Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Some of you know that for many years--almost 2 decades--I've been working on my very own Secret Project: an attempt to name, number, & class all Starfleet ships in my own personal little universe from NCC-1 to NCC-100000, which would take me up to about 2389 or so. It includes canon ships (on the Okudaic system--I don't wanna hear it!), select fandom designs (some are just the names), & all my personal model designs as well as a few that are designated as certain types but as yet undesigned. To my knowledge, no other project of this type has ever been attempted or completed, including James Dixon's ship collection. (which is full of gaps & takes EVERYTHING without regard for overlapping or conflicts)
Sadly, I had the main master database file on my computer which was seized 3 & a half years ago & had no way of working on it even though I had all the original scrap paper files. A few months ago, however, I managed to get a copy of all my old webstuff from an archivist & began to rebuild what I had lost (very little, comparatively) & rearrange the old to take into account new items. One concern that I am addressing was offhandedly inspired by Bernd; becasue of him I've always been away of keeping names from being Anglocentric & have worked hard to incorporate names from around the world. However, in the recent edits, I've noticed a severe learning towards being EARTH-centric. That is being rectified now, & you'd be amazed at how easy it is to come up with "alien-sounding" names. Even some ones from Earth sound alien.
I'm currently 27.54% done (or so) with the entire project & it was suggested to me recently that I might give a small preview of the work to date, and who am I to disappoint the masses?
An HTML preview of the first 3001 vessels. Please note that this is slightly screwy because the translation to the HTML did not go well; for instance, USS Malm� is being shown as "Malm�" for some reason.
Please note that this IS my PERSONAL canon; it won't work for anyone else but me. It's being done to help me with modelbuilding, writing, & the like, & eventually to also provide a reference for other modelbuilders, writers, RPers, & the like; how many of us have sneered at the name of a Starfleet vessel named Stormbringer or Devastator or anything else rather unfitting?
Eventually this will be webposted in HTML, TXT, & DBF formats for publice usage (duly credited, of course) along with an FAQ...but I'll field questions here as well on this post for the moment.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Dangit, Shik. I thought I told you about my version of this project. Mine's been in the works since 1994, and has gone through several rather messy revisions and supplementations. I play even faster and looser with the extant materials than you do, but hey -- it's cool because it doesn't have to satisfy anyone but me, right? *heh* I'm just griping because you said nothing like this has been done before. I say thee ...
I'm not sure I dare mention methods employed, lest I draw significant fire from the unwashed masses.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
You're a pain in the ass, Vegemite Boy.
To wit, the project started when I was 12 & had no rhyme or reason. By the time I was 15, it was just large class blocks. At 19, the first Encyclopedia was released & I sat for many months writing small runs of numbers of pieces of paper after paring down classes to 100 total for about 220 years of Federation existence. I started doing in in a database program called Nutshell that ran on my old Tandy 1000HX.
In 1996, I had to add all the FC classes plus some model designs; I was up to about 132 classes. Later that year, I transferred from the Nutshell program to Lotus Approach. That's what I did all the work & the edits in until September 2002, when my computer was seized. I didn't work on it often, but when I did, it was with gusto.
Then from September 2002 to last month, I had no copy of the files. I lost 3 & a half years of work. When I got the web backups, I was able in about three weeks' time to:
Rebuild from scratch the last 1000 or so Oberths that were missing.
Completely rebuild from scratch the Thomas Paine-class that had been 2/3rds of the way completed when the seizure took place.
Completely redesigned early Starfleet from NCC-1 to NCC-1900 & a little bit beyond to take into account Enterprise & add much of Masao's designs.
Renamed a few classes.
Started & completed the M'Benga-, Maccabee-, & Bonaventure-classes.
Started the Sparrow-class.
So time is fluid & relatively compressed, you see.
Jonah: as I said, "to my knowledge." Now I know better. Race ya! (And I KNOW YOUR methods...!)
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
posted
We had a conversation... debate...? no, argument... on AIM not too long ago about this very thing, so you did so have knowledge. *chuckle* I'm not sure a race is even in order, considering the radically different appraches we're taking. One example? In my happy little universe, the Oberth class is not a re-use of the Grissom miniature. From Rick Sternbach's drawings, it appears to be a compact Ambassador-family science vessel or light explorer.
Heavens! *heh*
--Jonah (James Dixon's arch-heretic)
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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In my happy little universe, most of starfleet's ships are not named after Earth stuff.
and transporters just beam out your bones and dental fillings
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Indeed- I guess production costs do limit things at times, but the Federation and Starfleet are incredibly Terran-heavy... We've never seen an Andorian or Tellarite in a SF uniform, and nearly all ships are named by the Terrans... just wrong it is.
Registered: Dec 2005
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That sounds like a Loknar name... Andorian ship, is it?
I have created and borrowed a lot of non-English and non-Terran names for as many of my supplemental ships as I can. As a f'r instance, I have a Defiant-clas U.S.S. Le-Matya in my fleet.
But the real fun has come from naming ships belonging to other powers. Like the I.K.S. le'noSvagh...
==Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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A few apostrophes and special characters are missing too. The document is encoded correctly. Maybe the original text already had a ambiguous encoding?
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
No, it's just how it was exported. Oddly, that is. I didn't really bother trying to touch it up because of the "sneak peek" nature of the whole deal.
But I'm glad you of most people like it. Eee!
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Shakaar: We've never seen an Andorian or Tellarite in a SF uniform, and nearly all ships are named by the Terrans... just wrong it is.
ine of the ST Movies has an Andorian in uniform- an admiral I think.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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