The Binding of Isaac Review

Below is my ongoing review of the following game 'The Binding of Issac' but first here are some links:
Play it yourself here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/113200/, http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/581168(Demo Only), and http://www.indiedb.com/games/binding-of-isaac
Watch me play it here: http://youtu.be/SmAfZlE4tOQ
Channel theme by: https://www.youtube.com/user/waterflame89

Gamers log: March 31, 2015

OMFG That was intense! I could barely do any commentary during the video but I had so much fun and it was so gruesome I need more! I wanna see more of what this game has to offer and I love the music I even listen to the soundtrack on Spotify. cx

Check back every now and then for updates to this and more reviews! :3

Shovel Knight Review

Below is my ongoing review of the following game 'Shovel Knight' but first here are some links:
Play it yourself here: http://www.gog.com/game/shovel_knight(My choice) or http://store.steampowered.com/app/250760/
Watch me play it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_1_Q7JL3Dec3PavmuBDoGLc6CU1IS7rN
Channel theme: https://www.youtube.com/user/waterflame89

Gamer's log: March 30th, 2015

Wow, this new game feels like a great old game and I'm so impressed with the work the developers put into this masterwork of gaming. I can't wait to play this instant classic!

I played the first level and I'm so pumped for more! :D

I highly recommend this great game and I can't wait to dive back in for more! :D

Gamer's log: April 10th, 2015

I just dug up some time to play this great game! The game is getting quite interesting now that I'm past the first level and I can't wait to unbury more.

Check back every now and then for updates to this and more reviews! :3

Seedling Review

Below is my ongoing review of the following game 'Seedling' but first here are some links:
Play it yourself here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/598977
Watch me play it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_1_Q7JL3DedG-jayKOCt7GrCEt-_Nvbt
Channel theme: https://www.youtube.com/user/waterflame89

Gamer's Logs: March 30th, 2015,

My first time playthrough of this very well made video game and I'm beyond impressed. The controls are a bit weird and difficult but easy to learn and master. The graphics are beautiful 16 bit quality and chiptune music scores this game masterfully and gives the perfect complement to this wonderful game. :)

Gamer's Logs: April 7th, 2015,

Well this game is living up to its puzzle solving roots of Zelda style gameplay my first Miniboss(?) was a bit of a puzzle to beat but I got em good! I seriously wish I could stop drowning tho. lol

I highly recommend this masterpiece and I can't wait to play more! :D

Gamer's Log: April 8th, 2015,

Okay, I just played a lot more of this great game and boy the puzzles are starting to get hard so pay attention! The more this game unfolds the more I wanna play it and you've got to play it too it is so much fun.

I don't wanna give too much away because I'm not here to write a walkthrough but to only write my thoughts on the game and I'm so impressed by this seemingly small game but don't let looks deceive you.

Check back every now and then for updates to this and more reviews! :3

My new YouTube Theme! :D

I must proudly present my new official YouTube channel's main, gaming, and news intro, outro, and splash theme! :3



Thanks to Waterflame for permitting me to use his great track! :D



Waterflame - Electroman Adventures V2

New Games! :D

I just added five(5) great old games to GOG.com's community wishlist! :D

http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/heretic_hexen_and_heretic_ii

http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/war_wind_war_wind_ii_human_omslaught

Vote it up fellow gamers! :D

Dafuq iz go'n on?

I think Facebook is experimanting to see if we remember and/or care about our friends because I keep losing members of my friends list and I just keep readding them and the same is happening to my friends too!

Why was Enterprise such a big failure?

Why was Enterprise such a big failure? by Pope Torak

It depends on what you mean by failure.

If you're talking about popularity among fans, there are a lot of Star Trek fans, myself included, who are ready to argue that in some ways it was the best series. It was not a failure objectively from the standpoint of it not being good Trek. Certainly the show was not without it's problems, but the commitment to do a full season arc for season 3 after realizing that episodic television was evolving marked a turning point for the series. It's now generally agreed among fans that the fourth season of Enterprise was between good and truly great, and showed how Trek was going to naturally move into longer arcs like other popular shows of the time. Like TNG and DS9 before it, there were a few good episodes in the first few seasons and season 3 marked a turning point, with a strong fourth season and the promise of an even stronger fifth. Not only were the stories better, not only were the writers appealing to Trek fans, but even characters that had previously been stale started to show a glimmer of growth.

