Trek Knowledge...

[Brandinooo 0]

I've only done one academy sim so far a few weeks ago, but the ol' real life and never being at a computer right when an academy has started has taken me away from these things. :P Anyway, I guess I'm curious on how competent one has to be in Star Trek science knowledge to be successful in these sims. I must admit, although I watched TNG a ton when I was littler and still do once in awhile, I'm not sure if my knowledge is good enough to contend. For example, if I was a medical officer, I'd have to know 24th century stuff, however, although I know of the existence of a medical tricorder and that little stick thingy to inject people with stuff, I don't know practically in of the terms that were commonly used. Where can I find a crash course on these types of things. :)

 

Thanks!

[Spitfire 0]

Well you dont need much knowledge to be successful. You just need to be able to be a team player and know some, if not all, terms. Like that stick thing that you inject people with stuff is a hypospray. If your trying to find a crash course on this stuff, just ask around and we'll be happy to help you the best we can. I hope this helped. :P

[Philip Carst 0]

Memory-Alpha

 

Go there if you ever come across a term you don't know. Another way is to ask people in the sim, because most should be happy to answer.

[STSF Shadow 0]

I've only done one academy sim so far a few weeks ago, but the ol' real life and never being at a computer right when an academy has started has taken me away from these things. :) Anyway, I guess I'm curious on how competent one has to be in Star Trek science knowledge to be successful in these sims. I must admit, although I watched TNG a ton when I was littler and still do once in awhile, I'm not sure if my knowledge is good enough to contend. For example, if I was a medical officer, I'd have to know 24th century stuff, however, although I know of the existence of a medical tricorder and that little stick thingy to inject people with stuff, I don't know practically in of the terms that were commonly used. Where can I find a crash course on these types of things. :)

 

Thanks!

 

Greetings, Brandinooo,

 

As Mr. Carst suggests, Memory Alpha is a good start for terms. Googling "Star Trek Medical Terms" will get you to a lot of sites, also, as will googling just about anything you want to know about Trek, including species. Do one on Klingons and you'd be surprised (or not).

 

As for the rest, being a team player rates number one. Otherwise, good technobabble (making up your own terms) is a plus :P .

 

Welcome to STSF. Peace, and long life (after the academy, of course).

[Brandinooo 0]

Thanks folks! :P

[Nicolas Lepage 0]

Well, if you attend some sims you pick up a lot of terms. At the beginning I didn't know many of the terms either but after attending academies more or les regularly for over a year now I feel comfortable in pretty much any position. I also use a site to look up terms. I'd give you the URL but it's from another simming group so I'm not sure whether I'm allowed. If you're interetsed just pm me and I'll send it to you. There are lists of technical terms for any position imaginable.

[Chell Reno 0]

I just make all my medical stuff up randomly....... I dont think Ive ever used a real medical term besides hypospray and tricorder in over a year ......

[Philip Carst 0]

I usually just prescribe Band-Aids and leeches when I'm in medical.

[Dumbass 0]

I usually just prescribe Band-Aids and leeches when I'm in medical.

 

In that order?

[Philip Carst 0]

In that order?

 

Nope, they only get a choice of one...

 

Personally, I'd take the leech, then you get a pet to go with your visit to sickbay.

[Kansas_Jones 0]

Well you dont need much knowledge to be successful. You just need to be able to be a team player and know some, if not all, terms. Like that stick thing that you inject people with stuff is a hypospray. If your trying to find a crash course on this stuff, just ask around and we'll be happy to help you the best we can. I hope this helped. :P

 

What he said! Totally.

[Murdok Helios 0]

As long as you have a base of techno words that you can use. a dozen or so words that you know for sure, the rest you can pick up on the way.

[Dumbass 0]

You do not need to memorize the technical manuals for all the ships in the fleet word for word.

 

Just the first three chapters. The rest is pretty common-sense anyway and you can just wing it.

[Joy 0]

While tech manuals and the ability to make up plausible sounding new words can work, don't forget real science. One player I knew was an amateur astronomer, joining a gang of fellow sky-watcher a few times every month to point telescopes at the sky. She also read a few magazines and RSS feeds, getting brief reviews of the latest strange object being looked at by the pros.

