Timo's Hobbyist's Guide to the UFP Starfleet
- Thread starter thesonofodin
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The 4YW sourcebook refers to the ship classes and subclasses by their names; Tikopai is namedropped on p.18 along with Achernar as having been introduced as a "new class of starships" during the conflict.
Since that part is an excerpt from a postwar lecture by one Commodore van Anling, I attribute it to the failing memory of the old geezer.
Which is a bit cheeky of me, as van Anling says he served aboard a Tikopai himself - namely the Vega, one of the higher-numbered ships and one not even Ships of the Star Fleet wants to move from "approved" to "built" status. Presumably, van Anling did serve aboard a USS Vega, and merely got the class identity wrong because he misread the works of Franz Joseph when checking his facts for the speech. 
A supposedly more objective timeline on p.35 confirms the introduction of the Tikopai class on SD 1/9509, though. That's something like late 2247 by my reckoning, and too early in every respect for the overall Constitution story I'm following. Even the original class was barely operational at the time of this conflict by modern accounts (canon and novel alike).
For me, the Tikopai is a post-ST:TMP newbuild, and Constitution IV and all, only ever built in the numbers specified by Todd Guenther.
Timo Saloniemi
Since that part is an excerpt from a postwar lecture by one Commodore van Anling, I attribute it to the failing memory of the old geezer.
Which is a bit cheeky of me, as van Anling says he served aboard a Tikopai himself - namely the Vega, one of the higher-numbered ships and one not even Ships of the Star Fleet wants to move from "approved" to "built" status. Presumably, van Anling did serve aboard a USS Vega, and merely got the class identity wrong because he misread the works of Franz Joseph when checking his facts for the speech. A supposedly more objective timeline on p.35 confirms the introduction of the Tikopai class on SD 1/9509, though. That's something like late 2247 by my reckoning, and too early in every respect for the overall Constitution story I'm following. Even the original class was barely operational at the time of this conflict by modern accounts (canon and novel alike).
For me, the Tikopai is a post-ST:TMP newbuild, and Constitution IV and all, only ever built in the numbers specified by Todd Guenther.
Timo Saloniemi
^ Yep. Tikopai and Achernar were both referenced by FASA because they were previously mentioned by FJ, and the FYW supplement even has a fictional contributor named after him. Whether or not that means FASA intended them to be Constitution subclasses as FJ intended or to be alternate designs that perhaps looked different (FASA claimed they had "unusual" designs, but didn't give any context for that) isn't clear. FASA says the Constitutions themselves were withdrawn from the front lines after the first year of the war, because they were considered the most advanced Federation vessels at the time and Starfleet didn't want to risk them being captured by Klingon forces.
As far as the timeline goes, FASA's chronology (itself based on the earlier - and now highly inaccurate - Spaceflight Chronology) is off from the canonical one by a good five or six decades I believe - the Enterprise's five year mission under Kirk took place from 2207 to 2212, far earlier than the later dates introduced officially. Since the first source to give any canonical time reference was TWOK, and then only that it was set in the 23rd century, this isn't too surprising. The FYW would have been earlier than Kirk's command, since Garth won his reputation for actions at Axanar and the conflict led to the cold war atmosphere of the TOS era.
As far as the timeline goes, FASA's chronology (itself based on the earlier - and now highly inaccurate - Spaceflight Chronology) is off from the canonical one by a good five or six decades I believe - the Enterprise's five year mission under Kirk took place from 2207 to 2212, far earlier than the later dates introduced officially. Since the first source to give any canonical time reference was TWOK, and then only that it was set in the 23rd century, this isn't too surprising. The FYW would have been earlier than Kirk's command, since Garth won his reputation for actions at Axanar and the conflict led to the cold war atmosphere of the TOS era.
I know of no class list from Mastercom that is lifted directly from the USN or any other navy. The class ships, yes. But the class lists were slways composed from scratch, referencing diverse countries' navies, much as FJ had done.
Indeed, no real Knox class name save the class name is used for the Starfleet vessels. This despite one of the USN Knoxes actually being USS Kirk (FF-1087). 
It seems Jackill may have picked the name for his Pharris class frigate variant from a USN Knox of that name, though (FF-1094).
Timo Saloniemi
It seems Jackill may have picked the name for his Pharris class frigate variant from a USN Knox of that name, though (FF-1094).