If you're talking about the show being cancelled, that's the result of a few things:

1) Trek Fatigue. TNG was a massive gamble, but it's success allowed DS9 to hit at just the right time and keep momentum going after TNG moved to the silver screen. By the time Voyager was coming to an end, though, Trek had been on the air from September of 1987 through May of 2001, and while many saw DS9 as a great evolution from TNG, Voyager, for all its promise, let a lot of fans down. It wasn't terrible, mind you (well, save for a few episodes), but not only was it not an evolutionary step forward from DS9, it was largely a step back. Despite Enterprise's promise of a new Trek, going back before TOS, I think a lot of people were tired.

2) UPN. A problem that started with Voyager but got a lot worse with Enterprise was that the network was having a lot of trouble advertising for the show. After advertising the premier season, UPN got scared and fell back on pushing America's Next Top Model and wrestling. To a degree, this makes business sense. Top Model and wrestling were bringing in a lot of money and any genre show is a big gamble, but the result is that there was a drop of 1/3 the ratings between season 1 and 2, and UPN stopped advertising on other stations altogether, and seriously cut back advertising even on their own station. They also made really poor programming decisions like running Enterprise against popular shows on other networks, most famously running "The Expanse" at the same time as the season finale of the second season of American Idol (spoiler: Ruben won). Additionally, the network took a different role with Enterprise than it had with Voyager, constantly sending notes. Some notes were insane, like having boy bands perform on the show every week. Rumor has it T'Pol's sexual exploitation was largely due to network pressure.

3) The battlefront between episodic and arc scripted television. As I referenced above, Enterprise found itself being made in a time when scripted television was changing. The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, 24, The West Wing, and others were experimenting with stepping away from episodic television and allowing stories to move from episode to episode, even a few having large chunks of a season dealing with issues (like Bartlett's decision to illegally assassinate a terrorist on The West Wing). This terrified executives, who worried that it would seriously impact repeat viewing and syndication, which is why Enterprise didn't become serialized until the third season. Braga, for all his shortcomings, was serious about making Enterprise serialized from the pilot, allowing Trek to evolve into something more akin to what would later be on Battlestar Galactica. The first two seasons, save for a few two-parters like the pilot and first season cliffhanger, was all episodic, which had become a creative limitation on the writers.

4) The characters. This one stings to say, but gone were the Picards, Datas, Rikers, Odos, Kiras, Siskos, and Worfs of the Star Trek universe when it came to Enterprise. I love Scott Bakula, and I appreciate Connor Trinneer and the rest of the cast of Enterprise, but their characters generally were quite boring and unengaging. As far as I'm concerned, the most interesting character on the show was Shran, who lit up the screen every time he was on and made it even more painfully obvious how bland Archer, Trip, T'Pol, Hoshi, Reed, and Mayweather were. If it wasn't for Phlox, the show's entire main cast would have been like a loaf of white bread. As an aside, this was why I was so excited for the fifth season, as Shran was set to join the crew of the NX-01. The show was like an episode of Voyager about Harry Kim every week.

All that having been said, I will defend Enterprise overall as a great series, especially the fourth season. Like TNG and DS9 before it, it really hit stride after a few less than thrilling first seasons, and was cut short before it could really explore its potential. While we're lucky we got the Augments, the Kir'Shara, the Daedalus, the Coalition, the Klingons, and the Mirror universe, that seemed to only be a taste of what was to come. The Romulan War, Shran becoming a member of the crew, T'Pol's Romulan father, the engineering section refit, the cloud city of Stratos, more Mirror universe, and, best of all, way more social commentary were all part of the plans for the next season. Had Enterprise endured to a seventh season, I suspect we'd be having a far different conversation.

I do not own or even wrote this great article but I was granted permission by the author to post this to my blog for my wonderful readers :) Thanks my friend for allowing me to share your great work c:

Starfleet Procurement Policy Draft

Starfleet Procurement Policy Draft by Pope Torak

Post-Khitomer Era: 2290 - 2310

The Cartwright Conspiracy resulted in wholesale resignations at Starfleet's top echelons. Heihachiro Nogura was coaxed out of retirement to once again take the position of Commander-in-Chief, while Margaret Sinclair-Alexander became Chief of Staff. With his experience in reforming Starfleet after the Rittenhouse Conspiracy, Nogura was viewed as the ideal candidate to oversee Starfleet's transition from war to peace.