 

And, what a coincidence, just after a real world magazine article on a strange deep sky object came out, our ship would just happen to cruise past that object in the imaginary future.

 

I'm not saying one needs to spend a lot of time doing research in order to play the game, but if you do happen to have an area of knowledge that can be used to add depth to the game, keep an eye out to fill in a little more detail than might otherwise be seen. Players can always make up technobabble, but fleshing things out with real science is neater when the opportunity arises.

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

Players can always make up technobabble, but fleshing things out with real science is neater when the opportunity arises.

 

Absolutely. And it can apply to so many situations. I keep wikipedia open when I sim a scientist, and WebMD open when I play a doctor. 90% of the time they don't get used, but a quick check of, say, the energy emissions of a black hole, or the symptoms of shock, can add a great touch of realism to a sim.

[Atragon9 0]

I'll say it again. This is why I came up through the ranks in Security. All you do is stand at doors, and go on away missions so you can throw yourself on the grenades. You don't need Trek knowledge to shoot stuff or to get med-evac'ed to Sickbay.

[Joy 0]

I'll say it again. This is why I came up through the ranks in Security. All you do is stand at doors, and go on away missions so you can throw yourself on the grenades. You don't need Trek knowledge to shoot stuff or to get med-evac'ed to Sickbay.

 

Well, even some security types like to know just how much energy their highly customized SSE phaser rifle can project.

[LoAmi 0]

I use some combination of real science, Trek science and making things up. One thing I do is to always make sure I have a rough idea of what my technobabble means in the Trek world. That way, when it comes time for the always-necessary expository dialogue, all of the players can be on the same page.

[STSF Seiben 0]

I'll let you in on a little secret: If you want to advance in a sim with as little effort as possible, go for Helm. It's probably the easiest position. Here's an example of a day in the life of a helmsman:

 

<HELM> ::tapping buttons::

 

<CO> <HELM> Helm, set a course for Risa, Warp 9

 

<HELM> <CO> ::taps his console:: Aye sir, Course set for Risa at Warp 9

 

<CO><HELM> Engage.

 

<HELM> <CO> ::Taps button:: Aye sir, engaged.

 

ACTION: The ship goes to warp

 

 

There! Now wasn't that easy? No technobabble required. Though it's hard to find an available Helm slot, I believe there are some open Helm positions here on STSF. You just gotta PM the hosting staff on what's available, or look at the crew manifest on the ship websites.

[LoAmi 0]

The real challenge of the helm position in an advanced sim is keeping yourself busy when you're not changing course.

[Kansas_Jones 0]

This is probably going to sound silly, but for security and tactical I also employ First Person Shooter games as a reference, which I love to play. In most of these games, you are either by yourself or with a squad, and have tactical type of objectives going on and are usually blowing the hoo hah out of some alien, demon or soldier baddie. Many of the tactical movements I can use at some point in a security log, as well as the military sounding jargon, etc.

 

Other then that, I use Trek phrasing as well as my own common sense and science fiction knowledge ( no expert though :P ).

 

Guess it depends on the person and how much science or medical or true knowledge you want to employ.

[Brandinooo 0]

ahhhhh I've been looking through memory-alpha, and I've realized just how much of the Trek world I've totally missed out on, basically because I didn't watch about 95% of DS9 and missed out on a couple of the later years of Voyager until I picked it up again right at the very end, and...well...never really watched Enterprise except for like 2 or 3 episodes...the whole 22nd century looking more futuristic than the 23rd just didn't appeal to me. :P

[will_marx 0]

ahhhhh I've been looking through memory-alpha, and I've realized just how much of the Trek world I've totally missed out on, basically because I didn't watch about 95% of DS9 and missed out on a couple of the later years of Voyager until I picked it up again right at the very end, and...well...never really watched Enterprise except for like 2 or 3 episodes...the whole 22nd century looking more futuristic than the 23rd just didn't appeal to me. :P

That's what happens when the prequel comes 30-some years after the original...