Timo Saloniemi
Wow...just jumped ahead and read the Lynx entry. Excellent job making my head hurt by making timetravel incomprehensible to the outside observer. That, cloaked with the subterfuge of the project, really made that the one entry difficult to understand. You (the reader) come out feeling as what little you read was more than to which you should have been exposed.
Edit: that was a compliment, by-the-way, as I'm sure obfuscation was the intention.
Edit: that was a compliment, by-the-way, as I'm sure obfuscation was the intention.
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Timo, do you have any updates for the guide?
Sorry for the absence... More recent versions now uploaded. Some reshuffling in Part I, and some rough artwork to better visualize the ideas.
Basically, I'm done inserting all the FASA stuff, and fairly happy with most of the eras now that there is very little new material coming in. The parallel universe in the new movies isn't really the subject of this Guide, but I'm including the small craft anyway, and taking a few liberties with the ships. Yeah, the older ones should be common to both universes, but I'm still keeping them at TOS size for the time being; the new ones already have their parallels in the regular timeline, mainly in the form of humungous "command cruisers" and "battleships" from computer games.
Timo Saloniemi
Basically, I'm done inserting all the FASA stuff, and fairly happy with most of the eras now that there is very little new material coming in. The parallel universe in the new movies isn't really the subject of this Guide, but I'm including the small craft anyway, and taking a few liberties with the ships. Yeah, the older ones should be common to both universes, but I'm still keeping them at TOS size for the time being; the new ones already have their parallels in the regular timeline, mainly in the form of humungous "command cruisers" and "battleships" from computer games.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo, can you post a link for the update?
^^^ Seconded...
DAMMIT! And I JUST deleted them off my tablet. ALRIGHT...is it the same Drive link, then?
There's updates to this work? Dammit, it took me ages to read the earlier version, where am I going to find the time to do it again? In any case, this a very well constructed history of the future.
Glad to have you around again Timo, you have been very conspicuous by your absence.
In any case, this a very well constructed history of the future. Glad to have you around again Timo, you have been very conspicuous by your absence.
And STILL no mention of the UEO!
Now I've got a real First World problem here: I've been developing my own wiki around the Guide, so I can run a Fleet-level campaign around the events Timo fleshes out so well. When I saw his last update in 2012, I wiped what had been built before and started over, vowing to stick with that last update, just so that I could include all the new material and then move forward. (I've past editions saved on my harddrive, going back to when I first found them in 2003 and they were in Word format.)
Now...I really don't want to wipe and start over. What to do, what to do...?
What would be most awesome is if there was a wikia built just for Timo, allowing him one central place to make his updates and allowing his supporters to maybe commission artwork to fill in all those blank image scenes. I'd be glad to help out as a wiki admin and copy-editor. I just don't have the wiki coding skills to make it pop.
The Guide really needs to be seen. I can't speak highly enough about it.
Aargh... This makes me feel I should actually do something about the Guide. And also that I should not, because apparently I'm driving people crazy.
Well, there's another update there, behind the good old Google Drive link. I'll try to recall what I have tinkered with:
Some ENT era stuff has been redone; I've gone through YouTube grabs of the ST:Legacy game to get a good look at the ships introduced there, and rewritten the Daedalus to match the game and the ENT era novels. My version of the Battle of Cheron tries to eat the cake, have it, and grab some other people's cakes, too.
The unseen Placido from Spaceflight Chronology is integrated into the overall story a bit better, and even begets a FASA/SFC successor, affecting the Trent entry.
Having fallen in love with John Bryne's comic art, I've included all his ships seen so far, blending some with Last Unicorn Games unseen or unused designs or histories; the Sentinel entry is affected, but see also Bryne (and his comics!).
I've added Masao's Capella, as used in Christopher's DTI novel, with the usual liberties taken. The design sort of forms a continuum with SFC's old Hale of similar dimensions. This entry was written before Masao did his recent update and finalizing of the relevant Starfleet Museum entry, and only slightly polished after the fact, but I loved the opportunity to use a registry scheme from the earlier version of that ship...
Some further unseen classes are name-dropped here and there. Part II is affected the most, with ENT Vulcan ships gaining names from RPGs or computer games, plus fuller descriptions.
A few more pics, with captions altered to turn them from placeholders to "actual" images - but the artwork often is by people I've not contacted for permission, and not really meant to go public. The images either nicely indicate what I was thinking about when writing an entry, or are the direct inspiration for that entry (Rob Caswell's art relating to the Archer class meets both criteria, really).