While the post-Khitomer system lacked the overt hostility of the post-Organian Cold War, the Federation, Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire remained in a tenuous multipolar order. The weakness of the Klingons was matched by a Federation with expanding peacetime commitments and a Romulan Star Empire facing economic challenges within its own borders. Contrary to the concerns of Starfleet's more militant members, the post-Khitomer order would continue to require a strong Federation Starfleet. What remained uncertain was what form this strength would take.

Upon taking office Nogura tasked Sinclair-Alexander with a wide-ranging survey of Starfleet's strength to determine what size and composition the fleet could sustain over the coming years. The survey began with an audit of the material state of the whole fleet. Each ship was assessed on the basis of hull age, amount of dockyard attention received, and remaining hull life estimates with regular levels of refitting. With the knowledge of each ship's average lifespan between refits, Starfleet could then make informed decisions of force levels.

The Federation Council had signalled its intention to reduce fleet expenditures by at least 10-15% as part of a "peace dividend" over the next decade and to free up resources for economic aid for Klingon reconstruction. This provided Starfleet Command the necessary baseline expenditure levels to determine whether it was possible to maintain current fleet strength. With the fleet composition audit and the budgetary figures in hand Starfleet Command set a goal of a baseline of 350 cruisers, 600 frigates and 1,000 scout or destroyer sized vessels.

The building programs of the 2270s and the 2280s represented the bulk of Starfleet's available strength in 2295 when the first decennial plan was introduced. A consequence of the build-ups after the V'Ger Incident and the Genesis Escalations, Starfleet had a large number of ships scheduled for refit or paying off between 2295 and 2305.

The question raised after the Khitomer Accords was whether or not to continue construction of ship types with limited peace applications like strike cruisers and destroyers. Most combat oriented designs tended to have lower endurance, while their power and propulsion systems generated greater strain on their hull elements. With resources already allocated to the construction of these vessels Starfleet Command ordered them completed and fitted out in order to free up their dockyard slips for new construction.

This decision was rooted in the comparative life-spans of ship hulls on active service. Ships with strong multi-mission capabilities and exploration oriented designs were built with the expectation they would go long periods without refit or repair at dock facilities. Despite the component commonality and similar hull forms, the Belknap-class Strike Cruiser required refits every six years as opposed to the Constitution's ten. Pre-Khitomer fleet policy focused primarily on military capability over efficiency, but a more constrained budgetary environment meant less dockyard work would allow Starfleet to field a larger fleet.

The reality remained that Starfleet's short and medium term strength would largely be drawn from war era building and its hodge podge of designs. To maximize the longevity of new ships, Starfleet chose to employ its stock of militarized starship designs during the first half of the decennial plan. Newly completed strike cruisers and destroyers were placed into service within the tonnage/number restrictions of the Khitomer Accords, while brand new Excelsior, Miranda, Oberth and Constellation class hulls were placed in inactive reserve. Because the Khitomer Accords allowed both the Federation and Klingon Empire to keep non-activated hulls "off the books", this allowed Starfleet to continue to build a large number of hull frames while adhering to the letter of the agreement.

Although all of the new frames bore an exterior resemblence to existing starships, the post-war generation of starship hulls all took advantage of early truss and frame construction techniques pioneered on the USS Excelsior (NX/NCC-2000). The permanent integration of the Structural Integrity Field network into the ship's hull frames allowed Starfleet to make starship interiors a set of customizable modules. In turn this style of construction made hull frames substantially more durable while allowing a ship to rapidly be shifted from an empty spaceframe in ordinary into an active starship. Just as importantly it allowed these spaceframes to be fitted with the latest equipment even if the hull had been finished several years earlier.

Between the time the Khitomer Accords fleet limitations went into effect in 2294 and 2300 Starfleet operated a force little changed from its pre-Khitomer era. The backbone of the fleet remained a mix of Constitution, Belknap, and Miranda based cruisers maintained at a slightly reduced number at 200. A handful of block I and block II Excelsior-class starships took up the most demanding roles, while destroyers, frigates, cutters and corvettes filled in the rest. Older ships requiring extensive refits were retired and either sold to private concerns or placed in backwater surplus depots. Remaining war era ships in the dockyards and spacedocks were completed to fill the gaps left by retirements, but no new keels for these vessels were laid in this period.