 

I've done every slot from everything from nuts to bolts, except GM. (No thank you A9, that's not a recruiting request) I stopped watching Trek seriously when DS9 came out, but if you've gotta creative mind, a lot of it you can wing. And I still manage to throw in a lot of RL things, like the Manual for Courts Martial and the Uniform Code of Military Justice--something that tends to get overlooked constantly, since I was a USAF MP(SP) at one point in my life. My advise is: when in doubt, make it up. It'll probably sound right any way

[Tyana 0]

If someone is really uncomfortable with their level of techno-babble and/or Trek tech, they can always start by focusing on character development until they've simmed long enough to learn some of it. Or at the very least know how to make it look like they know what they are talking about. :P

 

If all you know how to do is open a tricorder or tap on the console right now, then do what you know best. You can work on building the character until you learn enough tech to start using the techno-ramble in the sim confidently. Of course at some point you'll start to understand the techno-ramble more and eventually be able to use it as others do in the sims. You can work on something that might be easier for you to do now; developing the character while you learn the tech. If you feel like you're struggling with the tech then keep it simple. To fill in the gaps, you can try to rely on character development. Down the road it will definitely help you in the advanced sims where plotlines/missions usually move slower and you have to pace yourself. At the same time it'll also give you a chance to slowly start using new Trek tech material that you learn on your own, or from using the character development to learn from other simmers while you are in-character.

 

Some examples would be: There is nothing wrong with playing the "unsure" officer that needs constant reassurance in the department/on the ship. Or perhaps in another sim playing an officer who knows what they're doing but tends to get a little scattered when their adrenaline gets going and might mix phrases and knowledge up from time to time. The character knows what they are talking about, and so do others. They just might need a rational translator or a friend from their crew to interpret what they're saying to others. Perhaps the person playing your characters friend can remind your character that what they are saying makes no sense and toss out a few questions (Options for possible tech answers you might not know about yet.) in the sim to try to help you learn and figure figure out what your character is saying and/or doing. :) As long as you stay within the GM's actions and use common sense, you can come up with several ideas to help you learn to sim and also learn the techno-babble.

 

Sometimes you have to just run with it, and always try to have fun while doing so. In my opinion that method also beats spending the majority of your newbie time in IMs trying to figure out what to say. Use the other players in the sim and don't be afraid to make mistakes. We all started somewhere. Some knew more, and others did not. It is exactly why people train in the Academy before joining an advanced sim. If you feel so inclined to play helm and/or like posts, by all means. Although my opinion is that playing more positions will help you in the long run to learn more. Also playing more diverse posts (Even while not knowing what you're talking about.) will better prepare you for the advanced sims where helm and like posts, might not be open. My advice is to ask for assistant posts in the departments under someone. When you're working with an experienced simmer don't be afraid to learn from observation; at the same time just copy, paste, and flat out ask when you really feel lost. Aside from enjoying the game and just wanting to play; that's why the experienced players and GMs are there. :)

 

 

Hope that some of these suggestions can help. :(

[knlwtchr 0]

Some examples would be: There is nothing wrong with playing the "unsure" officer that needs constant reassurance in the department/on the ship. Or perhaps in another sim playing an officer who knows what they're doing but tends to get a little scattered when their adrenaline gets going and might mix phrases and knowledge up from time to time. The character knows what they are talking about, and so do others. They just might need a rational translator or a friend from their crew to interpret what they're saying to others. Perhaps the person playing your characters friend can remind your character that what they are saying makes no sense and toss out a few questions (Options for possible tech answers you might not know about yet.) in the sim to try to help you learn and figure figure out what your character is saying and/or doing. :P As long as you stay within the GM's actions and use common sense, you can come up with several ideas to help you learn to sim and also learn the techno-babble.

 

Something that helped me when I started was playing a character that I would never play in real life. For example, I hate how invasive medicine is today. In Star Trek, however, you hardly see so much pain and invasiveness. So, Im playing a character how I wish it could be in my lifetime. Since medicine in Star Trek is pretty much an open book, you can make up just about ANYthing about diseases and cures, and be right! Heck, you could probably get a deadly disease and cure it with a pineapple, if you want! Anythings possible, if you just make up a good enough sounding explaination. Its fun too to make up things about other species. Like Vulcans. What do we know about them? THey have green blood? Ponfar? OK, but thats not all their make-up, right? Just think of the possibilities. ::rubs hands together, grinning:: =0]