Save for Part III, this is more or less done now, pending further movie developments. I really like the new shuttles from ST:ID, and how they seem to relegate the more varied designs from the previous movie into "special" status rather than alt-timeline counterparts of the TOS shuttle. Then again, this is utterly an alt-timeline design, without evident roots in the original timeline, so perhaps I won't be able to include it after all. Other small craft are also waiting for proper treatment.
(Oh, and I'd like to include the Canopus class from SFC, also mentioned in FASA's Four Years War. She's a big vessel, the size of a Constitution, so where do I hide her? Supposedly in the Sagittarius Arm, which she was designed to explore, but why did Starfleet build something like that when the 4YW was their chief concern? That's the one unfinished entry in Part I.)
Timo Saloniemi
Well, there's another update there, behind the good old Google Drive link. I'll try to recall what I have tinkered with:
Some ENT era stuff has been redone; I've gone through YouTube grabs of the ST:Legacy game to get a good look at the ships introduced there, and rewritten the Daedalus to match the game and the ENT era novels. My version of the Battle of Cheron tries to eat the cake, have it, and grab some other people's cakes, too.
The unseen Placido from Spaceflight Chronology is integrated into the overall story a bit better, and even begets a FASA/SFC successor, affecting the Trent entry.
Having fallen in love with John Bryne's comic art, I've included all his ships seen so far, blending some with Last Unicorn Games unseen or unused designs or histories; the Sentinel entry is affected, but see also Bryne (and his comics!).
I've added Masao's Capella, as used in Christopher's DTI novel, with the usual liberties taken. The design sort of forms a continuum with SFC's old Hale of similar dimensions. This entry was written before Masao did his recent update and finalizing of the relevant Starfleet Museum entry, and only slightly polished after the fact, but I loved the opportunity to use a registry scheme from the earlier version of that ship...
Some further unseen classes are name-dropped here and there. Part II is affected the most, with ENT Vulcan ships gaining names from RPGs or computer games, plus fuller descriptions.
A few more pics, with captions altered to turn them from placeholders to "actual" images - but the artwork often is by people I've not contacted for permission, and not really meant to go public. The images either nicely indicate what I was thinking about when writing an entry, or are the direct inspiration for that entry (Rob Caswell's art relating to the Archer class meets both criteria, really).
Save for Part III, this is more or less done now, pending further movie developments. I really like the new shuttles from ST:ID, and how they seem to relegate the more varied designs from the previous movie into "special" status rather than alt-timeline counterparts of the TOS shuttle. Then again, this is utterly an alt-timeline design, without evident roots in the original timeline, so perhaps I won't be able to include it after all. Other small craft are also waiting for proper treatment.
(Oh, and I'd like to include the Canopus class from SFC, also mentioned in FASA's Four Years War. She's a big vessel, the size of a Constitution, so where do I hide her? Supposedly in the Sagittarius Arm, which she was designed to explore, but why did Starfleet build something like that when the 4YW was their chief concern? That's the one unfinished entry in Part I.)
Timo Saloniemi
> And also that I should not, because apparently I'm driving people crazy.
A 'good' crazy, I assure you. No one ever complains sincerely of too much good sci-fi to read.
I just really wish we could present this in a format where it would get more attention. I shared this with a Kiwi friend of mine 2 days ago and he was simply floored with how much information there was and apparently is now reading it on his mobile.
Ass for updates, if you were to keep a change log, as you've provided in a rough fashion with your last post, that would go a long way in helping me with my personal project. And it would allows others who re-find this to go back and re-read the changes.
Seriously, Timo: you've put a lot more effort into this than Masao has his (not at all to denigrate what he has accomplished), but it is a different medium. If your fans with varying (and complementary) skills were to identify themselves, would you be willing to open this to assistance? Find a way to put it on it's own site?
A 'good' crazy, I assure you. No one ever complains sincerely of too much good sci-fi to read.
I just really wish we could present this in a format where it would get more attention. I shared this with a Kiwi friend of mine 2 days ago and he was simply floored with how much information there was and apparently is now reading it on his mobile.
Ass for updates, if you were to keep a change log, as you've provided in a rough fashion with your last post, that would go a long way in helping me with my personal project. And it would allows others who re-find this to go back and re-read the changes.
Seriously, Timo: you've put a lot more effort into this than Masao has his (not at all to denigrate what he has accomplished), but it is a different medium. If your fans with varying (and complementary) skills were to identify themselves, would you be willing to open this to assistance? Find a way to put it on it's own site?