Meanwhile analysis into the data gathered by Sinclair-Alexander's team allowed Starfleet to choose a handful of hull types suited for long-term standardization. The Miranda, Constellation and Excelsior classes were chosen as baseline vessels for their combination of durability, future expandability, crew size, and capabilities. All new construction orders after 2294 were in one of these classes, with the hull frames carefully constructed in Starfleet shipyards and placed in Ordinary reserve. Existing shipyard slips at Beta Antares, Tranquility Base, and Utopia Planitia built Miranda and Constellation class hulls, while new yards capable of building the much larger Excelsior-class were built at Earth Station McKinley, San Francisco Fleet Yards, and Utopia Planitia. Between 2295 and 2310 an average of 50 Miranda-class hulls, 12 Constellation-class hulls and 9 Excelsior-class hulls were built each year.

The last generation of pre-Khitomer starships started requiring refit in 2300. Rather than occupy dockyard slips that could be used for new construction, Starfleet decommissioned most of these starships and instead fitted out the hulls in Ordinary. Due to continuing production of new hull frames, the process took longer than original estimates from a lack of available dockyard space. Between 2300 and 2305 Starfleet commissioned an average of 30 Mirandas, 8 Constellations and 6 Excelsiors each year compared to the 60-75 vessels decommissioned. This shortfall was expected to grow as new ships required maintenance and repairs, tying up valuable dockyard space. Hoping to expand its ability to commission new ships without sacrificing new hull production, Starfleet chose to source some new construction to civilian owned shipyards.

Starfleet's record with civilian shipyards building starships was mixed. Most shipyards were able to produce good work given time, but a lack of experience often led to long delays and cost overruns. Further, when conducrting repairs, civilian shipyards were liable to take far longer than their initial estimates when confronted with damage or hull stress types unencountered in private sector operators.

Worse, many shipyards tended to cut small corners when constructing the ship frames. These corners were harmless for civilian equipment given the tendency for over engineering of safety margins, but hampered starships used in more strenuous roles in Starfleet. The system of fitting out preconstructed frames allowed Starfleet to avoid the pitfalls of their older public-private partnerships while retaining the greater capacity. Further by having three ships of different levels of complexity shipyards were able to "practice" on Miranda hulls before moving on to more complex Constellation and Excelsior frames. Yoyodyne Propulsion took advantage of this system to rapidly expand its shipyard business at facilities on Luna, Copernicus and 40 Eridani A.

A stable interstellar political environment allowed the first decennial plan to proceed with only minor changes. Nogura retired from Commander-in-Chief at the end of Ra-Ghoratreii's final term in office in 2300, but with Sinclair-Alexander appointed as his successor, the standardization and building plan continued over the next three presidential administrations. The only significant change between planned forces and final forces was ending production of the Constellation class in starships in 2301 and focusing resources on more Excelsiors and Mirandas in the wake of rising tensions with the Romulan Star Empire.

Fleet Strength as of 2295

Excelsior-class Starships

In Service: 12

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 3

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 5

Miranda-class Starships (Note Includes only post-2293 builds)

In Service: 50

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 25

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 9

Constellation-class Starships

In Service: 16

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 18

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 2

All Other Ship Classes

In Service: 1007

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 872

Lost/Missing: 19

Decommissioned: 63

Total Fleet:

In Service: 1,085

Ordinary (Hull Only):46

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 872

Lost/Missing/Decommissioned: 91

Fleet Strength as of 2310

Excelsior-class Starships

In Service: 91

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 75

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 6

Lost/Missing: 2

Miranda-class Starships (Note Includes only post-2293 builds)

In Service: 566

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 385

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 50

Lost/Missing: 8

Constellation-class Starships

In Service: 39

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 8

Lost/Missing: 2

All Other Ship Classes

In Service: 555

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 208

Lost/Missing: 13

Decommissioned: 70

Total Fleet

In Service: 1,212

Ordinary (Hull Only):460

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 272

Lost/Missing/Decommissioned: 95

I do not own or even wrote this great article but I was granted permission by the author to post this to my blog for my wonderful readers :) Thanks my friend for allowing me to share your great work c:

Starfleet Celebrates 150 Years...

