Posted: 12 August 2010 at 1:46pm | IP Logged

I didn't see anywhere else to put this, sooo:

Here's a proposed list of races to have playable in the game(custom races will still be available):

Major:
must have:
Borg: 4 series
cardassians: 3 series
federation: 5 series
ferengi: 4 series
gorn: 3, (if you count their planned, but scrapped, appearance in the TNG movies)
klingons: 5
orions: 3 (if you count being talked about in DS9)
romulans: 5
tholians: featured in ENT and TOS, talked about frequently elsewhere, and we have a shipset

should have:
8472: major enemy in VOY, shipset?
Andorian: FM, Major?
Bajoran: Major Fed ally in DS9
breen: Major enemy in DS9
Dominion: Major enemy in DS9
Hirogen: Major enemy in VOY
kazon: major enemy in VOY
Kzinti: featured in TAS, have shipset.
Nausicaans: 3, but only minor parts in each
Suliban: major enemy in ENT
Xindi: major enemy in ENT

good to have:
Acamarians:
Akritiri:featured in VOY
axanar: featured in ENT alluded to in TOS
botha
devidians
kelvans
pakleds: featured in TNG
sheliak: featured in TNG
tamarians: featured in TNG
zalkonians: featured in TNG

Posted: 12 August 2010 at 2:45pm | IP Logged

Oh, sorry.  Space Empires 5 is a 4X game with considerable similarities to Birth of the Federation.

I'm quite familiar with BotF.  One of the other forums I posted a thread like this too is devoted to it. :)  But... the simplest way to explain it is this:  There are 3 main reasons we can't copy BotF.

1: BotF is limited to TNG-era races.  This game mod is planned to encompass all seasons.

2: even minor empires need to be playable.  BotF was great, but there were only 5 tech trees, one for each major.  Minors would get a single unique tech and borrow everything else from the other 5 trees.  In SE5 all races share techs to a certain extent.  Minors need to have usable technology, even if they can't leave their home system. 

3: SE5 is a more detailed game.  There's more choices to be made, and more things to do in the game.

Well, what races do you think should be included?

Posted: 20 August 2010 at 9:35am | IP Logged

So the current list of races in game:

8472

Borg

Breen

Cardassians

Dominion

Ferengi

Klingons

Lyrans

Romulans

Tholians

Posted: 20 August 2010 at 4:18pm | IP Logged

:p your "usual suspects" are already there.  "Undine" are more commonly known as Species 8472.

The idea of several different Fed races is worth persuing though.  This game allows for a LOT of customization of individual races.

Posted: 20 August 2010 at 7:20pm | IP Logged

One major consideration is where there's a shipset already created for the race.  (the game uses 3D ship models)  This is a large part of why the Lyrans are in.

We used 8472 over Undine because Undine is only semi-official.  Then again the existence of the Lyrans is also semi-official.  But as mentioned above, the Lyrans are in because there's a shipset.