuttles as well. I thought it was interesting and well put together, so enjoy! http://www.ewe-squad.com/woz/

Has anyone else actually watched some of their stuff? I was impressed by the production, but not so much by the actual plots and scripts of their material. Either way, it's cool that Takei is taking part.

Thanks Laura, I appreciate that. It's hard to imagine any of the GMs ever had problems simming. :blink: And thanks to everyone again that has participated in the discussion so far, GMs and players alike. It's nice to know that whether you agree or disagree, you're at least willing to hear me out and discuss this.

Originally posted by Cdr Corizon: Very cool, and good things to know. Thanks for pointing them out. I'm someone who totally hoards information and it wouldn't put me off at all, but I can see where you wouldn't want to overwhelm someone that felt otherwise. This sounds odd, but it's what I'm talking about. I'd like to know if a sim is "information heavy" because that's the type of player I am. On the other hand I'd imagine there are some players that would be turned off by too many details or rules. Well like I said above, I like information so I would have loved something like this. I started in the middle of a somewhat confusing plot myself and I didn't quite understand what was going on. Including a mission briefing in a welcome packet would help a newcomer to jump right in and get involved. I completely agree with you here. That's why I'm not calling for all sims to send out chat logs or anything like that. Sometimes I open up a window and save the chat log myself if I think I'll want to look over it later. And it's a pain to edit out even my own PMs from it. I don't think all the sims need to have this; I think it would be nice to know which ones do (whether it's through the boards or their personal mailstring).

Okay, I have to admit I've been avoiding the questions because I feel a bit awkward about it. But I agree that they are good questions and I'm the one that started this, so ... I think there are two pieces of information that would have helped me. One, does this sim have a welcome packet? Two, are briefings or chat logs sent out on any sort of regular basis? There are dozens of things that, looking back, might have been relevant. How structured is a sim, and more specific questions along those lines. But I think the first two questions I posed would have had the most impact for me and I wish I had known to ask them.

I was under the impression that they in fact don't. Edit: Someone suggested to me that I came off a bit testy. I'm not trying to be rude in any of my posts, only direct. Just wanted to clarify that.

I'm really glad you enjoyed yourself. :blink:

Alright, well I'm disappointed that you feel that way but you've been simming much longer than I have, so maybe you've got some knowledge I don't.

Well, everyone else has given you good advice. If you decide to change your forum name, I would suggest not adding a rank to it. Presumably you won't be a cadet (or ensign, or so on) forever. Don't forget to check out Moose's tips at the top of this forum. There's one that's a great help if it's your first time in the academy. Welcome to STSF! :rolleyes:

Thanks Nick, and LoAmi, for responding. I really appreciate it. I suppose part of my point is that new players might not even know to look for those things or ask those questions. Right now, if I want to add another advanced sim on, I know who to ask questions and what to ask. I probably know at least one person on each advanced sim that I'd feel comfortable asking questions to. Coming in as a new player, it's much more difficult. Do you drop by the advanced sim, pick someone at random (or the GM, who always looks very busy), and ask them all your questions? Like I said above, I wouldn't have even known what to ask. Even if I had, I feel like it makes a bad impression. I didn't know how regularly people put out logs. I don't think I even really understood what a log was. I thought maybe the sims themselves had general guidelines on the matter. I didn't know who was on the roster of each ship so I didn't know if only a small percentage were writing logs or if that was most of the crew. It's actually quite a bit of work and very confusing to try to get a sense of each of the ships on your own. I remember trying it and failing utterly. Even if you can't generalize answers, maybe something to point people in the right direction. A "you might want to consider these while choosing a ship". Maybe something saying whether or not a ship sends out a welcome packet, briefings, chat logs, or something to do with departments. Mind you, I'm not saying that all the sims should. I guess I'm just having a hard time expressing the information I'd like to see available.

Having recently fallen prey to the terrific alternate Reaent sim, I was able to sample what it was like to be on two different STSF sims. Obviously things were a bit different on the Reaent, but I still noticed a couple of things that got me thinking. I'd appreciate anyone weighing in on some of these ideas I'm going to present here. I think it would be helpful to have more information about the ships available to the general STSF public. I know most of the ships have websites, but they all contain varying amounts of information. I'm talking about information that would be useful to new people coming in that are trying to choose a sim. It would be nice to know more about the style of the sim. I know there's some sort of unofficial suggestion to drop by sims, but it's sometimes hard to get a sense of the sim anyway. You generally don't know anything about the GMs or how things are run. Or maybe someone has more specific questions. Does it tend to be character intensive, with lots of crewmembers putting out character development logs? Duty logs? Are there briefings sent out? What about chat logs? It might sound a bit picky, but I know that when I graduated, I didn't know that all the sims were run a bit differently. I figured in an organization like this one, certain things were standard. I'm not trying to start anything here, it's just something I've been thinking about and I'd appreciate comments on the matter.