Starfleet Celebrates 150 Years... by Pope Torak

In 2311 Starfleet held a Fleet Review to celebrate the Federation's sesquicentennial. The event marked a sharp contrast to the Centennial Fleet Review held in 2261 and illustrated the changes in Interstellar Politics. Rather than being the target of the Federation's show of force, the Klingon Chancellor was an honored guest, with members of her Honor Guard participating in the Review as the Qo'noS Squadron. The Federation had grown from 51 to 104 member worlds while its territorial responsibilities had tripled in volume.

Like the Federation itself, Starfleet had changed substantially in the intervening fifty years. Fleet size had nearly doubled from 600 to 1,000 starships while the mainstay of the fleet had gone from the 210,000 cubic meter Constitution-class derivatives to the 1,000,000 cubic meter Excelsior. Warp drive, structural and material engineering, and tactical systems had all seen substantial increases in effectiveness. A Miranda-class starship commissioned in 2311 might look externally identical to one built in the 2270s, the SIF-integrated truss and beam system of construction combined with modern modular interior components made the 2311 vessel a vastly superior starship.

The success of the modernization program of the early 24th century could not entirely calm the tendency for fleet planners and the Federation Council's Security Committee to fret. The unveiling of the initial dozen Ivarix-class Warbirds during Empress Ael's funerary procession in 2305 caused a stir within the Federation Council and led to several Committee hearings on Starfleet's military readiness. Despite protests from Starfleet Command that the Romulan Star Empire could not field more than a handful of the new warbirds, the Security Committee's recommendations eventually led to the cancellation of further Constellation-class hull construction and an early 20-year modernization refit of the fleet flagship Enterprise in 2307.

The Security Committee (along with members of the Appropriations and Logistics Committees) also recommended that Starfleet's ammended decennial plan include expanding its procurement base into new territories. This was partly an economic decision, intended to promote greater integration between member worlds further from the Federation core worlds. Existing dockyard facilities used to build Miranda-class hulls were sold to civilian contractors at Qualor Prime, Tau Ceti, Salazaar, and Tri-Rho at a substantial discount. To make up for the lost capacity, the Council authorized the construction of additional large drydock facilities at Starfleet dockyard facilities in the Sol, Tellar, Proxima Centauri, and Andor systems.

The new facilities nearly doubled Starfleet's ability to built and maintain hulls of one million cubic meters or greater. Construction of Excelsior hulls continued at 15 hulls per year, but the new capacity gave Starfleet room to experiment with new configurations. A particular priority was the construction of a design that could slot between Excelsior and Miranda. While the Constellation often filled that role in frontier sectors, in the Federation proper the choice was often between an over-equipped Excelsior or under-powered Miranda.

ASDB proposed two competing designs: The Apollo-class design with a brand new hull configuration, and the Centaur-class derived from a Miranda style reorganization of Excelsior components. Both designs had hull volumes of roughly 600,000 cubic meters, with a good combination of spacekeeping, durability and multi-mission capabilities. Despite similar performance, the Centaur's hull frame compatability with the Excelsior hulls in Ordinary ultimately resulted in larger series production.

The increased building programs would continue through 2315 as tensions in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants remained high. Most members of the Federation Council regarded the Romulan Star Empire's "Neo-Sakoku" policy of isolation after the Tomed Incident with marked skepticism, and the assassination of Chancellor Azetbur in 2311 led to a gradual deterioration of relations with the Klingon Empire. The dreams of a "Long 24th century" of peace and stability seemed hopelessly naive by the time President Gan Laikan gave his First Inaugural Address in 2313.

Fleet Strength as of 2315

Excelsior-class Starships

In Service: 122

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only)*: 80

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 9

Lost/Missing: 0

*Note: Excelsior-class hulls in reserve were also used for Centaur-class construction.

Miranda-class Starships (Note Includes only post-2293 builds)

In Service: 805

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 510

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 50

Lost/Missing: 3

Constellation-class Starships

In Service: 26

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 8

Lost/Missing: 3

Centaur-class Starships

In Service: 76

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only)*: 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 4

*Excelsior-class hulls in Ordinary are used if Centaur-class production is needed for activation purposes.

Apollo-class Starships

In Service: 15

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 6

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 3

All Other Ship Classes (Note: By 2315 most pre-2300 starships have been retired. This category instead refers to auxiliaries such as the Istanbul, Sydney, Mediterranean and Shelly-class ships)

In Service: 577

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 173

Lost/Missing: 20

Total Fleet

In Service: 1,621

Ordinary (Hull Only): 596

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 274

Lost/Missing/Decommissioned: 33

I do not own or even wrote this great article but I was granted permission by the author to post this to my blog for my wonderful readers :) Thanks my friend for allowing me to share your great work c:

Alpha Quadrant Expansion

Alpha Quadrant Expansion by Pope Torak

For much of the preceding century the Federation's attention had been on the Beta Quadrant. An inevitable product of tensions with large Beta Quadrant states like the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire, the resources spent countering the two empires led to a state of benign neglect in much of the Federation's nominal territory. Despite the more militant posture adopted by the Federation Council's more hawkish members in the period between 2310 and 2315, the election of the famed explorer Gan Laikan to the Presidency in the 2312 election marked an end to the Short Twenty-Third Century.

After the Treaty of Algeron in 2311 the Romulan Star Empire resolutely refused any further attempts at diplomatic contact. The new Klingon Chancellor Kaarg, though a known opponent of the Khitomer Accords, appeared more interested in cultural retrenchment within the Klingon Empire than military adventurism. With the interstellar status quo at a tenuous equilibrium, and the Federation's relative power the greatest in decades, the Laikan Administration began focusing Starfleet resources into exploration and charting missions in the Alpha Quadrant.

This shift in emphasis was bolstered by the civilian leadership of the Federation. President Laikan managed to coax the venerable Heihachiro Nogura out of retirement for one last bit of public service as a cabinet secretary. Laikan nominated Nogura as both Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Technology, merging the two posts for the first time since Jonathan Archer's appointment in 2172. Although there was some grumbling about placing too much authority into one individual, the Federation Council was sufficiently intimidated by the Old Man's reputation that they confirmed the nomination with a voice vote.

Nogura's reputation, along with the strong support of senior Starfleet officers such as Sinclair-Alexander, Sulu, Harriman, and Mentir helped ease the bureaucratic competition between Federation science agencies and Starfleet. The end result did not quite reach the full integration hoped by Laikan when he nominated Nogura, but relations between the two communities improved substantially from the 23rd century where scientists often viewed Starfleet as a purely militaristic agency. In turn Starfleet was able to increase the breadth of its missions and try out the full capabilities of their ship designs.

The emphasis on a mixture of exploration, charting, and surveying missions brought the full value of the post-2295 building program to fruition. Though no longer large enough to contain all of the desired payloads for deep space exploration, the Miranda-class proved well equipped for nearspace surveying. The introduction of food replicators starting in refits from 2316 onward simplified the logistics aboard the old workhorse, providing space to install greater creature comforts and cargo space while ample auxiliary craft capability and flexible secondary option mounts made them ideal for scientific missions within Federation space. With most of the high-speed "crisis" missions handled by the new Centaur and Apollo class starships, the Miranda-class fleet was able to function as the ubiquitous face of Starfleet within Federation space. Colonization support missions, planetary surveying, mobile medical support and diplomatic missions became the most common uses for the Miranda.

Greater numbers of intermediate classes also freed up Excelsior and Constellation-class ships for deep space exploration missions. In particular the Constellation-class received extensive modernization refits in the period leading up to the 2320s in the hope of sending them out on extreme duration exploration missions. Ultimately mission duration proved to be less than the 10-15 years between starbase lay-overs imagined by planners, but the extended range significantly expanded the Federation's frontiers in the Alpha Quadrant.

The expansion of Federation territory brought it into contact with additional interstellar states. During the Laikan and Thelian Administrations the Federation made official first contact with the Cardassian Union, Breen Confederacy, Tzenkethi Coalition, and Talarian Republic. The early years of contact were limited in scope, with a handful of small trade missions, diplomatic exchanges, and border incidents. The Federation Diplomatic Corps, Federation Merchant Marine and Starfleet Intelligence had limited success in establishing more permanent relations with the Tzekenthi or Breen. Cardassian-Federation relations started out cordially enough with a small but steady commercial relationship developing between the Federation's frontier outposts and Cardassian worlds.

None of the new states were on their own large enough to rival the Federation's influence in local space. The Tzenkethi and Breen had rough technological parity with modern Starfleet technology, but the Cardassians and Talarians were at least two generations behind the current state of the art. The increased needs for Starfleet presence in the newly added Alpha Quadrant sectors meant the Federation continued to expand its civilian procurement program, expanding the Miranda-class hull procurement to 100-hulls per year, with 65 being commissioned in various configurations. Excelsior and Centaur procurement continued at a total of 25 hulls per year, which could be configured as the full fledged starships or auxiliary designs such as the Shelley class.

New developments in warp geometry technology began the development of a new generation of starships. The Hokule'a and Wambandu-class starships were built from the keel up as SIF-integrated designs with a greater beam than previous generations. Serving as high-speed surveyors and scouts, these starships formed the bulk of Starfleet's deep Alpha Quadrant presence, backing up discoveries made by the Constellation-class explorers with the ability to ferry large numbers of auxiliary craft and subspace relay buoys. With the introduction of these 750,000 cubic meter starships, Excelsior production was reduced to a half dozen per year, with more hull frames going into Ordinary.

Starfleet Fleet Strength 2330

Excelsior-class Starships

In Service: 200

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only)*: 258

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 9

Lost/Missing: 3

*Note: Excelsior-class hulls in reserve were also used for Centaur-class construction.

Miranda-class Starships (Note Includes only post-2293 builds)

In Service: 1,509

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 995

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 155

Lost/Missing: 12

Constellation-class Starships

In Service: 22

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 2

Centaur-class Starships

In Service: 245

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only)*: 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 10

Lost/Missing: 1

*Excelsior-class hulls in Ordinary are used if Centaur-class production is needed for activation purposes.

Apollo-class Starships

In Service: 6

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 5

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 4

Lost/Missing: 5

Hokule'a-class Starships

In Service: 12

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 3

Lost/Missing: 1

Wambandu-class Starships

In Service: 19

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 1

All Other Ship Classes (Note: By 2330 most pre-2300 starships have been retired. This category instead refers to auxiliaries such as the Istanbul, Sydney, Mediterranean and Shelly-class ships)

In Service: 520

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 230

Lost/Missing: 47

Total Fleet

In Service: 2,533

Ordinary (Hull Only): 1,258

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 411

Lost/Missing/Decommissioned: 75

I do not own or even wrote this great article but I was granted permission by the author to post this to my blog for my wonderful readers :) Thanks my friend for allowing me to share your great work c:

The Industrial Replicator Revolution

The Industrial Replicator Revolution by Pope Torak

Along with the changing interstellar political system of the 2320s, the Federation was faced with a changing economic landscape with the widescale introduction of replicator technology. The initial adoption of food replicators made a mess of interstellar trade, as agricultural staples lost their value practically overnight and created wide scale displacements in production. When the first commercial industrial replicators came online in 2320, the shocks reverberated further. Many resource dependent worlds saw the value of their products evaporate, while smaller manufacturing colonies also faced sudden obsolescence. The Federation had found the secret to post-resource scarcity, but ironically the impact of its introduction threatened to undermine its entire economic structure.

During this time Starfleet found itself deployed to deal with the aftermath of economic shocks, commissioning new variants of existing starships to provide extensive infrastructure support to ailing worlds. A large number of Miranda-class hulls in reserve were converted into fast transports for this purpose, removing most of their scientific gear in favor of cargo space and berthing for specialists from the Federation Commerce Department. The typical support mission required a ship to loiter for several months, setting up new industrial replication stations, power generation and infrastructure, along with training locals on the new equipment. Meanwhile larger numbers of contact specialists and sociologists spent their time helping displaced societies adapt to the new economic realities.

Despite assisting worlds with the introduction of replicator technology, Starfleet's use of replicator technology remained half-hearted. Food replicators were standard issue equipment on all starships by 2321 and small scale industrial replicators were installed in support mission Mirandas by 2323, well before commercial use. Fleet yards refused to adopt industrial replicators and were overtaken by civilian contractors who began widespread fabrication of ship components by 2322.

The Admiralty Board finally relented after repeated inquiries from the Federation Council in 2324 by commissioning a report on the use of industrial replicators in merchant shipping fleets. The report found that industrial replication had little negative effects on hull durability and offered substantial efficiency increases for maintenance and supply chain management. Recommendations in the report included upgrading Starfleet dockyards while maintaining existing construction programs with civilian contractors. By 2326 the most recalcitrant members of the Admiralty Board had been replaced, and Starfleet Command gave the go ahead for ASDB and SCE to commence widescale introduction of industrial replication in starship construction and maintenance.

SIF-integrated hull construction removed many of the size and mass limitations that hobbled ship design in the 23rd century. The relative slowing of ship size during the first decades of the 24th century had more to do with logistical realities than technology. With the use of industrial replicators to reduce the need for parts storage and redundant hull components, ASDB had an opportunity to start with a blank slate. Building on several theoretical designs refined over the intervening years, the result was the Renaissance-class starship commissioned in 2329.

Even as the first Renaissance-class starships were commissioned, ASDB was putting the final touches on the successor to the venerable Excelsior-class. At 2.8 million cubic meters the Ambassador-class starship was twice the size of the Renaissance and over three times the size of the Excelsior. Built with existing techniques the prototype USS Ambassador (NX-10521) though laid down in 2324 had taken into 2330 to completion. The first production ships Enterprise and Horatio were built at Earth Station McKinley's new industrial replicator equipped facility starting in 2330. Compared to the prototype, the new vessels were completed in 26 months and commissioned in late 2332.

After the next 4 units of the Ambassador-class successfully completed trials in 2334, Starfleet Command drew up the 2335 Decennial Plan. With the first generation of 2295 vintage starships reaching half a century in age, Starfleet planned to begin a large-scale program of rebuilding, refit, or retirement of existing hulls. An inventory of hulls in Ordinary showed most to be in good condition, and Starfleet planned to retire the most worn Excelsior and Miranda class ships in favor of newly fitted out starships. Hull production would be vastly reduced by 2340 in preparation for large-scale modernization, with only Ambassador-class production continuing uninterrupted.

Due to the increased productivity offered by replicators, Starfleet Command remained sanguine about the fleet's ability to respond to any threats. Deteriorating relations with the Klingon Chancellor Kravokh and mounting border incidents with both the Cardassians and Tzekenthi did not change Starfleet's attitude toward fleet modernization. The margin provided by newly built Merced, Renaissance and Ambassador class starships was believed sufficient to counter the threats posed by the three interstellar empires. (It would not be until 2350 that Starfleet understood how badly it had underestimated the Klingons. Chancellor K'mpec, Kravokh's successor, revealed the Klingon Empire's war plans included widespread use of suicide attacks with B'rel and K'Vort class Birds of Prey to target Starfleet's most modern starships and knock out its fleet capability before older ships could be fully modernized.)

Starfleet started the 2340s with a clear plan for modernization and a large number of ships ready for modernization. The decades ahead would reveal just how badly Starfleet would need these new assets...

Starfleet Fleet Strength 2340

Excelsior-class Starships

In Service: 186

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only)*: 188

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 48

Lost/Missing: 3

Decommissioned: 6

*Note: Excelsior-class hulls in reserve were also used for Centaur-class construction.

Miranda-class Starships (Note Includes only post-2293 builds)

In Service: 1,587

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 965

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 250

Lost/Missing: 16

Decommissioned: 50

Constellation-class Starships

In Service: 19

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 0

Centaur-class Starships

In Service: 241

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only)*: 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 10

Lost/Missing: 5

*Excelsior-class hulls in Ordinary are used if Centaur-class production is needed for activation purposes.

Apollo-class Starships

In Service: 8

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 3

Lost/Missing: 0

Hokule'a-class Starships

In Service: 13

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 3

Lost/Missing: 1

Wambandu-class Starships

In Service: 25

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 0

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 3

Merced-class Starships

In Service: 92

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 25

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 7

Renaissance-class Starships

In Service: 72

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 30

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 1

Ambassador-class Starships

In Service: 25

Ordinary Reserve (Hull only): 11

Undergoing Refit/Repair: 0

Lost/Missing: 1

All Other Ship Classes (Note: This category refers to auxiliaries such as the Istanbul, Sydney, Mediterranean and Shelly-class ships)

In Service: 643

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 164

Lost/Missing: 20

Total Fleet

In Service: 2,911

Ordinary (Hull Only): 1,219

Undergoing Refit/Repair or in Reserve: 479

Lost/Missing/Decommissioned: 103

I do not own or even wrote this great article but I was granted permission by the author to post this to my blog for my wonderful readers :) Thanks my friend for allowing me to share your great work c: